Primary Sources

Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Newspapers, books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. Simultaneously search: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, Sunday Times (London), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Making of the Modern World, Times Literary Supplement, and Times Digital Archive, Financial Times (London).
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and other primary source materials.

• American Indians and the American West
• American Politics and Society
• Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
• International Relations and Military Conflicts
• Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War
• Women's Studies
• Workers and Labor Unions
Proquest Congressional Publications This link opens in a new window
U.S. Congressional materials (hearings, bills, Congressional Record and compiled legislative histories) and Executive Branch documents.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
Manuscripts, artwork, and rare printed books that provide unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact right up to the civil rights movement. Sourced from the Newberry Library’s Edward E. Ayer Collection.
Coverage: Early 16th century to the end of the 20th century.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Includes archives covering the US and globe for the 19th and 20th centuries.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Collection of non-fiction writings of leading African-Americans. Includes interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material.
Gilded Age and Progressive Era This link opens in a new window
Covering America’s transformative age of industrialization, expanding wealth, inequality and social change. Personal collections, business records and rich visual content offer fresh perspectives on this influential period.
Indigenous Peoples: North America This link opens in a new window
Manuscripts, book collections, newspapers from various tribe and Indian-related organizations; materials such as Bibles, dictionaries and primers in Indigenous languages.
Coverage: 17th - 20th centuries.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
Explores the dynamic period of social, political, and cultural change in the U.S. and U.K., covering such topics as music and television, the Vietnam war, student protests, the civil rights movement, and women's liberation. Includes the Social Protest Collection from UC Berkeley, a wide range of zines and alternative press publications, posters, and multimedia.
Coverage: 1950-1975.
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
Diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, and journals. History of the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society.
Coverage: 19th and 20th centuries.

More History Primary Source Databases

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
Digitized collections of some of the nation’s great research libraries, established in this repository to archive and share their digital content.
Access Note: VU is a partner institution. Login is required for downloading. Tutorial: https://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/HathiTrustAccess

Statistical Abstract of the United States (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Extensive selection of statistics for the United States, with selected data for regions, divisions, states, metropolitan areas, cities, and foreign countries from reports and records of government and private agencies.
Access Note: If prompted to select an account, select Vanderbilt University.
Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition (HSUS) This link opens in a new window
Historical statistics on social, political, and economic aspects of the United States. Census and other statistical data. Create custom tables and merge columns from multiple tables to create custom tables, which can also be downloaded, printed, or graphed. Essays by experts place topics such as migration, slavery, health, crime, Native Americans, and the Confederate States of America in historical context.
If you experience an error message, please clear your browser's cache and retry connecting.
International Historical Statistics This link opens in a new window
Global statistical data on business, economics, environmental studies, geography, history, politics, sociology, and statistical studies.
Coverage: 1750-2010.
ProQuest Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
Federal, state, and international statistical, economic, demographic, and geographic information. National income and production statistics, retail and wholesale trade data, interest rates, economic indicators, and social and demographic statistics, plus data on energy, environmental protection, agriculture, fisheries, crime, etc.
Coverage: From the U.S. government, 1973 to present; from international intergovernmental, 1983 to present.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Current and historical census data and demographic information: US Census, American Community Survey, religious membership, carbon emissions data, etc. Customizable maps, charts, and reports.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Quantitative data, statistics, infographics, and related information compiled from market research institutes, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases.

Socialism on Film This link opens in a new window
This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies This link opens in a new window
Collection of interviews with Holocaust survivors and witnesses that detail a wide range of experiences, including imprisonment in concentration camps, living in hiding, fighting with partisans or the resistance, rescuing and protecting those targeted by Nazi persecution, and escape to Allied or neutral countries.

First time users must register for an account then search for and request access to an initial testimony. You only need to request access to one testimony to obtain viewing rights for the entire collection. Off-campus users must login to their personal account to view testimonies. Detailed instructions for access can be found at http://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/archive/search.
Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, field recordings, commercials, raw footage, and thousands of award-winning films.
Docuseek2 This link opens in a new window
Streaming access to documentary and social issue films from a variety of distributors, including Bullfrog, Collective Eye, and Icarus Films.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
On-demand streaming video service for documentaries, training films, and theatrical releases. Films under a current license agreement are available for immediate viewing. Other films may require a request through the Kanopy site. Viewing films in a group forum is permitted as long as the viewing is by Vanderbilt authorized viewers only (current faculty, staff, or students) and it is not for commercial benefit (i.e. no admission costs are charged and no profit is made from the screening).
HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Oral history interviews with both well-known and unsung African American artists, business leaders, scientists, athletes, and intellectuals.
Visual History Archive (USC Shoah Foundation) This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection of primary source testimonies of survivors and witnesses of crimes against humanity.

iPOLL (Roper Center) This link opens in a new window
Public opinion poll data: poll questions and answers, datasets, and survey questionnaires from academic, commercial, and media polls on opinions and behaviors from major survey research organizations in the United State, including Gallup, Pew, Annenburg Public Policy Center, and news organizations, such as CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, the New York Times.
Coverage: 1935 to present.
Gallup Analytics This link opens in a new window
US and global polling data, new and historical, at the city, state, and national level. Microdata is available upon request. Please visit this resource guide to learn more about available data and to request access.
Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
Poll questions and responses from national, state, local and special public opinion polls and surveys conducted by polling organizations in the United States and other countries.
Coverage: 1986 to present.