HST 210: American Social History

Designed to help the HST 210 students find American historical & cultural artifacts for their research projects

What Are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are the historical documents used by historians as evidence. Examples of primary sources include diaries, personal journals, government records, court records, property records, newspaper articles, military reports, military rosters, and many other things.

In contrast, a secondary source is the typical history book which may discuss a person, event or other historical topic. A good secondary source uses primary sources as evidence.

The key to determining whether an item may be considered to be a primary source is to ask how soon after the event was the information recorded. This can be a problem with an autobiography, a memoir, or a reminiscence, to name a few examples. If the author is working several years with only the memory of what happened, your history professor will disallow most or all of these as primary sources.

Primary Sources on the Web This guide provides an overview of what primary sources are with examples. Information about finding, using, evaluating and citing them is also included. Site developed by the American Library Association.

Guidelines for Evaluating Primary Sources

Evaluation Criteria

Use the following criteria to determine the reliability and creditibility of the information found on Websites used in your research.

Who: Who is the author or sponsor of the website? Is that person or organization named? Is any supporting documentation available?

What: What is the mission or purpose of the website? Is it clearly articulated? What kinds of materials are on the website? Are they properly cited and acknowledged? What is the document format on the web?

Where: Where is the site located? Is there a physical address with phone number and email address for a contact person? Does the site have a .edu, .org, or .com address?

Why: Why does the site exist? Does it have a point of view or opinion? Is it pedagogical or polemic? Does it want something from you?

Credit: American Library Association, Reference and User Services Association, History Section

Additional Evaluation Websites

Using Primary Sources - LC's, American Memory Project
Primary Sources: Evaluating - Lafayette College Library

Evaluation Practice

Complete the following exercises to build your information evaluation skills.

Primary Sources Recommended for most topics used in this class

PAO- Periodicals Archive Online
Coverage: 1770-1995
Maximum Concurrent Users: Unlimited
It contains an archive of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. ASU access includes collection 1-7.
Alternate titles: Periodicals Archive Online
Defining Gender
Coverage: 1450-1910
Maximum Concurrent Users: Unlimited
Defining Gender Online provides access to a collection of original documents relating to gender studies from 21 libraries and archives worldwide. Documents include ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, & poetry. Each section is enhanced with thematic essays by leading scholars in the field.
Times Digital Archive (Gale Primary Sources)
A full-text facsimile of The Times, detailing every page of every issue from 1785, making it an essential resource for the study of 19th and 20th-century history and literature.
Early English Books Online
From the first book published in English in 1473 to 1700, the EEBO contains over 125,000 titles printed in the British Isles and British North America.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources)
Global digitized primary source collections from the long nineteenth century, including rare monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and more in Western and non-Western languages, curated by international experts.
Alternate titles: Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 4: European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 3: British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 2: Asia & West Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 1: British Politics and Society, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 6: Photography: The World Through the Lens, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 7: Science, Technology and Medicine, 1780-1925, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 8: Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women: Transnational Networks, Nineteenth Century Collections Online Archive 5: Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources)
Includes every significant English and foreign-language title printed in the UK, along with important works from the Americas between 1701 and 1800, comprising over 32 million pages of text across 180,000 titles and 205,000 volumes.
Alternate titles: 18th Century Collections Online, ECCO, Part I and II
Eighteenth Century Journals
Eighteenth Century Journals draws together material from some of the finest archives across the UK and the US representing the rich variety of the eighteenth century press. It makes available unique and extremely rare eighteenth century periodicals online conveying the eclecticism and evolution of the publishing world between 1685 and 1835. While the journals were published predominantly in the UK, there are items published in other English-speaking areas such as India.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Explores the history of women in social movements through primary sources, scholarly essays, and curated collections from colonial times to the modern era in the United States.

Online Historical Newspapers & Periodicals - North America

African American Newspapers
Full-text access to 19th-century African American newspapers, offering firsthand accounts of cultural life, historical events, and major issues in African American communities, making it an essential resource for studying this period.
Coverage: Varies 1827- 1902
Publications included: The Canadian Observer, The Christian Recorder; The Colored American; Frederick Douglass’ Paper; The Freedmen’s Record; Frederick Douglass Monthly; Freedom’s Journal; The National Era; The Negro Business League Herald; The North Star; Provincial Freeman; Weekly Advocate.
African History and Culture, 1540-1921
Created from the holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, African History and Culture, 1540-1921, is a comprehensive collection of fully cataloged and searchable books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera covering the history, peoples, and social and economic development of the African continent from the 16th century to the early 20th century. All areas of Africa and important adjacent regions are covered.
America's Historical Imprints
Searchable monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents, and rare printed materials provide insights into American history, literature, culture, and daily life from colonial times to the 19th century.
Includes: African History and Culture, 1540-1921: Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia; The American Slavery Collection, 1820-1922: From the American Antiquarian Society; Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American Imprints, Series I: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800; Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; Early American Imprints, Series II: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1801-1819.
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876
Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1, 1718-1876: From the American Antiquarian Society Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876—the largest online collection of 18th- and 19th-century newspapers published in this region—will provide a comprehensive primary resource for studying the development of Western society and international relations within this important group of islands. This unique resource will prove essential for researching colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region as far back as the early 18th century.
Civil War Collection
Search primary sources from 1855-1869, featuring articles on international trade, foreign perspectives on the U.S. during the Civil War, diverse views on industries, slavery, and pre- and post-war attitudes, along with detailed reports on troop movements.
Collection includes:
- 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.
Early American Newspapers, Series I
Coverage: 1690-1876
Maximum Concurrent Users: Unlimited
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.
Alternate titles: America’s Historical Newspapers-Early American Newspapers Series I
Hispanic American Newspapers
Coverage: 1808-1980
Maximum Concurrent Users: Unlimited
Hispanic American Newspapers provides access to a wealth of historical primary source materials. It's the largest online collection of Spanish-English newspapers printed in the United States.
The Lily, 1849-1856
The first newspaper for women in the United States, was issued from 1849 until 1853 under the editorship of Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894). Its local and national focus was both temperance and women’s rights.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources)
Searchable database containing digital facsimile images of newspapers; presented as full page layout as well as single articles; advertisements and illustrations included. This collection includes numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.; and it encompasses the entire 19th century.
Pennsylvania Gazette: 1728-1800
Full-text collection covers significant events from early colonial expansion (1728) through the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, and Washington’s presidency, providing vital insights into U.S. history up to 1800.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Black Newspapers
Cross-search historically significant African American newspapers offering primary sources crucial for studying American history, culture, politics, and the arts.
Includes: Atlanta Daily World, The Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, Cleveland Call and Post, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam News, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier

Wikipedia list of newspaper archives
This is a list of free and pay wall blocked digital online newspaper archives. Most are scanned from microfilm into pdf, gif or similar graphic formats and many of the graphic archives have been indexed into searchable text databases.

Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press Collection: The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers: Search America's historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. States included in this essential and invaluable digital repository are: Alabama; Arizona; California; Colorado; District of Columbia; Florida; Hawaii; Illinois; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Minnesota; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; New Mexico; New York; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Vermont; Virginia; Washington(state). For Further information concerning the history of American Newspapers, use the Library of Congress' US Newspaper Directory, 1690 - Present

Historical African American Newspapers Online: This LibGuide produced by Elizabeth Clarke of Marist College provides a list of historical African American Newspapers available online as part of digitization projects at libraries and historical societies as well as digitization projects done by Google.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Arizona Republican, 1890 - 1922; Atlanta Constitution 1868 - 1929; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Chicago Defender 1905 - 1975; ;ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Hartford Courant 1764 - 1984; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times 1881 - 1985; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times 1851-2003; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post 1877 - 1990

20th & 21st Century US Newspapers

Access World News
Full-text content from thousands of U.S. and international newspapers, newswires, broadcast transcripts, and business magazines, providing diverse viewpoints on local and global issues.
Arizona Republic (ProQuest)
Find articles, editorials, notices, and obituaries from the Arizona Republic since 1999, excluding images and ads. Additional coverage on azcentral.com is available with your free ASU USA Today Subscription. Click on Additional Info to learn how to activate it.
- ASU provides free access to the USA Today Network, which includes the Arizona Republic and 200-plus other publications.
- Use this activation link and your ASURITE email (asurite@asu.edu) to activate your free USA Today Network subscription.
- Check your email to verify your account.
- After verifying, you can enable access to The Arizona Republic on azcentral.com:
  - Go to azcentral.com and create an account with the same credentials used for USA Today.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch offers articles from minority presses, including African American, Caribbean, Arab, Asian, European, Hispanic, Jewish, and Native American sources, with coverage starting from 1990.
Los Angeles Times (ProQuest)
Find articles and editorials from the Los Angeles Times since Dec 1996, excluding images and ads.
NewsBank NewsFile CDROM : Historical Files 1980 - 1998
Due to software requirements, the CDROMs for the Arizona Republic and Arizona Business Gazette are temporarily unavailable.
Coverage: 1980 - 1998
Maximum Concurrent Users: Unlimited
Provides full text access to selected articles from over 500 U. S. and Canadian newspapers, wire services, and broadcast news transcripts. Includes: NewsBank Reference Services Plus, (CD-ROM) (1980-1996) which provides citations to the microfiche collection of the full text articles; Comprehensive CD NewsBank (1993-1996) which includes full text on the CD; NewsBank Newsfile (1996-1998) which includes full text on the CD.
Nexis Uni
Find full text of various newspapers, trade publications, legal periodicals, and journals. Includes company directories, financial reports, biographies, federal/state laws, regulations, court opinions, and news transcripts.
ProQuest News & Newspapers
Cross-searchable access to 20 ProQuest news databases, including historical and current newspapers, alternative press, and historical Black newspapers.
Includes the Alt-PressWatch and Ethnic NewsWatch indexes as well as current Arizona Republic, Barron's, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Asia, Wall Street Journal Europe and Chicago Tribune and historical Atlanta Constitution, Guardian, Hartford Courant, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Observer, Washington Post, Atlanta Daily World, Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, Cleveland Call and Post, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam News, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Philadelphia Tribune, and Pittsburgh Courier
Wall Street Journal
National daily newspaper focused on business and financial news, offering coverage of U.S. and world news, education, politics, technology, real estate, sports, health, and the arts.

Coverage: WSJ.com archives go back four years and are on a rolling basis.
Note: ASU users (Students, faculty and staff) must initially register by logging into school portal, and creating an account on the registration page to access Wall Street Journal (WSJ) by following these steps. Once activated, you can access all content from a web browser, as well as via smartphone and tablet apps, from any location.

*If you already have a personal paid subscription, please call at 1-800JOURNAL or email support@wsj.com to cancel it and sign up for an account through the library.*

1. Go to the WSJ registration page: https://WSJ.com/ArizonaState
2. Enter first and last name
3. Select an Account Type from the dropdown: Student, Professor, or Staff
4. Enter your email address and create a password. The email address and password will allow access on other devices outside of the university network.
Please note: The password must be at least 5 characters long with a maximum of 15 characters, contain at least one number, and does NOT contain spaces, %, & or +
5. Click Create to complete registration and create your WSJ subscription.
6. Once you have an account you can go directly to: https://www.wsj.com/ or through the app.

RENEWALS: *STUDENT* member's accounts stay active until their graduation dates. *FACULTY AND STAFF* need to validate their memberships once a year from the ASU URL: https://WSJ.com/ArizonaState
Wall Street Journal (ProQuest)
Full-text access to a major financial newspaper from 1984 to present, with detailed indexing for news, companies, people, and products. Additional coverage is available on wsj.com with your free ASU Wall Street Journal subscription. Click on Additional Info to learn how to activate it.
- ASU provides free access to the Wall Street Journal.
- Visit the WSJ registration page and select your role (Student, Faculty, or Staff).
- Complete the registration using your ASURITE email (asurite@asu.edu).
- After registration, access the Wall Street Journal directly at wsj.com.

Retrospective Journals

19th Century UK Periodicals Full text collection of series 1 (New Rederships) and Series 2 (Empire) or UK periodicals from the 19th century, representating the range of nineteenth-century periodical literature of interest to historians and students of nineteenth-century literature and culture, empire, feminism, the history of the book, the creative and performing arts, sport and leisure, science and medicine, the professions, in short, of all aspects of nineteenth-century life that the press encompassed.

Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2012 A searchable collection of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to present (with the exception of the last five years). Each weekly issue contains news reporting and analysis, commentary, editiorials, statistics, demographics, letters to the editor, obituaries, and historical photographs.

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.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I-II (1857-1877) (1857-1877) Indexes full-text of Harper's Weekly, probably the only consistent, comprehensive, weekly chronological record of world-wide events of the late 19th century. Covers front-line Civil War reports, the re-election of Lincoln, & Reconstruction.

Krokodil Digital Archive A satirical Soviet magazine which began publishing in 1922.Useful for understanding Soviet political science, history and literature

Making of America(Cornell University); Making of America( University of Michigan)
(1800-1925 ) Full text of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This is actually two separate sites with separate resources -- one site is sponsored by The University of Michigan and the other by Cornell University.

The Modernist Journals Project The MJP is a multi-faceted project that aims to be a major resource for the study of modernism and its rise in the English-speaking world, with periodical literature as its central concern. The historical scope of the project has a chronological range of 1890 to 1922 (though the earliest journals that currently appear on the site date from 1896 and 1904), and a geographical range that extends to wherever English language periodicals were published.

Vogue Archive The Vogue Archive contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present day, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. More than 400,000 pages are included, constituting a treasure trove of the work from the greatest designers, photographers, stylists, and illustrators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Vogue is a unique record of American and international popular culture that extends beyond fashion. The Vogue Archive is an essential primary source for the study of fashion, gender, and modern social history – past, present, and future

Women's Wear Daily Archive The Women's Wear Daily Archive provides online access to the definitive fashion and retail publication, Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). The entire archive of WWD, previously unavailable in digital form, opens up new opportunities for research. This authoritative record of how the fashion industry developed over the twentieth century provides valuable primary source material for students across the disciplines of fashion, business, and history