Finding Primary Sources for History Research: Primary Texts and Pamphlets
How to find books, documents, magazine articles, newspaper articles and other first hand or eyewitness accounts.
Primary Texts and Pamphlets
These sites may provide primary book and pamplet sources.
- America's Historical Imprints, 1639-1819 This is comprised of three component databases: all can be searched simultaneously.American Broadsides & Ephemera, 1760-1900. Provides fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 30,000 broadsides & ephemera.Early American Imprints: Series I, 1639-1800. Is a full text facsimile collection consisting of more than 37,000 books, pamphlets & broadsides.Early American Imprints: Series II, 1801-1819 provides full-text facsimile access to 36,000 American books, pamphlets & broadsides.
- Black Abolitionist Papers Primary source of individual and community activism within the Black abolitionist community. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the massive, international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves.
- EEBO Early English Books Online, 1473 -1700 A full text collection of over 100,000 facsimile e-books. Provides full text access to books in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), 1700-1800 Access over 180,000 full-text 18th-century titles in various topics, including books, music, and pamphlets. Covers significant English and foreign-language works printed in the UK and thousands from the Americas.
- Google BooksOn the search results screen, limit to "free Google eBooks."
- HathiTrust Home to millions of digitized books and publications, includes members within and outside of the United States. Over 18 million digitized library items are currently available, and our mission to expand the collective record of human knowledge is always evolving.
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories Provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada. ... Several thousand pages of Ellis Island Oral History interviews, indexed and searchable for the first time, are included, along with thousands of political cartoons.
- Queen Victoria's Journals These diaries cover the period from Queen Victoria's childhood days to her Accession to the Throne, marriage to Prince Albert, and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees.
- Thesaurus Linguae Graecae Digital library of Greek literature, digitizing texts from Homer to Byzantium's fall in AD 1453. Aims to be a complete digital collection of Greek literature from antiquity to present.
