Secondary sources, scholarly journal articles and books, are a great source for identifying potential primary sources. Find a few articles, books or dissertations related to your topic and then mine the footnotes and bibliography.
Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources Books & Dissertations
- Find books located within the libraries by searching the UW Libraries Catalog.
- Other catalogs to try are Cascade, OhioLink, the Center for Research Libraries and OCLC Worldcat.
- Find dissertations written nation-wide by searching Dissertation Abstracts.
- Interlibrary Borrowing can get books and dissertations for you from other libraries.
Journal Articles
- Find articles by searching relevant databases listed on the History Subject Page. The most important one for U.S. history is America: History & Life. Others that can be useful are Expanded Academic Index and Research Library. Two collections of electronic journals contain some history journals and can also sometimes be useful (depending on your topic): JSTOR and Project Muse.
- Once you find some likely articles on your topic, locate them in the library by searching for the journal title in the UW Libraries Catalog. (If we do not have the journal, get a photocopy of the article through Interlibrary Borrowing.)
- Examine the footnotes used in the article for published material (we are much more likely to have published items than manuscript sources).
- Search the UW Libraries Catalog for these items.
Bibliographies
Bibliographies are also useful for identifying secondary sources (and sometimes primary sources) on a subject. Bibliographies list articles and other material on fairly narrow topics. If you are lucky, there will be a recent bibliography on your topic.
To locate printed bibliographies related to your topic search the UW Libraries Catalog:
- Choose the Keywords search
- Type in your topic keyword(s) and the following phrase:
and su:bibliography- Examples:
- slavery and united states and su:bibliography
- afro american women and su:bibliography
The UW Libraries has a huge collection of books that can be considered primary sources for American history. These include books written during the period for your topic (i.e., during the Civil War), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material.
Finding Primary Sources -- Books
- Limit your search by publication date.
- Search for books written by key participants and organizations.
- Browse the shelves in the appropriate subject area.
- Use special subject headings that designate primary sources:
sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence, interviews- Examples:
- slavery and united states and su:sources
- slaves and su:(narratives or interviews)
- civil war and su:(diaries or correspondence or narratives)
The UW Libraries has a strong collection of magazines and journals from the 19th century. Many of them are in print (either in Suzzallo Periodicals or in a storage area), others are on microfilm. There is limited electronic indexing for 19th century material.
Finding Primary Sources -- Articles
- Some abolitionist magazines from the period include:
- American Jubilee, 1854-1855 [Periodicals - E449 .A52372]
- Douglass' Monthly, 1859-1863 [Microforms - M356]
- The Liberty bell, 1839-1858 [Microforms A444 reel 491-492]
- The National era, 1847-1860 [Microforms - A444 reel 899-903]
- National anti-slavery standard, 1840-1870 [Microforms A4572]
The UW Libraries has a basic collection of major U.S. newspapers on microfilm for the 19th and 20th centuries. Complete runs are available for such papers as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Oregonian. The libraries has a strong collection on Northwest papers. Newspapers are housed in the Microform and Newspaper Collections on the first floor of Suzzallo.
Finding Primary Sources -- Newspapers
- There a few indexes to newspapers predating the 1970s. To see what indexing is available, use the Searchable Guide to Indexes.
- The New York Times is the only major American paper completely indexed. The Historical Index to the New York Times covers 1863-1905 and 1913-1922. The complete index is available in print in the Suzzallo Reference Index area (AI21 .N44).
- If you are using a paper without an index, use the one for the New York Times to pinpoint dates. If you are working on a particular event, then you can just browse newspapers from that week.
- We own a small collection of antebellum, African American newspapers on CD-ROM. This is accessible from computers in the library.
- Some newspapers from the period include:
- Charleston Mercury, 1822-1868 [A7437]
- Knoxville Whig, 1849-1864 [A8510]
- The Liberator, 1831-1865 [A2107]
- National Intelligencer, 1800-1869 [A998]
- New York Evening Post, 1801-1900 [A3574]
- New York Times, 1851- [A195]
- New York Tribune, 1841-1906 [A2252]
- Non-Slaveholder, 1846-1854 [M357]
- North Carolina Whig, 1858-1863 [A8511]
- Richmond Enquirer, 1841-1861 [A8488]
The UW Libraries has a strong collection of U.S. government documents including federal agency publications, congressional hearings and reports and other material. Some material is printed while others are available on microfilm. The Government Publications section is in the basement of Suzzallo.
Finding Primary Sources -- Government Reports
- Congressional hearings and reports dating back to 1789 are indexed in Congressional Masterfile which is available on CD-ROM in Government Publications.
- Other federal documents can be found by using the Monthly Catalog to United States Government Publications (GovPub. 328.73 Un37m) and its predecessors. Pooles Plus provides some indexing to documents published during the period.
- The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) has digitized a tiny portion (124,000) of their collection (a hodgepodge of material). These can be searched by using the NAIL database.
The UW Libraries owns few microfilmed collections dealing with slavery and the Civil War. The following collections may be useful:
Finding Primary Sources -- Manuscripts
- Afro-American history series - M-2305
- Microfilm edition of the papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society - A4868
- Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War [series F only] - A9699
- Slavery Pamphlets - Microcards
- Southern Women's Diaries - A8137
For manuscript collections elsewhere consult:
- National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
- OCLC Worldcat also includes citations to some manuscript collections
- Repositories of Primary Sources, a directory of web sites for manuscript repositories
The World Wide Web is a growing source for primary sources dealing with U.S. history. The sites listed here have substantial collections of primary sources. See Web Starting Points for History for other history websites.
Finding Primary Sources -- WWW
- American Memory, the premiere collection of primary sources created by the Library of Congress. There are over 80 multimedia digital collections dealing with American history:
- Documenting the American South
- Making of America
- Secession Era Editorials
- Valley of the Shadow
- Virginia Runaways Project
Slides | Background Sources | Search tutorial | History subject page | Information Gateway
10 October 2000
Jessica Albano / jalbano@u.washington.edu --- Theresa Mudrock / mudrock@u.washington.edu