LibGuides: Archival Research Tutorial: Databases with Primary Sources

Getting Started

The Sawyer Library subscribes to many databases that include archival sources, providing access to many topics and times periods. A good place to start is:

Artstor: find artifacts and manuscripts from across historical periods, geographic regions, and global cultures.

Lexis Uni: find archival collections and access historical newspapers

Library Databases - Primary / Contemporaneous Sources:

African American Archives This link opens in a new window
Provides over one million pages of original historical documents pertaining to the African American experience over several centuries. A product of Ancestry.com.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
Features over 7,500 historical American periodicals from the 17th through the late 19th century.
Boston Globe 1872-2007 This link opens in a new window
Updated: Full text and searchable digitized version of the Boston Globe from 1872 through 2007.
Current Events and History Periodicals, 1691-1912 This link opens in a new window
These 160 periodicals include reports on economics and government affairs. Titles include The New England Post Office Record and The Social Science Review. Also included are periodicals covering local news, such as Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and Bowen's Boston News Letter.
Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2020 This link opens in a new window
Research global political and economic news and analysis with the source used by top leaders and thinkers.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is a searchable digital (PDFs) collection of law and law-related materials. They include Pentagon Papers, Session Laws Library, State Statutes: A Historical Archive, U.S. Code (from 1925), U.S. Congressional Documents (from 1780s), U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, U.S. Presidential Library, U.S. Statutes at Large (from the 1780s), U.S. Supreme Court Library, and more.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Provides searchable statistics from over 1000 sources and includes over 37,000 data series. Download tables in Excel, CSV, or entire groups as a zip file.
Historic Documents Online (Sage) This link opens in a new window
"Published annually since 1972, the Historic Documents Series now contains 32 volumes of primary sources. Each volume includes approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions." Browse by title, topic, or index term or search the database.
LLMC-Digital This link opens in a new window
An on-going digitalization project, the site contains a wide range of legal and law-related archival material from state, federal, and territorial governments, as well as from Anglo-American collections, and foreign and international jurisdictions. Material is both primary and secondary.
NAACP Papers - ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new window
The collections include documentation on the major events of the civil rights era, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides, March on Washington, Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Selma to Montgomery March, and other events spanning the full 20th Century.
Nation Archive This link opens in a new window
The Nation Archive contains indexing, abstracting, and full text for the complete archive of The Nation, beginning with its first issue in 1865 all the way to the present. The Nation is America’s oldest weekly magazine and one if its premier journals of opinion since its inception.
New York Times 1851-2018 This link opens in a new window
This database offers searchable full-text and full-image articles from the New York Times from 1851 through 2001. The database includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in downloadable PDF files.
Scientific Periodicals, 1771-1901 This link opens in a new window
“Contains over 210 publications related chiefly to the hard science disciplines, such as mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, physics, and geology.”
Women's Periodicals of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, 1733-1844 This link opens in a new window
Contains over 210 periodicals, spanning the Colonial through the Jacksonian Eras, from the 1730s to 1840s. Includes titles such as The Ladies' Companion, The Lady's Book, and Margret Fuller's Transcendentalist publication, The Dial.