From the University of Texas Libraries: “Primary sources are produced by participants or direct observers of an issue, event or time period. These sources may be recorded during the event or later on by a participant reflecting upon the event…. Some examples of primary sources include: speeches, government documents, legal documents, public opinion polls, personal materials (letters, diaries, interviews, memoirs, autobiographies, & oral histories).”
Below are databases, websites and newspapers that provide primary source materials. Covering a large time period, the sources within these databases may provide you with a new contextual perspective of a time period, group of people, or specific situation.
Includes LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 Part II, and Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century.
Database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to education-related literature.
This database retrieves congressional materials and legislative histories by searching abstracts, titles, indexing information and other bibliographic data.
Provides comprehensive access to newspapers, broadcast transcripts, wire services, and blogs from around the globe as well as extensive legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, and business information on over 80 million U.S. and international companies.
Contains digital facsimile images of both full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of primary source 19th century U.S. newspapers.
Provides access to thousands of historical (primary) documents, as well as reference titles and full-text journals. Covers themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present.
Provides access to historical (primary) documents, as well as reference titles and full-text journals. Covers themes, events, individuals and periods in world history from ancient times to the present.
Current and archived information from thousands of local, regional, national, and international news sources including newspaper titles, newswires, web editions, videos, broadcast transcripts, business journals, periodicals, government documents, and other publications. Also Included in this collection are Ethnic, African American, Military, Government & Defense, South Carolina news sources image editions of The Post and Courier and The State.
Statistics and Reports