Databases with Primary Sources
Humanities Databases with Primary Source Material
For Adelphi Users
- African-American History Online This link opens in a new window An electronic encyclopedia covering African-American history, from African beginnings through the slave trade, civil rights movement to the present, organized by category: biography, primary sources, subject, timeline, images, and maps and charts.
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- America: History & Life This link opens in a new window Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present, indexing 1,700 journals from 1964 to present.
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- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window Provides access to detailed descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies and archives worldwide.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window As of 2020, Artstor has about 300 separate collections and over 2.5 million images.
- Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window Covers a broad range of Congressional information including House and Senate documents, committee reports, bill tracking and bill texts and campaign finance information. Provides the full text of the National Journal, as well as a searchable CIS/Index, the primary indexing & abstracting source for legislative information since 1970. The Statutes at Large includes both full text and synopses of public laws back to 1789.
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- CQ Electronic Library This link opens in a new window Includes CQ Researcher (1991- present), CQ Magazine(1983- present), CQ Public Affairs (1930's - present) and CQ Encyclopedia of American Government.
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- Grove Music Online (Oxford) This link opens in a new window Now accessed via the Oxford Music Online gateway, Grove continues to provide online access to the entire content of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. This gateway also provides access to The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music.
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- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, indexing more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955.
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- JSTOR This link opens in a new window A searchable scholarly archive providing the full text of journal articles in business, economics, history, political science, literature, sociology, as well as other key fields in the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences.
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- Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Provides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline.
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- Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window Offers current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government. Provides full text for more than 300 journals and periodicals and indexing and abstracts for more than 400 titles.
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- 19th Century British Pamphlets (JSTOR) A collection of more than 20,000 digitized 19th C. British pamphlets held by research libraries of the UK. These primary sources, including the Wilson Anti-Slavery Collection, illuminate the socio-political, cultural and economic landscape of the 1800s.
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- PEP (Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing) This link opens in a new window contains the complete text and illustrations of 37 premier journals in psychoanalysis through 2006, 58 classic psychoanalytic books, and the full text and Editorial notes of the 24 volumes of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud and German Freud Standard Edition Gesammelte Werke.
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- Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window A database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States during the years 1890 through 1982.
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Key Words
Primary Sources
Key Words When Searching Databases
Examples of primary sources include diaries, personal journals, government records, court records, property records, newspaper articles, military reports, military rosters, original research experiments, and many other things.
If you are required to use primary sources in your research, how do you find them in article databases? There are some databases that are clearly have historical and primary sources (Historical New York Times and Core Historical Literature of Agriculture). But it is usually not so obvious!
There are some key words to search for in the article's abstract (a succinct one paragraph summary of the entire paper), into a search box, or using ways to limit or select for database results. Look for, or enter, these terms when searching:
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Individuals |
Sciences |
Humanities |
Government/Business/Law |
Media |
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autobiography diary obituary interview lecture letter personal account blog post tweet social media post sermon speech corresoondence testimonial |
case study study clinical report data report statistical report laboratory notebook survey technical report conference paper dissertation patent proceedings theses |
concert review film review theatre review play poem novel sculpture art work music performance lyrics score |
conference proceeding transcript congressional testimony proceedings court testimony court decision executive order financial report industry report presidential document proclamation treaty |
photograph cartoon digital image television program radio broadcast online news reports sound recording |
Historical Newspaper Databases
Historical Newspaper Subscription Databases
For Adelphi Users
- Christian Science Monitor (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue from the year 1908 to 1991.
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- New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue of the New York Times. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue from the year 1851 to 2003.
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- Wall Street Journal (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue from the year 1889 to 1987.
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- Washington Post (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue from the year 1877 to 1988.
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- Barnstable Patriot Digital Newspaper ArchiveThe Barnstable Patriot began publication with its first weekly issue on June 26, 1830. The Patriot is the oldest continuous, uninterrupted publication in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, and is the seventh oldest newspaper in the United States.
- Newspapers by StateHistorical Newspapers Online - Guides at Penn Libraries