Manuscript Page from Genève, 1833. Honore de Balzac
Sample databases below. See also the "Primary Sources" tab in other research guides
- Archives de Littérature du Moyen ÂgeLinks to search engines for manuscripts, online resources, and a list of medieval authors with primary and secondary sources.
- CalisphereThe University of California's free public gateway to a world of primary sources. Content is selected from the libraries and museums of the UC campuses, and from cultural heritage organizations across California.
- Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures and the EnvironmentOver 40,000 pages of material centered on present-day Canada and the United States with some limited coverage of Mexico.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO)Facsimile images of over 96,000 titles from the first book published in the English language through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)Digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century.
- Empire OnlineA collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies from 1492 - 2007 sourced from libraries and archives around the world.
- Historical Text ArchiveThere is no indexing or search screen so this is a little tricky to use. Try the "links" section first.
- Online Archive of CaliforniaFinding aids (not the actual sources) to repositories from 40 institutions across California, including all nine UC campuses. A small but increasing number of the finding aids contain links to online digital versions of the source material.
- Primary Documents in American HistoryA subset of the vast collections in the Library of Congress from 1775-1920.
- GallicaDigital resources from French and francophone culture maintained by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowFour separate collections of facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th to the early 20th centuries.
- C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive source for discovering 19th century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers, and archives.
- Caribbean LiteratureThis database focuses on the literary output of Caribbean authors from the 18th & 21st centuries. The collection is contains poems, drama, novels, stories, and related materials, written in European languages and local languages
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowIncludes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters; from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, plus 7,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 1,000 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, much of the material is in copyright. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.
- Ross Archive of African ImagesA database of published images of African art from Yale University Library, 15909-1920.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaFree access to the online collections from America's libraries, archives, and museums.
- EuropeanaDigital images from European institutions.
- Google Arts & CultureGoogle's partnership with museums and cultural heritage institutions from around the world.
- ARTstorA repository of more than 1 million high-resolution art, architecture, and design images with associated catalog data.
- Homeroteca DigitalAccess to digitized historic newspapers and magazines, from Spain as well as a smaller selection of sources from Latin America, with well over 1000 titles in the collection. Coverage extends from the late 17th to the late 20th century.
National Libraries & Digital Collections (Public, Open Access)
- Biblioteca Digital Hispànica, from the National Library of Spain
- BNDigital, from the National Library of Brazil
- Biblioteca Valenciana Digital, from the autonomous community of València, Spain
- British Library
- Digital Library of the Caribbean
- Digital Public Library of America
- Europeana, co-funded by the European Union
- Gallica, from the National Library of France
- Internet Archive
- Internet Culturale, a project of the Italian Ministry of Culture
- Library of Congress Digital Collections
- Polona, National Library of Poland
- Trove, from the National Library of Australia