LibGuides: Guide to Online Primary Sources: Home

Introduction

Primary source research often strikes fear into students, who may not understand what primary sources are or how to find them. This guide concentrates on the "how to find them" part of the equation, linking to hundreds of free primary source collections on the web as well as collections to which UCSD subscribes.

Other primary source assistance at the UCSD Library includes: a short YouTube video that explains what primary sources are UC Library Search for finding primary documents (or other materials) in the library; search tips on the "Need More?" tab of this guide; and, you can always ask a librarian for help.

Key Sites

Adam Matthew Explorer
Browse or search across 13 collections of primary source material. Subject areas include Native Americans, colonial America, women & gender, Jewish life, immigration, and more.
Search across all of UC San Diego's Adam Matthew archival collections. We also have API access to our licensed Adam Matthew databases.

Collections include:

African American Communities
Age of Exploration
America in World War Two:Oral Histories and Personal Accounts
American History, 1493-1945
American Indian Histories and Cultures
American Indian Newspapers
American West
Apartheid South Africa,1948-1980
China, America and the Pacific
China: Culture and Society
China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980
Church Missionary Society Periodicals
Colonial America
Colonial Caribbean
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969
Confidential Print: Middle East
Confidential Print: North America
Defining Gender
East India Company
Eighteenth Century Drama
Eighteenth Century Journals
Empire Online
Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings
Everyday Life and Women in America
First World War Portal
Food and Drink in History
Foreign Office Files China 1919-1980
Foreign Office Files India, Pakistan and Afghanistan,1947-1980
Foreign Office Files Japan, 1919-1952
Foreign Office Files Middle East, 1971-1981
Foreign Office Files South East Asia, 1963-1980
Frontier Life
Gender: Identity and Social Change
Global Commodities
India, Raj and Empire
Interwar Culture
J. Walter Thompson:Advertising America
Jewish Life in America
Leisure Travel and Mass Culture
Life at Sea: Seafaring in the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1600-1900
Literary Manuscripts Berg
Literary Manuscripts Leeds
Literary Print Culture
London Low Life
Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963
Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965
Mass Observation Online
Medical Services and Warfare
Medieval Family Life
Medieval Travel Writing
Meiji Japan
Migration to New Worlds
Perdita Manuscripts, 1500-1700
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900
Race Relations in America
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape
Service Newspapers of World War Two
Sex and Sexuality
Shakespeare in Performance
Shakespeare's Globe Archive
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
Socialism on Film
The Grand Tour
The Nixon Years, 1969-1974
Trade Catalogues and the American Home
Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History
Victorian Popular Culture
Victorians on Film. Entertainment, Innovation & Everyday Life
Virginia Company Archives
Women in the National Archives (UK)
World's Fairs

American Memory
Decommissioned. Content migrated to the Library of Congress Digital Collections site below.

Archives Unbound
With 102 collections of archival primary sources spanning American social and diplomatic history, plus China, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Korea, Laos, Thailand, Pakistan, and Japan..
American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League
Bush Presidency and Development and Debate Over Civil Rights Policy and Legislation
Chinese Maritime Customs Service: The Customs’ Gazette, 1869-1913
Colección Revolución, 1910-1921
Correspondence from German Concentration Camps and Prisons
Country Intelligence Reports/State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research Reports China (1941-1961)
Country Intelligence Reports/State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research Reports Japan (1941-1961)
Country Intelligence Reports/State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research Reports Korea (1941-1961)
County and Regional Histories & Atlases: California
Cuartel General del Sur, 1910-1925
Emiliano Zapata, 1901-1919
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: German Colonies in Asia and the Pacific: From Colonialism to Japanese Mandates, 1910-1929
Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984
Fight for Racial Justice and the Civil Rights
Final Accountability Rosters of Japanese-American Relocation Centers, 1944-1946
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945
General George C. Marshall's Mission to China, 1945-1947
German Foreign Relations and Military Activities in China, 1919-1935
Global Missions and Theology
Holocaust and the Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of Nazi War Crimes
Integration of Alabama Schools and the U.S. Military, 1963
James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi
Japan and Korea: Summation of Nonmilitary Activities, 1945-1948
Japan at War and Peace, 1930-1949: U.S. State Department Records on the Internal Affairs of Japan
Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group Records, 1979-1981
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Commercial Relations, 1910-1949
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Commercial Relations, 1950-1963
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs, 1950-1954
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs, 1955-1959
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Political Relations, 1930-1939
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Political Relations, 1940-1944
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Political Relations, 1945-1949
Japan: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1950-1959
Japan: U.S. Naval Technical Mission, 1945-1946
Japanese American Internment: Records of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life
Korea: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1930-1963
La Guerra Civil Española
Laos: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1963-1966
Liberia and the U.S.: Nation-Building in Africa, 1864-1918
Nazi Bank and Financial Institutions: U.S. Military Government Investigation Reports and Interrogations of Nazi Financiers, 1945-1949
Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880
Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement
Personal Justice Denied: Public Hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment, 1981
Policing the Shanghai International Settlement, 1894-1945
Political Relations Between China, the U.S. and Other Countries, 1910-1929
Political Relations and Conflict between Republican China and Imperial Japan, 1930-1939: Records of the U.S. State Department
Political, Economic, and Military Conditions in China: Reports and Correspondence of the U.S. Military Intelligence Division, 1918-1941
Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950
Ralph J. Bunche Oral Histories Collection on the Civil Rights Movement
Rastafari Ephemeral Publications from the Written Rastafari Archives Project
Records of US State Department's Division of Chinese Affairs
Records of the Far Eastern Commission, 1945–1952
Records of the National Council for United States-China Trade 1973-1983
Records of the U.S. Information Service in China: Chinese Press Reviews and Summaries, 1944-1950
SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries and Assets in Neutral Countries
Shanghai Municipal Council: The Municipal Gazette, 1908-1940
Subject Files of US State Department's Office of the Republic of China Affairs (1951-1978)
Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London
Thailand: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs, 1945-1954
Thailand: Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs, 1955-1963
The Chinese Civil War and U.S.-China Relations: Records of the U.S. State Department's Office of Chinese Affairs, 1945-1955
The Chinese Recorder and the Protestant Missionary Community in China, 1867-1941
The Minutemen, 1963-1969: Evolution of the Militia Movement in America, Part I
The Minutes of the Shanghai Municipal Council
The Quest for Labor Equality in Household Work: National Domestic Workers Union, 1965-1979
Tiananmen Square and U.S.-China relations, 1989-1993
U.S. Relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940-1950
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961
“Through the Camera Lens:” The Moving Picture World and the Silent Cinema Era, 1907-1927

2022 & 2023 Arrivals

Papers of American Missionaries to Asia: Arthur M. Guttery and YMCA China
Papers of American Missionaries to Asia: Jay C. and Lucile C. Oliver and YMCA China
Papers of American Missionaries to Asia: Missionaries Associated with Fujian and Taiwan
Papers of American Missionaries to Asia: The Ashmore Family in China, Thailand, and Japan
Records of the US State Department: Korea; Political & Governmental Affairs, February 1963-66
U.S. Relations and Policies in Southeast Asia, 1944-1958: Records of the Office of Southeast Asian Affairs
British Mandate in Palestine/Arab-Jewish Relations & The US
German Anti-Semitic Propaganda
Jewish Question: Records from The Berlin Document Center
Nuremburg Laws and Nazi Annulment of Jewish German Nationality
Foreign Relations Between the US and Latin America and the Caribbean States, 1930-1944
Indian Trade in The Southeastern Spanish Borderlands: Papers of Panton/Leslie & Company

U.S. Army Center of Military History Historical Manuscripts Collection: The Korean War
Papers of Old Shanghai: Business, Banking, and Insurance, 1874–1949
Papers of Old Shanghai: Press, Education, Healthcare, and Charity, 1863–1948
Papers of Old Shanghai: Social Shanghai, 1906-1912
Papers of Old Shanghai: Societies and Clubs, 1890–1942
Shanghai International Settlement: Urban Planning and Development, 1845–1948
Economic Cooperation Administration’s Relief Mission in Post-War China, 1946-1948
Shanghai International Settlement: Shanghai Municipal Council Annual Reports & Budgets, Departmental Reports, and Minutes of Ratepayers Meetings, 1867–1941
National Farm Worker Ministry: Mobilizing Support for Migrant Workers, 1939-1985

Avalon Project
Digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government from ancient times to the 21st century.
Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress
Nearly 100 primary source sets from the Library of Congress, intended for grades K-12 teachers. Allows focusing results by topic, time period, and grade level.

Daily Life Online
Cross-disciplinary resource providing background and context for daily life in all historical eras, from ancient times to the present. Includes primary documents, images, maps, web links, folktales, recipes, much more. Tip: use the "filter" option under the search box to limit to types of documents, time periods, and/or regions.

Digital Public Library of America
Portal to resources from U.S. libraries, archives, and museums. Browse by place, time, subject, or contributing partner.
Empire Online
A major collection of scanned texts relating to empire studies, divided into 5 sections: Cultural Contacts 1492-1969; Empire Writing/the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion; and Race, class, imperialism and colonialism 1607-2007.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
One of the best places to start for all time periods of European history. Extensive collection of primary sources and links to other sites. Browse by broad era (prehistory/ancient, medieval/renaissance, modern) or by country.
Gale Primary Sources
Allows searching across several Gale databases to locate primary source material.
Hanover Historical Texts Collection
Presents texts from ancient to modern times. Material touches on the Crusaders, Italian Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, French Revolution, and many other topics.
History Vault
Digital primary sources drawn mostly from U.S. archival collections. Collections are arranged into subject modules: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; American Indians and the American West; American Politics & Society; International Relations & Military Conflicts; Revolutionary War & Early America; Women's Studies; Workers, Labor Unions, & Radical Politics.
Internet History Sourcebooks
The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts. Topics include Ancient, Medieval and Modern histories. Also presents material grouped by subject: Africa, East Asia, Global, Indian, Islamic, Jewish, Lesbian/Gay, Science and Women's history.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Making of the Modern World
Provides full-text and full-page-image access to books from the 1460-1850 period, and pre-1906 serials. It focuses on economics interpreted in the widest sense, including political science, history, sociology, and special collections on banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing.
The March of Time
Streaming video of Time Inc.'s unique and controversial newsreel series, airing between 1935-1967. Covers a wide range of topics and geographic areas.
Online Library of Liberty
Full texts of almost 1500 classic works on art, economics, history, law, literature, music, philosophy, political theory, religion, science, sociology, war and peace.
ProQuest History Vault
Dozens of digital primary sources collections drawn primarily from U.S. archival repositories.
Readex AllSearch
Allows searching across 22 databases, including African American Periodicals, America's Historical Imprints, America's Historical Newspapers, American State Papers, FBIS Daily Reports, U.S. Congressional Serial Set, and World Newspaper Archive.
World Digital Library
Large, well-organized collection of print and visual primary sources from ancient to current times. Material may be browsed by place, time, topic, type of resource, or contributing institution.

Need help?

Use the Ask-Us reference service or visit/call the Research Assistance Desk (858-822-0450) from 10am-4pm Monday through Friday.

Remote Access

Remote access to resources marked with a blue lock symbol is limited to UCSD students, faculty and staff.

Style Manuals

Chicago Manual of Style
Citing Primary Sources
Examples from the Library of Congress, using Chicago and MLA styles.
A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations: Chicago style for students and researchers
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA)
Style Manuals
Links to online guides for APA, MLA, Chicago, and many other popular style guides

Guide Author

Kelly L. Smith

Contact:

UC San Diego Library
9500 Gilman Dr. 0175R
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175
858-534-6712 (email strongly preferred)
k5smith@ucsd.edu
pronouns: she/her

Subjects: Environmental Studies, Government Information, Urban Studies & Planning