Library Guides: History: Primary Sources at Salisbury University Libraries

General Primary Source Databases

American Historical Periodicals (American Antiquarian Society). This link opens in a new window
The collection offers a highly comprehensive documentary history of the American experience spanning four centuries, with multiple perspectives on the thought, culture, and society of North America. The database presents primary source materials on a variety of disciplines including agriculture, business, history, literature, women's studies, fashion and music.
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to nearly a million descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies and archives worldwide.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of college & university scholars & students.
Historical Periodicals Collection (American Antiquarian Society) This link opens in a new window
Now called: American Historical Periodicals (AAS), hosted by Gale.
A collection of periodical archives spanning from 1691 -1902 that presents primary source materials for historical research on advertising, agriculture, business, history, journalism, literature and women’s studies.

Historical Newspaper Databases

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search and browse American newspapers published across three centuries.
Christian Science Monitor This link opens in a new window
Indexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper 1980-present.
Chronicling America This link opens in a new window
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1770-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama This link opens in a new window
This collection is a mixture of issues and papers from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama ranging from 1861-1865. These newspapers "recorded the real and true history of public opinion during the war."
Historical Baltimore Sun This link opens in a new window
Includes complete issues of The Baltimore Sun,cover to cover from 1837 to 1996. Search by keyword, more than 20 article types, date ranges, specific dates, author, and more. View news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more for added context. Print and download articles and images in PDF format.
Historical New York Times This link opens in a new window
This database provides full-text and full-image articles from the New York Times. The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files from 1851-2018.
Historical Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new window
This database provides full-text and full-image articles from the Wall Street Journal. The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files from 1889-2010.
Historical Washington Post This link opens in a new window
This database provides full-text and full-image articles from the Washington Post. The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files from 1877-2006.
Maryland Historical Newspapers: Maryland Edition 1923-Recent This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper collection provides easily-searchable first-hand accounts and in-depth coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Coverage: The Daily Times (1964-Recent), The Evening Times (1923-1927), The Salisbury Times (1927-1964)

Primary Source Databases on Black History

African American Communities This link opens in a new window
This database focuses predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina and presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window
Booker T. Washington, founder of the National Negro Business League, believed that solutions to the problem of racial discrimination were primarily economic, and that bringing African Americans into the middle class was the key. In 1900, he established the League "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: Challenges and Triumphs in the Pursuit of Equality This link opens in a new window
This website contains over 3,000 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom:

Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860)
The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877)
Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932)
The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945)
The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975)
The Contemporary Era (1976-2000)

The documents presented here represent a selection of primary sources available in several ProQuest databases.
Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle This link opens in a new window
The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated from 1970 to 1981. Composed largely of former Black Panthers (BPP), the organization’s program was one of "armed struggle" and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States." The BLA carried out a series of bombings, robberies (what participants termed "expropriations"), and prison breaks.
Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad This link opens in a new window
This collection of RAM records reproduces the writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and its leaders. It also covers organizations that evolved from or were influenced by RAM and persons that had close ties to RAM.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Between the early 1920s and early 1980s, the Justice Department and its Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged in widespread investigation of those deemed politically suspect. Prominent among the targets of this sometimes coordinated, sometimes independent surveillance were aliens, members of various protest groups, Socialists, Communists, pacifists, militant labor unionists, ethnic or racial nationalists, and outspoken opponents of the policies of the incumbent presidents.
Historical Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides easily-searchable first-hand accounts and in-depth coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Coverage: 1893-1988
Liberation Movement in Africa and African America This link opens in a new window
Composed of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People’s Revolutionary Party; this collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law is a complete legal collection on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. It also includes hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery— defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it, including an expansive slavery collection of mostly pre-Civil War materials.

Primary Source Databases on LGBT History

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Parts I and II This link opens in a new window
This primary source database consists of two parts:
Part I brings together primary source content on the social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Includes the gay rights movement, activism, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and more.
Part II highlights marginalized groups—even within the LGBTQ community—and enables users to draw new connections across the development of LGBTQ culture and activism through access to key publications.

Primary Source Databases on Scottish, English, and Irish History

Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online This link opens in a new window
This database provides a clear sense, afforded by no other previous edition, of the shape, scale, and variety of the entire Jonsonian canon, and its chronological progression. It provides well-annotated modernized texts for pleasurable reading by students, scholars, theatrical practitioners, and anyone wishing to explore the work of Shakespeare’s great contemporary.
First Folios Compared This link opens in a new window
To mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies (otherwise known as the First Folio), this website brings together dozens of digitized copies of this literary masterpiece. For the first time in history, you will be able to compare them, side by side, from the comfort of your own home.
The publication of the First Folio in 1623 brought together 36 of Shakespeare's plays, 18 of which have never been published before and would likely have been lost forever. Over the last 400 years, the surviving First Folios have found shelter with institutions and individuals across the globe. This site brings together just over 20% of all known surviving copies, for you to examine and explore.

As well as the stories told through the plays themselves, each copy offers up another narrative, depicting their unique journeys through history. Some are in prime condition, while others have received annotations, tears, or even lost pages. Many also bear printed differences – changes made by the printers as they produced each copy. Whatever your interest, the opportunity to compare copies of this historic work is here.
Times Digital Archive 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.
Victoria Research Web This link opens in a new window
Dedicated to the scholarly study of nineteenth-century Britain, and to aiding researchers, teachers, and students in their investigations of any and all aspects of this fascinating period.

Primary Sources on Indigenous History

American Indian Correspondence: Presbyterian Historical Society Collection of Missionaries Letters This link opens in a new window
American Indian Correspondence is a collection of almost 14,000 letters written by those who served as Presbyterian missionaries to the American Indians during the years from 1833 to 1893.
American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism This link opens in a new window
Formed in 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) expanded from its roots in Minnesota and broadened its political agenda to include a searching analysis of the nature of social injustice in America. These FBI files provide detailed information on the evolution of AIM as an organization of social protest and the development of Native American radicalism.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
This database contains manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers right up to photographs and newspapers from the mid-twentieth century. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.

Primary Source Databases on American History

America in Protest: Records of Anti-Vietnam War organizations -- Vietnam Veterans Against the War This link opens in a new window
The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) started in 1967 with six Vietnam veterans marching for peace in New York City. This publication consists of FBI reports dealing with every aspect of antiwar work carried out by the VVAW. The collection also includes surveillance on a variety of other antiwar groups and individuals, with an emphasis on student groups and Communist organizations.
Civil War in Words and Deeds This link opens in a new window
There is an ongoing interest in the Civil War as evidenced by the multitude of publications, exhibits, reenactments, research organizations, internet and multimedia resources, historic parks, and preservation associations focused on the Civil War. Individually and collectively, the publication of these regimental histories and personal narratives constitute a source of great historical value. These first-person accounts, compiled in the postwar period and early 20th Century period, chronicle the highs and lows of army life from 1861 through 1865.
Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s This link opens in a new window
Organized alphabetically by organization, this collection covers a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, cultural, and economic issues. It sheds light on internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent American radical groups and their movements to change American government and society.
Gun Regulation and Legislation in America This link opens in a new window
This database contains essential periodicals, compiled legislative histories, CRS reports, Congressional hearings, United States Supreme Court briefs, monographs, and other related materials on the difficult and controversial topic of regulating firearms in the United States.
Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia This link opens in a new window
This collection consists of the diaries, journals, and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans, and travelers. In addition, there are accounts on the development of farming and mining communities, family histories, and folklore. These accounts provide a view of the of the vast region between Lexington, Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama, which spans three and a half centuries.

Primary Source Databases on Asian History

Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life This link opens in a new window
One of the darker chapters in American history and one of the lesser discussed events of World War II was the forced internment, during the war, of an important segment of the American population-persons of Japanese descent. This collection, consisting of 25 individual titles, documents life in the internment camps.

Primary Source Databases on Women's History

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000: Scholar's Edition This link opens in a new window
A resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this vast collection of documents also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. The scholar's edition provides access to the online version of Notable American Women, as well as a digital archive of materials from various Commissions on the Status of Women.