Guides: Primary Sources: General/World Sources

World History Topics

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary resources for students seeking an historical context for epidemiology and organized around significant "episodes" of contagious disease. This is part of the Harvard University Library Open Collections Program.
History of Medicine - Digital Resources This link opens in a new window
U.S. National Library of Medicine digitized materials on the history of medicine including books, a large image collection, videos from medieval Islam to the present.
China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 (CRKN - Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Manuscript and pictorial material relating to the activities and observations of diplomats, missionaries, tourists etc. in China from 1793 to 1980. All full-text searchable.
Empire Online (CRKN - Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Five section of texts and pictures on the colonial experience: Cultural Contact 1492-1969; Literature and Empire; Visible Empire (photos etc.); Religion and Empire; Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism 1607-2007
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007 (CRKN - Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Manuscript and printed material on trans-Atlantic slavery and abolition along with contextual essays by leading academics. Includes Slavery as it exists today.

Europe

EHPS: European History Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
A searchable index of the most important scholarly digital repositories that contain primary sources for the history of Europe.
Euro Docs This link opens in a new window
European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated by a community of researchers in wiki format.
Mass Observation Online (CRKN - Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Access to an important manuscript and pictorial archive for the study of British Social History from 1937 to 1972 with an emphasis on the Depression era, World War II and the 1950s.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook This link opens in a new window
This site includes thousands of sources from the Reformation in Europe through the 20th century.
Eighteenth Century Journals (CRKN - Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Rare periodicals printed between 1693 and 1799 illuminating all aspects of 18th century social, political and literary life in Great Britain and Ireland.
ARTFL Project This link opens in a new window
Almost 2000 French writings (correspondence, diaries, histories, literature, sciences) from the 12th-20th centuries.
WWII Resources This link opens in a new window
Primary source document collection contains serveral complete books and several hundred individual documents, all original material relating to WWII, mainly from the U.S. perspective.
Witness to the Holocaust This link opens in a new window
Transcriptions of interviews with liberators and a few holocaust survivors. Includes text, photographs, and videos.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution
A website that incorporates over 600 primary documents, including text documents, images, songs, maps as well
as topic essays, a timeline, and glossary - all pertaining to the French revolution.
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A joint project of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (George Mason University) and American Social History Project.

Africa

Centre Aequatoria This link opens in a new window
Documents in the Centre de Recherches Culturelles Africanistes.

Africa South of the Sahara
Selected Internet resources. Site based at Stanford University Libraries.

General or Broad Primary Source Collections

Harvard Open Collections This link opens in a new window
Online access to primary source documents gleaned from Harvard's libraries, archives and museums. To date there are five open collections: Contagion - Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics; Expeditions and Discoveries; Women Working 1800-1930; Immigration to the U.S. 1789-1930; Islamic Heritage.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project This link opens in a new window
A collection of copy-permitted historical texts pertaining to Ancient History and Civilization, Medieval Studies, and Modern European History and Modern Civilization. Sub-sets are also available for African, Islamic, Jewish, Women's, Science, LGBT etc.
World History Sources This link opens in a new window
A website to help teachers and students locate, analyze and learn from online primary sources. A project from the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
Hanover Historical Texts Project This link opens in a new window
Documents from ancient Greece to the 20th century.

Eyewitness to History
Brief eyewitness accounts arranged by date from ancient Egypt to 1974.

Oral History Online (CRKN - Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Oral History Online provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,500 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. Transcripts of interviews with 10,000 individuals from all walks of life from the 1930s to the present.
Past Masters (CRKN - Intelex ) This link opens in a new window
A collection of writings by eminent scholars from the ancient Greeks to the 20th century with a strong emphasis on women's creative writing. Includes the full-text of some humanities reference books.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online - ECCO (CRKN - Gale) This link opens in a new window
Over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes), including books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more. Works published in the UK during the 18th century plus thousands from elsewhere. Primarily in English - also includes other languages.
Historical Text Archive This link opens in a new window
Gateway site that provides primary source information in ebooks, articles and essays.
Bartleby Nonfiction This link opens in a new window
A small collection of significant works that are in the public domain. Includes essays by noted philosophers, scientists and the inaugural speeches of US presidents.
In the First Person This link opens in a new window
In-depth indexing of more than 2,500 open and fee-based collections of oral history in English from around the world; some for which the Mount has a subscription.

Classical Studies

Internet Classics Archive This link opens in a new window
441 works of classical literature by 59 different authors, mainly Greco-Roman works (some Chinese and Persian) all in English translation.
Duke Papyrus Archive This link opens in a new window
Access to texts about and images of nearly 1400 papyri from ancient Egypt.
Perseus Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary sources, both texts and images, pertaining mostly to ancient Greece and Rome.
Internet Ancient History Sourcebook This link opens in a new window
This site contains documents from ancient Mesopotamia through the early Christian era. Also includes links to visual and aural material, since art and archaeology are very important to the periods in question. This is a component sourcebook of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project of Fordham University.

Medieval Studies

Monastic Manuscript Project This link opens in a new window
Provides a qateway to high quality images of medieval manuscripts from several repositories.
Medieval Travel Writing (CRKN - Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
A collection of medieval manuscripts on travel writing - both fact and fiction from the 13th to 16th centuries augmented by translations and supporting materials including maps.
Internet Medieval History Sourcebook This link opens in a new window
This site includes documents covering the period from the end of the Roman empire to the Reformation. This sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project of Fordham University.

Web Site Directories

Finding Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive annotated list of web sites with primary source content compiled by the University Library at California State University, Los Angeles.

Wilson Center: Digital Archive of International History Declassified

"The Digital Archive contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe, uncovering new sources and providing fresh insights into the history of international relations and diplomacy. It collects the research of three Wilson Center projects which focus on the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea, and Nuclear Proliferation."

Wilson Centre This link opens in a new window
The Digital Archive contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe. It collects the research of three Wilson Center projects which focus on the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea, and Nuclear Proliferation.

Literature

Renascence Editions This link opens in a new window
Online Repository of Works Printed in English between 1477 and 1799.
SCETI: Furness Collection This link opens in a new window
Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Images with a focus on early texts pertaining to Shakespeare and Shakespearean performance.

Law Trials and Courts

Famous Trials - UMKC School of Law - Prof. Douglas Linder This link opens in a new window
International Court of Justice This link opens in a new window
Text of almost all cases brought before the United Nations' court since 1946.
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library This link opens in a new window
Avalon Project This link opens in a new window
Managed by Yale's Law School, contains historical documents on law, history and diplomacy from ancient time to the 21st century.