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

JSTOR Primary Sources
19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, World Heritage Sites: Africa

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Large and important archive for academic journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Many journals do not have current issues.
Apartheid South Africa This link opens in a new window
British Foreign Office files on the apartheid Governments of South Africa. These formerly restricted documents, sourced from The National Archives, UK, provide unprecedented levels of detail, with in-depth analysis of events, international reaction and policy dilemmas, accompanied by numerous first-hand accounts and reports.
Coverage: 1948-1980.
Colonial Caribbean: Settlement, Slavery, and Empire, 1624-1832 This link opens in a new window
Covering the history of the various territories under British colonial governance from 1624 to 1870, this resource includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, and details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive legal research database. Extensive coverage of law reviews and historical access to resources such as the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, and US Supreme Court decisions. Legislative history and select foreign and international materials. Contains specialized libraries: intellectual property, taxation and economic reform, etc.
History and Culture This link opens in a new window
African materials in books, magazines, newspapers, historical journals, government documents, oral history, photographs, art, music, and videos sourced from African organizations and archives around the world.
Coverage: 1500 to present.
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.
Rotunda: The University of Virginia Press Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary sources and collections in American history and culture. Includes access to:
• Adams Papers
• Diaries of Gouverneur Morris
• Documentary History of the First Federal Congress
• Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution
• Dolley Madison
• Papers of Alexander Hamilton
• Papers of Andrew Jackson
• Papers of Andrew Johnson
• Papers of Benjamin Rush
• Papers of Booker T. Washington
• Papers of Daniel Webster
• Papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry Digital Edition
• Papers of George Washington
• Papers of James K. Polk
• Papers of James Madison
• Papers of James Monroe
• Papers of John Marshall
• Papers of the Revolutionary Era Pinckney Statesmen
• Papers of Thomas Jefferson
• Papers of Ulysses S. Grant
• Papers of Woodrow Wilson
• People of the Founding Era
• Selected Papers of John Jay
Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents on key aspects of the history of slavery. The African Coast, the Middle Passage, the varieties of slave experience, religion, revolts, abolition, and legislation. Case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery This link opens in a new window
Books and pamphlets, US Supreme Court records, newspapers and periodicals, manuscripts, and reference materials for the scholarly study and understanding of slavery from a multinational perspective.

More Primary Source Databases
List of Primary Source database, includes listing of databases by historical periods.

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).
Southern African Films and Documentaries This link opens in a new window
Propaganda films, documentaries, newsreels, and interviews covering African history, politics, and culture. Films show township culture before apartheid, life under apartheid, and major historical events as they unfolded.

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

CRL collections are diverse and highly developed, including:

Largest collection of circulating newspapers in North America.

~ 6,500 international newspapers, many dating to the 1700s
~ 4,500 U.S. newspapers, many dating to the colonial era
~ 2,000 U.S. ethnic titles

Approx. 5,000 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp newspapers and newsletters.

More than 38,000 foreign journals rarely held in U.S. libraries.

More than 800,000 dissertations—mostly from European institutions.

Area Studies ~ Major microform and paper collections from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, and many other areas.

In-depth holdings that support research in history of science, economics, law and government, immigration and population studies, international diplomacy, cultural studies, and more.

Search their catalog today!