LibGuides: Anthropology: Finding Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary sources are records contemporary to a time or event. They may be written, spoken, visual, or physical and may have been created intentionally (government documents, records, oral histories, etc.) or unintentionally (letters, diaries, clothing, tools, buildings, etc.) and published or unpublished. Primary sources come in many forms, including:

Artifacts
Correspondence
Diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies
Government documents
Oral interviews
Pamphlets, brochures, and fliers
Photographs and maps
Statistical records
Wills and inventories
Zines

Primary Source Collections at Reed

Here is a sampling of some of Reed's primary source databases.

America's Historical Newspapers (includes access to the Oregonian and Early American Newspapers) (1690 - 1975) This link opens in a new window
Includes articles from early American newspapers. Searchable by presidential eras, eras in American history, place of publications, and newspaper titles. Includes full text of the Oregonian 1861-1971.
American Periodicals (1740 - 1900) This link opens in a new window
Digitized page images from over 1000 American magazines from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Topic-focused digital collections of historical documents. Collections include:
-Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910
-Japanese American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life
-Journaux de la Révolution de 1848 (Newspapers of the French Revolution 1848)
-La France pendant la guerre 1939-1945: Résistance et journaux de Vichy (Voices from Wartime France 1939-1945: Clandestine Resistance and Vichy)
-Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (1701 - 1800) This link opens in a new window
A full text, searchable, digital collection of over 180,000 titles. Includes books, pamphlets, essays and more.
Latin American Newspapers, Series I This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from Latin American newspapers covering the years 1805-1922, including titles from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Millions of full-text, fully searchable pages of primary source material covering a wide range of topics. Includes books, pamphlets, essays, photographs, newspapers, letters, maps, sheet music and more.
ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search just the "Historical Black Newspapers" portion of the Proquest Historical Newspapers collection. This includes the Chicago Defender, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the New York Amsterdam News, and the Pittsburgh Courier.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text of historical newspapers, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Boston Globe. Also includes historical black newspapers including the Chicago Defender, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the New York Amsterdam News, and the Pittsburgh Courier. Coverage varies but generally starts in the 1800s. Issues include the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format.
Shen Bao (1872-1949) This link opens in a new window
The very first newspaper in China with a Chinese editorial staff, the full-image and full-text Shen Bao Digital Archive gives unique insight into the transition of China from the nineteenth century until Mao. Chinese language only.
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online (1675 - Present) This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary source documents drawn from letters, diaries, and oral histories. This database pulls together content from: North American Women's Letters and Diaries, British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries, North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories, The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries, and Black Thought and Culture.

Online Primary Source Collections

American Folklife Center
The collections in the American Folklife Center document traditional cultural expressions from the end of the nineteenth century through the present. More than three million items of ethnographic documentation are included in the archive, representing over a hundred years of fieldwork.
American Memory
A gateway to the Library of Congress’s vast resources of digitized American historical materials. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, it includes manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and sheet music.
Arabic and Middle Eastern Electronic Library (AMEEL)
A portal for the study of the Middle East, including its history, culture, development, and contemporary face.
EVIA Digital Archive
The EVIA Digital Archive Project is a collaborative endeavor to create a digital archive of ethnographic field video for use by scholars and instructors.
EuroDocs
Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts on all historic periods from antiquity to the present.
Repositories of Primary Resources
A listing of over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar.
Slavery of Africa and the World
This collection is the essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world, including every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery, well into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery.