"A primary source is the testimony of an eyewitness, or of a witness by any other of the senses, or of a mechanical device like the dictaphone — that is, of one who or that which was present at the events of which he or it tells" [Gottschalk, Understanding History, 53]
They can be firsthand testimony, evidence created during the time period that you are studying, or autobiographical works written later by someone present at the time. They include diaries, letters, interviews, oral histories, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, poems, novels, plays, and music. The collection and analysis of primary sources is central to historical research.
Primary sources are sometimes republished at later dates. These are edited collections of primary source materials published more recently, translated and/or annotated by modern scholars.
Milestone Documents in World History by 
Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook by 
Making Climate Change History: Documents From Global Warming's Past by CBC History Discovery Service (above) searches hundreds of thousands of books, journals, magazines and newspapers from EBSCOhost, JSTOR, ACLS and other databases. Results published within the time period studied are themselves primary sources; search for collections of primary sources using keywords and subjects such as: sources or documents; correspondence or letters; memoir or autobiography; diary or journal; speeches.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Global Issues in Context - thousands of primary source images and documents may be found arranged by topic or using an advanced search.
JSTOR - limit by date to locate images and documents from the period studied.
Digital Book Index - "provides links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available free." Massive subject index provides access to numerous history-related titles with publication dates starting in the 1400s.
European History Primary Sources - "a joint initiative of the Library and the Department of History and Civilization of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. It is also part of the WWW Virtual Library History Central Catalogue [which maintains an index of Primary Sources] that is hosted at the EUI."
Europeana collections -" works with thousands of European archives, libraries and museums to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education and research."
Internet History Sourcebooks Project - visit the main site for more resources or go directly to:
Google Books - hundreds of thousands of digitized public domain books. Use Advanced Search to limit your search to 'Google eBooks Only' published within the time period of your topic. Alternately search using the Internet Archive, which uploads titles and adds subject headings and text searching capability.
Google Arts & Culture: browse Museum Collections, Historical Events, and Historical Figures. Non-profit (no ads).
HathiTrust - digitized books and journal content. Considerable overlap with Google Books as they import any content that meets their rights determination process. Search capability combines full text searching with author, title, and Library of Congress subject heading.
Website Guides:
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