Primary sources are original documents created at the time of an event, such as a newspaper account, photographs, or videos. Primary sources also include diaries, memoirs, letters and correspondence, interviews, government documents, and other records that document a past event. Historians use primary sources to interpret the past while building upon previous historical research.
Historians may locate original documents and other primary sources from archives, such as the University of Arizona's Special Collections. There are also published primary sources included in books and other formats. Those may be located in archives and libraries and can be identified by using a library's catalog or search tool or a database like WorldCat.
Some primary sources have been digitized and made available online, either freely-available or through databases purchased by libraries.
Learn more about how to identify, find, and evaluate primary sources with this Using Primary Sources on the Web guide from the American Library Association.
Please note: these resources are only available to middle school and high school students when using the University of Arizona computing network.
Find historical documents, including women's issues, health policy, film studies, the American Indian Movement, Mexican history, Afghanistan and the United States, records of the Persian Gulf War, and the U.S. Middle East Peace Policy.
Find a collection of texts, videos, images and historical documents that explores and provides historical context on many worldwide border areas, including the U.S. and Mexico.
Find letters and diaries of British and Irish women, biographies, and an extensive annotated bibliography, from 1500-1950.
Search primary and secondary sources related to human rights violations since 1900, including personal accounts, television footage, photographs, NGO records, government reports, court proceedings, documentaries, art, and reference literature.
Find unique primary sources that track the development of the modern, Western world through the lens of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more. Documents from the period 1450-1914.
Find Congressional reports, bills, hearings, committee prints, serial set maps, and other documents.
Large collection of women's diaries and correspondence, from colonial times to 1950.
Find primary and secondary materials about the history of women in social movements.
Find texts by women activists, 1840-present.
Online content of the Chicago Defender which became the most influential black newspaper in the US within its first 10 years begins in 1909 and goes through 2010. Includes full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue of this newspaper.
Find historical United States newspapers including the Atlanta Constitution, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post.
Search PDF scans of articles and advertisements in The Guardian and The Observer from 1791-2003.
Full page and article images with searchable full text, covering 1932-1988.
Find fully digitized issues of The Times.
Find full runs of newsreels in their original form, including Nippon News, Les Actualits Mondiales, France Actualits, France Libre Actualits, Les Actualits Francaise, also United Newsreel, Universal Newsreel, and Polygoon-Profliti.
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