Primary Sources

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.
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.
Indian Claims Insight This link opens in a new window
Indian claims process in the U.S., including docket history. Histories of Nation/Tribe and State/Territory.
Coverage: 1789 to present.
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
American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History that cover the major themes of American History.
Coverage: 1493-1945.
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Manuscript material from the Colonial Office files at the UK National Archives that documents all aspects of life in colonial America. Includes original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies.
Coverage: 1606-1822.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
Complete text of works cited in Charles Evans' American Bibliography, as enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography. Resource for information about life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, and witchcraft.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century which are many of the rarest materials published in early America. Based on the noted "American Bibliography, 1801-1819" by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker.
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.
Sabin Americana This link opens in a new window
Books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, through the early 1900s. Original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions, etc.
Coverage: 1500-1926.

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

AP Images This link opens in a new window
Associated Press photographs, audio, graphics, news stories, and headlines.
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.
Artstor This link opens in a new window
Digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research. Collections from museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates. Access Note: To download images or use other advanced features, individuals must register for an individual user account.

After Columbus: 400 Years of Native American Portraiture
Based on exhibition presented by the Library in 1994, Four Hundred Years of Native-American Portraits, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the Americas.
Bonneville Collection: 19th Century Images of Native Americans
Digital images from the University of South Carolina.
History of the American West
Over 30,000 photographs, drawn from the holdings of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library taken between 1860 and 1920.
Life Magazine Photo Archive
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1860s to today. Add "source:life" to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive.

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).