Research Librarian
Alana Kumbier
they/them or she/her
Contact:
Frost Library
413-542-5454
Subjects: Arabic, Asian Languages & Civilizations, Black Studies, Chinese, Classics, History, Japanese, Philosophy
Digital Primary Sources in Black Studies
This guide highlights digital collections. For tips and resources on finding non-digital primary source collections, visit the Primary Sources Research Guide.
Multi-subject collections
- Amherst College Digital Collections This link opens in a new windowOpen access repository for digitized archival collections from Amherst College Archives & Special Collections. Digitized images include photographs, manuscripts, books, and more.
- Black Digital Humanities Projects and ResourcesExtensive list of links to Black DH projects, many of which engage primary sources.
- Credo: Special Collections and University Archives at UMassIncludes: W. E. B. DuBois papers, Horace Mann papers, and the Antislavery Pamphlet Collection.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaCatalog of public domain and openly licensed images and other digitized materials from archives, libraries, museums, and other U.S. cultural heritage institutions
- Digital SchomburgDigital exhibitions, e-books, oral histories, event and lecture videos, podcasts and more from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- Umbra Search: African American HistoryCollection of over 400,000 digitized sources in African American history, from more than 1,000 libraries, museums and archives.
Collections organized by geography
- Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean EphemeraThe Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera is a steadily growing repository containing a previously unavailable subset of Princeton’s Latin American Ephemera Collection as well as newly acquired materials being digitized and added on an ongoing basis.
- dLOC: Digital Library of the CaribbeanMaps, oral histories, legal documents, books and other sources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean.
- DIrectory of Caribbean Digital Scholarship (CariDiScho2020)Browse or search an open-source bibliography of digital resources resulting from—and meant for—the study of the Caribbean.
- LLILAS Benson Digital CollectionsDigitized images and documents from the history of Latin America from the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin.
Collections organized around abolition and enslavement
- American Slavery Collection (1820-1922) This link opens in a new windowDigital edition of the American Antiquarian Society's holdings of slavery and abolition materials, with more than 3,500 works.
- Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery CollectionThis collection from Cornell University includes pamphlets and leaflets documenting the anti-slavery struggle at local, regional, and national levels.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice (1490-2007) This link opens in a new windowThousands of pamphlets, books, paintings, maps and images documenting the varieties and legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective, and the continued existence of slavery today.
What is a primary source?
A primary source is a record or artifact from a given era that provides original documentary evidence of the time—like a snapshot of an experience, taken by someone who was there.