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Primary Sources Research: Primary Sources on the Web

WORLD WIDE PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE WEB

  • World Digital Library  Large, well-organized collection of print and visual primary sources from ancient to current times. Material may be browsed by place, time, topic, type of resource, or contributing institution.

  • Internet History Sourcebooks   The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts. Topics include Ancient, Medieval and Modern histories. Also presents material grouped by subject: Africa, East Asia, Global, Indian, Islamic, Jewish, Lesbian/Gay, Science and Women's history.

  • Hathi Trust   HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

  • Avalon Project   Digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government from ancient times to the 21st century.

  • Internet Archive  Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

UNITED STATES PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE WEB

DIRECTORY FOR U.S. HISTORY PRIMARY SOURCES BY TIME PERIOD

Primary Sources for American History from the American Library Association

This guide provides links to important, substantial, and freely available collections of primary sources dealing with American history. Each source has been chosen, evaluated, and annotated by members of RUSA's History Section. Links are organized chronologically:

  • Colonial - from the first settlements of what would become the United States to the Revolution
  • Revolution to Antebellum - from the Revolution through the 1850s, includes coverage of slavery & abolition
  • Civil War - primary source collections dealing with the war
  • Reconstruction to WWI - the post-Civil War era to World War I
  • WWI to WWII - from World War I through the Great Depression
  • World War II - primary source collections dealing with World War II, with focus on the American experience
  • Post World War II - from the postwar years though the early 21st century, includes coverage of civil rights & the Vietnam War