Finding primary sources - HIS 400 - Early Native American History

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.

Primary Sources in the Library

American Indian Experience This link opens in a new window
full-text digital resource exploring the histories and contemporary cultures of the indigenous peoples of the United States.
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files. Presents the entire spectrum of native peoples' experiences from their own point of view.
Frontier Life : Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from 1600 to 1920, covering the expansion of European culture into the American West and Southwest, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and British Honduras (Belize). Includes records related to agriculture, trade and commerce, family life, exploration, government, health and medicine, land and property, religion, military history, and women’s history. 1650-1920
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Digital edition of the documents in Colonial Office (CO) 5 at the UK National Archives. CO 5 constitutes the original correspondence of the colonial governments with the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together holding responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean.
Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Digital edition of material from the British National Archives, CO1 and other collections, from 1574-1759, including images of many original manuscript documents. Also includes a digital edition of The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739.

Journals of the Continental Congress
Call Number: 34 vols at KF4505 .U55 1904; digital version available through the Library of Congress

Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
digital version available in Footnote.com (Browse -> Revolutionary War)

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+.
Territorial Papers of the United States This link opens in a new window
Official correspondence and documents of each territory of the United States in its pre-statehood years. Includes Native American negotiations and treaties, military records, judicial proceedings, population data, financial statistics, land records, and more.

American Indian Treaties by David H. DeJong
Call Number: Firestone KIE19 .D45 2015
ISBN: 9781607814252
Publication Date: 2015-08-30
When it comes to American Indian treaties, the American polity too often forgets the realities of history. Prevailing perceptions are often not only inaccurate but also premised on outright falsehoods. Treaty-making was profoundly influenced by tribal conceptions of diplomacy. Colonial and early U.S. treaties especially were clothed in ritual, metaphor, and covenants that emphasized the sacred nature and purpose of diplomacy and represented a time when tribal nations were equal partners. To understand the nature and meaning of tribal treaties one needs to read them and recognize their sacred pledges and meaning, which are still relevant today. This volume examines intertribal treaties and treaty-making and provides understanding of both the agreements and the diplomatic protocols in which they were enmeshed. It summarizes colonial Indian treaty discourse, intertribal treaties and diplomacy, the different eras of ratified and unratified U.S. treaties, foreign and state treaties with Indian nations, and the Indian agreements that followed the cessation of official treaty-making. It provides extensive lists of over 1,500 Indian treaties from all tribal diplomatic eras and includes dates, participants, purposes, and references.

Viewing American Indian Treaties
Digitized copies of treaties

Hein Online Library This link opens in a new window
See the module "Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law"
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text of historical newspapers including titles from all 50 states. Now includes select coverage of some major papers after 1922 through the mid 1990s.
Pennsylvania Gazette, The This link opens in a new window
Published in Philadelphia from 1728 through 1800, The Pennsylvania Gazette is considered The New York Times of the 18th century.
American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Full-text and page images of several hundred American periodicals of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. 1740-1940.
Evans Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
Digital library of works published in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. Materials include fiction and non-fiction covering every aspect of American life in the period.
American Founding Era This link opens in a new window
Cross-searchable digital collection of papers of founders of the United States. Currently includes papers of John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James and Dolley Madison, John Marshall, Gouverneur Morris, Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry, and George Washington.

The Sid Lapidus, '59 Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution
Searchable full-text editions of more than 2700 books touching on themes of rights and liberties during the Enlightenment
Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection
More than 100,000 digitized images from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer collection, one of the world's premiere sources of primary documents on American Indians. Topics covered include Native American archaeology, ethnology, art, and language; the history of the contact between Europeans and native peoples; voyages, travels, and accounts of early America; the development of cartography of the Western Hemisphere; and the history of the aboriginal peoples under the jurisdiction of the U.S. in the Philippine Islands and Hawaii.

Other resources to locate primary sources

Princeton University Library Finding Aids This link opens in a new window
Provides access to finding aids or descriptive inventories for archival records and manuscript collections held within the University Library. Approximately 1,300 finding aids from the Department of Special Collections are now available online and include the Manuscripts Division, Public Policy Papers, and University Archives.
Archive Finder This link opens in a new window
Contains the entire holdings in the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). Current directory of thousands of repositories and over 220,000 collections of primary source materials across the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. 1959+
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Index to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world.