FAQ: Where can I find primary sources in the library?

Historical Research

Primary sources for a historical topic might include speeches, letters, government documents, or periodical articles (for example, newspapers and magazines) from that time as well as autobiographies or memoirs written by people who lived during that time. There are different ways to locate these depending on the type of primary source you need. 

Speeches

Search the below databases for speeches. Be sure to include the author of the speech along with the word speech like this:

Martin Luther King, Jr. AND speech
James Madison AND speech

• History Reference Center – EBSCO This link opens in a new window
• History Vault - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
• Litfinder- Gale This link opens in a new window
  • Use the Advanced Search and select Speech as your “Type of Work”

• U.S. History in Context – Gale This link opens in a new window

Letters

Search the below databases to find letters from your historical period. Try search terms like letters, personal correspondence, professional correspondence, or just correspondence. If you know the recipient or author, be sure to include that in your search, too, like this:

George Washington AND correspondence

• History Vault - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
• National Archives Founders Online This link opens in a new window
• Primary Source Collections by Adam Matthew This link opens in a new window
• U.S. History in Context - Gale This link opens in a new window

Government Documents

Laws and statutes, congressional hearings, constitutions, federal records, and legal cases/case law from a specific time period would all be considered primary sources. Search the below databases for these types of primary sources:

• Black Freedom Struggle in the United States - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
• Congressional Legislative & Executive Publications - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
• HeinOnline Legal Databases This link opens in a new window
• National Archives: America’s Founding Documents This link opens in a new window
• South Africa legislation This link opens in a new window
• U.K. Parliamentary Papers - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
• U.S. History In Context - Gale This link opens in a new window
• World History In Context - Gale This link opens in a new window

Newspaper, Magazine, or Periodical articles

Search the below databases to find newspaper, magazine, or other periodical articles from your historical period. Be sure to use the Advanced Search or the publication date filter on the left side of your search results to narrow down the date range to your specific historical time period. 

• New York Times – Historical database This link opens in a new window (1851-2017)
• American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodical Collection - EBSCO This link opens in a new window (1691-1912)
• Magazine Archives - EBSCO This link opens in a new window
  • Sports Illustrated Magazine Archive (1954 - 2000),
  • Forbes Magazine Archive (1917 - 2000),
  • Fortune Magazine Archive (1930 - 2000),
  • Time Magazine Archive (1923 - 2000),
  • Life Magazine Archive (1936 - 2000).
• Vogue Archive - ProQuest This link opens in a new window (1892-present)
• Women’s Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window (late 19th century-2005)
• Men’s Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window (1845-2015)
• WWD (The Women's Wear Daily Archive) - ProQuest This link opens in a new window (1910-present with a six-month delay)
• Health & Fitness Magazine Archive - ProQuest This link opens in a new window> (1950-2015)

Autobiographies and Memoirs

Search our online library catalog and ebook databases for autobiographies and memoirs. Here are a few of the best databases to start with:

• Ebook Central – ProQuest This link opens in a new window
• eBook Collection – EBSCO This link opens in a new window
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window

If you are looking for autobiographies or memoirs that are in the public domain, you may be able to find them using the following online search tools:

• Google Books This link opens in a new window
• Internet Archive This link opens in a new window
• Project Gutenberg This link opens in a new window

Try searching for the person you are researching followed by memoir or autobiography like this:

Olaudah Equiano autobiography

General William T. Sherman memoir

Scientific research

In the sciences, primary sources refer to original, research articles. To find these, you want to look for peer-reviewed, scholarly articles where the author(s) has conducted an experiment or original research. Most of these articles use APA style formatting and almost always include the term Method or Methodology as a heading. This is the section of the article where they explain how they conducted their research and the methods they used. You can usually find these articles by including that term as a keyword in your search like this:

depression AND (teen* OR adolescent) AND method*

sustain* AND water pollution AND (method OR methodology)

Content authored by: GS