Search for Primary Source Books

Search Strategies

Combining search words for your topic PLUS any of the the search words below:

• personal narratives
• correspondence
• pictorial works OR cartoons
• interviews
• songs and music
• diary or diaries
• literary collections
• sources

Example of a primary source book:

• This was found using a search for "slave narratives"

Example Searches: 

• 19th century sources
• japanese americans interviews
• war cartoons 
• united states civil war pictorial works
• holocaust personal narratives
• cold war sources

Searching for Primary Sources

U.S. History in Context is a great database to find primary sources. You can limit to primary sources or search for just a specific kind of source. Use the information and the images in the example search below to guide you in your search. 

Search Tips

1. Search on a subject (keep your subject broad): Examples: Korean War, Japanese American Internment...etc.
2. When looking for only primary sources, limit to "Primary sources" under "by content type" as shown below.
   • Notice that you can also limit to full-text (so you see only results you can immediately download

(click on image to enlarge)

Notice once you've limited to primary sources and see the results, there is a way to further narrow, or at least look to see what types of sources are included in the results such as government document, speech, editorial, excerpt, interview...etc.

(click on image to enlarge)

Primary Source Database

Suggested Books for Primary Sources

Each guidebook provides suggestions for primary sources for different events in history.