MHC Library Guides: Art and Art 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.

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

ARTStor (now part of JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
Provides a rich digital library of art images and descriptive information. Coverage includes art, architecture, maritime history, anthropology, and archeology. The collection is available for non-commercial and educational use only through the Medicine Hat College Library Services.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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.
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.