Historical Primary Sources: Basic Indexes and Collections of Primary Sources

Thinking About Primary Sources

There are many ways to go looking for primary source material. The libraries' catalog (as other catalogs, including Worldcat) will list publications that were printed as books or separate publications. Magazines and Newspapers require either one of the indexes below or actually looking through the publication. To learn how to search the catalog(s) for primary sources see th section in this guide. Below you will find:

Indexes to printed primary sources, like magazines, newspapers and journals. These indexes do not contain the digital sources. To find the actual source, in old fashioned print, you will need to use the libraries' catalog.
Access to full text collections, books, journals, magazines, and newspapers. Most of these collections have no subject access, but you are searching through the full text of the source/document. Remember to use language that reflects the ideas and usage of the times.

Indexes to Periodicals

Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Index to popular magazines from 1890-1980's. After the 1980's use the print version in the reference index collection and Academic Search Complete.
American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Full-text collection of 1,500 American magazines from 1741 into the 20th century
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.

Wellesly Index to Periodicals
Index to articles on politics, religion, women's writings, ecnoomics, art science archaeology and philosphy published in the 19th century. Also available online through the database 19C and in print.

Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Primary source social science and Humanities scholarly journals since 1907 to 1984.
Combines the indexing of International Index (1907-1965), the Social Sciences and Humanities Index (1965-74), Humanities Index (1974-84), and Social Sciences Index (1974-84).

Full Text Digital Periodical Collections

Nation Digital Archive
The Nation is America’s oldest weekly magazine and one if its premier journals of opinion since its inception in 1865. (From 07/06/1865 to 1 month ago, EBSCO)

American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Full-text collection of 1,500 American magazines from 1741 into the 20th century.
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.
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
Harpweek contains the full text of Harpers Weekly, an important magazine that reflects 19th century American culture. Includes illustrations.
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Full text of primary historical resources from the 18th and 19th century, including Godey's Lady's Book, the Pennsylvania Gazette, South Carolina Gazette, and a database of 19th century African-American newspapers.
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.

Indexes To Newspapers and Newspaper Archives

Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Full text of primary historical resources from the 18th and 19th century, including Godey's Lady's Book, the Pennsylvania Gazette, South Carolina Gazette, and a database of 19th century African-American newspapers.
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.
Chicago Tribune Historical This link opens in a new window
Full-text image and indexing of the Chicago Tribune from its beginning in 1849 until 1985. The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF. It includes display and classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary, literary criticism as well as articles.
It includes display and classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary, literary criticism as well as articles.
Early American Newspapers: Series 1-7 This link opens in a new window
Full text of more than 1,000 U.S. newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.
FBIS Daily Reports (1941-1996) This link opens in a new window
Full-text translations of intercepted and clandestine broadcasts from foreign governments and occupied territories, and official news services. (1941 - 1996)
Many of these materials are first-hand reports of events as they occurred. Key historical events are accessible directly through predefined, hyperlinked collections. From 157 different countries. Many of these materials are first-hand reports of events as they occurred. Key historical events are accessible directly through predefined, hyperlinked collections.
New York Times Historical This link opens in a new window
Full text of the complete run of the New York Times from 1851 to three years ago, with page images, individual articles, ads, and illustrationss in downloadable PDF. It includes display and classified ads, cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials, obituaries, and commentary, as well as articles, all of which is searchable.
Times Digital Archive, 1785-2010 This link opens in a new window
This full text database to the London Times provides access to European and world (through the eyes of the colonizers) cultures and events. Keyword searching is available in both the full text of the articles as well as the citations and abstracts. Searching by type of article or for articles with images is also available. The index to the paper after 1985 is available in the King Index area at the end of the reference section. Older indexes are available in King Circulation. Microfilm of the newspaper is available by request from the Instructional Materials Center.
The index to the paper after 1985 is available in the King Index area at the end of the reference section. Older indexes are available in King Circulation. Microfilm of the newspaper is available by request from the Instructional Materials Center.
Washington Post Historical This link opens in a new window
Full-text image and indexing of the Washington Post from its beginning in 1877 until 1990. The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF. It includes display and classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary, literary criticism as well as articles.

Newspaper Indexing Without Full Text

Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
Index to nearly 300 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.
Cincinnati Newspaper Index (NEWSDEX) This link opens in a new window
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.
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.
Cleveland News Index This link opens in a new window
Maintained by the Cleveland Public Libary, this indexes local news stories, feature articles, and reviews primarily from the The Plain Dealer from 1983-1999. Since 2000 it selectively indexes only Cleveland Magazine (1983- ), Northern Ohio Live (Sept. 1990- ), and Ohio (Oct. 1990- ). Searching is by subject. No full-text is available.

Newspaper Web Archives

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
U.S. Newspaper Program
Descriptions of newspaper preservation projects in all the states with links to individual state websites.
Google News Archive Search
Searches a number of sources, including historical newspaper archives digitized by Google through their News Archive Partner Program and online archival materials that have been crawled. No longer being updated.
Historical Newspapers and Indexes on the Internet
List by state of historic newspaper projects and archives of specific newspaper titles.
Historical Newspapers Online
List of some of the historic newspapers that are available online. The site is from the University of Pennsylvania and includes subscriptions. We also subscribe to some of them.

Full Text Documents and Manuscripts Collections

Alexander Street Press Collections
We have many individual collections from this publisher. Do a search in the catalog for Alexander Street Press or look through the A-Z list of Primary Sources for a complete list.

Rotunda This link opens in a new window
Consists of two broad collections of 18th and 19th century texts. The American Founding Era contains the papers of Dolly Madison and George Washington. The 19th-Century Literature and Culture collection includes 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. Each database also contains supplemental and interpretive materials.
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
(1882 - ) More than 63,000 of the most important declassified documents regarding critical U.S. policy decisions. See the Collections Guide at DNSA for a list of specific events covered.
Includes supporting materials from the National Security Archive, including bibliographies, chronologies, glossaries and scholarly overviews.
19th Century Index This link opens in a new window
C19 indexes a wide range of 19th-century British and American books, periodicals, newspapers and other documents such as British Parliamentary Papers. Includes Pooles Index for access to 19th century popular magazines.
C19 also includes Archives USA, an index to archival repositories and description of their collections; Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalog; Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. Wellesley Index To Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900); Periodicals Index Online and Periodicals Archive Online (1790-1919); British Periodicals Collection I and Collection II (1790-1931); American Periodicals Series (1770-1919). With the exception of journals in the American Periodicals series, C19 does not provide links to full-text articles.
Historic Documents Series This link opens in a new window
CQ. (1972 - ) The Historic Documents Series contains 35+ volumes of primary sources. Each volume includes approx. 100 documents of the year's most significant events. These documents range from speeches, to international agreements, to government reports.

Indexes and Databases for Books and Other Sources (not journals)

Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Digital facsimile page images of virtually every work (books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other matter) printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
EEBO titles appear as digital images and can be downloaded as pdf files. The database is searchable, but see also the English Short-Title Catalogue that allows more complex searches and is keyed to EEBO titles. Some 25,000 of the EEBO titles are being digitized with SGML coding as part of the Text Creation Partnership. Included here are titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661); titles in the Tract Supplement will be added starting in 2007-08.
Early American Imprints: The Digital Evans This link opens in a new window
Provides the full text of most printed matter issued in the United States and Canada from 1639-1800, including books, pamphlets, and broadsides.
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.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Digital images of every page of 150,000 English-language titles covering all subjects, published between 1701 and 1800 in the United Kingdom and the Americas (including foreign-language titles printed in the U.K.).
Morgan Bibliography of Ohio Imprints, 1796-1850 This link opens in a new window
The bibliography describes books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in Ohio and includes names of libraries that own copies of these historical materials to aid in locating originals.

Last Updated: Nov 1, 2024 1:40 PM
URL: https://libguides.lib.miamioh.edu/primarysources
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