Locating Primary Sources - HIST 38000: Junior Seminar - Hwang (Spring 2021)

How to Tell What is a Primary Source

Primary Source: An authoritative document relating to a subject, which is used in the preparation of a later work, such as an original record or a contemporary document. In the humanities, a primary source is the document being analyzed; in the sciences it is a journal article reporting the results of original research. Primary sources are also called original sources or source material.

Secondary Source: A publication that digests, analyzes, evaluates, and/or interprets the information in primary sources.

Tertiary Source: A source that compiles, analyzes, and/or digests secondary sources.

More information: Primary vs. Secondary vs. Tertiary

Examples of types of sources.

Published Sources

Academic books and articles should have primary sources as their foundation. Look at their footnotes and bibliographies for contemporary accounts of events, published works from the time of the event, and other primary sources. Use the citation to locate the material within the library’s resources or to request via interlibrary loan.

Some primary sources are published and cataloged just like books. Use the library’s catalog or the OhioLINK catalog. Some ways to help find those are:

Identify key players and search for them as authors. This will find papers, correspondence, memoirs, etc. Remember that government agencies and corporations may also be authors.
Do a keyword search using your topic and the words sources, diaries, letters, or correspondence (e.g. Great Britain and history and sources)

Primary Sources in Databases

Newspapers

Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new window
Research diverse perspectives, topics and trends that align with curricular areas such as Political Science, English, Sociology, Humanities, Business, International Studies and more. Features reliable, credible information from a wide variety of international, national, and local news sources including the Akron Beacon Journal, Plain Dealer, Record-Courier, and USA Today. Available remotely 24/7 on any device.
Historical International Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides the full-text of articles from ten newspapers from around the world. Dates covered range from 1791 to 2016. Search all ten at once or search each title individually.
Chinese Newspapers (1832-1953)

Guardian and Observer (London) (1791-2003)

Jerusalem Post (1932-2008)

Scotsman (1817-1950)

Times of India (1838-2008)

Globe and Mail (Toronto) (1844-2013)

Irish Times/Weekly Irish Times (1859-2015)

Korea Times (1956-2016)

South China Morning Post (1903-1998)

Toronto Star (1894-2015)
New York Times This link opens in a new window
The New York Times contains every article, fully searchable, published in the New York Times since 1851. First, set up an account (instructions here). Then just connect to nytimes.com and login. Or, once you have your account set up, download the NYTimes app from the app store. For more information on setting up an account and using the iPad app, see the New York Times Subject Guide.
http://www.nytimes.com/
Times Digital Archive 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
As close to a world newspaper of record, the Times (London) is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the world. The digital archives includes every page since the beginning in 1785 through 2019.

Other Primary Source Databases

Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents on women’s voices in local, national and imperial society and culture and is a great complement to Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000. Covers nine categories: Asian Empires, 1842-2001; European Empires, 1820-2005; Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Empires in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1860-2015; Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Empires in the Balkans, 1820-1990; Native Women in North America, 1915-2010; Settler Society in North America, 1805-1940; South Africa, 1899-1987; United States Empire, 1820-2004; Women’s Global Networks in Colonial and Post-Colonial Worlds, 1883-2007.
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
The Women’s Studies Archive connects archival collections concerning women’s history from across the globe and from a wide range of sources. Focusing on the evolution of feminism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the archive provides materials on women’s political activism, such as suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, and socialism, and on women’s voices, from female-authored literature to women’s periodicals.