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
Primary Sources
Find primary sources for History in the following collections. You may also want to check the Primary Sources Research Guide for more information on searching for sources in archives, in the library catalog, and on the Internet.
Digitized Archival Collections
These collections usually contain different kinds of sources (e.g., images, newsletters, pamphlets, maps, reports) relevant to a common subject.
- 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.
- Biblioteca Digital MexicanaLa BDMx es una plataforma de acceso gratuito en la que encontrarás documentos históricos y colecciones fotográficas que muestran la grandeza de México.
- 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.
- Latin American and Caribbean Digital Primary ResourcesOpen access digitized collections of primary sources that relate to Latin America and the Caribbean, provided by institutions associated with SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials).
- 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.
Historical Newspapers and Periodicals
- Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876) This link opens in a new windowFully searchable digitized collection of 18th- and 19th-century Caribbean newspapers, including 66 titles from 22 islands
- FBIS: Federal Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports (1974-1996) This link opens in a new windowNews in translation (by the CIA) from radio, television, and newspapers around the world.
- Hermeroteca Digital Nacional de MexicoLa HNDM, provee información hemerográfica y servicios de búsqueda en los contenidos de las representaciones digitales de las páginas de las publicaciones que la conforman.
- Historic Mexican and Mexican American PressHistoric Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.
Historical Printed Materials
- Haiti CollectionThe John Carter Brown Library holds one of the world's great collections relating to Haiti. Their rare books, maps and newspapers tell the story of the founding of the French colony of Saint Domingue (once the most lucrative colony in the Americas), its demise through the Haitian Revolution (the world's only successful slave revolution) and the founding of Haiti in its place.
- Primeros Libros de las AméricasDigitized copies of first books printed in Mexico before 1601. These monographs represent the first printing in the New World.
Government Documents
- Brazilian Government DocumentsExecutive branch serial documents issued by Brazil’s national government between 1821 and 1993, and by its provincial governments from the earliest available to the end of the first Republic in 1930.
- Latin American Government Documents Archive - LAGDAThe Archive contains copies of the Web sites of Latin American government ministries and presidencies, starting in 2005-2006, through the present.
- Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (MIDAS)MIDAS, the Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives (los Archivos del Autoritarismo Mexicano), is a crowd-sourced, public access digital archive of historical documents from Mexican intelligence agencies. The collection is drawn from Mexico’s two principal security services, the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) and the Dirección General de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales (DGIPS) and covers the period c.1940 to c.1985.
Tip: What are primary sources?
A primary source is essentially any record or artifact from a given era that provides original documentary evidence of the time—like a snapshot of a given experience, taken by someone who was there. Secondary sources, such as books or articles, often draw heavily from primary sources, such as letters, diaries, or interviews, to make representations or interpretations of a period under study.
A few examples of primary sources include diaries, photographs, letters, government documents, and newspaper and magazine articles (from the period under study).
Want to learn more? Visit the Primary Sources Research Guide.