History (World) 

Primary Sources: What Are Primary Sources?

Yale University's explanation of what is a primary source

Primary Sources are a major part of histortical research. Here are a few  electronic resources where you can locate primary sources on your area of studies. For a complete list of archival resources you can review the Archives and Primary Sources webpage

UCSB Department of Special Collections

Empire Online

• A collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies from 1492 - 2007 sourced from libraries and archives around the world. This project has been developed to encourage undergraduate work with rare primary documents. By using images of the texts rather than transcriptions, Empire Online enables students to connect with the past with greater immediacy. Each Section features thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the online publication with 30-50 hypertext links per essay to documentary evidence.

Historical Newspapers Online Historical Newspapers Online contains four major historical resources:

• Palmer's Index to The Times (London) which covers the period from 1790 to 1905 in The Times.
• The Official Index to The Times which takes the coverage forward from 1906 to 1980.
• Palmer's Full Text Online 1785-1870, providing access to the full articles referenced in Palmer's index to The Times. (Note: at present, only 1828-1870 is available; the file is scheduled to be complete by September 2000.)

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

• The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers are vital to the historical record of Britain, its former Colonies and the wider world. HCPP online, with searchable full text, and detailed subject indexing, makes it possible to fully exploit the enormous potential of this resource for the first time.

Center for Research Libraries e-Collections

• Pamphlets and Archival materials.

The Beazley Archive

• The Beazley Archive at the University of Oxford is a collection of casts and photographs of classical Greek and Roman art. In 1979, the Archive began creating digital collections. At present the digital archive includes extensive collections of images of Greek and Roman sculpture and Greek pottery.

Digital Archive of Architecture

• This collection of photographs and illustrations of European and American architecture is the work of Prof. Jeffery Howe of the Fine Arts department of Boston College.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe

• The Brigham Young University Library has assembled a collection of links to transcriptions, translations and facsimiles of primary European historical documents and books from a variety of sources. Documents are grouped by nation or Europe as a whole.

Gallica

• Gallica is a collection of digital archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Among others, there is Gallica: Voyages en France, a collection of 3000 books, 6000 images and 130 documents presenting a panorama of the history of France. Note that the site is almost entirely in French.

OhioLINK Digital Media Center

• The OhioLINK Digital Media Center provides access to several collections of digital images Greek & Latin Inscriptions.

The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy

• The Avalon Project of the Yale Law School will mount digital documents (transcripts) relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. In some cases, links are added to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text.