Skip to Main Content

SOCD 203: Documentary Research Methods and Social Science Representation

New to archives and archival research?

Archival collections are a particular kind of primary source and they provide a direct view into the past from the perspective of specific people or groups.  Our guide can help you learn more and become comfortable with using them as part of your research process:

To discover finding aids use one of the following:

Primary sources

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:

Newspapers and Magazines