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Primary Sources for Historical Research

This guide explains how to identify primary sources and provides an overview of the different kinds of primary sources.

Major Collections of Primary Sources

This is a selected list of major collections.

Afghanistan Digital Library (NYU)
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Avalon Project (Yale University)
Digital Public Library of America
Digital South Asia Library
East Asia Image Collections (Lafayette College)
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History (BYU)
European Library
Europeana
Major collection: millions of digital & multimedia items covering European history & culture
Gallica: Digital Library of the National Library of France
Digitized collection of French books, newspapers and more
Images of Colonialism (Havard University)
Making of America (Univ. of Michigan)
Provides access to nearly 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. This resoruce focuses on American social history (from the antebellum period through reconstruction).
South Asian American Digital Archive
World Digital Library