Research Guides: Art 400: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Identifying & Utilizing Historical Primary Sources
Helpful guide from Steve Knowlton, History librarian

To identify primary source materials in the library catalog, look for the word sources within a subject term: e.g. perform a Subject (keyword) search: e.g. cultural sources; or, sources food, etc.

Additional Subject (keywords) or (regular) Keywords to bring up primary sources or books with primary source content include the following: (these are several examples of words that would identify a source as primary)

* charters
* correspondence
* diaries
* documents
* early works
* interviews
* letters
* manuscripts
* oral history
* oratory
* pamphlets
* personal narratives
* sources
* speeches
* transcripts

Firestone and Mudd Libraries comprise the Special Collections Department, which includes collections of unique or rare items like author manuscripts and other (unpublished) materials, letters, rare books, music manuscripts, works on paper (prints), coins, death masks, etc. There are great opportunities for you to work with original materials, some of which may never have been investigated or worked on before. Marquand also has an extensive and growing rare collection. You can browse its holdings here.

Check out the Guide to Topics ; and the Finding Aid search (archival collections), as well as the search by topic for archival materials. While you can find many of these collections in the library catalog, you can search by keyword here across collections within the guides that exist to help you navigate what’s contained in collections of papers for an important author, company, statesman, woman, etc.

PUL Digital Library: The old site is here, while the new digital platform is here. Take some time to browse for the unique and interesting content from Special Collections that has been digitized. We also have lots of databases that connect you to primary source content of different kinds too (I encourage you to browse the databases by subject in general: there are some amazing resources here).

Primary Sources - Art & Architecture

LES ECRITS SUR L'ART (Texts of art criticism by notable French and other artists and writers, specifically focused on salons and important literary works written from 1741 to 1927.

GETTY RESEARCH PORTAL (provides access to important art history texts that are out-of-copyright)

Getty Provenance Index Database This link opens in a new window
Contains 3 separate databases for provenance research: archival documents from 1550-1840, auction catalogs from 1650-1840, and public art collections from 1500-1990.
Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Index to art periodicals published in the United States during the 19th century. Indexes the entire contents of each journal, including advertisements and illustrations.
Readers' Guide This link opens in a new window
(1890s-present) Indexing and abstracting of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada, plus the full text of selected periodicals.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Index to millions of articles published in 4,547 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences. Includes the collections, British Periodicals and Periodicals Archive Online I-V, which provide searchable full-text and page images of hundreds of periodicals, primarily from the 19th century.
Nineteenth Century Masterfile This link opens in a new window
Combines various general, scientific, religious, psychological, and legal indexes covering the nineteenth century.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Partially searchable digital images of books, primarily British, printed in the eighteenth century. Based on the Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue. Also see the alternative interface Artemis Primary Sources that allows users to analyze content using frequency and term-relationship tools.
John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera This link opens in a new window
Digital edition of the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian. Includes posters, broadsides, pamphlets and printed advertisements illustrating everyday life in 18th, 19th and early 20th century Britain.
World's Fairs: A Global History of Expositions This link opens in a new window
World's fairs showcased the newest ideas and inventions on a global stage, and are valuable for interdisciplinary research. Includes documents from over 200 fairs covering 1851-2015, including governmental records of early financial appeals, international diplomatic documents, minutes and correspondence of fair committees, plans and design concepts, contemporary ephemera (tickets, pamphlets, posters), personal accounts, and official guidebooks. Includes in-depth case studies.