Search & Find

What are primary sources? Finding Primary Sources on the Web? Evaluating primary sources.

An instructional page about how to identify, find and evaluate primary sources.

UA Library Catalog ^Guide

• On the keyword search page, type your major search topic into the top line.
• In second line change “Any Field” to "Subject.”

• Type any of the following into the Search Box:
  Sources, Interviews, Personal Narratives, statistics, diaries, correspondence, biography, Archives . Please note, “ biography ” includes both autobiographies and secondary works.
• You can search more than one of these by putting "or" between words. e.g. sources or personal narratives or interviews.
• Autobiographical information can be found by changing “Any Field” to "AUTHOR" and typing in the name of the person.

The Making of the Modern World Part I: The Goldsmiths' - Kress Collection, 1450-1850
Documents the dynamics of Western trade and wealth that shaped the world from the last half of the 15th century to the mid-19th century and provides full-text searching of rare books and primary source materials from Harvard Univeristy and the University of London collections.

Microfilm collections of European History microforms

Microfilm collections of European History microforms of primary documents at the University of Arizona Library.

Conventions, Treaties, and other official documents

Conventions, Treaties, and other official documents can be found in the supplementary issues of The American Journal of International Law.
Web access through the UA Library.

BOPCRIS

British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service.
British official publications from the period of 1688-1995.

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries

The letters and diaries of 91 women. Biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography are included,1500 -1900. Collection continues to grow.

British History on-line

British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. It was created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust.

British Periodicals

British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) ^Guide

Full digitization of all books and other publications English from 1475-1700.

ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online) ^Guide

A full-text database which includes every significant monograph published between 1701 and 1800 in the English language and also every significant monograph in any language printed in the British Empire during this period, all first editions published during the period 1701-1800

EuroDocs

Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe.
Selected transcriptions, facsimiles and translations.

Europeana

A collection of primary sources on European history and culture. From the European Union.

Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945

A full text database containing a wide range of unique materials about women and their lives from an international perspective. Focuses primarily on the US, British Isles, and Western Europe. Some material in languages other than English.

See also Gerritsen Collection Guide.

Hansard Archive (digitized debates from 1803 to 2004)

These pages include links to parliamentary debates from 1803 and have been scanned from hard copy sources. They are in Xml format and held within a zip file. Each zip file contains one days sitting of debates. Instructions to unzip these files in the UA Library Information Commons.

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

This database offers easy full-text access to the complete file for this period—nearly 79,000 items and 4.2 million pages issued by the House of Commons, including Bills, Reports of Committees, Reports of Commissioners, and Command Papers. Documents are displayed in facsimile page image and illustrations, charts, and maps are all fully indexed. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.

In the First Person

English language personal narratives, including letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories.

Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834.

A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Repositories of Primary Source

A listing of websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar with worldwide coverage.