ECASD LibGuides: Library Databases: Primary Sources

About These Sources

Primary sources are immediate, first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it.

Primary sources can include: newspaper reports, by reporters who witnessed an event or who quote people who did, speeches, diaries, letters and interviews, original research, survey data, such as census or economic statistics, photographs, video, or audio that capture an event.

Databases with Primary Sources

Explora Secondary This link opens in a new window
After you search, click "All Filters" at the top and select "Primary Sources" under Source Types.
Search for Explora Secondary in Clever.
Gale In Context: High School (MHS) This link opens in a new window
Select "Primary Sources" at the top of your search results where "All Content Types" are linked.
Click the "Sign in with Microsoft" link.
Or search for the Gale app in Clever.
HeritageQuest Online This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive treasury of American genealogical sources for college-level and adult researchers.
LOGIN: Choose Wisconsin from the drop-down menu, then enter your zip code
Newspapers.com Library Edition World Collection This link opens in a new window
Historical newspapers archive from the 1700s-2000s, containing thousands of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.
LOGIN: Choose Wisconsin from the drop-down menu, then enter your zip code
Archive of Wisconsin Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full-text daily and weekly Wisconsin newspapers from 2005 to 90 days ago, plus newspapers from the 1800s and 1900s.
LOGIN: Choose Wisconsin from the drop-down menu, then enter your zip code

Primary Source Websites

100 Milestone Documents
100 milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, chronicling United States history from 1776 to 1965.
Ad*Access
Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955
Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Government
A collection of documents in history and law from ancient civilizations to the present.
C-SPAN
Video library offering Congressional legislation, documents from the President and Supreme Court decisions.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963
Congress.gov Founding Documents
This gallery highlights resources designed to enhance study of a few significant primary source documents from American history.
Congress.gov State Resources
Congress.gov provides legislative information from the House and Senate of the United States Congress. Use the links below to visit similar websites for the U.S. states and territories.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Discover 41,762,742 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States
Docs Teach (National Archives and Records Administration)
Choose from thousands of US documents and filter by time period and document type.
Enslaved.org
Search datasets from the Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation
EuroDocs
Online Sources for European History
Selected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translation
Famous Trials
The Web’s largest and most visited collection of original essays, trial transcripts and exhibits, maps, images, and other materials relating to the greatest trials in world history.
FindLaw
Findlaw's Cases and Codes section contains resources and links for both state and federal laws. This includes resources pertaining to constitutions, statutes, cases and more. Run a search for case summaries or select a jurisdiction to browse applicable laws.
Founders Online
Over 185,000 searchable documents, fully annotated, from the authoritative Founding Fathers Papers projects.
Internet Archive Television Search
Television Archive News Search Service
Library of Congress
Researchers can search the digitized collection of the Library of Congress which includes photographs, films, maps, and other media. Use the pulldown menu to narrow a search to the media of interest.
LIFE Magazine Image Search
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today
National Museum of African American History & Culture
The Smithsonian has launched its Open Access Initiative. Images of objects from the NMAAHC collection are now available to view, download, and share through a CC0 license.
National World War II Museum
Includes a variety of recorded interviews, photographs, and documents that are easily searched by keyword, geographic region, or topic.
NYPL Digital Collections
Features a wide variety of primary sources. Researchers can narrow by region, time period, or topic.
Oyez
Supreme Court sources
Picturing America
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) "brings masterpieces of American art into classrooms and libraries nationwide."
Presidential Libraries (NARA)
Presidential Libraries and Museums promote understanding of the presidency and the American experience.
Smithsonian Institution Collection Search
Search over 16.8 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 6 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts
Smithsonian Open Access
Welcome to Smithsonian Open Access, where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
WhatWasThere
Ties historical photos to Google Maps allowing you to tour familiar streets to see how they appeared in the past.
Wisconsin Historical Society Collections
The Society's world-class collections contain an extraordinary range of artifacts and information about American history, from the remote archaeological past to current events.
Working Women (1800-1930)
An exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library (WDL) was a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world. The WDL sought to preserve and share some of the world’s most important cultural objects, increasing access to cultural treasures and significant historical documents to enable discovery, scholarship, and use.

Google Primary Source Search

A custom search in Google that searches for text and images across the primary source portals.

Library Databases: Primary Sources

About These Sources

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Databases with Primary Sources

Primary Source Websites

Google Primary Source Search