An original record created at the time an historical event occurred. No one has interpreted the facts, added or omitted information. Primary sources include original documents such as the U.S. Constitution, legal documents such as census or marriage records, letters, diaries, interviews and oral accounts, substantial quotations (at least a paragraph, not just one sentence), photographs, paintings and statues. Objects used in the past, such as tools, dishes and clothing are also primary sources.
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ELECTRONIC PRIMARY SOURCES

• Ebscohost´s Primary Source Documents
  Select "Masterfile Premier." Click on "Advanced Search."Under "Publication Type" (drop down menu), select "Primary Source Document."
• Daily Life Online
  Scroll to bottom right of front page, click on "Primary Documents" under "In the Collection."
• Facts.Com
  Under "Special Features" on the right side of the page, select "Historic Documents." You will then have a choice of either "Primary Source Documents Arranged By Title" or "By Year."

Internet Sites:

• 100 MILESTONE DOCUMENTS
  Compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, and drawn primarily from its nationwide holdings. The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965.
• AD ACCESS
  A collection of images from over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines from 1911 through 1955. Subject areas include: radio, television, transportation, and World War II.
• AMERICAN MEMORY Historical Collections (Library of Congress)
  A gateway to the Library of Congress´s vast resources of digitized American historical materials. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, it is organized into more than 100 thematic collections based on their original format, their subject matter, or who first created, assembled, or donated them to the Library. A map collection is included, (the maps are printable), as well as prints, drawings, manuscripts, rare books, sound recordings, and moving pictures.
• AVALON PROJECT AT YALE LAW SCHOOL: DOCUMENTS IN LAW, HISTORY AND DIPLOMACY
  Documents range from 18th to 21st century.
• BEEN HERE SO LONG
  Numerous slave narratives compiled during the Great Depression by writers who worked for the Federal Writers Project (FWP was part of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration).
• CIVIL WAR WOMEN: PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE INTERNET
  From Duke University's Special Collections Library. Includes full-text diaries, letters, photos and prints.
• THE CRISIS OF THE UNION
  An Electronic Archive of Documents about the Causes, Conduct, and Consequences of the US Civil War.
• DIGITAL LIBRARY ON AMERICAN SLAVERY
  The Digital Library on American Slavery, a cooperative effort of the University Libraries and History Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, provides detailed personal information about slaves, slave holders, and free people of color. Information gleaned from the petitions includes where, when, and by whom slaves were owned, and where, when, and how free people of color lived. The documents collected by the Project span from the end of the American Revolution to the end of the Civil War and represent the fifteen slaveholding states and the District of Columbia. A rich and valuable source based on the variety of issues ("causes") brought to the courts by the petitioners, raised by the defendants in their answers to suits against them, and issues found in supporting related documents such as slave inventories, witnesses´ testimonies, and bills of slave sale
• EURODOCS
  Primary historical documents from Western Europe.
• HISTORY MATTERS
  First-person primary documents and guides to analyzing historical evidence for high school and college students as well as teachers of American history.
• MAKING OF AMERICA
  A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction (19th century). This collection has approximately 8500 books and 50,000 journal articles. The subject focus is education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science and technology.
• NATIONAL RECORDS and ARCHIVES ADMINISTRATION
  This page contains reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States. These sources also contain teaching activity information. One major place to click is "American Historical Documents" either on the right or on the left under "Explore & Interact."
• NEW DEAL NETWORK
  Includes a photo gallery of over 5000 images from the Great Depression Era and over 900 documents from the Neal Deal Era (1928-1955) consisting of speeches, advertisements, letters, articles and administrative papers. There is also information on how to cite sources from this website.
• NJ DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
  Created by the New Jersey State Library, contains items like "The Governors of New Jersey 1664-1974: Biographical Essays" and "The Origin of New Jersey Place Names."
• NJ DIGITAL HIGHWAY
  Developed by cultural heritage organizations throughout New Jersey, through a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Organizations involved are the Rutgers University Libraries, the New Jersey State Library, the NJ Division of Archives and Record Management, the New Jersey Historical Society and the American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark.
• OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION
  This site contains selected after action reports of the Commanders in the field for major battles of the American Civil War and other selected events.
• U.S. HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS ARCHIVE
  Primary source documents from American history starting with Columbus and going through to the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
• USING PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE WEB
  From the American Library Association, Reference and User Services Association, History Section. It includes information on what are primary sources, how to find, and how to evaluate them.
• THE VIETNAM CENTER AND ARCHIVE
  Includes documents, photographs, slides, negatives, oral histories, artifacts, moving images, sound recordings, maps, and collection finding aids.
• THE WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY
  The World Digital Library (WDL) is created by the United Nations, providing, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. Included are books, manuscripts, maps, motion pictures, prints, photographs and sound recordings.
• WORLD WAR I DOCUMENT ARCHIVE
  This archive of primary documents from World War One has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List (WWI-L). International in focus, the archive intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War.
• WORLD WAR II: A DIGITAL LIBRARY
  Historic government publications from WWII, provided by Southern Methodist University.

Magazines:

• American Heritage Magazine
  Ceased publication in summer 2007, but began again in winter 2008. Some articles are available online in the archives. The Hunterdon County Library holdings date back to 1949. In more current issues of this magazine, there is a section called "My Brush With History." There is a print index in the Reference Room at the Rt. 12 library covering December 1954 to December 1994. After that date, Ebscohost (9-1-90 to current Full Txt) or Proquest (1996-2005 Full Txt) can be used.
• American Historical Review
  Searchable online. The Hunterdon County Library holdings only include October 1963 through December 1990. Use Reader´s Guide To Periodical Literature index for 1963 to 1988. Online access includes Ebscohost (2-1-84 to current Full Txt, with 12 month delay) or Proquest (1988-1997 Full Txt).
• American History
  Hunterdon County Library Headquarters holdings are from April 1966 to current. Use the Reader´s Guide To Periodical Literature index for 1966 to 1988. After that date, use Ebscohost (8-1-94 to current Full Txt) or Proquest (Mar/Apr 1997-current Full Txt).

SEARCHING THE ONLINE CATALOG FOR PRIMARY SOURCES

Using keyword, type in: "personal narratives." Over 700 listings—remember this is keyword so it may pick up unrelated items, but most will be applicable. You can also narrow down this list by typing in the terms for your topic, such as "world war" and the phrase "personal narratives."

The topics below are listed by popular name, alphabetically. In parentheses is the actual subject heading (devised by the Library of Congress) as it appears on our online catalog.

Key to abbreviations:   B=biography   J=juvenile nonfiction   R=reference