Primary Sources

An explanation of primary sources, and some databases and websites where you can find primary sources. (From the VTC library research guides.)

So, your assignment says you need to use a primary source, but you're not quite sure: "What's the difference between a primary and a secondary source?" This page from the Ithaca College Library explains it for you and then gives you some places to find them.

Online Exhibitions, Primary Source Sets, and Research Guides will help you make the most of this site.

Locate historical documents by era (through an interactive timeline) or by theme, or search though the core document collection.

This Library of Congress collection of digital resources has the following Sections and Topics, highlighting eras of American History:

• 1775-1815:
  The American Revolution and the New Nation
• 1815-1860:
  National Expansion and Reform
• 1860-1877:
  Civil War and Reconstruction
• 1878-1920
  Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Most of the digitized collections at the Library of Congress have been migrated to https://www.loc.gov/collections/, but a few are still on htis site.

A set of reference eBooks from the Vermont Online Library.

"Cross-disciplinary source spanning the 20th century. Each volume in the set includes full or excerpted primary sources representing the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from a decade. Includes oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoons, recipes, and more."

This site from the Teaching American History in South Carolina Project focuses on South Carolina events and people, but has quite a lot of documents available in pdf format.