Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases
HathiTrust

American Memory This link opens in a new window
Written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Travel Writing, Spectacle, and World History This link opens in a new window
Women's travel diaries and correspondence describe the travel experience and offer first hand accounts of major historical events as reported by eye witnesses, detailing key interests and themes in women’s lives, providing snapshots of cities, cultures and customs, and charting the rise of modern tourism and the travel industry.
Coverage: 1835 - 1976.
Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture: The History of Mass Tourism This link opens in a new window
Guidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs, and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility, and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world.
Coverage: 1850-1980.
Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
Travel writings and works of some of Britain’s greatest artists, writers, and thinkers, revealing how interaction with European culture shaped their creative and intellectual sensibilities. Also includes many writings by forgotten or anonymous travelers, including many women, whose daily experiences offer a vivid insight into the experience and practicalities of travel across the centuries.
Coverage: 1550-1850.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window
Accounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India and China tell us much about the attitudes and preconceptions of people across Europe in the medieval period, shedding light on issues of race, economics, trade, militarism, politics, literature, and science.
Coverage: 13th to 16th centuries.
Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Collection This link opens in a new window
Industry journals, Fodor's travel guides and magazines covering historical and current affairs in the hospitality and tourism field: cultural aspects of travel, leisure activities, economic aspects of tourism, and more.
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

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