Primary Sources Guide
The American Presidency Project
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American Presidency ProjectDocuments from presidential administrations from Washington to Trump.
Hamilton and Jefferson in Their Time
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Founders OnlineThe 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.
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America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable digital images of newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia. Focusing largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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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.
Excerpt from the American Mercury newspaper, Hartford, Connecticut, December 11, 1800 (from the America's Historical Newspapers database)
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The Works Of Alexander Hamilton : Comprising His Correspondence And His Political And Official Writings, Exclusive Of The Federalist, Civil And Military
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 1851
Hamilton and Jefferson in Retrospect
- The Great Debate: Jefferson vs. Hamilton (To be viewed in class)
- Alexander Hamilton: American Experience (To be viewed in class)
- American Experience Hamilton Website - Includes transcript, timeline, special features.
- American Presidency Project (U.C. Santa Barbara) - Documents, statistics, media archive, U.S. president overviews, analyses.
- Miller Center (UVA) - Overviews of U.S. presidents, speeches, oral histories, in-depth exhibits, and more.
- National Archives - Find founding documents, presidential library information, women's suffrage coverage and so much more.
- New York State Archives
- National Museum of Women's History
- National First Ladies Library
- American Rhetoric - Speech transcripts, movie speeches, audio and video clips illustrating various stylistic figures of speech.
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ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the following newspapers: Boston Globe; New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Defender. See listing for each individual newspaper for specific access information and to search that publication separately. Additional content for some titles is added on a one year rolling basis.
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Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni is a source for newspapers and magazines, trade journals, wire services and transcripts, as well as legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790, and information on U.S. and international companies and executives.
Some examples from the libraries' digital and physical collections:
FIND CURRENT NEWS ARTICLES HERE:
Finding Primary Sources in Books
While there are many primary source documents available online, through the BU Libraries and on the Web, printed books can also be a rich source of primary sources in U.S. history. These include printed collections of diaries, speeches, correspondence, personal narratives, and other materials.
The search page screenshot below shows a search page pre-configured to search for these and other kinds of primary sources in books. Clicking on the screenshot will bring up a completed search of more than 40,000 such books on all topics. To focus the search on a particular topic, simply enter some keywords on the second line and click on the blue Search button.
Here are some examples of primary sources books searches on specific topics:
NOTE: Changing the second line search from All Fields to Subject will bring back more precise results. Some searches will bring up books about the subject in other countries as well as the U.S.
