Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

Subject Guides - Primary Sources

Primary sources are original accounts of historical events. Primary sources may include diaries, letters, newspaper articles, speeches, interviews, oral histories, and other sources.

Primary Sources in catalogUSMAI

• [example] Primary sources for the Byzantine / Roman / and other early periods can be found in catalogUSMAI by doing a keyword search on 'byzantine' (or other period) AND 'sources or documents'. This pulls up collections of documents in translation. Using an author, say Thucydides (historian of the Peloponnesian War), is even better. The same search works equally well in Worldcat
  
  
  
• More focused searches can be done using the subject search in the catalog and specific events or periods. The terms 'papers', 'diaries', as well as 'sources or documents' will also produce primary source records.
  
  
  

Primary Sources at the Kuhn Library

Online Primary Source Collections

• African American Newspapers: The 19th Century

  Updated monthly. Provides searchable full text access to the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century. Part I, II and III are included.

• American Memory Collection [Library of Congress]

  Selected digitized full text and image files from the Library of Congress collections. Includes selections from Presidential papers, Congressional documents, maps, pamphlets music and photographs from significant social, cultural and political movements.

• Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, & Diplomacy

  The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Coverage includes documents from ancient history to the present.

• Comprehensive Guide to the Manuscript Collections at the Maryland Historical Society

  This guide represents a combination of two previously published works: Avril J. M. Pedley, comp., The Manuscript Collections of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, 1968) and Richard J. Cox and Larry E. Sullivan, eds., Guide to the Research Collections of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, 1981).

• Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland [ Queen's University, Belfast]

  EPPI Project features a comprehensive searchable database of Parliamentary Papers relating to Ireland 1801-1922, with bibliographic information, Library of Congress subject descriptors and, for a significant selection of items, abstracts of contents.

• In the First Person : An index to letters, diaries, oral histories and personal narratives.

  In the First Person provides in-depth indexing of collections of oral history in English from around the world. It allows for keyword searching of more than 300,000 pages of full-text by more than 15,000 individuals from all walks of life.

• Making of America (MOA)

  Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Subject areas include education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

• National Security Archive at George Washington University

  The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library that collects and publishes declassified documents, providing access to critical declassified records on national security, military history, foreign policy

• New York Times Historical (Proquest)

  Offers full page and article images from 1851-2001 with searchable full text back to the first issue. Includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

• NSA Declassified Documents

  NSA/CSS periodically releases declassified documents or indexes to these documents to the public. Full text docs listed on this page include those related to Vietnam (Tonkin Gulf) UFO projects, Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy assassination, more.

• NSA Historical Publications

  Full-text pamphlets and monographs published by the National Security Agency. Topics range from slavery through Prohibition, World War II, Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, cryptology, misc.

• Probing the Past: Virginia and Maryland Probate Inventories, 1740-1810

  Probate records provide valuable information about the lifestyles of people during the colonial and early national periods.Included in the database are 325 inventories of the household items that provide insight into furnishings, dining habits & behavior

• Teaching American History in Maryland: Documents for the Classroom

  Teaching American History in Maryland makes facsimiles of original documents available for use by teachers and students in elementary and secondary schools, and colleges and universities. All materials are intended for educational and research purposes.