What are Primary Sources?
Primary sources provide firsthand evidence of historical events. These include letters, diaries, photographs, speeches,manuscripts, newspapers, interviews, memoirs, government documents, audio recordings, film or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art. Many of these are unpublished, one-of-a-kind items.
A growing number of Primary Sources are available on the web, thanks to digitization projects by libraries, universities, and other agencies.
Locating Primary Sources
To locate primary resources in the library catalog, perform a Subject or Keyword search on the person, place, event, etc., in combination with one of the following terms:
- diaries
- personal narratives
- correspondence
- sources
- pictorial works
- maps
- speeches
- addresses
Primary Source Databases
- Artstor This link opens in a new window
Archival Resources Online
- 2016 Pulse Nightclub Shooting Web ArchiveWeb material related to the June 12, 2016 mass shooting perpetrated at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, its victims, and its impacts on the local and global LGBTQ and Latinx communities. It includes news reports and blog posts, social media feeds, interactive timelines, and videos.
- ACT UP Oral History Project interviewsA collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York.
- Digital Transgender ArchiveAn online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than fifty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections.
- Lesbian Herstory ArchivesThe Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities
- LGBT Religious Archives NetworkThis Oral History collection provides in-depth interviews with a diverse group of early LGBT religious leaders.
- Mattachine Society - FBI DocumentsBegun in 1950, the Mattachine Society was an early homosexual rights advocacy organization. It became the subject of an FBI internal security investigation between 1953 and 1956.
- ONE National Gay and Lesbian ArchivesONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives is the oldest active Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning (LGBTQ) organization in the United States and the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world. Founded in 1952, ONE Archives currently houses over two million archival items including periodicals, books, film, video and audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records and personal papers.