Primary Doc./ Oral Histories - HIST3404 East Asia Migration and Diaspora in Global Perspective - Ravagnoli

Online Primary Documents

Searching Archives

Archive Grid
Contains over 3 million records from over 1,000 institutions that cover historic documents. Archive Grid aids in the search of primary sources.
Library of Congress
Explore the Digital Collections.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
U.S. Federal Government website providing access to Federal Government Records and more. Select the Research Our Records option at the top left and, then, Research a Specific Topic.
Historical Newspapers Online
"Website directory of U.S. historical newspapers organized by state. Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania."
Newspaper Archives/Indexes/Morgues
Website directory for both international and U.S. news archive resources. Library of Congress.
NewspaperCat: Catalog of Historical Newspapers
"[A] tool that facilitates the discovery of online digitized historical newspaper content from newspapers published in the United States and the Caribbean." George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
WorldCat
Search for content available in libraries around the world. It aids in locating printed primary and secondary sources.

Online Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases and Websites

American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-1776
Northern Illinois University Libraries

American History 1493-1945
Module 1: Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859
Sources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York. Contains books, diaries, correspondence, newspapers, photographs, military documents, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera.
“The majority of the collection is unique manuscript. It is an extensive resource for scholars, educators and students and is considered one of the finest archives for material on the revolutionary, early national, antebellum and civil war eras.”
Module 2: Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945
Includes documents on slavery, the Civil War, and secession.
American Indian Histories and Cultures
Contains manuscripts, artwork, photographs, rare printed books, and maps related to the historical and personal stories of the colonization of the Americas from early contacts between European settlers and American Indians to the modern era, and told against the backdrop of the 19th century expansion into the Western Frontier right through to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. Sources from the Edward E. Ayer Collection at The Newberry Library, Chicago.

American Presidency Project
See the Presidential Elections Data.
American Slavery Debate: Revolution and Abolition in Hati, 1791-1865
Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS) at the University of California, Berkeley
Archives of American Art
Includes all of the Archives of American Art records. Provides access to primary sources that document American visual arts. Sources from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
Browse by century or document collection. The text comparison feature allows readers to view two versions of the same documents simultaneously. Maintained on Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library web site.
Black Abolitionist Archive
A collection of speeches and editorials from the antislavery movement. Some items in the collection are available in mp3 format. University of Detroit Mercy.
British History Online
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, it aims to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research. (Covers 11th – 19th centuries)
Brown Digital Repository
Provides access to primary resources produced via the scholarly, instructional, research, and administrative activities at Brown. Providence, RI.
Calisphere
"Calisphere contains hundreds of thousands of primary source materials from libraries, archives, and museums across California."
New York Public Library's Castle Garden Immigration Center Index
"From 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden was America's first official immigration center. This index provides information on immigrants who entered through the Port of New York between 1820 and 1913." The New York Public Library.
Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research
"[T]he official repository for the archives of major human rights organizations such as Amnesty International USA, the Committee of Concerned Scientists, Human Rights First, and Human Rights Watch." Columbia University Libraries.
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875
Includes Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, Statutes and Documents, Journals of Congress, and Debates of Congress. Library of Congress.
Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics (Open Collections Program, Harvard University Library)
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online
Explore Complete Publications, Private Papers & Manuscripts, and Supplementary Works, which includes a bibliography of works cited. Darwin Online project was founded by Dr. John van Wyhe, University of Cambridge.
Credo, Special Collections and University Archives
Collections include the "Horace Mann Bond Papers" and "W. E. B. Du Bois Papers." University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Decisive Day is Come: the Battle of Bunker Hill
Includes eyewitness accounts of the Battle of Bunker Hill, a timeline of events, contemporary maps, and more. Massachusetts Historical Society.
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
Created to "preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished," Densho maintains a Learning Center, a multimedia Densho Encyclopedia, and a digital archive of primary sources (video oral histories and historical images); the latter requires free registration.
Digital Archive of the Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy
Note: Use Google Translate to navigate the page. Supplied English translation will take you to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan home page and not a search page.
Digital Collections, Columbia University Library
Offers access to “photographs, posters, drawings, objects, ephemera, and manuscripts as well as other archival material from Columbia's rare and special collections.” New York, NY.
Digital Collections, Harvard University
Access botanical studies primary resource materials such as, specimen databases, images, and other links.
Digital Collections, University of Washington Libraries
Offers access primary source materials associated with the arts and humanities. Including access to digital resources associated with the Labor Archives of Washington and the Mountains and Mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest collection. Seattle, WA.
Digital Collections, Yale University Library
Contains a wide variety of digital primary source materials, including the Henry Kissinger Papers, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Digital Collections, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Digital Collections. New Haven, CT.
Digital Collections, UC Berkeley Library
Includes much of US Berkeley Library’s archival materials, as well as “born digital” materials, hosted through Calisphere.
ULS Digital Collections
An array of primary source materials covering both the humanities and the sciences from the University Library System (ULS), University of Pittsburgh.
Digital Collections, Duke University Libraries
The digital collections of Duke University Libraries provides access to a growing collection of their archival materials, including both Full Text and Images.
Early Americas Digital Archive
Gateway to primary source material “written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.” Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), University of Maryland, College Park.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Full-text, searchable database of primary documents from the 18th century, containing over 180,000 titles: books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and other material in all subject areas, published in the UK and elsewhere. Includes an image gallery.
Ellis Island – Free Port of New York Passenger Records Search
Search passenger records from 1892 through 1924. Requires free registration to access the passenger records. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe, Selected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translations
Directory of internet sites. Richard Hacken, European Studies Bibliographer, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
Family Search
Search by name, with the option to filter by criteria including location, record type, or year of birth, death, or marriage. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Free Account Required
First World War Digital Poetry Archive
"An online repository of over 7000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research. The heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and Edward Thomas." University of Oxford.
French Revolution Pamphlets
Digital Media Repository, Ball State University Libraries
The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
To find a specific Chapter or Section number of Massachusetts General laws use the The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Search General Laws page.
Hillsborough Independent Panel Report
This site discloses documents related to the Hillsborough sporting disaster of April 15, 1989.
History of France Primary Documents: France: 1789 - 1871
Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 (Open Collections Program, Harvard University Library)
Digitized historical materials and image resources exploring immigration to the United States between 1789 and 1930. Materials selected from Harvard University's library, museum, and archive collections.
Internet Archive
Search for Vital Records and [Town or City] and limit to Texts.
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012
"[A]n online exhibition presenting more than 300 television commercials from every election year since 1952, when the first campaign TV ads aired." Museum of the Moving Image.
The Making of America (MOA)
"Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction." Cornell University.
Massachusetts Digital Commonwealth
"Digital Commonwealth is a Web portal and fee-based repository service for online cultural heritage materials held by Massachusetts libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives."
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
U.S. Federal Government website providing access to Federal Government Records and more. Select the Research Our Records option at the top left and, then, Research a Specific Topic.
National Historical Geographic Information System
"[P]rovides population, housing, agricultural, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for geographic units in the United States from 1790 to the present."
New York State Archives: Digital Collections
Collections and images from the New York State Archives, NYS Museum, NYS Library.
The Newberry Publications and Digital Resources
The Newberry is a "world-renowned independent research library in Chicago."
Princeton University Digital Library
Princeton, NJ.
Primary Documents in American History: The American Revolution and The New Nation, 1775-1815
Library of Congress
Rare Books & Manuscripts Department Collection
Boston Public Library.
Library Catalog Digital Collections
Cornell University Library
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
Library of Congress exhibition of manuscripts, letters, prints, and more exploring the role of religion in early American history.
September 11 Digital Archive
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University and American Social History Project, City University of New York Graduate Center.
State Library of Massachusetts Digital Collections
The State Library of Massachusetts supports the research and information needs of government, libraries, and people through innovative services and access to a comprehensive repository of state documents and other historical items.
Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1789-2012
Contains "statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States." Continues annually as ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States, beginning with 2013. REFERENCE HA 202 .S73
The Statistical Abstract: Law Enforcement, Courts, & Prisons
See Section 5: Law Enforcement, Courts, & Prisons. U.S. Census Bureau. Data from 1980-2010
Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive
University of Virginia Library.
Vietnam Center and Archive
"[C]ollects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War, and supports and encourages research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam Experience." Texas Tech University.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Explore the Voyages Database, Assessing the Slave Trade interactive estimates page, and the African Names Database. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute (Harvard University), and Emory University.
The Valley of the Shadow
Documents and images detailing the Civil War experience of one Union and one Confederate community at opposite ends of the Shenandoah Valley. Parts of the site are searchable. Maintained by Edward L. Ayers, Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
Witness to the Early American Experience
"The digital images of historical documents in this archive preserve the words of hundreds of eyewitnesses to the American Revolution in and around New York City." New York University Libraries and New-York Historical Society.
Women Working, 1800-1930 (Open Collections Program, Harvard University Library)
Digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections that explore women's roles in the US economy between the beginning of the nineteenth century and the Great Depression.

Maps

Library of Congress: Map Collections
Library of Congress.
Charting North America: Maps from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection and Others
Digital Gallery, New York Public Library.
Harvard Map Collection: Digital Maps
“The Harvard Map Collection is one of the oldest and largest collections of cartographic materials in the United States with over 500,000 items. Resources range from 16th century globes to modern maps and geographic information systems (GIS) layers.“ Harvard College Library.
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
Maps Etc.: An online service of Florida's Educational Technology Clearinghouse
Resource Type: Web SiteBrowse Galleries or Search Database for "over 5,000 maps representing many different time periods."Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
University of Texas Austin.

Newspapers
Contemporary Newspapers

Arts & Letters Daily: Newspapers
A Service of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Accesses 25 newspapers worldwide. "New material is added to Arts & Letters Daily six days a week."

Boston Business Journal
Includes business newspapers specific to 39 other areas of the U.S.
Boston Globe (1980 - present)
Browse by issue [Content is updated daily by 8 a.m.]:
Christian Science Monitor (1995 - present)
New York Times (1980-present)

The Pilot
Official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston.

ProQuest US Newsstream
National and local newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites' transcripts including U.S. major dailies, CNN, Meet the Press and hundred's more. Current coverage and back files will vary.
Regional Business News
Regional U.S. and Canadian business publications; some foreign coverage.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition (1984 - present)
See also WSJ Live for videos of breaking news, news clips, and opinions.

Historical Newspapers

Boston Globe Archive (1872-1987)
Courtesy of the BPL. Requires a BPL e-card.
Sign up for one at https://www.bpl.org/ecard/
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Options include All Digitized Newspaper Pages from 1789 to 1963 and U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690 - Present. Library of Congress

U.S. Presidential Libraries

George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
College Station, TX.
George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Dallas, TX.
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum
Atlanta, GA.
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum
Little Rock, AR.
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum
Northampton, MA.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum
Abilene, KS.
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum
Grand Rapids, MI.
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
West Branch, IA.
LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) Presidential Library
Austin, TX.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Use the Library's internal search engine to find unabridged files and explore the interactive exhibits:

Civil Rights timeline;
World on the Brink - JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis; and
The Presidential Desk: A virtual tour (requires flash player).

Boston, MA.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Springfield, IL.
William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum
Canton, OH.
Nixon Presidential Library & Museum
College Park, MD.
Ronald Reagan Library & Museum
Simi Valley, CA.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Hyde Park, NY.
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
Independence, MO.
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Staunton, VA.

Videos

Academic Video Online (AVON)
Comprehensive video subscription that delivers almost 70,000 titles spanning the widest range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more.
- Click on Log in through your library and enter your Emmanuel username and password to access the complete films.
- Films available in Academic Video Online (AVON) include limited public performance rights, which includes permission for classroom showings, as well as public screenings, as long as no admission is being charged. Classroom showings include using conferencing platforms, such as Zoom. Public screenings include virtual events for the Emmanuel community.
  Note: There may be further restrictions on public performance for Film Platform titles.

C-SPAN
A collection of government hearing, speeches and ceremonies from around the world with a particular emphasis on the United States. Also included are C-SPAn produced documentaries.
Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive
"[C]ontains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts."
- Feature Film Collection of more than 3,900 films in the public domain, searchable by title, topic, genre, publication date
- LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection of more than 8,700 audio books, searchable
- Live Music Archive, more than 147,000 items browsable by year, artist, publication date
- Old Time Radio, more than 2,400 historical radio programs, searchable by title, topic, date
Open Vault
Access material created by WGBH for television and radio.

Online Oral Histories

Google Search Tip: Limit to a specific doman such as org, edu or gov
e.g. east asian migration site:org

HIST3404 East Asia Migration and Diaspora in Global Perspective - Ravagnoli: Primary Doc./ Oral Histories

Online Primary Documents

Online Oral Histories