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.
Printed Primary Sources
There are many collections of primary sources that have been typeset and published. You may find these easier to work with than primary sources in manuscript.
To find these sources, use the Library Catalog.
Search by Subject (keyword). Enter the subject heading (e.g., Indigenous peoples of North America—New Mexico), and add one of the following words
Sources: for general collections of primary sources
Diaries
Correspondence: letters, etc.
Personal narratives
Biography (includes Autobiography)
Digitized Primary Sources: General Collections
- American Indian Histories and Cultures This link opens in a new windowWide variety of materials relating to American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico, from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer Collection. Covers pre-contact through the mid-20th century.
- North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowIntegrates 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.
- Gale Primary Sources 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.
Digitized Primary Sources: Government Documents
- History Vault This link opens in a new windowThe module "American Indians and the American West" includes Indian Removal from 1832-1840, the U.S. Army and American Indians in the years from the 1850s-1890s (including detailed coverage of Indian Wars), Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and records from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes.
- Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new windowIndexes 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+.
- American Presidency ProjectDocuments and speeches from U.S. presidents
- Hein Online Library This link opens in a new windowContains several libraries containing government information including Congressional Documents, Attorney General Decisions, Presidential Documents, and others.
- WestlawNext Campus Research This link opens in a new windowComprehensive database of legal materials, including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and the various state governments; includes the legal encyclopedia American Jurisprudence 2nd and American Law Reports; case law from 1789 to present; current statutes and regulations. Documents can also be accessed through broad subject categories such as Civil Rights, International Law and Environmental Law.
Say we are nations : documents of politics and protest in Indigenous America since 1887ISBN: 9798890886422Publication Date: 2015
- Native American tribal histories : 1813-1880Through much of the 19th century, the education, land rights, treaty negotiations and other affairs of Native American tribes were overseen by a cadre of superintendents from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). BIA superintendents scrupulously recorded their interactions with Native American tribes, leaving behind an astoundingly detailed archive that is captured here in full. These primary source documents cover not only encounters between Indigenous people and the U.S. government, but also accounts of Native American cultures during a time when disease and forced relocation were transforming their lives.
Digitized Primary Sources: Manuscripts
- Colonial America This link opens in a new windowDigital 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.
- Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
- Frontier Life : Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new windowPrimary 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
- DPUL Indigenous Cultures Collection This link opens in a new windowHighlights materials from around the globe, including items related to the Lunaapeewak peoples on whose ancestral lands sits the campus of Princeton University. More than 200 digitized resources include language-related materials, such as dictionaries and translations, and other items such as land deeds.
- American Indian Histories and Cultures This link opens in a new windowWide variety of materials relating to American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico, from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer Collection. Covers pre-contact through the mid-20th century.
- North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowIntegrates 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.
- European Views of the Americas This link opens in a new windowCreated from European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750. Guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Native American peoples.
Digitized Primary Sources: Newspapers and Periodicals
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish), full-text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press.
- American Indian Newspapers This link opens in a new windowCollection of print journalism from Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Coverage depends on the newspaper. American Hebrew and Jewish Messenger (1857-1922); American Israelite (1854-2000); Arizona Republican (1890-2007); Atlanta Constitution (1868-1985); Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010); Austin American Statesman (1871-1980); Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010); Baltimore Sun (1837-1999); Barron's (1921-2010); Boston Globe (1872-1994); Calgary Herald (1883-2010), Call and Post (Cleveland) (1934-1991); Chicago Defender (1909-2010); Chicago Tribune (1849-2015); Christian Science Monitor (1908-2011); Cincinnati Enquirer (1841-1922);Cleveland Call & Post (1934-2010); Dayton Daily News (1898-1922); Detroit Free Press (1831-1999); Edmonton Journal (1903-2010), Globe & Mail (1844-2021); Guardian and the Observer (1791-2003); Hartford Courant (1764-1998); Hindustan Times (1924-2010); Indianapolis Star (1903-2004); Irish Times (1859-2022); Jerusalem Post (1932-2008); Jewish Advocate (1905-1990); Jewish Exponent (1887-1990); Korea Times (1956-2016); Le Monde (1944-December 30, 2000); Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan) (1883-2010); London Evening Standard (1827+); Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005); Los Angeles Times (1881-2016); Louisville Courier Journal (1830-2000); Michigan Chronicle (1936-2010); Minneapolis Star Tribune (1867-2001); Montreal Gazette (1857-2010), Nashville Tennessean (1812-2009); New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010); New York Times (1851-2021); New York Tribune (1841-1962); Newsday (1940-1996); Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003); Ottawa Citizen (1845-2010); Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001); Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001); Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002); Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003); Province (1898-2010); San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922); St. Louis American (1949-2010); St. Louis Dispatch (1874-2003); St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Times (1886-2009); Saskatoon Star Phoenix (1902-2009); Scotsman (1817-1950); South China Morning Post (1903-2001); Times-Colonist (Victoria) (1884-2010); Times of India (1838-2012); Toronto Star (1894-2022); Vancouver Sun (1912-2010), Wall Street Journal (1889-2013); Washington Post (1877-2008); Windsor Star (1883-2010). Also includes a Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953) and a collection of American and British Communist papers (1917-2013).
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearchable 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.
- NewsBank (Access World News) This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text of many USA and international newspapers.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowFull-text and page images of several hundred American periodicals of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. 1740-1940.
- Readers' Guide This link opens in a new windowIndexing and abstracting of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada, plus the full text of selected periodicals.
Other resources to locate primary sources
- Princeton University Library Finding Aids This link opens in a new windowProvides 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 windowContains 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 windowIndex to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world.