Finding primary sources - HIS 400 - S02 White Hunters, Black Poachers: Africa and the Science of Conservation [Fall 2020]

The source-driven junior paper

Often, the best work arises from close engagement with a primary source. As you read, you'll think of questions or begin to shape an argument. The hard part is to find a primary source that addresses the broad general area of interest. Here are some strategies for finding primary sources:

Check the footnotes, endnotes and bibliography of a good academic book on your topic.
Use the word sources as a keyword when searching the Main Catalog.
Consult the subject guides at http://libguides.princeton.edu
Search the finding aids for collections in Special Collections and Mudd Manuscript Library.

The Big Four Online Primary Source Providers

Adam Matthew, Gale, Proquest, and Readex provide a large portion of our online primary source materials. Each company has created a consolidated search engine which allows you to search all of the materials they provide.

AM explorer This link opens in a new window
Search engine to Adam Matthew archival materals.
Gale Primary Resources This link opens in a new window
Cross-searching tool for Gale primary source collections (including Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Indigenous Peoples: North America, and Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture). Also allows users to analyze content using frequency and term-relationship tools.
ProQuest History This link opens in a new window
Combines various historical databases from ProQuest.
Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
Search engine to Readex products.

African Newspapers

World Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to historical newspapers in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Rand Daily Mail This link opens in a new window
Major paper from South Africa. 1902-1985.

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
Publication Date: 1906-2006

Some ideas

Churchill Archive This link opens in a new window
Online version of the archive at Churchill College, Cambridge. Comprises nearly 800,000 documents amassed by Winston S. Churchill throughout his life.
British Online Archives This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to several collections on the history of the Atlantic world, from British archives.

National Rifle Association of America
National Rifle Association: Contains information on conservation, legislation, hunting issues, recruiting programs, and women's issues.
IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature
IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations.

Theodore Roosevelt papers by Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Publication Date: 1967
Index to the Theodore Roosevelt papers, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000043111

British & European history

Finding world newspapers at Princeton
Periodicals
Television, radio and documentary film
Travel: literature and guidebooks

Medieval & early modern Britain (to 1800)
Modern Britain
Medieval and early modern Europe
Modern Europe

British Parliamentary Papers
Finding British government documents at Princeton
Legal research for historians: Great Britain

Historical statistics
Public opinion polls for historians

History of science, technology & medicine
Religion
History of women, gender & sexuality

Government and International Documents

Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Indexes publications of the U.S. Congress such as hearings 1824+ (including previously unpublished hearings: Senate 1824-1992 and House 1833-1982), committee reports, documents and prints. Material is available in microfiche and/or electronic. Essential tool for doing legislative history research. Includes Congressional Research Reports from 1916+, Bills & Laws 1789+, U.S. Serial Set from 1789+, Annals of Congress from 1789-1824, Register of Debates from 1824-1837, Congressional Globe from 1833-1873, and Congressional Record from 1873+. Also includes Executive Branch Documents 1789-1948 and Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations 1789+.
U.K. Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
Includes the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers from 1715 to the present (with supplementary material back to 1688) and the House of Lords Papers from 1715-1910. Includes searchable full text and subject indexing. The Parliamentary Papers are an essential primary source for Britain, its colonies, and the wider world. They are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy. 1688+
United Nations Official Documents System Full Text - UN-ODS This link opens in a new window
Provides full text of United Nations central agency parliamentary and working documents. Includes all of the six official UN languages in which a document was published.