American Presidency Seminar: Primary sources

• The American Presidency Project

  Established in 1999, archives contain 85,728 documents related to the study of the Presidency. This is an excellent source for primary documents.
• PresidentialRhetoric.com

  This site is devoted to bringing you contemporary information and resources concerning the study of presidential rhetoric. Contains archives of presidential speeches, as well as good links to presidential libraries.
• White House

  Provides access to the executive orders, memoranda, speeches, weekly addressees, nominations, press briefings, and other material from the current administration.
• Elections 1860-1912

  "An average of 50 cartoons and prints per election, most of which have been scanned from leading illustrated periodicals of the day. This collection of 19 publications ranges from major journals, such as Harper’s Weekly, Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Puck, and Judge, to rare humor and satirical magazines and newspapers, such as The Comic Monthly, Fun, and Southern Punch. Also included are campaign banners and political prints from the Library of Congress collection. The cartoons and prints are accompanied by commentary explaining their historical context and meaning."

   
• Presidential Oral History Program

  This program is systematically and comprehensively debriefing the principal figures in the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton, with plans to do the same for future presidents. We are also conducting special projects on important topics in political history, including a six-year oral history on the life and career of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
• The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2016
• "I Do Solemnly Swear…": Presidential Inaugurations (American Memory)

  "...a collection of approximately 400 items or 2,000 digital files relating to inaugurations from George Washington's in 1789 to Barack Obama's inauguration of 2009. This presentation includes diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music."
• U.S. Presidential Audio Recordings

  Sound samples of historical spoken word recordings from U.S. Presidents, from the Michigan State University Voice Library.
• Presidential Elections, 1860-1912

  Features political cartoons from various publications, and includes explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era's major issues, and other valuable information.
• Foreign Relations of the United States

  The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.
• Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders

  Prepared by the Office of the Federal Register, this is published to provide proclamations and Executive orders with general applicability and continuing effect, covering the period April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989, Truman through Reagan.
• Famous Presidential Speeches
• New York Times access  Visit nytimes.com/passes. 
  •  Create a free NYTimes.com account using your Bentley school email address.  If you already have an NYTimes.com account associated with your school email address, log in with those credentials. Check your email inbox for a confirmation message.  Click on the link in your confirmation message to validate your email address and claim your Pass.  If the confirmation email didn’t arrive, check your spam folder. If it isn’t there, send an email to edu@nytimes.com from your school email address to request confirmation. You have successfully claimed a Pass when you see the Start Your Access screen. 
  • Provides full page and article images with searchable full text from 1851
• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

  The Digital Public Library of America is a free, online library that provides access to millions of photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents and more from libraries, museums and archives across the United States.

Salem History: Milestone Documents in American History

• Scroll and select "Milestone Documents in American History" as a limit to your search.  Complete a "Keyword" search on your topic (for example, "woodrow wilson" and suffrage).  Look in the box on the left to cite, email or print. 

PRIMARY SOURCES
When historians talk about evidence, they often mean primary sources. Primary sources (diaries, letters, speeches, newspaper accounts, artifacts, etc. created during the time period being studied) can offer rich and unique insights into your topic.  Thousands of primary documents have been digitized and can be found online on university, government and museum websites.  The Bentley Library also has collections of these documents in printed source books.

American History Primary Sources Custom Search Engine