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History: World: Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources Using UC Library Search

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event or time in history. They are considered original sources that have not yet been interpreted, analyzed, or evaluated by another person. Examples of primary sources:

  • Diaries, journals, personal narratives
  • Photographs
  • Correspondence, letters
  • Speeches, oral histories
  • Newspapers
  • Government records
  • Artifacts
  • Pamphlets, ephemera 
  • Memoirs and autobiographies

To identify these resources in UC Library Search, type "sources" or "personal narratives" or the type of primary document you are looking for, plus your topic. Use quotation marks to search your terms as a phrase. Examples:

"napoleonic wars" AND "personal narratives"                                                  

"berlin wall" AND photographs 

speeches AND churchill

Finding Primary Sources in Databases

The library subscribes to hundreds of databases that contain primary sources. Below is a very select list of these, listed roughly by time period; to find others, use the A-Z list of databases and filter with the limiters illustrated below. You can also change "Primary Sources" to "Images" and other source types.database search interface highlighting that you can select History (World) and Primary Sources.

Ancient World

Medieval Period (500-1500)

16th - 17th Centuries

18th - 19th Centuries

20th - 21st Centuries

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