Library Home: Primary Sources: Finding Primary Sources in Humanities & Social Sciences

Video Sources

For more recent historical topics (20th century topics), documentaries and personal interviews can serve as excellent primary sources.

Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new window
67,000 titles spanning the widest range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. Includes: documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, field recordings, commercials, demonstrations, original and raw footage, award-winning films, Academy®, Emmy®, and Peabody® winners.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting
More than 7,000 items from all over the US are here: television and radio episodes from 1940- present
From the Library of Congress and GBH public broadcasting. Some material may request registration, but much is free to use non-commercially without.
AP Press Archive
Largest and oldest news agency with thousands of video clips of news events. Non-commercial use only.
Civil Rights Digital Library
Use the browse feature on the left to browse by date, topic, people, collections. Extensive collection of links.
Digital Public Library of America: Video Collection
Over "42,245,361 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States."
Moving Image Archive from Internet Archive
Includes: Animation and Cartoons, Arts & Music, Computers & Technology, Cultural & Academic Films, Ephemeral Films, Home Movies, Movies, News & Public Affairs, Open Source Movies, Spirituality & Religion, Sports Videos, Video Games, Vlogs, and Youth Media.
National Film Board of Canada
Films on the site can be streamed free of charge, but not downloaded without a membership fee.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum Moving Images Collection
Includes over 4,500 moving image historical records (e.g., propaganda films, Newsreel footage) and over 7,600 hours of streaming video oral history testimonials.
WGBH Open Vault
Interviews, videos, and recordings from the public broadcasting station's many years of coverage. Browse by topic.

Docuseek This link opens in a new window
Docuseek streams essential independent, social-issue and environmental films. We have a collection of 7 titles here.

Current Newspapers Online

Most print newspapers have online editions. Most of these offer some free content. The amount and selection of online content compared to print content varies.

ABYZ Newslinks
Lists over 15,600 newspapers and other news sources by country and by region within each country. There is a language code next to each newspaper and separate links to alternative language versions if they are available.
50states.com - U.S. Newspapers
Links to over 3,300 United States Newspapers. Simply click a state name for a list of links to newspapers in that state.
World Press - World Headlines & Newspapers
One of the web’s largest and most comprehensive directories of World Newspapers and Magazines, sorted by Country, region, and political affiliation.

New York Times This link opens in a new window
This is coverage from 1980 to present.
Boston Globe This link opens in a new window
Coverage from 1980 to current, with full-text articles published from 1997 to current.
Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new window
Searches 1984- present editions of the Wall Street Journal online.

Historical Newspapers Online

The following sources provide access to or information on historical newspapers, primarily American.

Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876 This link opens in a new window
Offers more than 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1876.
Chronicling America (Historic Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

List of 50 States' Historical Newspapers
This is a great(!!!) list of hard to find newspapers that are available online- so many collections are in print only, so this is a great resource to have.
Google Newspaper Archives
Searchable newspapers back to the 19th century.
Go to the main page for GoogleBooks and perform a search. In the results screen, select "newspapers" from the tools dropdown.
Library of Congress- Collections with Newspapers
From the Library of Congress, organized by topic, features major events covered in historic newspapers.
Elephind
An archive of old newspapers from US, Australia, and New Zealand
Newspapers at Boston Public Library (BPL)
You will need to register for an e-card. As an AU student you are eligible as a Massachusetts resident student to access much of the BPL content.

Databases for Primary Sources

There is no single comprehensive database of primary sources, you may need to explore different strategies for locating resources. Here are some databases that do have primary sources as part of their holdings:

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A database of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines including some volumes dating back to the 19th century.
World History In Context This link opens in a new window
Covers information on the most significant people, events, and topics in world history. Includes magazine, journal and news articles, as well as primary source documents, images, videos, and audio files.
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Diverse primary source materials of 18th and 19th century American history and culture, assembled into comprehensive database collections ranging from African American Newspapers, the Civil War Collection, Reconstruction pamphlets of Southern US, Scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman, Woman's Suffrage Collection, and many more.
Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876 This link opens in a new window
Offers more than 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1876.