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Other BU Databases Containing Primary Source Material
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
A full text archive of millions of articles published in more 700 magazines, and journals in the humanities and social sciences, in English and other Western European languages. Date coverage: 1802 to 2001. (Varies by publication)
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Digitized images of American magazines published between 1684 and 1912. Covers history of slavery, literature, women's and religious issues, politics, culture, the arts and foreign language journals published in the U.S. Rights for use by Boston University community supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund.
Hathi Trust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Hathi Trust is a collection of millions of volumes of searchable books, journals, and government documents, including many public domain materials available as full-text online. To take advantage of BU's membership in Hathi Trust which allows full volume download of public domain items, go directly to the HathiTrust website. Click the Login button. Select Boston University from the drop-down list. Then enter your BU username and password in the next screen.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of news and commercials from NBC and CNN plus searchable archive of abstracts of news broadcasts from ABC, CBS, Fox News, and other channels . Date coverage: NBC video 1968 - present; CNN video 1995 - present.
Immigration Records of the INS, 1880-1930 (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
Covers the investigations made by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the massive immigration wave of 1880-1930, especially among Japanese and Chinese.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
Letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories; much material was unpublished. Date coverage:1840-, focusing heavily on the period from 1890 to 1920.
HistoryMakers: African American Video Oral History Collection This link opens in a new window
HistoryMakers is a collection of video oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans. Transcripts are included with the interviews.
NAACP Papers (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
The NAACP Papers collections contains internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues of the struggle for civil rights.
Slavery and the Law (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
Features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. Also includes the State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database This link opens in a new window
Contains records of trans-Atlantic slave ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866. Format allows users to track information by time period and geographic region, and includes interactive maps that allow viewers to chart the trans-Atlantic connections. The accompanying data contains materials about people on board, owners and captains, ships' characteristics, and the geographic trajectory of each voyage.
Pentagon Papers This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive resource to access this major Vietnam War study initially commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967.
Law and Society since the Civil War (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
A collection of documents from the Harvard Law School Library featuring the papers of three Supreme Court Justices, the first Black federal judge, and the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
FBI Confidential Files: Radical Politics in the US 1945-1972 (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
This collection covers investigations and tracking of the activities of Communist groups, Communist-front groups, and other left-wing organizations in the U.S. by the FBI and the Subversive Activities Control Board from 1945-1972. It includes files from the office of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, many of which were originally intended to be destroyed but were preserved through both intended and inadvertent exceptions to Hoover’s orders.
New Deal and World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files and Records of Federal Agencies (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
FDR’s office files highlight the domestic and foreign concerns of the President and his administration. Major topics include the Great Depression, the New Deal, U.S. involvement in World War II, the internal workings of the Roosevelt administration, and FDR’s personal leadership style. Additional material includes FBI reports of the Roosevelt White House; Civilian Conservation Corps press teleases; records of the Committee on Economic Security; and Department of Treasury records.
Records of the Children's Bureau. 1912-1969 (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
This collection consists of reports, speeches, correspondence, court hearings, and research materials from the Children's Bureau, the first federal agency dedicated entirely to protecting the welfare of children and families. Documents span the years from the creation of the Children’s Bureau in 1912 through 1969.
Struggle for Women's Rights, Organizational Records, 1880-1990 (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
This database includes records of the National Woman's Party, the League of Women Voters, and the Women's Action Alliance. The NWP was founded in 1913 when Alice Paul and colleagues broke away from the National American Woman Suffrage Association in dissent over strategy and tactics. The WAA, established in 1971, concerned itself with issues such as employment, childcare, health care, and education. The LWV collection covers women's involvement in U.S. politics from 1920 to 1974.
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
This collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. The content includes letters, speeches, editorials, articles, sermons, and essays from libraries and archives in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the United States. Supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund.
Holocaust and the Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of Nazi War Crimes This link opens in a new window
Documents on the investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed by Nazi concentration camp commandants and camp personnel. Documents include: correspondence; trial records and transcripts; investigatory material, such as interrogation reports and trial exhibits; clemency petitions and reviews; photographs of atrocities; newspaper clippings; and pamphlets. Many concentration (and later extermination) camps and sub-camps are represented in this collection, including Mauthausen, Dachau, Belsen-Bergen, Buchenwald, Treblinka, Sobibor, sub-camp Gros-Raming, sub-camp Gusen I, sub-camp Ebensee, and others.
Nazi Looted Art and Assets: Records on the Post-World War II Restitution Process (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
Focuses on the diplomatic, legal and political maneuvering during and after World War II regarding German art looting in Europe, recovery of cultural objects dispersed during World War II, efforts by the U.S. and other Allied Powers to prevent the secreting of Axis assets, claims from victims for financial or property restitution from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and other claims case.
Open Access Websites Containing Primary Source Material
National Archives
Provides digital images of many important documents in American history as well as the text transcript of these documents. Also has links to the presidential libraries where other digitized primary documents may be found.
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
This site, maintained by the University of Kansas, has links to many important historical documents from 1400 to the present.
American Memory
This digital archive from the Library of Congress has over 100 thematic collections of historical documents, maps, moving images, sound recordings, and photographic images.
Making of America
This site, produced at the University of Michigan, is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. The collection contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles.
Documenting the American South
This collection, sponsored by the library at the University of North Carolina, has texts, images, and audiofiles related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the Colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1940
This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project.
New York Public Library Digital Library Collections
Provides thousands of digital images from the NYPL collections including historical maps, illuminated manuscripts, and prints and photographs. It contains texts and images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Smithsonian Institution
Includes millions of records, including images, of resources in the Smithsonian collections.
Lincoln/Net
Includes Abraham Lincoln’s speeches and writings from his Illinois years (1830-1861) as well as other materials from Illinois’ early years of statehood (1818-1829). This site is the product of the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project based at Northern Illinois University.
Founders Online
The National Archives in cooperation with the University of Virginia Press has provided over 176,000 documents related to the founders of the United States including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.
Immigration to the United States: 1789-1930
A digitized collection from Harvard University that documents voluntary immigration to the United States from 1789-1930. It concentrates on the 19th century and includes thousands of pages from books, pamphlets, serials, and manuscripts. It also has over 7,000 photographs.
Women Working, 1800-1930
Provides access to digitized resources selected from Harvard’s library and museum collections. These materials address the role of women in the US economy between 1800 and the Great Depression.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Provides the text of many historical documents from around the world related to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government. Includes documents from the 9th century to the 21st century. In most cases, the source of the text is cited.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
This site, maintained by a librarian at Brigham Young University, has links to transcribed, translated, and facsimile documents from various European countries. Coverage is from the Medieval period to the present.
Gallica
The digital library of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Includes texts from the Middle Ages to the 20th-century.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
A collection that provides links to historical texts for Ancient History, Medieval Studies, and Modern History. There are also some thematically based subsets that include African History, East Asian History, Indian History, Jewish History, and History of Science.
World War I Document Archives
Extensive collection of transcribed documents related to World War I. Includes official documents, diaries, books, and images. Hosted by Brigham Young University Library.
UNESCO
Has links to primary sources from international organizations and countries throughout the world. Also links to exhibitions and to ongoing digitization projects.
Victorian Women Writer's Project
The goal of the project is to produce accurate transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century. Includes novels, poetry, political pamphlets, and religious tracts. Hosted by Indiana University.
Ad*Access
Provides over 7,000 images of advertisements from U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines for the period 1911-1955. Images are from collection at Duke University.
Perseus Digital Library
This site, produced at Tufts University, provides digital images and transcribed text (in translation or original language) from ancient Greek and Latin sources. Also includes documents related to English Renaissance literature and to London.
Digital Einstein Papers
Presents contents from The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein.
