Edited collections published as books
Many useful primary sources will be collected in print or ebook compilations, with several texts or images on a related topic collected in a single volume. American Eras: Primary Sources is an example of such a source. Often the most efficient way to find these sources is to use the browse subject function Search.Libraries.
-
American Eras, Primary Sources: Civil War and Reconstruction
by
ISBN: 9781414498256Publication Date: 2013-05-07
- Identify a subject heading relevant to your topic (e.g. Black Panther Party or Freed persons United States History or Asian Americans History)
- Use the "Browse" function in Search.Libraries to browse related headings
- Look for subject headings ending in a form modifier that indicates the work contains primary sources:
- Sources
- Archives
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Exhibitions
- Interviews
- Personal narrative
- Pictorial Works
- Maps
- Early Works to 1800
Primary Source Search Tips in Full-Text Digital Collections
- Find the language that would have been used to describe a concept at the time
- Check background and secondary sources for quotes
- As you find primary sources, read them closely for word choice and language use
- Check the Google Books Ngram Viewer for prevalence of different terms over time
Multi-region Full Text, Image, and Video Search Tools
-
AM-Explorer This link opens in a new window
Access millions of pages of primary source collections spanning content from the 15th-21st centuries.
-
HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a repository of digital content from 50 research libraries, including electronic versions of nearly 8 million books at the time of writing.
Note: As of May 2023, Oberlin is a HathiTrust member. Oberlin students, faculty, and staff can access member features by clicking on the “LOG IN” button, choosing “Oberlin College and Conservatory”, and using their ObieID to authenticate.
-
Internet Archive
Free access to digital collections including music, video, web sites and millions of public-domain books. Home of the Wayback Machine, where you can see what the web looked like in the past.
-
JSTOR Images This link opens in a new window
Over 1 million images selected to support research and reaching in art history from pre-historical to contemporary media.
-
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new windowA platform that brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.
Song Dynasty
-
Sources of Chinese Tradition
by
Call Number: Main Library ; DS721 .D37 1999ISBN: 9780231109383Publication Date: 1999-07-27A collection of seminal primary readings on the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of China. -
The Enlightened Judgments, Ch'ing-Ming Chi
by
ISBN: 0791442446Publication Date: 1999-09-02The first English translation of a selection of legal documents from Sung Dynasty China, this work provides a fascinating look at the legal, social, and economic history of that era.
Digital Collections - Americas
-
Major Newspapers at OberlinExplanations of how to access major newspaper publications at Oberlin College.
-
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
A wide range of news, political, legal, and business information from thousands of sources, mostly full text. Includes newspapers, magazines, wire services, federal and state court opinions, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, and SEC filings. News information is updated daily and wire services several times daily.
-
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters between Native Americans and peoples from Europe, as well as Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
-
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Full-text coverage of newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press in America. Dates of Coverage: 1959 to date
-
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Covers the Black experience from ancient Africa to the modern day from perspectives in history, literature, political science, sociology, philosophy, music, visual arts, and religion. Includes index to Black Literature (1827-1940), Black Studies Periodical Database, and the full text backfile (1910-2010) of the influential black newspaper The Chicago Defender.
-
LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowA searchable archive of major periodicals devoted to LGBT+ interests. (Dates of coverage: 1950-)
-
Chronicling America: Historical American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A collection of freely accessible historical American newspapers from all regions of the United States, developed by the Library of Congress. Dates of coverage: 1836-1963
-
Digital Transgender ArchiveThe purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than sixty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections.
Russia 1920's
-
Imperial Russian Papers This link opens in a new windowOut-of-copyright newspapers spanning the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, up to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and well as reference books and an in-depth bibliographic record of all known newspapers published in Imperial Russia.
Digital Collections - Middle East & North Africa
-
King Crane Commission Digital Archive CollectionAt the end of World War I, the major powers negotiated the future of the areas under the control of the defeated Central Powers. One of the areas on the chopping block was the Ottoman Empire, long coveted by various empires. President Woodrow Wilson asked then Oberlin College President (1902-1927) Henry Churchill King to co-chair the American Section of the Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey, which came to be known as the King-Crane Commission. The Commission, which was originally intended to be international in character, like other fact-finding missions of the Paris Peace Conference, became a solely American enterprise in the face of British and French foot-dragging.
-
Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers This link opens in a new windowWide range of regional newspapers from the Middle East and North Africa, in Arabic, English, and French, providing unique insights into the history of individual countries, as well as broad viewpoints on key historic events. (Dates of coverage 1902-1972)
Ireland
-
Political Extremism & Radicalism in the Twentieth Century (LEECA Access) This link opens in a new window
Political extremism and radicalism in the twentieth century is a compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements. It offers a diverse mixture of materials, including periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera. Materials are primarily from the U.S., Britain, Europe, and Australia. Part of Gale Primary Sources.
-
CAIN Archive - Conflict and Politics in Northern IrelandSpeeches, media reports, government records, photographs, and other primary sources.
AIDS Posters
-
After Silence
by
Call Number: Art Library ; NX180.A36 F56 2018ISBN: 0520295145Publication Date: 2017-11-07Early in the 1980s AIDS epidemic, six gay activists created one of the most iconic and lasting images that would come to symbolize a movement: a protest poster of a pink triangle with the words "Silence = Death." The graphic and the slogan still resonate today, often used--and misused--to brand the entire movement. Cofounder of the collective Silence = Death and member of the art collective Gran Fury, Avram Finkelstein tells the story of how his work and other protest artwork associated with the early years of the pandemic were created. In writing about art and AIDS activism, the formation of collectives, and the political process, Finkelstein reveals a different side of the traditional HIV/AIDS history, told twenty-five years later, and offers a creative toolbox for those who want to learn how to save lives through activism and making art.
Native American History
-
American WestIncludes manuscripts, maps, rare printed sources, ephemera, and images that document the history of the western United States. Part of AM-Explorer.
Toledo Auto Workers Strike
Folk Music History
19th Century England
-
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (LEECA Access) This link opens in a new window
Collections include: British politics and society; European literature 1790-1840: the Corvey Collection; Asia and the West: Diplomacy and cultural exchange; British theatre, music, and literature: high and popular culture. Part of Gale Primary Sources.
-
AM Explorer: Women's Voices and Life WritingWomen’s Voices and Life Writing, 1600-1968 brings together diaries and oral histories for the study of the lives and experiences of less well-known women, told through their own words. Featuring content from both regional and national archives across the UK and Ireland, users can explore the life course of hundreds of individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds.
Finding Print Collections in Archives
-
ArchiveGRIDArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
-
Social Networks and Archival ContextUsing what archivists call “linked data,” SNAC members create, edit and link historical people, families and organizations and connect them to one another. This makes is easier for a user to identify archives, libraries and museums near and far that may possess primary source documents that are relevant to their historical figure or topic.
-
Oberlin College Archives“To preserve the institution's "memory" and support the teaching mission. Today, the archives of the College comprise a unique body of materials containing information of administrative, legal, fiscal, and historical value to the institution.” Founded in 1966, located the fourth floor of Mudd.