Identifying repositories & their collections
Suggestions from Archivist Lisa Rickey:
- Mine the citations of relevant books and articles: where did they find their primary sources?
- Google it: “[insert your subject here] & archives”
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)Descriptions of archival manuscript collections at many American repositories; not exhaustive; difficult to use.
- OCLC ArchiveGrid“Find Archives Near You” (searches geographically).
- WorldCat (OCLC) This link opens in a new windowIdentify worldwide library ownership of any type of material. Each entry contains descriptive information and library holdings. Use links to OhioLINK and Interlibrary Loan to order material. Most useful to determine ownership of books, archive literature, and journal subscriptions. Do not use to search for the content of book chapters or individual articles.
- OhioLINK Finding Aid RepositorySearch archival collection finding aids submitted by archives and special collections throughout Ohio; other states have similar repositories.
- Finding and Evaluating ArchivesSociety of American Archivists.
- David Rumsey Historical Map CollectionThe David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 30 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from about 1550 to the present.
- Old Maps Online - SearchOldMapsOnline developed out of a love of history and heritage of old maps. The project began as a collaboration between Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland and The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at the University of Portsmouth, UK thanks to funding from JISC. Since January 2013 is the project improved and maintained by volunteers and the team of Klokan Technologies GmbH in their free time.
- Photographs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Record Group 75)NARA acknowledges that photographs included in this project may evoke memories or feelings from a history of oppression. Therefore, some Tribal Nations, topics, and geographic areas may not be fully represented. As NARA digitizes and makes more photographs publicly accessible, they will be made available through this project.
Selected local archives & special collections
Selected public libraries
Selected historical societies
Selected county records centers
Note: You can also try county courthouses or offices for the location in question.
Selected colleges and universities
Selected primary source collections and Indexes
Unless otherwise noted, the resources linked below are available to Wright State University students, faculty, and staff because Wright State University Libraries has an institutional subscription.
- Afro-Americana Imprints 1535-1922 This link opens in a new windowAn important collection of Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922 useful to African-American studies. Includes a wide range of archival materials including books, pamphlets and broadsides. Coverage includes the West's discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World; the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; and descriptions of African American life -- slave and free.
- American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-1899The Serial Set is a compilation of U.S. Congressional publications published by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives about the bills and resolutions involved in lawmaking. It also includes reports of executive departments, government-funded institutions, and other independent organizations. Documents in the Serial Set are arranged in numeric series chronologically (not topically). This collection offers detailed contemporaneous documentation of political, military, and governmental activities related to indigenous peoples of the continental United States and Alaskan territory during the 19th century.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1, 1684-1820 This link opens in a new window
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 2, 1821-1837 This link opens in a new window
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 3, 1838-1852 This link opens in a new window
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 4, 1853-1865 This link opens in a new window
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 5, 1866-1912 This link opens in a new window
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowContains page images of historic American magazines, journals and newspapers. These resources illustrate the development of American culture, politics and society from the mid-eighteenth century through 1900.
- Morgan Digital Databases This link opens in a new windowAccess three historic research tools. The Morgan Bibliography of Ohio Imprints describes more than 10,400 books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in Ohio between 1796 and 1850. The Ohio Name Index includes over 156,000 names from the Morgan Bibliography. The Student Name Index, 1800-1900, contains more than 740,000 entries of students, teachers, and trustees from the catalogues of the American Antiquarian Society's School and College Collection.
- HeinOnline AcademicHeinOnline Academic is a full-text research collection offering U.S. federal publications such as the U.S. Code, Federal Register, treaties and agreements, U.S. and state appellate court opinions, federal legislative histories, presidential documents; a collection of legal classics; and constitutions of the world
- Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900 This link opens in a new windowSearch the complete text of journals and ebooks published by Wiley. Unavailable items are marked with a locked icon.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States This link opens in a new windowStudy the history of US women and their role in social change between 1600 and 2000. Search primary documents, reviews, archive notes, and teaching tools. Includes local, state, and federal level commission reports. The resource will be useful to anyone studying women's issues and curriculum developers.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowRead the full-text of titles listed in the Pollard & Redgrave Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wings Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new windowRead from this online archive of digitized versions of every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom from 1701-1800. The collection includes books, pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera covering a broad range of subjects across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- HarpWeek (1857-1871) This link opens in a new windowRead the full-text of Harper's Weekly (1857-1912), the leading American illustrated magazine of the period. Covers political, military, social and cultural issues. Search by section: subjects, illustrations, literature, and advertising.
- Historical New York Times This link opens in a new windowThe Historical NYT is an online digital reproduction of the New York Times, including photographs and advertisements.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
- Sunday Times Digital Archive (1822-2006) This link opens in a new windowBrowse digital image reproductions of articles and ads from The Sunday Times (London, England) for the years 1822-2006. The newspaper is reproduced from cover to cover in pdf formatted files. Note: Search the Times Digital Archives for Monday through Saturday articles.
- Primary Source Sets - Digital Public Library of AmericaDigital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide.
- The Modernist Journals ProjectA joint project of Brown University and The University of Tulsa with the mission of "produc[ing] digital editions of culturally significant magazines from around the early 20th century and mak[ing] them freely available to the public."
- Ohio ArchivistOhio State University Knowledge bank depository for The Ohio Archivist. OA is the official newsletter of the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA). Its primary mission is to serve as a conduit for information about the SOA and its membership. The Ohio Archivist also publishes articles containing general information about the archival profession, especially as it relates to archivists located within Ohio and the Midwest. The Ohio Archivist is published twice a year, in the spring and fall.
- Evans Early American Imprint Collection - TCPEvans-TCP, a partnership among the TCP, the Readex division of NewsBank, and the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), created 5,000 accurately keyed and fully searchable SGML/XML text editions from among the 40,000 titles available in the online Evans Early American Imprints collection (series I).
- Black Life in America This link opens in a new windowThis primary source collection focuses on the experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media, from the early 18th century to early 21st century. In includes American and global news sources, as well as current and historical Black publications.
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowAccess World News is a comprehensive resource that includes news publications from around the world. These sources include major national and international newspapers, as well as local and regional titles. Access World News is updated daily to keep students informed of current issues and events, and it includes deep archives that provide background information on important topics, enabling students to trace an issue or event over a period of time.
- American ArchivesThis database reproduces the contents of American Archives, a nine-volume collection of materials—chiefly manuscripts—documenting the events of 1775-1776. American Archives was created by Peter Force (1790-1868).
- Colonial North America at Harvard UniversityColonial North America at Harvard University is an initiative to digitize and provide online access to approximately 650,000 pages, including all the known archival and manuscript materials in Harvard’s several libraries.
- Founders OnlineCreated by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission, an agency of the National Archives, in partnership with the University of Virginia Press, Founders Online provides electronic access to over 185,000 documents transcribed and edited by the modern founding fathers editorial projects, including the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, and the Adams family.
Selected digital archival collections
Collections held in museums, national archives, university/college archives, and historical societies are often available. To check if any organization has done this for your topic, Google digital [or some version of this word] collections [your topic keywords] site:.edu (thanks to the Georgia State history librarian for putting this so well). You can also try site:.org (this would capture those by historical societies, for example) but remember that .org sites may be of poor quality--be sure to check who is sponsoring the website and what they are all about! Site:.gov will include U.S. government sites, including our national archives, Smithsonian institutions, and government departments.
The terms sources, documents, primary documents are sometimes useful to identify primary sources published in books or digitized on the internet, so you may also wish to try these terms if you are searching library catalogs or internet search engines for your topic.
As stated by Archivist Lisa Rickey, "Digital collections often reflect just a small fraction of the total holdings of a repository. There may be (and likely are) non-digitized materials at the same institution that are also pertinent to your research." Consider searching online finding aids to identify relevant non-digitized materials.
Note: If you cannot travel to the institution, inquire about the availability of research services and duplication services and any applicable fee(s). Fees can vary depending on the size and nature of the request.
Here are just a few examples of digitized collections.
Library of Congress Online Manuscript Collections
A few examples of the digital archives in the Library of Congress collections that demonstrate the uniqueness of its digital memory.
Digital Primary Sources Featured by the American Historical Association
The American Historical Association highlights digital primary sources at its annual meeting in the "Digital Projects Lightning Round".
In addition, the American Historical Review, the official journal of the American Historical Association, includes a Digital Primary Sources section in every issue (starting with April 2016). They ask readers to submit digital primary sources for inclusion.
