LibGuides: History: Find Primary Sources

Databases with Primary Sources (Bradley Login Required)

GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
Historical perspectives on the evolution of the women's movement, men's studies, the transgender community and the changes in gender roles over the years. Scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, government reports, and independent presses. 1970s to present.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Women's interest magazines dating from 1800s to 2000s. The magazines are all fully scanned and include non-article items, such as advertisements.
Women and Social Movements in the United States,1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Articles and primary sources for U.S. women's and gender history, organized around the history of women in social movements in the United States, 1600s to 2000s.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Company information (reports and industry news), legal information (US and international case law, statutes, reviews) and news (US and international newspapers, TV/radio transcripts).
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary archive of journals, ebooks, images, and primary sources. Most recent issues may be embargoed.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Scholarly articles and other resources for all academic subjects, from 1887 to today. Classic EBSCO interface.
Artstor This link opens in a new window
High-quality museum image collections of fine art, architecture, and other related subjects. As of 2024, Artstor collections are accessed via JSTOR.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Background information on art, artists, and art movements. One simultaneous user. Please try later if busy.
American History in Video This link opens in a new window
Video collection including commercial and government newsreels, original footage, public affairs footage, and documentaries, from 1890s-2020s.
Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
Documentaries, interviews, and previously unavailable original footage surveying Black experiences in the United States, 1940s to the present.

Databases and Websites with Newspapers (Bradley Login Required)

New York Times Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
Access to New York Times Digital Edition. Requires creating an account: follow these directions.
New York Times Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
Historical articles from the New York Times covering 1851 to 3 years ago. Current articles via Nexis Uni.
Chicago Tribune This link opens in a new window
Articles from the Chicago Tribune covering 1996-today.
Chicago Tribune Historical Archive (1849-1997) This link opens in a new window
Historical articles from the Chicago Tribune covering 1849 - 1997.
Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Newspapers, newswires and other sources.

Times (UK) 1985 to Present via Nexis Uni
Wall Street Journal (1984 to present)
Illinois Newspaper Project
The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) is an initiative of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (HPNL), and the Department of Preservation Services at the University of Illinois Library. As of 2023, the Peoria Journal Star is not included in this project.
Chronicling America
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Popular Online Historical Digital Collections

Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University offers a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use.
Library of Congress (LOC) Digital Collections
Library of Congress (LOC) American Memory Project
This site contains a decreasing number collections. The LOC has migrated most of its American Memory collections to new presentations. For a full list of all digitized collections at the Library of Congress, please go to https://www.loc.gov/collections/
Smithsonian Digital Library
The Digital Library contains over 5,000 scanned books along with photo collections, videos, scholarly bibliographies, virtual exhibitions, and searchable databases of resources related to art, history, science, technology and library and museum collections or exhibitions.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes: texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections. Also home of the WayBackMachine.
Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy: A well-edited, high-quality collection of full-text primary source documents particularly rich in legal and diplomatic history and human rights. Organized by period and topic and searchable by keyword, documents include internal links to materials referenced in the text.
Making of American
A digital archive of books and journals from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. It is extremely useful for the study of American social history, with strengths in education, science and technology, psychology, and sociology. A work in progress, it already includes the full text of over 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles published in the nineteenth century.
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Search within the volumes, or browse volume titles by administration:
Bracero History Archive
The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America.
South Asian American Digital Archive
SAADA creates a more inclusive society by giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their unique and diverse experiences.
Slavery in America and the World
This collection offers a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Our cases go into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
A repository of proclamations, speeches, statements, photographs, and other presidential papers. Documents from the George H. W. Bush administration and later are currently available online. For more information about this collection, see the National Archives following this link: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/publications/presidential-papers.html
Newberry Library Digital Collections
"At the heart of the Newberry is a set of collection strengths that have continued to grow over many decades, attracting scholars and other readers, and serving as the focus for our research activities. This core involves original sources in a variety of formats, such as books, manuscripts, maps, images, and music. In most cases it is supported by secondary materials, including monographs and periodical literature."

Digital Collections about Histories of the Midwest

CARLI Digital Collections
Digitized primary sources from academic libraries in Illinois. Hosted by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, of which Bradley is a member.
Chicago Public Library Digital Collections
Digitized materials on Chicago history and more from the collections of the Chicago Public Library.
Illinois Digital Archives
The Illinois Digital Archive is "a repository for the digital collections of the Illinois State Library as well as other libraries and cultural institutions in the State of Illinois." Find "photographs, slides, and glass negatives; oral histories; manuscripts and letters; federal government documents; postcards; posters; videos; newspapers; maps; and much more."
Illinois Digital Heritage Hub
The Illinois Digital Heritage Hub brings together unique digital cultural heritage resources from across Illinois. Postcards, Sports History, Maps and more can be found here. Explore collections immense in volume and rich in historical detail, including photographs, manuscripts, books, audio recordings, and videos. Established in 2015 by four institutions, the Chicago Public Library, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, the Illinois State Library, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, the content of the IDHH is made possible by a network of more than 150 partners from across the state, including dozens of institutions providing content through the Illinois Digital Archives and CARLI Digital Collections.
Illinois State Archives
"The [Illinois] State Archives serves as the depository of public records of Illinois state and local governmental agencies which possess permanent administrative, legal, or historical research values." - Most of this material is not available online.
Illinois State Genealogical Society
Some resources are free and do not require membership.
Illinois State Historical Society
Home page of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Iowa Digital Library
The Iowa Digital Library features more than a million digital objects created from the holdings of the University of Iowa Libraries and its campus partners. Included are illuminated manuscripts, historic maps, fine art, historic newspapers, scholarly works, and more.
Midwest Regional Collections
Compiled from the University Libraries of the University of Washington. This page links digitized collections of primary sources from throughout the Midwest. (Many of the linked collections are free on the web, but you may find a few that are not.)
National Archives at Chicago
The National Archives at Chicago "hold[s] permanent records created by federal agencies and courts" in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin
Newberry Library Digital Collections
"At the heart of the Newberry is a set of collection strengths that have continued to grow over many decades, attracting scholars and other readers, and serving as the focus for our research activities. This core involves original sources in a variety of formats, such as books, manuscripts, maps, images, and music. In most cases it is supported by secondary materials, including monographs and periodical literature."
Pioneering the Upper Midwest
From the Library of Congress. "Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works drawn from the Library of Congress's General Collections and Rare Books and Special Collections Division."
State Historical Society of Iowa
Numerous indexes, records and publications in the collections are available online. Through partnerships with various organizations you can access digitized maps, publications, newspapers, vital records, some census records, federal and records such as land patents and survey plats.
UW-Milwaukee
The Digital Collections at the UWM Libraries include over 180,000 photographic images, maps, and books drawn from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library, the Archives, Special Collections, and the Curriculum Collection
Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive
an online visual collection of historic images showcasing the Mississippi River region along the Iowa/Illinois border. Explore the region as seen through the eyes of the late 19th and early 20th century people who lived here. Our archive currently features photographs from the collections of Davenport Public Library, Augustana College, Buffalo Historical Society, Galesburg Public Library, Putnam Museum, Rock Island County Historical Society, Rock Island Public Library, and Musser Public Library in Muscatine.
Wisconsin Historical Society
The Society's world-class collections contain an extraordinary range of artifacts and information about American history, from the remote archaeological past to current events.

Digital Collections on Histories of Women, Gender, & Sexuality

Women’s History Collections from Feminist Majority Website
The Women’s Knowledge Digital Library (WKDL)
Women's Knowledge Digital Library (WKDL) is an open access portal of information by and about women and girls. The goal of the project is to provide users with trusted information that is easily and efficiently accessible and that which can be used in the education and empowerment of women and girls worldwide. Our focus is to amplify women's voices and include resources that women can learn from and adapt to suit the work being done within their own communities.
UN Women Watch
A United Nations site providing information and resources on Gender Equality and Empowerment of women.
Digital Transgender Archives
The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than fifty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections. By digitally localizing a wide range of trans-related materials, the DTA expands access to trans history for academics and independent researchers alike in order to foster education and dialog concerning trans history.
Women’s Health, World Health Organization
This webpage contains links to fact sheets and articles about women's health issues with a global perspective in mind. The page notes several broad sociocultural factors that may influence how and if women and girls are able to access adequate health services. Some of the sociocultural factors that prevent women and girls benefiting from quality health services and attaining the best possible level of health include the following: Unequal power relationships between men and women; social norms that decrease education and paid employment opportunities; an exclusive focus on women’s reproductive roles; and potential or actual experience of physical, sexual and emotional violence.
Women’s Liberation Movement Print Culture
This collection contains manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
Discovering Women's History Online
This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.
Women's Issues Resources by Professor Joan Korenman, University of Maryland-BC