National History Day Info Roundup: Finding Primary Sources

Many rich collections of primary sources are freely available online. Nearly all of these items are digitized from materials held in archives, special collections, libraries, and museums. The collections below include materials from Georgia libraries, archives, and museums as well as materials from around the United States.

Digital Libraries

Digital Library of Georgia:The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) connects users to a million digital objects in more than 200 collections from 60 institutions and 100 government agencies in Georgia. Items available through DLG include photographs, correspondence, government documents, audiovisual materials, editorial cartoons, historic newspapers, maps, postcards, oral histories, and many other types of materials covering pre-colonial Georgia history to the present day.

Digital Public Library of America: The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is an all-digital library that lets users access millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Users can browse and search DPLA’s collections by timeline, map, virtual bookshelf, and faceted search; save and share customized lists of items, and explore digital exhibitions.

Civil Rights Digital Library: The Civil Rights Digital Library (CRDL) promotes an enhanced understanding of the Civil Rights Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others from all 50 states. CRDL features over 30 hours of historical news film coverage. Other materials include photographs, oral histories, letters, FBI files, and diaries.

Civil War in the American South: Civil War in the American South provides access to over 10,000 digitized primary sources from the Civil War Era (1850-1865) held by members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL). This site include manuscripts, photographs, books, newspapers, broadsides, and other materials held by over 30 libraries.

A primary source is original data or evidence that answers your historical questions, as opposed to another scholar’s interpretation of that same data. Typical primary sources are documents produced by witnesses to an event, but what constitutes a primary source really depends on what is being studied: for example, if your topic is examining how the concept of freedom of religion has been presented to children through history textbooks, then the textbooks themselves would be the primary sources.  A document that functions as a secondary source in one context could serve as a primary source for a different research project.

When defining primary sources, it can be helpful to distinguish the content of a work from its physical format.  An original handwritten letter from the 1700s is obviously a primary source, but if the same letter is reproduced this year in a printed collection of historical documents or an electronic database, it is still a primary source.

ArchiveGrid is a search engines that helps users find information about historical materials in over 1,000a rchives, libraries, museums and historical societies around the United States.  if you are looking for primary sources  related to your project topic, this a great place to start your search.  (Remember, this site will provide information about the sources and where they are located, but may does not provide direct access to digitized versions of the materials)

To find great background information on science-related topics, check out the links below:

JSTOR: Great place to look for older articles in major science journals. Dates back to the 1800's in some cases.

Web of Science: Multidisciplinary database geared towards high-level research. This also allows you to see what sources a person used to support their research, and who is citing that particular article. Do this by clicking on the article title and looking at the 'times cited' and 'cited references' headings on the right side of the screen. You can find the whole article by clicking on the 'FindIt@UGA' button--this will link you out to the online version if we own it, or provide a link to our paper holdings if you'd like to check there. Coverage goes back to roughly 1995 (varies by journal).

Although there are many great collections of primary sources available online, most primary sources are available in archives, special collections, libraries, and museums.  The links  below will help you search for primary sources in the special collections of the University of Georgia Libraries. 

UGA Special Collections Libraries

Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library  focuses on Georgia history and culture, holding rare books and Georgiana, historical manuscripts, photographs, maps, broadsides, and UGA archives and records. Other areas of emphasis include performing arts and natural history. Holdings date from the 15th century to the present.

Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies is an archives of modern Georgia  politics and policy making (1900-present).  It collects and provides access to materials from elected and appointed officials on all levels of government, political parties, civic and lobbying groups, activists and more.

 Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection  preserves over 250,000 titles in film, video, audiotape, transcription disks, and other recording formats dating from the 1920s to the present that reflect the collective memory of broadcasting and the history of the state of Georgia and its people.