MHC Library Guides: History: Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources are first-hand accounts, original data, or records created at the time of an event. They may be adapted into digitized versions, but they are still considered primary sources. Primary sources can be any format, including letters, diary entries, official records, and other written texts, interviews, artworks, films, and photographs. Check the "Newspaper" tab for newspaper specific searches.

For more information, please view the MHC Library Services video tutorials:

Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Select a database first and then enter your search terms in your chosen database. Includes 44 databases of various newspapers, primary sources, ebooks, etc. A snapshot of included databases are: American Fiction, 1774 - 1920, Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture, China and the Modern World, Early Arabic Printed Books from the British Library, Financial Times Historical Archive, The Shakespeare Collection and more others.
Gale in Context: World History This link opens in a new window
Provides historical research materials including multicultural primary sources, scholarly articles, images, and maps. Covers major events in world history, such as the Crusades, the two World Wars, Communism in China, and the end of colonization in Africa and India.
Indigenous Peoples of North America This link opens in a new window
An archive that explores the cultural history of diverse native peoples from the sixteenth century into the twentieth century. Materials offered include scholarly articles, newspapers, indigenous-language materials, photographs, and population census records. Material is sourced from both American and Canadian institutions and newspapers from various tribes.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
Provides primary sources that track the development of western trade and European imperialism. Topics covered include the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, the economic theories that challenged capitalism in the nineteenth century, colonization and more. Coverage dates from the 1500s to the early twentieth century.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement and Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
This digital collection of primary source documents helps us to understand existence on the edges of the anglophone world from 1650-1920. Discover the various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia through documents that reveal the lives of settlers and indigenous peoples in these areas.

Search Tips

Key Words and Synonyms: Consider synonyms for your key words for best success with searching. For example, women might be referred to in the singular, woman, or as female, or as mother or daughter in relation to family or gender roles.
Time Periods: When using specific centuries as search terms you may need to try alternate ways of writing your time period or narrower search terms. For example, "twentieth century" can also be "20th century" or the 1900s, or the 1950s, or "post-war".
Quotation Marks: use quotation marks to search an exact phrase: "North Carolina" (works for most but not all databases)
Use an asterisk to truncate a word e.g. therap* retrieves therapy, therapist, therapeutic etc.
Select peer-review when you need scholarly journal articles.
Select a date range when you only want material published during a certain time frame.
Select "Advanced Search" for narrower search options.

History

Canadian Sources

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Finding Primary Sources

Search Tips