Primary Source Finding Aids
- Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new windowOAC includes finding aids to repositories from 40 California institutions, including all nine UC campuses.Finding aids are inventories, registers, indexes or guides to collections held by archives and manuscript repositories, libraries, and museums
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowDescriptions of historical documents in libraries, museums, and archives. Use the "summary view" tab to learn what institutions have archival materials on a particular topic, and how to arrange a visit to examine the materials.
- English Short Title Catalogue This link opens in a new windowThe English Short Title Catalogue provides extensive descriptions and holdings information for letterpress materials printed in Great Britain or any of its dependencies in any language
What is a Primary Source?
Primary sources are documents or materials that are created at or very close to the time that an event occur. They are the creator's thoughts or observations which have not been analyzed or interpreted by others.
In literature, a primary source might be a diary, letter, manuscript, journal, or an original text that you are analyzing. However, the definition of primary sources can be very broad, so you should check with your instructor if you have any questions.
Below are some of the words that you can use in Library Search to locate primary sources:
sources ~ autobiographies ~ correspondence ~ diaries ~ journals ~ manuscripts ~ memoirs ~ pamphlets ~ personal narratives ~ speeches ~ addresses ~ artefacts ~ sermons ~ broadsides
Library Databases - Selected List
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to over 600 U.S. and 700 international sources, mainly newspapers but also blogs, transcripts, video, magazines, and more. Use the "Source Types" tab in the middle of the page to limit to a particular type of material.
- AM Digital Archives Collection (formerly Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new windowThis is a list of Adam Matthew digital archives databases available through UCSB Library. Look for these titles on the Article Indexes & Research Databases list to view more information about each of these primary source collections which are licensed by UCSB Library.
• African American Communities
• American Consumer Culture
• Archives Direct
• Defining Gender
• Empire Online
• Everyday Life and Women in America, 1800-1920
• Frontier Life
• Meiji Japan
• The Grand Tour
• Victorian Popular Culture - American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowFully-indexed access to facsimile images of approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs.
- American Periodicals (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowFacsimile images of over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children’s and women’s magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
- Center for Research Libraries e-Collections This link opens in a new windowAccess to these extensive digital collections are available through our membership in the Center for Research Libraries.
- Duke Digital Collections This link opens in a new windowVariety of digitized collections, including an extensive collection on American advertising and consumer culture, African-American history, women's history, and more general collections of photography, art music and architecture. Some of these collections are restricted to Duke University access only. Some collections have received individual entries in the Research Databases list.
- Early American Fiction This link opens in a new windowThe full text of 875 first editions of American novels and short stories by prominent and minor writers of the period. Sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Virginia Library.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800) This link opens in a new windowBooks, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans. The database is an excellent resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th and 18th century America.
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819) This link opens in a new windowBooks, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. Shaw-Shoemaker covers every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States.
- Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures and the Environment This link opens in a new windowOver 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowDigital image collection of nearly all works published in the United Kingdom or in the English language from 1475-1701
- Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership This link opens in a new windowFully-searchable digital images of 125,000 titles from the EEBO digital image collection, above.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new windowDigital, fully searchable image collection of nearly all works published in the United Kingdom or in the English language, from 1701-1800.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowDigital facsimiles of primary source material relating to culture, history, politics, and society.
Each section includes thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. - English Broadside Ballad Archive This link opens in a new windowCreated by the UCSB English Department's Early Modern Center, EBBA is a searchable collection of early ballads printed in English, with priority given to black-letter broadsides of the 17th century. To date the archive includes over 5,000 ballads--more than half of the estimated 10,000 extant 17th-century ballads. EBBA's holdings are free and open to the public.
- First World War Poetry Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowOnline repository of over 7000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching and research.
- Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online This link opens in a new windowBooks, pamphlets and periodicals documenting women's rights and consciousness. Primarily British, American, French and German.
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new windowFacsimilies of over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688.
- Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new windowUse the Primary Texts link to find primary sources from the 15th century onward.
- Making of America (Cornell) This link opens in a new windowA digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
- Making of America (Michigan) This link opens in a new windowA digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
- Nineteenth-Century Fiction This link opens in a new windowCollection of 250 British and Irish novels stretching from the golden age of Gothic fiction to the Decadent and New Woman novels of the 1890s. Includes major novels from Dickens, Mary Shelley and the Brontës, to popular romances, sensation fiction, colonial adventure novels and children's literature
- Newspaper Source This link opens in a new windowFull text access to more than 40 U.S. and international newspapers; selected full text for more than 370 U.S. newspapers, and full-text television and radio news transcripts, including CBS news, CNN, Fox News, NPR and more.
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowFully-searchable facsimile images of diaries and letters. Includes biographies and an annotated bibliography of the sources.
- Sixties: Primary Documents Personal Narratives 1960-1974 This link opens in a new windowSearchable collection of diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
- Victorian Women Writers Project This link opens in a new windowFull-text works of lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century. Includes poetry, novels, children's books, political pamphlets, religious tracts, histories, and more.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2023 This link opens in a new windowOrganized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. Can be searched in multiple ways, including by archive, social movement, document type, chronology, subject, and more.
- Women and Social Movements, International This link opens in a new windowIncludes letters, diaries, memoirs, conference proceedings, publications and webpages of women's NGOs, essays, photos, videos, and more.
- Jane Austen's Fiction ManuscriptsDigital access to some 1100 pages of high quality images of original manuscripts whose material forms are scattered around the world in libraries and private collections.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1-5 This link opens in a new windowThe AAS Historical Periodicals Collection contains more than 6,500 historical periodical titles dating from 1691 to 1877, separated into five series. All five series are simultaneously searched on this site. You can also search specific series: from the search screen, click “Choose Databases,” and select specific sections of the series.
- Early European Books This link opens in a new windowEarly European Books provides scholars with new ways of accessing and exploring all works printed in Europe before 1701, drawing together a diverse array of printed sources, regardless of language, as well as works published further afield. Developed and produced in close collaboration with scholars, rare book librarian, bibliographers, and other experts from the library world, this resource opens the door to some of the world's most significant collections of early printed books. The collection includes over 30,000 books from the start of printing in Europe to 1701.
New collections are continually being added to Early European Books. UCSB has access to Collections 1-18 & 20-23.
Open Access Databases
- World Digital LibrarySignificant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. Includes historical manuscripts along with secondary materials describing them.
- Modernist Journals ProjectA joint project of Brown University and the University of Tulsa, the MJP aims to be a major resource for the study of modernism and its rise in the English-speaking world, with periodical literature as its central concern. To date, these English-language periodicals cover the years 1890 to 1922.
- Documenting the American South This link opens in a new windowSponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this internet archive provides access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
- National Archives Online Exhibit Hall This link opens in a new windowThe National Archives has created an extensive series of online exhibits of documents, photographs and other materials spanning American history
- Calisphere This link opens in a new windowThe University of California's free public gateway to more than 150,000 digitized items selected from the libraries and museums of UC campuses, and from a variety of cultural heritage organizations across California.
- Primary Sources OnlinePrimary resources relating to written and early printed culture in Britain between 1000 to 1500. The resources include literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers.
- National Archives (U.K.)The official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. The archive contains over 1,000 years of iconic national documents. Register for a free account for more functionality.
- Internet ArchiveExcellent source for primary sources. Most material is freely accessible or can be borrowed for a short time.