This is a list of the most common types of primary resources in history. When searching for sources, you might watch for these terms to help you figures out if you have found a primary resource. You might also use these terms in your searches to help focus on a particular type of source or narrow down a large list of results.
Time period: 1827-1923
Location: North America
Diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views across American history and culture have been assembled into comprehensive databases. These databases allow access to the rich store of materials from leading books, newspapers, and periodicals.
Collections include: African American Newspapers, African American Newspapers in the South, American County Histories, American Inventor, Anatomy of Protest in America (1701-1928), Colonial Newspapers, Frank Leslie's Weekly, Native Americans in History, North American Women's Magazines & Newspapers, Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue, Quarantine and Disease Control in American, The Civil War Collection, Women's Suffrage Collection, and World War I: Military Camp Newspapers.
Time Period: 1690-1922
Location: North America
Search or browse early American newspapers including titles from all 50 present states. Includes the following collections:
Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690 - 1876), From Colonies to Nation
Early American Newspapers, Series 2 (1758 - 1900), The New Republic
Early American Newspapers, Series 3 (1829 - 1922), From Farm to City
Early American Newspapers, Series 4 (1756 - 1922), The Rise of Industry
Early American Newspapers, Series 5 (1777 - 1922), An Emerging World Power
Early American Newspapers, Series 18 (1825 - 1879), Racial Awakening in the Northeast
Early American Newspapers, Series 19 (1766 - 1877), The Politics of Race in the South
Time Period: 1860-1900 (a few collections after 1900)
Location: North America
Civil War Primary Source Documents from The New-York Historical Society presents unique manuscript material chronicling all aspects of the American Civil War from warfare on land, at sea, in hospitals and prison camps, and reactions and impressions of the War from the home front. The collection, comprised of over 110,000 pages, focuses on the War as it was fought from 1861 to 1865 and represents both Northern and Southern perspectives. It also contains important contextual documents leading up to War and after its conclusion.
The collection provides researchers with access to letters; diaries; administrative records; photographs; illustrations; artifacts such as reading glasses, wooden boxes, and pocketbooks; various scrapbook journals; family portraits; and maps featuring hand-colored details of troop movements and local landmarks. Highlights from the collection include the papers of David Cronin, a famous soldier and artist; the letters of three soldier-brothers to their family back home in the Lyon family papers, soldiers' diaries chronicling daily life and experiences as prisoners of war; women's diaries discussing life on the home front; accounts from famous people, such as Ulysses S. Grant’s letters regarding the fall of Richmond; collections of records from Confederate and Union regiments; Union Defense Committee records; Confederate Army records; and records of the Provost Marshal of the 7th congressional district.
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