What is a primary source?
Primary sources are first-hand accounts from people who have direct experience with a topic, event, or idea. Primary sources can be thought of as the "raw materials" historians use since they are unmediated by criticism, interpretation, or analysis, and they represent the concerns and ideas of the time they were created.
Some examples of primary sources:
- Newspaper articles covering an event
- Diaries, journal entries, ledgers, blog posts, or emails
- Interviews or oral histories
- Government documents
- Art objects like paintings, posters, pamphlets, zines, photographs etc.
- Films and other recordings
- Personal items like clothing or household tools
Certain texts or items can sometimes be primary sources in one context but not another. For example, a history textbook is not usually a primary source, but it could be considered one for a research project on how a particular event has been taught in schools throughout time. One helpful way to approach this in your search is to think about when something would be considered a primary source rather than only if it could be one.
Source Types Compared
Choose a Primary Source
The following is a selected list of primary source collections. Some collections are freely available online. Resources marked with a padlock icon are available freely for UI students, faculty, and staff through UI Libraries' subscriptions. If you are off-campus you may be prompted to log-in using your HawkID and password through our UI Libraries' proxy server to access UI Libraries materials.
- DIY HistoryAn online University of Iowa collection of various artifacts.
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsSearch and browse broad collections of historical primary source materials digitized and provided by the Library of Congress.
- The National ArchivesThe US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) preserves and provides public access to high-value government records.
- New York Public Library Digital CollectionsBrowse and search broad range of digital archival collections.
- The New YorkerBrowse fully digitized issues of The New Yorker 1925 - Today. Off-campus users must log-in with HawkID and password to access.
- AM Explorer This link opens in a new windowAccess millions of pages of primary source collections across the entire portfolio of AM (Adam Matthew), spanning content from the 15th-21st centuries.
- Alt-Press Watch This link opens in a new windowFull-text database indexes over 250 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines. Includes selected abstracts from research journals. (Main Library Reference Area holds vol. 1- July 1969- to present in the paper edition.)
- American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new windowBased on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection, this offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. The subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations.
- American Periodical Series Online 1740-1940 This link opens in a new windowOver 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals. Coverage 1740-1940.
- American West This link opens in a new windowOver 300 manuscripts- ranging from the original manuscript journal and papers of James Audubon, and a twelve page letter of General Custer, to the logbook of a cattle trail driver and the Hinman papers describing the overland trail to California and the Gold Rush. A host of extremely rare or unique ephemeral material including advertisements, claim certificates, cheques, photos, wanted notices and news-sheets. Maps - an important and underutilised resource for teaching the American West - partly due to their size and unwieldy nature - partly due to their rarity. Includes many unique or extremely rare items - ranging from extra-illustrated volumes and association copies to city directories and pamphlets and leaflets.
- Archives Unbound This link opens in a new windowArchives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Covers a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new windowSearchable database of digital images and associated catalog data, with new image collections added several times a year. ARTstor covers many time periods and cultures, and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, anthropology, ethnographic and women's studies, as well as many other forms of visual culture. Users can search, view, download and organize images.
To download images users MUST register for a personal account.
MOBILE USERS: For Apple: mobile.artstor.org. For Android: Download app from Google Play. - Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new windowThis collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
- Black Freedom Struggle (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new windowThe first Black Freedom module of the ProQuest History Vault consists of 37 collections from the records of federal government agencies, covering The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century from the perspective of the men, women, and sometimes even children, who waged one of the most inspiring social movements in American history.
- Black Thought and Culture: African Americans from Colonial Times to the Present This link opens in a new windowBlack Thought and Culture is a single source for the published works of numerous historically important black leaders. Along with well-known works, the collection features approximately 5,000 pages of unique, fugitive, and never-before-published materials. When complete, Black Thought and Culture will provide approximately 100,000 pages of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to 1975. Black teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other leaders form the mainstay of this corpus. The collection is intended for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new windowOnline version of the microfiche set Early American Imprints, 1639-1800. Resource for aspects of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, e.g., agriculture, auctions, foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, and witchcraft.
- Ethnic Newswatch Complete This link opens in a new windowEthnic NewsWatch is a current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The database now also contains Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, which provides historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989
- Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s This link opens in a new windowOrganized alphabetically by organization, this collection covers a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, cultural, and economic issues. It sheds light on internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent American radical groups and their movements to change American government and society
- Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945 This link opens in a new windowThe Gerritsen Collection was begun by Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen in the late 1800s. The online resource delivers two million page images exactly as they appeared in the original printed works. It includes monographs, periodicals and pamphlets in fifteen languages, and is searchable by keyword and Boolean operators.
- LGBT Studies in Video This link opens in a new windowLGBT Studies in Video is a cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. It features award-winning documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics.
- LGBT Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowLGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
- North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new windowFull text of plays by American Indian, First Nation, and Pacific Islanders playwrights of the 20th century; information about the plays and their production, and biographical data. The collection represents groups across the United States and Canada, including Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others. Also includes issues of the Native playwrights’ newsletter.
- North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowA compilation of biographical information on indigenous peoples from all areas of North America. When complete, the database will include 100,000 pages of content, including biographies, autobiographies, oral histories, reference works, manuscripts, and photographs, presenting the life stories of American Indians and Canadian First Peoples in their own words and through the words of others. Coverage: 1677 to present.
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950 - 1975: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest This link opens in a new windowRock and Roll explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. The resource offers thousands of colour images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia from this exciting period in our recent history. Topics include student protests, civil rights, consumerism, and the Vietnam War.
- Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 This link opens in a new windowThe Sixties brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 150,000 pages of material at completion, this searchable collection is the definitive electronic resource for students and scholars researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics. The database currently has over 34,000 pages.
- Vogue Archive This link opens in a new windowA complete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month.
- Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new windowThe earliest texts in this comprehensive collection on witchcraft date from the 15th century and the latest are from the early 20th century. The majority of the material concerns the 16th to 18th centuries, the so-called "classic period." In addition to these classic texts, the collection includes anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposés of persecutions, and philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new windowA set of learning modules in the form of mini-monographs, each of which is organized around a specific question about a single social movement. Each module contains fifteen to twenty documents that address the question.
