Latin American Studies: Resources: Primary

The contributions, struggles, and identities of those who lived the African Diaspora come to life through personal accounts, video, and primary sources in this global black studies collection that focuses on the migrations, communities, and ideologies of people of African descent. The collection includes never-before digitized primary source documents, including books, government documents, personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera from the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France.

Available through June 30, 2025

Delve into the earliest voyages of Vasco da Gama, the opening of trade with the Spice Islands, the colonisation of the Americas and Australasia, the search for the Northwest and Northeast Passages, and finally the race for the Poles with this robust primary source collection. Featuring rare manuscript and early printed material, highly illustrated maps and documents, diaries and ships' logs from some of the most well-known voyages in history, this collection provides access to key events in the history of European maritime exploration from c.1420-1920.

Available through July 31, 2025

Spanning more than 120 thematic collections, this resource includes several million pages of full-text documents, maps, diaries, posters, ephemera, photographs, and other textual and visual primary source material spanning the 15th through 20th centuries.

Border and Migration Studies Online provides historical context and resources, representing both personal and institutional perspectives, for the growing fields of border(land) studies and migration studies, as well as history, law, politics, diplomacy, area and global studies, anthropology, medicine, the arts, and more. At completion, the collection will include 100,000 pages of text, 175 hours of video, and 1,000 images.

Colonial Caribbean covers the history of the various territories under British colonial governance from 1624 to 1870. This extensive resource includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, as well as details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords. Colonial Caribbean covers topics which are inextricably linked to stories of oppression and abuse. Please be aware that distressing content can be found throughout the documents and contextual essays in this resource, including graphic descriptions and first-hand accounts of physical or sexual abuse.

Available through July 31, 2025

This collection consists of the Confidential Print for Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of populist rulers such as Perón in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil.

Available through July 31, 2023

Features formerly confidential reports of U.S. diplomats and military officers, 1911-1975, as well as records from the British Foreign Office, covering international relations and conditions in the countries where officials were stationed.


Collections in this category span 1911-1975, offering a detailed view of U.S. foreign relations. These collections provide an excellent view of U.S. international relations during these important years, and also offer detailed information on the countries in which the U.S. diplomatic or military officials were stationed, making these collections an excellent source for studies of individual countries or regions of the world. Two modules in this category also cover the British Foreign Office.

Available through June 30, 2025

This Gale primary source digital collection chronicles the plight of refugees and displaced persons across Europe, North Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1950. The collection includes over 590,000 pages of pamphlets, ephemera, government documents, relief organization publications, and refugee reports that recount the causes, effects and responses to refugee crises before, during and shortly after World War II. Topics covered include the evacuations and mass migrations within central and Eastern Europe to the displacement of North African populations and resettlement of refugees in Latin America. Record sources include the foreign and colonial office files from U.K. National Archives in Kew, the U.S. State Department from the National Archives Records Administration (NARA), the British India Office collection from the British Library, and the archives of World Jewish Relief. These documents give researchers detailed insights into the complicated and shifting landscape across Europe, Asia, and Africa during and following World War II.

This Gale digital collection contains more than five million cross-searchable pages sourced from books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, government documents, court records, correspondence, manuscripts, and maps from many different countries, all themed on the global history of slavery. This archive includes materials on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions. This collection covers a wide spectrum of interests related to the history of slavery, such as children and women under slavery, modes of resistance, global chronology, and much more. Additionally, the collection includes research tools such as guides, subject outlines, scholarly essays, classroom resources, and recommended primary source websites.

Searchable database which provides links to legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world

Archives of Latin America and Caribbean History, Sixteenth through Twentieth Century contains over 1.3 million pages of primary source material providing information about the indigenous peoples of the region, the Conquest (la Conquista), colonial rule, religion, struggles for independence, and political, economic, and social progress and issues in newly independent nations. In addition to keyword searching, users can access the collection by Person, Topic, Event, Named Work, and Country. The historical collections provide original manuscripts, signed letters, expedition records, reports, maps, diaries, descriptions of voyages, ephemera, and more and support researchers, postgraduates, and undergraduates with interests in regional studies, history, political science, anthropology, sociology, economics, and international relations.