LibGuides: History: Find Primary Sources

Visit the Anderson University & Church of God Archives

Anderson University and the Church of God Movement (Anderson, IN) have a rich heritage. The Archives focuses on collecting, organizing, and preserving unpublished material, such as letters, manuscripts, and reports, so that they may be available for research. The Archives maintains two areas of emphasis: Anderson University and the Church of God Movement (Anderson, IN).

See the University Archives website for more information.

Large-Scale Digital Collections

Archives Grid
"ArchiveGrid includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies."
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Provides access to millions of images, photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, and more from libraries, archives, and museums across the U.S.

19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
19th Century British Pamphlets is a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain. It includes Anti-Slavery tracts, and The Foreign Office Collection consisting pamphlets sent back to London by British ambassadors to help with policy formation. Also, election manifestos and political cartoons, items from pressure groups such as the Fabian Society, Imperial Federation Defence Committee, Poor Law Reform Association, Workhouse Visiting Society, Liberal and Property Defence League, and from cooperative movements such as the Cooperative Women's Guild.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
The HathiTrust Digital Library is home to millions of digitized books and publications. The team works diligently alongside research institutions to preserve and grow this collection while providing lawful access to visitors around the world.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provided through the Library of Congress and the National Endowment of Humanities, the Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers database provides digitized copies of over three million American newspapers from 1750 to 1969 from all fifty states.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Search the digitized historical archives at the Library of Congress.

Selected Primary Source Databases and Collections

Civil Rights Oral History Project
"On May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directed the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a national survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record and make widely accessible new interviews with people who participated in the struggle."
Occupational Folklife Project
"The Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) began in 2010 as a multi-year project by the American Folklife Center (AFC) to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition. To date, fieldworkers across the United States have recorded more than 1300 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions. The completed interviews have been incorporated into the American Folklife Center archive at the Library of Congress."
Veterans History Project
"The Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service."
Voices Remembering Slavery
"The recordings of former slaves in Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine states. Twenty-two interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond."

Hoosier State Chronicles
"Hoosier State Chronicles is operated by the Indiana State Library and funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. We seek to provide free, online access to high quality digital images of Indiana's historic newspapers by digitizing our collection, and assisting other organizations in making their collections digitally available."

Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 (U.S.) and international newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), Toronto Star, etc. It has selective full-text for 389 regional (U.S.) newspapers. And also includes full-text television and radio news transcripts from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, NPR, etc. .

Newspapers.com (click thru INspire)
You must click "Search additional Indiana newspapers in newspapers.com"

David Rumsey Map Collection
High quality map images, with emphasis on 19th and 20th century North and South America.
Indiana State Library Map Collection
"The Indiana State Library Map Collection contains maps, county atlases, plats maps, and other land descriptions. They provide information on historical property ownership, county histories, and the development of Indiana as a state from the 18th to the 21st centuries."
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
"The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online Checklist provides a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company housed in the collections of the Geography and Map Division." These maps are helpful for urban social history, historic preservation, and environmental history.
USGS Topographic Map Collection
"The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been the primary civilian mapping agency of the United States since 1879."

The National Historic Geographic System
The NHGIS "provides population, housing, agricultural, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for geographic units in the United States from 1790 to the present."
Popular Uses of History in American Life
"In the 1990s, David Thelen and Roy Rosenzweig surveyed 1,500 Americans about their connection to the past and how it influences their daily lives and hopes for the future."
Slave Voyages Database
"The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more."
U.S. Census Records
"The first Federal Population Census was taken in 1790, and has been taken every ten years since. Because of a 72-year restriction on access to the Census, the most recent year available is 1950."
U.S. Counties in Profiles
Find overview statistics for any county in the United States.
What Middletown Read
"What Middletown Read" is a database and search engine built upon the circulation records of the Muncie (Indiana) Public Library from November 5, 1891 through December 3, 1902. It documents every book that every library patron borrowed during that period, with the exception of one gap from May 28, 1892 to November 5, 1894."

History: Find Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary Source examples include:

Questions to ask when determining if something is a primary source:

Visit the Anderson University & Church of God Archives

Large-Scale Digital Collections

Selected Primary Source Databases and Collections