Selected Primary Source Collections
These are just a few of the possible primary source collections available through ZSR and on the web. Visit the Primary Sources subject page for more options. Need help finding a specific primary source? Ask me!
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFull-text seachable library of high-quality digitized materials such as books, articles, government information, and more from libraries around the world. Includes public domain and in-copyright content. Log in as a WFU user to download PDFs and access additional features. Coverage: Varies
AFRICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
- African Online Digital LibraryAODL is an open access digital library of African cultural heritage materials created by Michigan State University in collaboration with museums, archives, scholars, and communities around the world.
- African Newspapers, Series 1 (1800-1922) This link opens in a new windowSearch the full text of English- and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Coverage: 1800-1922
- African Studies Internet SourcesSince 1997, Columbia University's collection of African Studies Internet Resources has served as the official WWW-Virtual Library guide for African Studies.
- Archives Unbound: African StudiesProvides access to these primary source collections: Egypt: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1853-1962; Liberation Movement in Africa and African America; Liberia and the U.S.: Nation-Building in Africa, 1864-1918; Liberia and the U.S.: Nation-Building in Africa, 1918-1935; Libya: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1796-1885; Morocco: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1797-1929.
- Internet African History SourcebookOn this site historical sources on the history of human societies in the continent of Africa are presented, when available, without making prejudgements about what is "African".
- Kenya Gazette (1890-)Digitized by Google Books. The Kenya Gazette is an official publication of the government of the Republic of Kenya. It contains notices of new legislation, notices required to be published by law or policy as well as other announcements that are published for general public information. It is published every week, usually on Friday, with occasional releases of special or supplementary editions within the week.
- World Heritage Sites: AfricaExplore more than 86,000 objects linking visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites.
COLONIALISM & SLAVERY
- Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new windowComplete volumes of all British Government Confidential Print for Africa. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad. Coverage: 1834-1966
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowBrings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. Coverage: 1400s-present
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text, searchable access to primary source materials that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth from the period 1450-1914. Coverage: 1450-1914
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new windowAccess to primary and secondary source documents from 1490-2007 that allow researchers to examine the history of slavery, abolition and social justice in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba along with material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade. Coverage: 1490-2007
LIBERATION
- Apartheid South Africa This link opens in a new windowProvides access to British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, including previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists' biographies and first-hand accounts of events. Coverage: 1948-1980
- Liberation Movement in Africa and African America (Archives Unbound)Composed of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People's Revolutionary Party; this collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles.
- Struggles for Freedom: Southern AfricaThe liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime was one of the major political developments of the 20th century, with far-reaching consequences for people throughout Africa and around the globe. This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
MULTIMEDIA
- Africa Through a Lens: British National ArchivesExplore incredible photographs spanning over 100 years of African history, from the 1860s onwards, taken from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection.
- British Pathe and Reuters Historical CollectionSearchable database of video clips from c. 1910-1984. Africa is not a specific focus of the collection. Use keywords to retrieve clips related to your topic.
- Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British EmpireA project that features films from the British Film Institute, Imperial War Museum, and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. Offers
searchable catalogue, full-length videos for viewing, and accompanying written synopsis, context, and analysis pieces. Please note that you must activate Adobe Flash Player to get it to work by clicking on “search film by country” option.
- Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive This link opens in a new windowThe USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive allows users to search and view video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide. Initially a repository of Holocaust testimony, the Visual History Archive has expanded to include testimonies from the Armenian Genocide that coincided with World War I, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Guatemalan Genocide of 1978-1996 and the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979.
Tips for Locating Primary Sources
Choose historically appropriate keywords. For example, use "Great War" instead of "World War I" to locate documents discussing the war during and just after it occurred. You may also consider different terms that might have been used to describe the same event from opposing sides or perspectives. Searching for the names of particular people or places may also be effective, but consider how the names might be presented (last name only, or as part of a title) and how country and city names have changed over time.
Think about what types of primary sources might have been produced that would be relevant to your topic; think also about which persons or organizations might have produced materials. Some possible types of sources:
| Books | Photographs and images |
| Magazine and newspaper articles | Cartoons and advertisements |
| Diaries and journals | Movies, videos, and DVDs |
| Memoirs and autobiographies | Audio recordings |
| Interviews | Public opinion polls |
| Letters | Fiction |
| Speeches | Research data and statistics |
| Documents produced by organizations | Documents produced by government agencies, including congressional hearings and census records |
To locate potential primary sources in the library's online catalog, Primo, look for subject headings that contain terms such as diaries, letters, correspondence, autobiography, interviews, or personal narratives following the main heading.
Related Guides
Selected Books
African History Through Sources, 1850-1945 by Call Number: Wilson 1 DT352.7 .A34 2014ISBN: 9781107030893Publication Date: 2014-06-16
African Histories: New sources and new techniques for studying African pasts by Call Number: Wilson 1 DT19 .B75 2012ISBN: 9780136155584Publication Date: 2011-08-03
From the South African Past: Narratives, documents, and debates by Call Number: Wilson 1 DT1709 .W55 1997ISBN: 9780669287899Publication Date: 1996-11-22
Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History by Call Number: Main Stacks - Wilson 1 DT476 .C67ISBN: 0521224225Publication Date: 1981-01-29
African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, the Sources by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9780521194709Publication Date: 2013-05-13
