Primary Source Guide
Local History
- Historic Northampton This link opens in a new windowImportant local history resource. Includes Hampshire Gazette images 1786-96, Howes Brothers photographs, historic maps, and other extensive digital collections.
- Massachusetts NewsBank This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Massachusetts Daily Newspapers: Amherst Bulletin, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Springfield Republican, Greenfield Recorder, Valley Advocate, and five more Massachusetts city newspapers. 1990's to present.
Digital Libraries/Online Collections
- Digital Collections of the UMass Amherst LibrariesA representative alphabetical listing of UMass Amherst Libraries' unique digital collections held in Special Collections and University Archives, the Image Collection Library, and ScholarWorks.
- EuropeanaSearch through millions of digital items provided by Europe's museums and galleries, archives, and libraries. Click the “Using Europeana” link at the bottom of the page to view more information about the site.
- IMLS Digital Collections and ContentA collection of digital resources from libraries, museums, and archives. Search the collection or browse content by subject, object, or place.
- InfoMine: Scholarly Internet Resource CollectionsUse this search engine to locate digital archives on the Internet. You can begin your search with the following terms: “digital archives,” “primary sources.”
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsBrowse and search print, pictorial and audio-visual collections.
- World Digital LibraryView primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
Audio-Visual
68,000 tracks of historical recordings of jazz, blues, gospel and other genres, 1890's-1970's.
Mac: Requires latest version of Safari or Firefox for Mac, or OS 10 and higher
Associated Press' library of photographs back to 1826, plus news stories, graphics and audio 1997-present.
Registration is required to use some features. Registered faculty can get instructor privileges: contact dbhelp@umass.libanswers.com *Download functions do not work with higher versions of Firefox.*
More than one million digital images of works of fine art, architecture and design.
Videos of dance performances, and documentaries on dance, from the 1950's to present.
Several collections of art images and photography, from sources including UMass Art History Department and Amica.
Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive
On-campus use only. Windows Media Player plugin does not work with Firefox 23.0.1. Use Internet Explorer.
Fifty thousand video testimonies in 32 languages, from 56 countries, on the Holocaust.
Online Sources
Many primary sources have been digitized or "born digital," and are available online either for free or through one of the university's subscription resources. This page contains some good places to start -- there are many more.
Note that while all of these resources contain primary sources, they do not only contain primary sources.
Pamphlets, Papers, and Books
Large collection of reproductions of primary source material from U.S. Library of Congress: pictures, pamphlets and recordings. Earliest dates from 1400s.
Papers and articles of 300 US and European anti-slavery activists of color, 1830-1865.
The 125,000 earliest books published in English, as listed in Short Title Catalogs of Pollard & Redgrave (Ref Z 2002 P77) and Wing (Ref Z 2002 U587), 1475-1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Every significant book or pamphlet printed in the UK, and English-language titles printed in America, between 1701 and 1800.
European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750
Comprehensive bibliography of books, pamphlets and other records written in European countries on the Americas. A companion to Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Primary source material for life as it was lived by 1,000 women in North America, 1675-1950.
Renaissance Center is the subscriber.
Reproductions of 250 early British women's manuscripts: accounts, diaries, prose, cookery books, and more.
Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000
Primary and secondary sources on women's involvement in historical events. Includes books, pamphlets, papers, and articles.
Women and Social Movements International
Activists' letters and diaries, conference proceedings, and other primary and secondary sources 1840-present.
Maps
Early maps of the Americas, World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania, 1700-1900.
Very detailed maps of New England towns and cities as they were in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are several versions over time of most maps, 1867-1970.
Government & Business
A tool for finding, accessing and using Federal government data sets, newly developed to promote open government.
Digital National Security Archive
Declassified documents of the NSA and predecessor agencies, 1882-present.
Access to Congressional bills and reports; public laws and regulations; executive and federal agency documents; a catalog of government publications, and links to government websites.
Historical Statistics of the United States
Statistics gathered by the Census Bureau, with scholarly editing and essays, from colonial times to near present.
Hearings, bills, laws and legislative histories, committee prints, Congressional Research Service reports, Congressional Record and predecessors, and the Serial Set.
ProQuest Historical Annual Reports
Annual reports of 800 leading US companies from as early as 1844.
United Nations Treaty Collection
Contains the texts of over 50,000 bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreement, in their original languages and French and English, 1920s-present.
Newspapers
Seven nineteenth-century African American newspapers in full text, including advertising, 1827-1902.
Historical Baltimore Afro-American
The paper in full text, 1893-1988.
The entire Boston Globe, searchable, in image files, 1872-1979.
Influential black weekly newspaper, searchable, in image files, 1905-1975.
English-language newspapers published in China. It spans 1832-1953, with most content from 1910-1940.
Historical New York Amsterdam News
Newspaper of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, 1922-1993.
The entire New York Times, searchable, in image files, from 1851 to three years ago.
The leading newspaper of the African American community in twentieth-century U.S. Covers 1911-2002.
Paper of record of the nation's capital, 1877-1995.
Thirty five searchable newspapers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and elsewhere, 1805-1922.
Amherst Bulletin, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Springfield Republican, Greenfield Recorder and six more Western Mass papers, most mid-90's to present
Four major Korean newspapers: Tonga ilbo 東亞日報 = Dong-A ilbo, 1920-1999; Kyŏnghyang sinmun 京鄕新聞 = Kyunghyang Shinmun, 1946-1999; Maeil kyŏngje sinmun 每日經濟新聞 = Maeil Business Newspaper, 1966-1999; and Han'gyŏre 한겨레 = The Hankyoreh, 1988-1999. Displays in original text, Hangul version text, and original images.
People’s Daily (Ren Min Ri Bao)
Chinese newspaper of record, 1946-present.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Combined search of historic Afro-American and ethnic and alternative newspapers, and historical Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post.
Japan's largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbum, in full text, 1874-present. Includes English edition, Daily Yomiuri, 1989-present.
