Library Guides: History: Primary sources

What is a primary source?

A primary source provides first hand account of a topic or an event, from people that experienced it.

Primary sources can include: speeches, diaries, letters, interviews, radio and television broadcasts created at the time of the event, posters, paintings, maps, photographs, pamphlets, legal and official documents, survey data, and manuscripts.

Digital archives

Chatham House Online Archive
Includes the publications, speeches and archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the world-leading independent international affairs policy institute founded in 1920. Useful for researchers of international affairs, economics, law, and business, diplomacy, security and terrorism, environment, development, war and peace studies.
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Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2016
Digitised pages of the Daily Mail complete from 1896-2016. Includes images, adverts etc in addition to text.
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Digital National Security Archive
Is an online collection of declassified records documenting U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Collections cover the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post-World War II through the 21st century
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Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2020
Covers weekly commentary and comprehensive analysis of global news including economics, political, business, scientific, technological and cultural developments.
It provides access to every issue of ‘The Economist’ from 1843 to 2020.
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Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2021
Provides a complete access to the Financial Times newspaper from 1888-2021. Content includes UK & international business, finance, economic & political news, comments & analysis. A trusted research tool for everyone studying the economic and business history.
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Guardian and Observer Archive, The
Searchable, full text access to The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003), includes topics on wars, industrial developments, arts, culture, business, sports and more.
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Historical Texts
Hosts thousands of digitised books published before 1900. Includes the following collections: • Early English Books Online (EEBO) 1473-1700 • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) 1701-1800 • British Library 19th Century 1789-1914.
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Continues from JISC Historic Books
History of Economic Thought
Covers the subject of the history of economic thought over the period 1700–1914. History of Economic Thought (HET) Provides access to useful material for students and researchers in Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Global Political Economy, and History.
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History of Feminism
Focus on the period between 1776 and 1928, and contain a wide range of primary and secondary sources on feminism.
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Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
Full digital archive of The Independent newspaper from 1986-2016.
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Migration to New Worlds
Explores the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia. It concentrates on the period 1800 to 1924 and covers all aspects of the migration experience, from motives and departures to arrival and permanent settlement.
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New York Times Archive with Index 1851-2019, The
Includes topics on wars, industrial developments, arts, culture, business, sports and more.
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Proquest U.K. Parliamentary Papers
ProQuest Parliamentary papers provides access to parliamentary papers (primarily House of Commons) from 1660 to 2005. Also contains content from Hansard from 1803 to 2005 and Command Papers 1833-2004.
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Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2021
Digitised archive of The Sunday Times, 1822-2021. Includes images, adverts etc in addition to text.
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Telegraph Historical Archive
Digitised archive of The Telegraph newspaper. This first release of the database contains 54% of content from across the 1855-2016 date range. Content from the 1980s onwards is almost complete, the main gap being between 1940 and 1952. Content will continue to be added until the archive is complete.
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Times Digital Archive; 1785-2019
Digitised pages of The Times complete from 1785-2019. Includes images, adverts etc in addition to text.
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See also: Sunday Times Digital Archive
Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975
Covers U.S. involvement in the region from the early days of the Kennedy administration, through the escalation of the war during the Johnson administration, to the final resolution of the war at the Paris Peace Talks and the evacuation of U.S. troops in 1973.
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War, State and Society
It contains digital archival collections in social, economics, political and cultural affairs of Britain throughout the Second World War.
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Washington Post, The
Searchable full-text access from 1877 to 2006.
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World War II: U.S. Documents on Planning, Operations, Intelligence, Axis War Crimes, and Refugees
Consists of several collections of records on World War II, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Map Room Files, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Records of the War Department Operations Division, U.S. Navy Action and Operational Reports, Records of the Office of War Information, and Papers of the War Refugee Board.
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