Primary Sources: North American

North American Primary Sources: Library Resources

Accessible Archives
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Full-text of 18th and 19th century publications including selected African American newspapers (eg. North Star), Civil War era magazines and newspapers, Godey's Ladies' Book, major early American newspapers (eg. Pennsylvania Gazette), and major Civil war articles from the north and south.<

Periodicals include Godey's Lady's Book and the Pennsylvania Gazette. Civil War articles from The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury, and the Richmond Enquirer. African-American papers, including Freedom's Journal, The Colored American, The North Star the Frederick Douglass Paper (1851-59), and others.
Alternative Press Index Archive
Oxford campus users only.
Alternative Press Index is a bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 700 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals.

Alternative Press Index covers theories and practices of: socialism, revolution, ecology, democracy, anarchism, feminism, organized labor, indigenous peoples, and gay and lesbian issues. API coverage is both international and interdisciplinary and begins with 1969.
American Film Scripts Online
A work in progress, this edition of American Film Scripts Online contains more than 1,100 scripts together with detailed information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.

Users can search by subject (topics, events, places) as well as by character name, writer, film title, and people (actors, director, producers) When complete, the collection will include more than 1,000 scripts and over 100,000 scenes of life as portrayed in the movies.
American History in Video
Historical videos (1894-2015) from commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.

The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.
American Periodicals
Full-text of American magazines published from 1741 into the 20th century. Database can be browsed by title, editor, or publisher, and searched using a sophisticated search menu.

The collection includes the first American magazines, early literary and cultural reviews, the first scholarly journals, and many popular magazines that continue to be published to this day, including Atlantic, Ladies'Home Journal, Vanity Fair, Puck, and Scientific American. This is a work-in-progress and is updated daily. For additional indexing use the 19th Century Index and Index to Early American Periodicals.
American Music
Explore the music of Americans of diverse origins and all walks of life through these recordings of songs and instrumentals. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.

The songs are by and about Native Americans, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, cowboys, and ordinary folk and address topics ranging from the American Revolution and Civil War to political campaigns and civil rights. Genres include country, bluegrass, blues, gospel, shape note singing, doo-wop, Motown, R&B, soul, funk, and others.
Black Thought and Culture
Covers non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. full-texts of books, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.
Cincinnati Newspaper Index (NEWSDEX)
Created and maintained by the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County staff, this database indexes selected articles on local topics from area newspapers, currently including the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Cincinnati Post, the Cincinnati Herald, the Business Courier, Cincinnati Magazine, and the Downtowner.

Some topics can be traced back into the 19th century, although the years since 1990 are covered more fully. There is no full-text in the database.
Cities in American Political History
Profiling the ten most populous cities in the United States during ten critical eras of political development including their government and politics, industry, commerce, labor, and race and ethnicity.
County and Regional Histories and Atlases: Ohio
Ohio. 1857-1922. Local histories and atlases at the county level published during the last quarter of the 19th century to the early years of the 20th century. Included are tables and lists of vital statistics, military service records, municipal and county officers, chronologies, portraits of individuals and views of urban and rural life. The atlases provide additional information on land use and settlement patterns and scarce early town and city plans.
Database of Recorded American Music
Listen to recordings and view liner notes and essays from New World, Composers' Recordings, Albany, Cedille and other labels focusing on music of the United States.

DRAM preserves and makes available recordings from a set of independent labels possibly overlooked by commercial vendors.
Declassified Documents Reference System
Full-text of previously classified federal records from presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies, including the Department of Defense, CIA, FBI and others. Collection spans the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Majority of documents are presidential records. Materials cover significant foreign and domestic events.
Digital National Security Archive
Declassified documents covering U.S. policy decisions from 1945 to present.

Includes supporting materials from the National Security Archive, including bibliographies, chronologies, glossaries and scholarly overviews.
Early American Imprints: The Digital Evans
Full-text of most printed matter (books, pamphlets, and broadsides, etc.) issued the United States and Canada from 1640-1800. If the full-text is not included, it is not extant anywhere.

Based on the American Bibliography compiled by Charles Evans, with updates and corrections, EAI offers rich indexing (author, title, subject, genre, publishing location, language, more) and easy access to the print culture of Colonial and early republican America. Complemented by the two full-text collections, Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
Early American Newspapers: Series 1-7
Full-text page and article images of selected American newspapers from roughly 1690-1922.
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment
Letters, diaries, memoirs, and other kinds of personal accounts of encounters between native cultures and colonizers in North and South America (although Canada and the United States dominate). Perspectives include traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.
European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750
Comprehensive bibliography (not full-text) to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Content covers European exploration, portrayals of Native American peoples, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and slavery. Based on the bibliography European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to The Americas, 1493-1750.
HarpWeek
Full-text page and article images of Harpers Weekly, an important 19th century political and social magazine. 1857-1871.
Historical Statistics of the United States
Collected from governmental and non-governmental resources. Contains statistics on social, behavioral, economics, government, finance, demography, education, law, natural resources, climate, religion, migration, trade and more. Allows for customization of data into tables.
Historic Documents Series

Published annually since 1972, the Historic Documents Series now contains 35 volumes of primary sources. Each volume includes approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.
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Homeland Security Digital Library
Collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy and organizational management.

Collection includes reports from the Congressional Research Service and General Accounting Office, presidential directives and executive orders, congressional hearings and legislation, theses and research reports, and more.
Illustrated Civil War Newspapers and Magazines
Contains campaign newspapers for the 1860 Presidential campaign and magazines and newspapers sympathetic to the Confederacy, Union, and Abolitionism. 1860-1865.

Carefully sought out and compiled from 17 different museum, library, and private collections, including those of the American Antiquarian Society and the Chicago Historical Society, these resources are now available to modern scholars in electronic form for the first time here.
Images of the American Civil War
Posters, photographs, and ephemera depicting Civil War battlefields, the home front, politics, and general society. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.

Images, etc. from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society, Virginia Historical Society, The Library Company of Philadelphia, and the New York Historical Society.
Literature, Culture and Society in Depression Era America
Archives of the Federal Writers' Project. Writers, artists, historians, sociologists, and others were hired through this federal government program during the Great Depression to document and preserve American life. The collection includes city and county guides; ethnic, sociological, and labor studies; folklore studies; and even poems and plays. 1930s.

In five years, the WPA spent millions to provide literary training and, more significantly, the opportunity for participants to observe, eat and write. This collection presents the FWP publications of all 47 states involved in the 10-year project.
March of Time
Collection of newsreels highlighting world cultures and contemporary issues. Some videos contain multiple short vignettes about news around the world and others are longer single topic explorations. Some were also reenactments 1935-1967. Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.
Morgan Bibliography of Ohio Imprints, 1796-1850
Description and bibliography of books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in Ohio. Many titles will be available through HathiTrust and Google books online as well as in print in Miami's collection or through OhioLINK.
Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia
Diaries, journals and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans, and travelers are complemented by accounts of the development of farming and mining communities, family histories and folklore. Covers the colonial era and the settlers conflicts with Native Americans through the evolution of a farm- and forest-society to Civil War divisions and post war industrialization, railroads and mining and modern day poverty.
New York Times Historical
Full-text of the complete run of New York Times including with page images, individual articles, ads, and illustrations in downloadable PDF. It includes, and is searchable by, display and classified ads, cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials, obituaries, and commentary, as well as articles. 1851-3 years ago.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
Personal narratives including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories (some audio content). Much of the material is previously unpublished. Content includes perspectives both on North America and on the immigrants. 1800-1950.
North American Indian Thought and Culture
Contains autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files. Provides American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples perspectives. 18th century-present.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Unpublished and published sources of women's diaries and correspondence. They provide a detailed record of what women wore, the conditions under which they worked, what they ate, what they read, and how they amused themselves. Colonial - present.

Unpublished and published sources of women's diaries and correspondence. They provide a detailed record of what women wore, the conditions under which they worked, what they ate, what they read, and how they amused themselves. Colonial - present.
Oxford African American Studies Center
5 simultaneous users. Contains a comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Includes articles from Oxford's reference works, primary sources with specially written commentaries, images, maps, charts and tables, timelines, and biographies.

Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's reference works, approximately 100 primary sources with specially written commentaries, over 1,000 images, over 100 maps, over 200 charts and tables, timelines to guide researchers through the history of African Americans and over 6,000 biographies.
ProQuest Congressional
U.S. Congress documents including hearings, legislation, and regulations. Provides bill tracking and legislative histories. ProQuest Congressional offers information and primary-source documents by and about the United States Congress. Indexes some social media from various government bodies. 1789-present.

Full-text is available for many publications including testimony from congressional hearings (1824-Present); committee reports (1817-Present); bill texts and status (1989-); Statutes at Large/U.S. Code (1789-); Congressional Serial Set (1789-2003); Federal Register (1980-); and the Congressional Record, including the Annals of Congress (1789-1997). It also provides information about members and committees.
Readers' Guide Retrospective
Oxford campus users only. Index only to popular magazines (primarily United States) in the 20th century. 1890-1982.
Rotunda
Primary source collections of 18th and 19th century text, including papers of Dolly Madison and George Washington, papers from Kristina Rosetti, Matthew Arnold, Emily Shore, Herman Melville (text of his novel Typee), and an 19th century novel about slavery by a slave. Contains supplemental and interpretive materials.
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online
Brings together the following collections into one searchable database: North American Women's Letters and Diaries; British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries; The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries; North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories; Black Thought and Culture. Each of these databases has a separate description in this Databases A-Z list.

Brings together the following collections into one searchable database: North American Women's Letters and Diaries; British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries; The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries; North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories; Black Thought and Culture. Each of these databases has a separate description in this Databases A-Z list.
Twentieth Century Advice Literature
Full-text of handbooks, manuals, textbooks, etiquette guides, self-help books, instructional pamphlets, and how-to books that illustrate the standards of personal conduct for millions of Americans and reflected the prevailing social mores across the twentieth century. Titles include: "Official Preppy Handbook" and "Facts about Marriage Every Young Man & Woman Should Know" 1900-present

The collection provides a window into American social history by bringing together the instructional, prescriptive, behavioral, and etiquette literature that defined standards of personal conduct for millions of Americans and reflected the prevailing social mores across the twentieth century. The collection contains fully searchable handbooks, manuals, textbooks, etiquette guides, self-help books, instructional pamphlets, and how-to books that illustrate both how Americans actually behaved and how they felt they ought to behave.
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels
Primary source database focusing on North American and European adult comic books and graphic novels. The collection includes original material from the 1960s to today along with interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines.
Washington Post Historical
Full-text image and indexing of the Washington Post from its beginning in 1877 through 17 years ago. Includes full-page and article images of all articles and display and classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary, literary criticism as well as articles.
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South
FBI documents and files Including surveillance reports, chronologies, witness statements and relating to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) "freedom ride." By riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups, the Freedom Riders challenged the southern states that ignored federal anti-segregation laws.
Women and Social Movements in the United States
This database includes documents from the President's Commission on the Status of Women, Institute for Women's Policy Research, papers of women active in the women's movements as well as selected speeches diaries and other publications.

Last Updated: Dec 2, 2025 12:19 PM
URL: https://libguides.lib.miamioh.edu/PrimSourceSubj
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Subjects: American Studies, History