OVERVIEW

A Special Collections and Archives is a great resource for interacting with primary documents. Not all subjects are represented in their collections, however. So, Libraries turn to digital collections to expand their offerings, those available as open access databases--free to the public--and many others that are only available for student and faculty use.

Primary Source Databases differ in their offerings, for example:

• by source-type such as Newspapers, Photography or images, Magazines, etc.
• by theme such as Labor, Colonialism, or Early American History, etc.
• A special topic, such as U.S. Declassified Documents, African American Communities, etc.    

PRIMARY SOURCE DATABASES TO TRY:

• Databases containing texts in collections of poetry, plays and fiction

• Databases containing Primary Sources, US
• Databases containing Primary Sources, Non-US

Newspapers and Magazines

• Databases containing historical newspaper collectios