HIST 137AC: Repeopling America

Primary sources can be found in a variety of library tools:

• Catalogs:  OskiCat and Melvyl
• Online book and text collections
• Primary Source databases provided by the Library
      includes databases for finding newspaper articles, such as Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) or magazine articles, such as Reader's Guide
• Vetted sites on the web:
  
  • Library of Congress
  • Online Archive of California or Calisphere
  • History Matters

For specific search strategies, see the Library's Guide to Finding Historical Primary Sources

Learn more about your topic in advance:

• names of relevant individuals and organizations
• dates of events
• places
• what terminology was used at the time by participants and observers? (ex:  negro or colored instead of african american)

Use the bibliographies of secondary sources and reference sources to find citations to specific primary sources; search OskiCat to locate them on campus, or ask for assistance at the Library.

Search OskiCat for primary sources using keywords and adding terms that denote primary sources, such as:

-correspondence
-sources
-diaries
-personal narratives
-interviews
-speeches
-documents
-archives
-newspapers

Examples:

puerto rican* interviews
african american soldiers personal narratives
irish american* newspapers

Library home > Electronic Resources > Electronic Resources Types A-Z > Archival Collections and Primary Source Databases > Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)

advanced (tab)

negro*  (citation and document text)

freeman (citation and document text)

immigra* (citation and document text)

from:  1/1/1870  12/31/1910

Watch the movie version!  (1 min 45 sec)

Note:  if you aren't finding enough, think of new terms, or think more broadly:

mendez v. westminster = 0 results

try instead:

school*  (citation and document text)

segregat* (citation and document text)

mexican* (citation and document text)

from:  1/1/1945   12/31/1948

This list represents resources available from the Library's collection of digital archival collection and primary source databases that may be of interest to those exploring Cold War history. Depending on your topic, you may find other resources on that list more helpful.

• AccessUN: The Readex Index to United Nations Documents
  Indexes United Nations (UN) documents and publications including Official Records, UN journals, reports, treaties, conferences, draft resolutions, declarations, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and UN Treaty Series. Contains the full text of several thousand UN documents.
  
• American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
  Consists of more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical Library of Congress collections. The primary source and archival materials relating in the project cover topics from art and architecture to performing arts to technology and applied sciences.
  
• American Presidency Project
  Contains all major publications of the U.S. Office of the President, including: Public Papers of the President, Inaugural Addresses, Executive Orders, Signing Statements, and other information such as radio addresses, party platforms, videos of debates, and popularity polling data. This project was developed by two political science professors at UCSB.
  
• California Loyalty Oath Digital Collection
  3500 pages of electronic text, more than 30 pictorial images, and 15 audio clips, which document the California Loyalty Oath controversy.
  
• Conditions and Politics in Occupied Western Europe, 1940-1945
  Records political life in Occupied Western Europe available to the British Government during World War II from the original intelligence reports received by the British Foreign Office. Indexed by year and section, from the occupied states of Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the Vatican, and the neutral countries -- Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Includes a day-by-day chronology of the war, photographs and posters from The National Archives and film footage of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents in France from the Imperial War Museum.
  
• CQ Historic Documents Series
  A collection of historic documents covering significant events of the year, going back to 1972. Documents include presidential speeches, international agreements, Supreme Court decisions, US government reports, scientific findings and cultural discussions. Contains more than 32,000 print pages. Part of the CQ Electronic Library collection.
  
• DDRS (Declassified Documents Reference System)
  Over 75,000 documents and almost 500,000 pages of materials declassified via the Freedom of Information Act and regular declassification requests, making broad-based and highly targeted investigation of government documents possible. Nearly every major foreign and domestic event of these years is covered.
  
• Digital National Security Archive (DNSA)
  Indexes over 35,000 declassified documents spanning fifty years of US national security policy. Also includes a chronology, glossary of names, events, special terms, and a bibliography for each collection developed around a specific event, controversy, or policy decision.
  
• Europeana
  Provides direct access to more than 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers. Europeana -- the European digital library, museum and archive -- began in July 2007 and is funded by the European Commission and its member states. This current prototype is one of many parallel projects of The European Library.
  
• Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives
  Documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America. Includes 70,000 pages of letters, diaries, and oral histories; more than 30,000 pages of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare audio and video materials. Enhanced by dozens of scholarly document projects, featuring annotated primary-source content that is analyzed and contextualized through interpretive essays by historians.
  
• World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean
  Include a comprehensive range of contemporary and historical documents for the region, providing research across the humanities, both for current Latin America and the Caribbean and as a historical perspective back through the colonial period.
  

Just a few examples of what's out there - but be careful to evaluate what you find!

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library

Consists of more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical Library of Congress collections. The primary source and archival materials relating in the project cover topics from art and architecture to performing arts to technology and applied sciences.

American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
A digitized collection of over 2,300 narratives of former slaves. Interviews were conducted by writers and journalists as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.

American Social History Online
Provides access to 175 digitized library collections related to U.S. social history.

Chronicling America
This site allows users to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. To date, over 200,000 pages of California newspapers have been digitized.
Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents
Includes the text of more than 100 historic US documents from the Magna Carta and the Mayflower Compact to the Truman Doctrine and the "I Have a Dream" speech.

James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center
Gateway to collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered history and culture, emphasizing the San Francisco Bay Area. Part of the San Francisco Public Library

Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Census Counts. Contains historical census data from 1790-1860, 1990 & 2000; historical census statistics on the foreign-born. Print copies of the US Census (1790-2000) located in North Reading Room, 2nd floor, Doe Library, gref section, HA201 call number

Immigration... the Changing Face of America. Library of Congress collection. An introduction to the study of immigration to the United States

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930. Web-based collection of selected historical materials documenting immigration to the US from the Harvard libraries

Making of America (Cornell University)
Access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles from 22 journals with 19th century imprints. The collection is particularly strong in the areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Making of America is a collaboration between the libraries of Cornell University and the University of Michigan to document American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction by drawing upon the primary materials at these two institutions. The Michigan site is available at: http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/

Making of America (University of Michigan)
Access to 9,500 books and almost 2500 digitized issues of 12 journals published in the 19th century. The collection is particularly strong in the areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Making of America is a collaboration between the libraries of Cornell University and the University of Michigan to document American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction by drawing upon unique primary materials held at each institution. The Cornell site is available at: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/index.html