A primary source is first hand evidence. It was there at the time of an event. It is contemporary to the period being studied. Examples of primary sources are speeches, letters, songs, legislation, court decisions, journals/diaries, interviews, artifacts, autobiographies, and photographs.
Primary Sources
- Ad*Access -
image database of over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements between 1911 and 1955
- American Rhetoric - online speech bank!
- Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
- Cultural Heritage - UIUC Digital Gateway to Cultural Heritage Materials
- Digital Collections: War Posters
- Electronic Library for Minnesota - search databases such as Historical Minneapolis Tribune 1867-1922, Minnesota Reflections, ArchiveGrid and more!
- Eyewitness – History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
- GaleNet Student Research Center Gold - a rich collection of primary sources!
- Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - podcasts of historians discussing their work, lesson plans, online exhibitions and a searchable database of over 60,000 documents!
- History Matters
- Library of Congress - digital collections: Performing Arts, American Memory, Veterans' History, Prints & Photographs, and International
- Making of America (MOA)
- Minnesota Reflections - nearly 45,000 images and documents of Minnesota history; shared by more than 98 cultural heritage organizations across the state
- Minnesota State Archives
- NARA (U.S. National Archives & Records Administration)
- National Archives Learning Curve
- National Archives for Past History Days
- Primary Sources on the Web - University of California Berkeley, primary sites, sources, newspapers & journals
- Repositories of Primary Sources - over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs and other primary sources for researching
- NEW - University of Minnesota Law Library, Clarence Darrow Digital Collection - 473 of the 900 letters written by and to Clarence Darrow, 1857-1938, the famous early 20th century trial lawyer. Letters can be searched by name, year or keywords. View documents written by Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Sinclair Lewis
- World War II Resources
- World Wide Web Virtual Library - World History
Suggest a source! Email Mrs. Craft!
Last Updated 4-19-11, Deb Craft, Media Specialist, STMA High School
