HIST 501 - History and Theory: Primary Sources

The boxes in the left-hand column below link to primary source recommendations by CSUF librarians who have subject expertise in themes related to this course.

History Research Guide

Primary source collections and outside online archives recommended by our former History Librarian, Megan Graewingholt and current History Librarian, Jon Cornforth. These two pages include a mix of Pollak Library databases and external sources.

Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

Government Documents Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our Government Documents Librarian, Megan Graewingholt. This includes government agency publications by the U.S. federal government, the California state government, U.S. local governments, and international government organizations.

This image was created by AI. OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT Edu (Version 5) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/.

Chicana & Chicano Studies Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our Chicanx Resource Center Collection Librarian, Barbara Miller. This includes a mix of Pollak Library databases and external organizations organized by archival collections, newspaper collections, oral history collections, and photograph collections.

Latin American Studies Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our Chicanx Resource Center Collection Librarian, Barbara Miller. This focuses on primary source databases available from the Pollak Library.

African American Studies Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our African American Studies Librarian, Jie Tian. This organizes collections by Pollak Library databases and those held by other organizations.

Asian American Studies Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our African American Studies Librarian, Jie Tian. This is a mix of Pollak Library databases and collections by external organizations.

Gender & Sexuality Studies Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our Gender and Sexuality Studies Librarian, Michaela Bettez. This includes digital collections in Pollak Library databases and from other organizations.

Queer Studies Research Guide

Primary source collections recommended by our Queer Studies Librarian, Michaela Bettez. This includes digital collections in Pollak Library databases and from other organizations.

I do not want to duplicate the extensive primary source recommendations built out by my colleagues for their subject areas. But I want to highlight some of my main go-to repositories and reference tools for doing historical primary source research.

• HathiTrust Digital Library: This is a partnership of academic and research institution, offering a collection of millions of digitized publications from libraries and archives around the world. It includes digitized, full-text, published primary and secondary sources, most of which are in the public domain. Access to collections still under copyright are restricted to only certain libraries. Examples of primary source publications include: government documents, city directories, and maps and photos inside published books and serials.
• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): This is a virtual-only digital library that includes digitized primary sources from libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions throughout the U.S. It harvests digital collections from other digital archives, such as Calisphere and the Portal to Texas History.
• ArchiveGrid: It includes descriptions of archival collections held by libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives worldwide. Most of these collections are not yet digitized and instead link to archival finding aids.
• The FamilySearch Research Wiki: This is a collection of family history research guides crowdsources by an authoritative scholarly genealogy community. Guides are organized by place or topic and provide lists of digitized primary source collections available on the main genealogy websites.
• The BYU Script Tutorial: This website provides language and paleography tools for working with historical records in different languages.

Many libraries and archives throughout the world have digitized primary source collections available online. These are strategies I regularly employ to identify those repositories and explore their digital collections and/or to search for specific types of primary sources from their collections. Some national and local libraries and archives also have digital collections that are international in scope.

Try using terms like "digital" or "digitized" in your search queries if you want to find a specific type of primary source.

National Level Archives & Libraries

Example: Irish History

• (General Search) Ireland national library
• (General Search) Ireland national archives
• (Specific Search) Ireland national library censuses

Example: U.S. History

• (Specific Search) Library of Congress digitized maps
• (Specific Search) Library of Congress Sanborn maps

There is no difference between "genealogy" sources and history sources. Genealogists and historians tend to look at these sources through different lenses. Genealogy is micro history, focusing on individuals and families. Applying genealogical research methods to traditional historical research helps us study communities and place human stories in larger historical context.

Visit the Genealogy Research page of this guide to learn about repositories with digital primary source collections that I recommend and teach.