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Information on primary sources
Primary sources are original sources created by a participant or observer of an historical event. Primary sources may include: letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, photographs, audio recordings, government documents, and videos.
Secondary sources are interpretations or analyses of an event, usually written by scholars after the event occurred.
Check the tabs above and the Newspapers box below for places to find primary sources.
This video highlights some of the differences between primary and secondary sources:
Search the catalog by performing an advanced search by subject keyword using the following terms:
Or perform a keyword search by combining the terms above with the keywords of your topic:
Finally, check the bibliography of any secondary sources you find!
Search these governmental organizations and websites to find pictures, documents, correspondence and more:
- Library of Congress, including American Memory and other collections. Documents, photographs, audio, moving pictures, other textual collections. Browse by collection from this page or search all.
- National Archives and Records Administration
- U.S. Historical Documents online from the Univ. of Oklahoma Law School and Yale Law School. Historically significant, digitized U.S. governmental documents.
Some particularly good Civil War primary sources:
- Documenting the American South from the U. of North Carolina. Southern perspectives, first-person narratives.
- The American Civil War Homepage from the U. of Tennessee. A good selection of diaries and personal letters from the antebellum period through Reconstruction.
- The Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginia. A project that interweaves the histories of two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon line during the war. Includes a narrative and electronic archive of the sources on which the narrative is based.
- Making of America from the Univ. of Michigan and Cornell University (collections overlap but are not identical). Over 1,900 full-text books and 100K journal articles from the antebellum period through Reconstruction.
Broad primary source collections for American history:
- New York Public Library Digital Collection. A very large and growing collection, with many images, from the applied sciences, fine and decorative arts, history, performing arts, and social sciences.
- Digital Public Library of America. A network of digital libraries and university & museum collections, searchable in one place.
- History Matters from George Mason University. More than 1000 first person narratives of average Americans in extraordinary times, from 1500s to present day. Strong in the WWI period.
- American Radicalism from Michigan State University. Covers a wide range of topics from the far left and right.
- Ad*Access from Duke. Images from over 7,000 advertisements in U.S. and Canadian popular-media sources from 1911-1955.
Primary sources for British and European history:
- Internet Library of Early Journals. Substantial runs of five 18th and 19th century British journals.
Newspaper & Other Periodical Collections
- News and Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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A list of available historical newspapers available through ProQuest: Canadian Newsstream, International Newsstream, U.S. Newsstream, GenderWatch, Global Breaking Newswires, Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, The Scotsman, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. - NewsBank This link opens in a new windowFind global information on topics related to business and economics, careers, criminal justice, education, environmental studies, health, international studies, performing and fine arts, political science, science, social issues, sports, STEM, technology and more from a variety of news media featuring newspapers, videos and web-only content including The Oklahoman, USA Today, international sources and more.
Research Guides by Subject - Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new windowNewspaper Source Plus includes more than 860 full-text newspapers, providing more than 35 million full-text articles, and more than 857,000 television and radio news transcripts.
- NexisUni This link opens in a new windowSearches full-text newspapers, but is a large legal database. Make sure to narrow your search to news.
- Chronicling America This link opens in a new windowInformation about and select full-text from historical newspapers in the U.S. Also includes the Newspaper Title Directory, covering titles published from 1690 - present.
History & Geography Research Guide
Government Documents Research Guide - Americas Historical NewspapersOffers searchable digital copies of thousands of titles from all 50 states. With eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries and much more, this acclaimed collection uniquely chronicles the evolution of American culture and daily life from 1690 to the recent past.
- Oklahoma Hub--Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new windowOffers users access to Oklahoma collections in conjunction with millions of items—photographs, maps, manuscripts, audio-visual materials, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States
- Oklahoman (1901 - Current) This link opens in a new windowThis resource is available through the Metropolitan Library
Full text, full image from every issue of the Oklahoman, including articles, photos, and advertisements. - Vista Archives (the UCO Newspaper) This link opens in a new windowFull text archival articles from 1903-2017 of The Vista, the UCO campus newspaper. Articles display in full-page format as they appeared in the original publication.
Articles also available in ISSUU (1986-present)
How to search ArcaSearch - Tulsa World This link opens in a new windowSearch over 100 years of Tulsa history with the Tulsa World Collection. Coverage from 1906 through today, including full-color newspaper pages and full-text and web-only content.
- New York Times This link opens in a new window
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Full-image archive of The New York Times. Provides every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF, from 1851 to 4 years before current year. - Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new window
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Newspaper archive covering politics, society and events from 1889 to 18 years before current year. - Nashville Tennessean This link opens in a new window
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Newspaper archive covering politics, society and events from 1812 to 1922. Sourced from the collection of Tennessee State Library and Archives. - Washington Post This link opens in a new window
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Newspaper archive covering politics, society and events from 1889 to 17 years before current year. - Chronicling America This link opens in a new windowInformation about and select full-text from historical newspapers in the U.S. Also includes the Newspaper Title Directory, covering titles published from 1690 - present.
History & Geography Research Guide
Government Documents Research Guide - Americas Historical NewspapersOffers searchable digital copies of thousands of titles from all 50 states. With eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries and much more, this acclaimed collection uniquely chronicles the evolution of American culture and daily life from 1690 to the recent past.
- Globe and Mail This link opens in a new window
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Newspaper archive covering politics, society and events from 1844 to 4 years before current year. - Guardian and Observer This link opens in a new window
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Newspaper archive covering politics, society and events from 1791 to 15 years before current year. - Christian Science Monitor This link opens in a new window
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Provides every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF from 1908 to 14 years before current year. - Scotsman This link opens in a new window
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Historical newspaper providing genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
- Vogue Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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A complete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. - American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Articles and images from American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, and children's and women's magazines. - Harper's Bazaar Archive This link opens in a new window
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The entire run of Harper's Bazaar magazine, a fashion, arts, and culture authority from 1867 to the present. Scanned in full color and including monthly updates. - Journal of Nutrition Archive - v. 1-126 (1928-1996)Nutrition Science Legacy Archive for Journal of Nutrition.
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Archive - v. 1-68 (1952-1998)Nutrition Science Legacy Archive for American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
- Reader's Guide RetrospectiveComprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States during the late 19th and 20th centuries.
- Women's Wear Daily Archive This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive archive from the first issue in 1910 to material from within the last twelve months, reproduced in high-resolution images. Every page, article, advertisement and cover has been included, with searchable text and indexing. - Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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Backfiles of leading womens interest consumer magazines from the late-19th century through to 2005. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
The Chambers Library also has a number of newspaper collections on microfilm on the 4th floor. Look up a country or city in the catalog and limit the collection to periodicals.
Primary Source Databases
- Oklahoma Hub--Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new windowOffers users access to Oklahoma collections in conjunction with millions of items—photographs, maps, manuscripts, audio-visual materials, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new windowScanned copies of primary materials covering American history and culture, primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes collections on: African American newspapers; woman's suffrage; the Civil War; and World War I.
How to search Accessible Archives - American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 This link opens in a new window
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American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 is part of ProQuest History Vault's category of collections on American Politics and Society. It consists of collections from the U.S. National Archives, the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration. - American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Articles and images from American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, and children's and women's magazines. - Civil War Era This link opens in a new window
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Primary Source Materials that cover a wide range of topics during the American Civil War era from 1984-1865. - Congressional Publications This link opens in a new window
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Indexing and abstracting of all congressional publications: hearings, including never-published hearings that have been released by the National Archives and indexed by ProQuest staff; House and Senate reports and documents; and Committee Prints. Congressional Base also includes bill full text, tracking and profiles; the full text of the Daily Congressional Record, the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations; member and committee info; campaign finance and member voting data; and political news. - Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
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Declassified U.S. government documents providing vital primary source material to advance research in twentieth century history, politics, and international relations. - Eisenhower - Papers of Dwight D. EisenhowerThe letters, memoranda, directives, and other documents from Dwight D. Eisenhower, from his days as World War II general to his terms as President of the United States (1941-1961).
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowAn image-based government document and legal research database containing comprehensive coverage from inception of U.S. statutory materials, Congressional Documents and more than 2,500 scholarly journals, all of the world's constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase. Includes the American Indian Law Collection.
How to search HeinOnline - American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1-5 This link opens in a new windowEBSCO partners with American Antiquarian Society (AAS), the premier library documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction, to provide digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912.
- Bibliography of Indigenous People in North America This link opens in a new windowformerly Bibliography of Native North Americans
Covers all aspects of native North American culture including culture, history, and daily life. - Territorial Papers of the United StatesThe official history of every American territory before it became an American state, sourced from the National Archives of the United States. Consists of Native American negotiations and treaties, official correspondence with the federal government, military records, judicial proceedings, population data, financial statistics, land records, and more.
- British History OnlineBritish History Online is a digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800.
How to search British History Online - British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Contains full text articles from the late 1600s to the 1900s, and covers literature, philosophy, history, science, music and art, and more. - Cecil Papers, The This link opens in a new window
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Collection of early-modern historical documents from the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I/VI. More than 150,000 pages have been digitized in full color to create a definitive online archive of almost 30,000 manuscript documents written by some of the most significant figures of Elizabethan and Jacobean history. These are accompanied by the complete Calendar of the Cecil Papers, featuring summaries and/or transcripts of many documents and two eighteenth-century volumes of selected transcriptions. - Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
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Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. - U.K. Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to both the British House of Commons and the House of Lords Sessional Papers from the 19th century. Also includes the Hansard Parliamentary debates from 1803 to 2005.
- Socialism on Film This link opens in a new windowLook behind the iron curtain with this collection of films from the communist world. Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), Socialism on Film documents the communist world, from the Russian Revolution to the end of the Cold War. This unique collection of documentary films, features and newsreels reveals all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen by filmmakers from the USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, China, East Germany, Eastern Europe and more.
How to use Socialism on Film
- Bronze Book ArchiveThe Bronze Book, the Yearbook for the University of Central Oklahoma, was first published in 1909 as the Browser Towser. There was a four year gap until the Bronze Book became a regular publication in 1913 until 2003 when the last edition was printed.
How to search ArcaSearch
