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Primary Sources for History

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The Historian's Corner

 

 

Historian's Corner Banner featuring the Ashley Hall foyer

 

Historian’s Corner

 

What is Historian's Corner ?

A collection of links to help history students find primary sources that have been put online from around the world.  Created by the VSU Archives and Special Collections, it’s a good place place to start your history research. 

 

Coverage

You can find digital collections on everything from medieval history to Native American history, ancient history, to the Civil Rights movement.   Links include digital newspaper collections, scanned books, and images.  It also includes links to GALILEO databases, national catalogs for books and archives, online history classes, and citation help focused on Turabian. 

World History

 

historical globe representing the world history aspect of this section

Digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/

   
 

Learn about the 1994 discovery of Paleolithic cave paintings in France and view photographs of the paintings.

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/

 
 

This collection of resources highlights topics in United States and world history through eyewitness accounts, interviews, photographs, and other primary and secondary sources.

http://www.historynet.com/​

 

Perseus is a growing collection of online resources for studying the ancient world. Materials include ancient texts and translations, maps, articles, essays, and images from over 70 museums around the world.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

 

This site features primary source sound samples, such as speech clips from many U.S. presidents and other notable figures in history.
https://vvl.lib.msu.edu/

US History

 

Image result for american history

 

The Library of Congress's National Digital Library contains more than 40 collections, which feature historical photos, maps, documents, letters, speeches, recordings, videos, prints, and more.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/

  

Contain thousands of  documents such as party platforms, candidates' remarks, Statements of Administration Policy, documents released by the Office of the Press Secretary, and election debates.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/

    

This electronic text archive from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contains primary source slavery narratives and first-person narratives of the South as well as a digitized library of southern literature.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/

    

Learn about the history of the city of St. Louis and the construction of the Gateway Arch through historic photographs at this site.

http://www.nps.gov/jeff/

 
 

Legislative information, historical exhibits, primary source materials, resources for educators, research tools, and more are available from the Library of Congress.

http://lcweb.loc.gov/

 

The Library of Congress presentsinformation on Abraham Lincoln, including the Emancipation Proclamation and his assassination, in this online exhibit of primary sources.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html

 

NARA preserves historically valuable archives of the U.S. government, including documents, photographs, images, maps, audio clips, letters, speeches, and films. Check out the Exhibit Hall for fascinating primary sources on such topics as the Lincoln assassination and World War II propaganda posters.
http://www.archives.gov/index.html

 

This museum site offers online exhibitions of American art.
http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/

 

Learn about Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, through his writings. You can also find background information on his life and family.
http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu

 

Find primary source documents, photos, letters, journals, and more on 20th century history from the Truman Presidential Library.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/educatio.htm

 

The Smithsonian Institution offers access to primary sources and other resources on a wide variety of topics, including military and political history.
http://www.si.edu/

 

Learn about the impact of the Civil War on two counties, Pennsylvania's Franklin County and Virginia's Augusta County, through the primary source images, documents, letters, newspapers, and maps at this site.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/

 

A special collection focusing on materials relating to the development of the Trans-Mississippi West and Native American cultures.

http://libraries.ou.edu/locations/?id=22

 

A special collection of historic Georgia newspapers, arranged by geographic location. Primarily contains papers from the 19th century. 

https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu

 

An online collection of historic documents and artifacts from the Civil Rights era. 

http://crdl.usg.edu/?Welcome

 

The Digital Library of Georgia is a gateway to Georgia's history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, government documents, newspapers, maps, audio, video, and other resources.

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu

 

​DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA—photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so much more—are free and immediately available in digital format. 

https://dp.la/about

 

​In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the start of the American Civil War, Civil War in the American South provides a central portal to access digital collections from the Civil War Era (1850-1865) held by members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL).

http://american-south.org/?Welcome

 

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. 

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/