LibGuides: INTL 477: Senior Seminar (with Dr. Rachel Vanderhill): Primary Sources

Key Words for Primary Sources

Try searching such key words as these in conjunction with your topic to find primary sources about it:

Archive
Digital archive
Archival footage
Classified document or Declassified document
Correspondence, letters
Diaries, Journals, Memoirs
Documentary film
Eyewitness testimony (or Eyewitness account)
Freedom of Information Act documents--the FOIA applies to documents created by any agency of the U.S. federal government
Government documents--for example, Hearings, Committee reports, Congressional records
Interview (or Interviews)
Newspaper articles, particularly those reports written at the time of the event that you are investigating
Oral history (Oral histories)
Pamphlets, Ephemera, Posters, Propaganda, Graffiti, Street art
Personal narrative
Photograph (or Photographs)
Primary source (or Primary sources)
Social media
Speeches
Statistics, Opinion polls, Data

How to Find Primary Sources Using Wofford OneSearch or PASCAL Delivers or WorldCat

In Wofford OneSearch, PASCAL Delivers, and WorldCat, you can limit your searches to primary sources by using these three phrases as subject terms:

Sources

Personal Narratives

Interviews

Databases for Primary Sources

Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Topically-focused digital collections of historical documents. Collections cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.
African-American History This link opens in a new window
Covers 500 years of African American history through primary sources, book chapters, essays, images, and timelines.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by over 1000 major American black leaders covering 250 years of history. Presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.
Chinese Pamphlets: Political Communication and Mass Education in the Early Period of the People's Republic of China This link opens in a new window
Mass education materials published in Hong Kong and in Mainland China, particularly Shanghai, in the years 1947-1954. These cartoon books, pamphlets, postcards and magazines, on topics such as foreign threats to Chinese security, Chinese relations with the Soviet Union, industrial and agricultural production, and marriage reform, were produced by both Kuomintang (Nationalist) and Gongchantang (Communist) supporters.
Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records. Covers Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals as well as with the Caribbean and Atlantic world.
Documents on British Policy Overseas This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable collection of primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO); covers the 20th century.
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. Focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women.
U.K Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
Covers all areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy, showing how issues were explored and legislation was formed. Includes House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. Includes Records of proceedings, the Debates (Hansard), and the House of Commons journal; Sessional papers providing information to parliament on matters of policy and administration: Bills, House papers, and Command papers. Also includes those Papers of the House of Lords presented to the Commons, such as reports prepared by Lords Select Committees.
Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
Comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide. The collection is growing to include 75,000 pages of text and 150 hours of video that give voice to the countless victims of human rights crimes in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories provides searchable access to more than 100,000 pages of personal narratives, including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories, the collection provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines.
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
North American Indian Thought and Culture integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files for a comprehensive representation of historical events as told by the individuals who lived through them. The database is an essential resource for all those interested in serious scholarly research into the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
North American Womens Letters and Diaries provides access to more 300 years of documents about the personal experiences of hundreds of women.
ProQuest Indian Claims Insight This link opens in a new window
A research tool thatallows researchers to search Indian claims content by keyword, full text, docket number, and more ways. Content includes decisions, transcripts, docket books, journals of the Indian Claims Commission, a judicial panel for relations between the U.S. Government and Native American tribes; and related statutes and congressional publications.
The Sixties: Primary Sources and Personal Narratives; 1960-1974 This link opens in a new window
The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s Americavividly conveying the zeitgeist of the decade and its effects into the middle of the next.

South Asia Open Archives
A collection of open-access materials (over 350,000 pages) in English and a variety of South Asian languages for the study of South Asia--its caste and social structure, literature, social and economic conditions, and women and gender identity. The collection is provided by the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network in partnership with JSTOR, and is a subset of the South Asia Materials Project (SAMP).

All primary source databases at Wofford

Websites for Primary Sources

CIA's Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room--you can search the Central Intelligence Agency's documents by key word or by designated historical collection.

Eurostat: Your Key to European Statistics--data gathered by the statistical office of the European Union is made available here for you to search by key word and by A-to-Z list of "statistical themes."

FBI Records: The Vault--the Federal Bureau of Investigation provides an A-to-Z list to help navigate its Freedom of Information Act documents.

National Archives--the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record-keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States federal government, only 1 to 3 per cent are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept here for you to search and access.

National Security Archives: Virtual Reading Room--founded by journalists and scholars, this is the world's largest nongovernmental collection of declassified U.S. government documents.

United Nations Digital Library--enables you to search for and access UN documents and reports, speeches, votes, and its other public-domain publications.

Wilson Center Digital Archive--"contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe, uncovering new sources and providing fresh insights into the history of international relations and diplomacy"--From the Wilson Center's homepage.

World Bank Open Data--provides open access to global development data gathered by the World Bank Group. The data are searchable by key word, by country, or by economic indicator.