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HST 328: Women in US History 1880-1980 (Poly campus online)

Primary Sources - items written at the time of the event

The Primary Sources most likely to be used for this course are under the specific sections of the Primary Sources tab on the left side. If you need more, there are more comprehensive lists in these Library Guides:

Primary Sources Recommended for most topics used in this class

ASU Library Primary Sources - US History

  •  American West  Based on sources from the Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library, Chicago, a unique resource widely regarded as one of the finest collections of Western Americana in existence, this collection includes a mixture of original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material and rare printed sources.
  •  American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971  This database includes primary sources which focus on American Indians in the first half of the 20th Century. The two major collections included are Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and records from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes.
  • American Indian History Online A unique resource that offers fast access to more than 5,000 years of culture, history, and leaders. More than 240 Native American groups are presented through subject entries, biographies, primary source documents, historical maps, and photographs.
  • Archive of Americana (Historical Imprints)  The Archive of Americana, Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker series, offers more than 100,000 early American books, pamphlets, broadsides and rare printed materials. The archives feature extensive indexing and full bibliographic information, together illuminating more than 250 years of American history, literature, culture and daily life. Unique and authoritative, these fully searchable products enable researchers to browse and explore America’s past in unprecedented ways.
  • Black Studies Center  Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and reference books.  It combines essential resources for research and teaching in Black Studies, includingThe Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals Full Text, Black Literature Index, and the Chicago Defender historical newspaper from 1912-1975.
  • Civil War Collection We have access to Part I-IV of Civil War Collection from ACCESSIBLE ARCHIVES.
    • Part I: A Newspaper Perspective: Contains the full text of major articles from issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.
    • Part II: The Soldiers’ Perspective: Provides an in-depth look at the day-to-day actions of the troops themselves primarily in the form of regimental histories.
    • Part III: The Generals’ Perspective: These volumes allow a look into the way the battles within the war were fought. Here the emphasis is on strategies and tactics as planned and executed by the commanding officers, with a longer-term view as opposed to daily concerns.
    • Part IV: A Midwestern Perspective: This collection consists of seven newspapers published in Indiana between 1855 and 1869. Thus, it provides pre-and post-Civil War information in addition to coverage of the war itself.
  • Declassified Documents Reference System - US (1941-1992) Includes full text of declassified U.S. government documents. Covers nearly every major foreign and domestic event from the end of World War II through the 1970s: the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movement, etc
  • Digital National Security Archive: Digital National Security Archive unlocks a vast trove of important declassified U.S. government documents, providing vital primary source material to advance research in twentieth and twenty-first century history, politics, and international relations. The digitized documents are made available in over 40 topic-based collections coverings such topics and areas as the Soviet Union; Mexico, Cuba and Latin America; Iran, Iraq and the Middle East; Nuclear history and policy; Henry Kissinger and US diplomacy; and Japan, Korea and The Vietnam War.
  • Digital Sanborn Maps - Arizona: Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 (Arizona) provides digital access to maps of towns and cities in Arizona.
  • Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690 - 1876:   Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876 offers 350,000 fully searchable issues from over 710 historical American newspapers. Focusing largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries, this online collection is based on Brigham’s “History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820” and provides unprecedented access to the nation’s early periods. Additionally, EAN, Series I is cross-searchable with other Archive of Americana® collections held by ASU Library.
  • Godey's Lady's Book  This is a full text collection  of the premier 19th Century U. S.  woman’s magazine, Parts I-IX 1830-1898.
  • ProQuest Congressional Publications, 1789+ U.S. legislative information: hearings; committee reports; bills, bill tracking; Congressional Indexes; Serial Set; Congressional Record; Federal Register; Code of Federal Regulations; U.S. Code; Public laws; National Journal, Congress Daily, & member info.
  • Proquest Executive Documents  Available as part of ProQuest Congressional Publications, the Executive Branch Documents 1789-1932 targets the entire range of executive branch publications.  Executive Branch Documents 1789-1932 includes all of the executive branch titles listed in the 1909 Checklist that were not included in the U.S. Serial Set, as well as additional titles chosen from the period, 1910 to 1932.
  • The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974   This database documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America—vividly conveying the zeitgeist of the decade and its effects into the middle of the next. Through letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral histories; accounts from official, radical, and alternative organizations; posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare materials; and Universal newsreel footage of the times, the collection tells the story of the Sixties.
  • Social Explorer:  Social Explorer provides access to census demographic information about the United States from 1790 to present. Users can create maps and reports to visualize and analyze demography and social change throughout history. Datasets are available at a variety of geographic levels, including neighborhoods, counties, and states. A collection of interactive demographic maps can be viewed, queried, and exported as images or PowerPoint presentations.
  • Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600 - 2000 This database contains: 52 document projects that interpret and present documents, altogether these document projects provide more than 1,250 documents, 450 images, and 500 links to other websites. 19,000 pages of documents pertaining to Women and Social Movements. These materials have been selected by the Editors for their relevance to the focus of the website.

Online Historical Newspapers & Periodicals - North America

Primary Resources for Women Studies

  • American Women Making History and Culture  This somewhat inartfully named site is actually a very interesting collection of 26 ( to date) digitized audio recordings from the Pacifica Radio Archives at UC Berkely.  The UC Berkeley Social Activism Sound Recording Project is a partnership between the UC Berkeley Library, the Pacifica Foundation, and other private and institutional sources. The intent of the project is to gather, catalog, and make accessible primary source media resources related to social activism and activist movements in California in the 1960's and 1970's.  
  • Cornell University Witchcraft Collection  The Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection is an online selection of titles from the Cornell University Library's extensive collection of materials on Witchcraft. The Witchcraft Collection is a rich source for students and scholars of the history of superstition and witchcraft persecution in Europe.
  • Defining Gender Online: 1450 - 1910 (Access through ASU Library) This database brings together approximately 50,000 images of original manuscript and printed material. Ephemeral material such as ballads, cartoons and pamphlets are featured alongside diaries, advice literature, medical journals, conduct books and periodicals. Structured into five sections, the following are currently available: Section I: Conduct and Politeness - Available; Section II: Domesticity and the Family - Available
  • Discovering American Women's History Online: This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to interviews with women engineers from the 1970s.
  • Five Colleges Archives Digital Access Project  This Web site provides access to digitized versions of archival records and manuscript collections relating primarily to women's history -- particularly women's education at the Five Colleges.
  • The Lily   (Access through ASU Library) The Lily, the first newspaper for women in the United States, was issued from 1849 until 1853 under the editorship of Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894). It had a local and national focus on both temperance and women’s rights.
  • National Women's History Project  The National Women’s History Project Learning Place is designed to provide you with information and educational materials about multicultural women’s history.
  • Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600 - 2000 (Access through ASU Library) This database contains: 52 document projects that interpret and present documents, altogether these document projects provide more than 1,250 documents, 450 images, and 500 links to other websites. 19,000 pages of documents pertaining to Women and Social Movements. These materials have been selected by the Editors for their relevance to the focus of the website.
  • Women Working, 1800 - 1930  One of Harvard's Open Collections Program, this site focuses on women's role in the United States economy and provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections. The collection features approximately 500,000 digitized pages and images including: 7,500 pages of manuscripts; 3,500 books and pamphlets; and 1,200 photographs.