Research Guides: Find Primary Sources: Browsing Digital Archives

The Internet Archive

The Internet Archive collects and shares millions of free books, films, software, audio recordings, websites, and more! Some noteworthy collections in the Internet Archive include:

The Prelinger Archives (view over 8,000 educational, advertising, industrial, and amateur films)
Folksoundomy (listen to a wide collection of sounds, music, and speech maintained by volunteer digital archivists)
Old Time Radio (hear over 6,000 "old time" radio shows)

Even though these items have been digitized and stored, they are still considered primary sources. See if you can find an interesting Internet Archive collection at archive.org.

Digital Archives (U.S. Focus)

World Digital Library
Collection of print and visual resources. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range, topic or type of resource. Also offers a keyword search box at top of page.
9/11 Primary Sources ( National September 11 Memorial & Museum)
"These primary resources include speeches, executive orders, legislative acts and debates, government fact-finding and personal and collective memorialization. The resources will be routinely updated to offer an ever-expanding portrait of 9/11. Given the inherent sensitivities, certain documents may contain content that some may find offensive, but the information is included to provide as complete a record as possible."
Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History
"Provides access to typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes. Related are accounts of Indian ceremonies, customs, social conditions, philosophies, and standards of living."
Southeastern Native American Documents
Contains approximately 2000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast.
100 Milestone Documents (National Archives)
100 documents that chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965.
American Journeys (Wisconsin Historical Society)
Created by the Wisconsin Historical Society this collection contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.
American Memory Project
Historical documents, photographs, sound recordings, moving pictures, books, pamphlets, maps, and other resources from the Library of Congress.
American Women (Library of Congress)
A Gateway to the Library of Congress's Resources for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States. Part of the American Memory project.
Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina)
Project of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, provides access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes fifteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Historic Government Publications from World War II
Collection of digitized documents released by the government during World War II.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 (Harvard University)
A web-based collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
"The Freedom Center's physical location in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, is just a few steps from the banks of the Ohio River, which separated slave from free states in the period of American history when slavery was sanctioned in law and supported as a critical component of the national economy. Our museum tells that story in major exhibits and programs that have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors since opening in August 2004."
Ohio Memory
A collaborative digital library project of the Ohio Historical Society and the State Library of Ohio, which includes collections from more than 354 cultural heritage institutions from all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
The Prelinger Archives
Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 11,000 digitized and videotape titles (all originally derived from film) and a large collection of home movies, amateur and industrial films acquired since 2002.
Indigenous Digital Archive
Explores the history of US government Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. Includes archival documents about Santa Fe Indian School, boarding school records, and letters.
US Presidential Libraries (National Archives)
"The Presidential Library system is composed of thirteen Presidential Libraries. These facilities are overseen by the Office of Presidential Libraries, in the National Archives and Records Administration. "

Europe

Europeana
Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe.
Lacus Curtius
Major site on ancient Rome: 6000+ pages, 130 maps/plans, 1200+ images of Roman monuments; texts of Pliny, Dio, Polybius, Appian, Vitruvius and more
Digital Scriptorium
A digital collection of Medieval and Renaissance Texts supported by the University of California Berkeley Library.
EuroDocs
List of resources (websites, museums, libraries, and organizations) with primary source documents relating to Medieval and Renaissance History.
Eurodocs: History of Russia
Includes texts and links to other sources for Russian history.

Asia & Middle East

Internet East Asian History Sourcebook
Subject listing of documents from East Asian history. Includes cultural origins; religious traditions; imperial China; western intrusion; Japan as a world power; and others.
Internet India Sourcebook
Texts documenting the history of India. Topics include the formation of religious traditions; medieval India; Muslim-era India; western intrusion; and others.
South Asia Study Resources
Extensive and well-organized collection of links. For primary sources, see especially the sections "Maps of South Asia (and Beyond)" and "South Asian literature."
Islamic Heritage Project
A digital collection of manuscripts, maps and printed texts from Harvard’s library and museum collections. IHP materials date from the 13th to the 20th centuries CE and represent many regions, languages and subjects.

Africa

Genocide Archive of Rwanda
Testimonies, videos, audio, photographs, documents, and interactive maps about the 1994 genocide as well as post-genocide reconstruction efforts in Rwanda.
Internet Africa History Sourcebook
Extensive collection of sources on the history of human societies in the continent of Africa.
Internet African History Sourcebook
Extensive collection of sources on the history of human societies in the continent of Africa.

Australia & Pacific

Australian Newspapers
Search or browse more than 60 newspaper titles. Date coverage varies by title, but inclusive dates are 1803-1954.
Oceania
Photographs, films and dissertations, documenting aspects of the cultures and peoples of the Pacific Islands, with a strong emphasis on Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. (1919-1989)
Tuzin Archive for Melanesian Anthropology
Images and dissertations documenting anthropological and other research in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and other southwest Pacific Islands.

Find Primary Sources: Browsing Digital Archives