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:
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.
Coverage depends on the newspaper. American Hebrew and Jewish Messenger (1857-1922); American Israelite (1854-2000); Arizona Republican (1890-2007); Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984); Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010); Austin American Statesman (1871-1980); Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010); Baltimore Sun (1837-1998); Barron's (1921-2010); Boston Globe (1872-1993); 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 (1844-2020); 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 (1881-2015); 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 (1851-2020); New York Tribune (1841-1962); Newsday (1940-1995); 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 (1838-2011); Toronto Star (1894-2021); Vancouver Sun (1912-2010), Wall Street Journal (1889-2011); 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).
The entire League of Nations Archive is available online at UN Archives Geneva. Refer to this site to see the details about what has been digitized.
Consult the following guide for information about the organization of the League of Nations document collection:
The League of Nations: A Primer for Documents Research
A number of discrete League of Nations collections are currently available separately online:
The entire League of Nations collection has been microfilmed and is available at Firestone Library. It has been moved to storage and reels from the collection must be requested in advance.
Also see the following:
Digital collections of historical material on many topics. Includes manuscripts, printed books and periodicals, and government documents. The material comes from the U.S. National Archives, the U.K. National Archives, and many other libraries and archives.
Digital archive of U.S. history primary sources. Includes government documents, personal papers and organizational records.
Streaming video of international newsreels produced between 1929 and 1966. All are accompanied by transcripts, with those in foreign languages translated into English.
Policy Commons preserves and provides access to more than 30 million pages of curated policy reports and briefs, analyses, working papers, books, case studies, tables, charts, media, and statistical publications created by 25,000 policy organizations (NGOs, IGOs, foundations, think tanks, government agencies, etc.) from around the world. Platform provides multiple filters and advanced searching operators.
Businessweek Archive http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwa&jid=BWK&site=ehost-live also Business week 1929-present Firestone HF5001 .B964
Newsweek 1933-present: MICROFILM S00034 [1933-1974 in Firestone Microforms Services (Film); 1975-present in RECAP]
Time 1923-present: http://www.time.com/time/archive/ but the full text of articles is available only to individual subscribers. However, we have access through EBSCO Academic Search. Search for Time in SO Journal Name or, to browse, go to Publications on the top menu bar, then search for Time. The browse options are on the right-hand side of the page.
For more magazines, see Quick Guide to Major Periodicals
Princeton's Industrial Relations Collection
There are approximately 60,000 pamphlets and additional reports, contracts, and other items from the university's Industrial Relations collection on a wide range of subjects. Many of these items are primary sources. The pamphlets were published from the 1920s to 1989; other items were published from the 1920s to the early 1990s. All have been cataloged and are housed in ReCAP, the university's off-campus storage facility. Search by keyword in the Main Catalog or Books+ (including IR as a keyword term). For pamphlets, you may also browse a hyperlinked alphabetical topic list. To access a physical item, submit a ReCAP request from the catalog record.