Asian American Studies: Primary Sources

Indexes almost a million descriptions of archival collections held by more than 2,500 libraries, museums, historical societies and archives worldwide. The detailed, archival collection descriptions have been written by archivists. Subject strengths include history, humanities, art, social sciences, and genealogy. Search results include the title of the collection, holding institution, brief description, and a link to an extended description.

Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 presents the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INSs regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.

From womens suffrage to discrimination of all kinds, Civil Rights in America: From Reconstruction to the Great Society is a fully searchable archive of official publications and primary source material related to civil rights in the United States. Coverage spanning from the myriad rights issues surrounding African Americans to the issues related to other ethnic groups, laborers, children and undocumented workers, as seen through the eyes of those who experienced them, it includes varied perspectives and firsthand accounts of freedom and segregation, origin and history of the Ku Klux Klan, challenges of the Freedmans Bureau, history of child labor regulations, founding and growth of Black colleges, establishment of the property rights of women, educational equality for minority children, integration and fair housing, labor unions, immigration studies tracking 20th-century racial minorities, maternity rights of women, national and regional attitudes towards race and gender, school integration and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the evolving debate about unauthorized border crossings and much more.

The only fully searchable digital archive, available via Readex platform; covering foreign perspectives of American racial issues in the mid-20th century, American Race Relations: Global Perspectives is derived from the archives of the Central Intelligence Agency. A wealth of unique primary source documents on racial justice from around the world, it provides new insight into many of the most important historical events and movements of the last hundred years. Covering topics like segregation, race riots, arts and literature, Brown v. Board of Education and other important court cases, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the rise of indigenous rights in countries around the world, this archive provides unique viewpoints on Americas fight for racial justice and rare insight into race relations in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941, the Roosevelt administration decided that for reasons of military necessity, the government would evacuate all persons of Japanese heritage from the West Coast states. The Records of the War Relocation Authority document the day-to-day running of the 10 relocation camps from 1942-1946. The collection is organized by relocation center. Records include reports and correspondence on issues such as security, education, health, vocational training, agriculture, food, and family welfare.

This collection reproduces correspondence, reports, speeches, minutes; included are materials relating to the farm workers, poverty programs, Public Law 78, Braceros, labor camps, the United Farm Workers Union and the Delano Grape Strike.

This database available via Gale, brings together approximately 1.5 million pages of primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Rare and unique content from a variety of primary sources sheds light on the gay rights movement, activism, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and more.

Essential primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This expansive collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the mens movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.

The archives of 26 leading but previously hard-to-find magazines are included in LGBT Magazine Archive, including many of the longest-running, most influential publications of this type. The complete backfile of The Advocate is made available digitally for the first time. As one of the very few LGBT titles to pre-date the 1969 Stonewall riots, it spans the history of the gay rights movement. LGBT Magazine Archive also includes the principal UK titles, notably Gay News and its successor publication Gay Times.

LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection contains 150,000 pages of rare archival content, including seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.

Provides resources including interactive timelines, scholarly articles, court cases, books, pamphlets and more to chart the progress of the gay rights movement in America, while also exploring the inequalities that still exist today.

Youth and Popular Culture Magazine Archive showcases unique periodicals from 1940-present, highlighting topics and trends of youth culture such as fashion, rock and roll, sports, sexuality, dating, as well as youth portrayal in the media. These unique periodicals provide insight to what has and continues to influence youth culture, especially during times of rapid social and cultural change in the U.S. and the UK. At completion, this collection will have 250,000 pages from periodicals published in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Womens Issues and Identities is an archive of primary and secondary sources from across the globe that illuminate history from the female point of view. Notable collections within the archive include: Women and Health/Mental Health, Grassroots Feminist Organizations, Women and the Law and European Womens Periodicals.

The original documents cover the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and the granting of women's suffrage in colonial territories, 1930-1962.

Available through July 31, 2025

This module contains two major sets of records documenting the experience of American women during World War II: Records of the Womens Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Correspondence of the Director of the Womens Army Corps. Primary sources document a wide range of issues pertinent to women during this time of turbulent change, including studies on the treatment of women by unions in several midwestern industrial centers, and the influx of women to industrial centers during the war. Topics covered in records and correspondence include womens work in war industries, pivotal issues like equal pay, childcare and race, and extensive documentation on the women who joined and served in the Womens Army Corps as WACs.

Available through June 30, 2025

From the century of immigration, through to the modern era, Migration to New Worlds charts the emigration experience of millions across 200 years of turbulent history. Explore the rise and fall of the New Zealand Company, discover British, European and Asian migration and investigate unique primary source personal accounts, shipping logs, printed literature and organisational papers supplemented by carefully compiled teaching and research aids.

Available through July 31, 2025

Covering the 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. Along the way, documents in this module trace the actions and decisions at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, as well as events on the ground in Vietnam, from the perspective of State Department officials, Associated Press reporters, and members of the U.S. Armed forces, including the Marines and the Military Assistance Command Vietnam.

Available through June 30, 2025

This news archive draws from the records of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), focusing on civil rights, race, gender, and issues relating to the U.S. Supreme Court. This collection of more than 2 million pages offers researchers a unique view of the inner workings of the organization and the hundreds of groups with which the ACLU interacted. Covering the years from before the ACLUs official founding in 1920 through the 20th century, this archive offers an array of primary source materials on some of the most important issues that affected the United States. Collection materials digitized from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University.

This news archive draws from the records of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), focusing on civil rights, race, gender, and issues relating to the U.S. Supreme Court. This collection of more than 2 million pages offers researchers a unique view of the inner workings of the organization and the hundreds of groups with which the ACLU interacted. Covering the years from before the ACLUs official founding in 1920 through the 20th century, this archive offers an array of primary source materials on some of the most important issues that affected the United States. Collection materials digitized from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University.

Population, housing, economic, and geographic statistics, the latest economic indicators, and some historical census data back to 1790. Includes American Factfinder, American Community Survey, State & County QuickFacts, and the 2002 Economic Census. Access to data sets from the 1990 and 2000 censuses. Full-text subject reports.

Full-text detailed reports on controversial social, economic, political, educational, health, environmental, technology, and current topics. Each report includes an abstract, overview, background summary, current situation, outlook, special focus, chronology, pro/con, and bibliography.

This unique collection of documents brings to life American History from the times of the earliest settlers until the end of World War II. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available for the study of American history. Its quantity and quality offers a wonderful overview of American history alongside some deep research strands. It is divided into two modules: Module 1 Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859 and Module 2 Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945.

Available through July 31, 2025

This database is available via Readex. Newspapers from all 50 states from the late 17th up to early 20th centuries. Search by dates and eras, article types (e.g. news/opinion, birth notices, etc.), place of publication.

The American History in Video database available via Alexander Street, allows users to study American historical events from the discovery of the Americas to the late 20th century through the use of documentaries, commercial and governmental newsreels and archival public affairs footage. Among the newsreels included are the productions of United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel from 1929 to 1967, and more recent products from PBS, The History Channel, NASA and NARA. When the project is completed it will consist of 2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles.

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.

HeinOnline Academic is a premier legal research platform containing more than 190 million pages and 295,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. Includes 39 separate database collections including: Law Journal Library; American Enterprise Institute; Bremer-Kovacs Collection; Brenan Center for Justice Publications at NYU School of Law; Business and Legal Aspects of Sports and Entertainment; Civil Rights and Social Justice; Code of Federal Regulations; COVID-19: Pandemics Past and Present; Criminal Justice & Criminology; Executive Privilege; Federal Register Library; Foreign Relations of the U.S.; GWO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions; Gun Regulation and Legislation in America; History of International Law; History of Supreme Court Nominations; Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S.; John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection; Law Academy Project; Legal Classics; Military and Government; American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy; Open Society Justice Initiative; Pentagon Papers; Religion and the Law; Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory Bodies; Slavery in America and the World; U.S. Code; U.S. Congressional Documents; U.S. Congressional Serial Set; U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals; U.S. Federal Legislative History Library; U.S. Presidential Impeachment Library; U.S. Presidential Library; U.S. Statutes at Large; U.S. Supreme Court Library; U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library; Women and the Law; and World Constitutions Illustrated.

CQ Historic Documents Series Online Edition collects more than 2,500 primary sources covering current events around the world from 1972 to present and provides a clear, logical organization and tools for exploring these rich resources. Full text.

ProQuest History Vault unlocks the wealth of key archival materials with a single search. Researchers can access digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. Our collections are organized into modules within these popular subject areas. You may be subscribed to modules and collections in just one subject area or from a combination of different subjects.

Some items in this collection are available through June 30, 2025

Comprised of original manuscripts, rare printed books, maps and ephemeral material from the Everett D.Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library, Chicago, American West is a unique resource which allows scholars to explore tales of frontier life, Indigenous Peoples, vigilantes and outlaws. Covering topics including the growth of urban centres, the environmental impact of westward expansion and life in the borderlands, this collection will be welcomed by scholars working in Western American history, Southern History, the History of the Pacific Northwest, Western Literature, Film and Cultural Studies.

This digital resource shows how World War Two changed American society and the economy, how it impacted individuals and families, and the legacy of the War in human terms. Follow individuals and their families from enlistment and training to deployment on the US Home Front, or on campaigns overseas. American military and civilian involvement in all major theatres of operations is represented, whilst service branches range from the army, navy and air force, to the marines, merchant marines, coast guards, and medical personnel. Experience operations in the Pacific, the D-Day landings in Europe and the post-war occupation of Germany through personal letters, diaries, photographs, artefacts and military records, and watch as 300 people share their memories of military life, prisoner of war camps and the Home Front in oral history video interviews recorded by The National WWII Museum.

Available through July 31, 2025

An exceptional compilation of document types from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies as well as records from federal agencies. Issues of the challenging times chronicled span womens rights, environmental issues, urban renewal, rural development, tax reform, civil rights, space exploration, international trade, War on Poverty, and the Watergate trials. Kennedy files include documents from the 1960 presidential campaign and cover the major issues of the Kennedy presidency including womens rights, urban renewal, rural development, tax reform, civil rights, space exploration, and international trade. A collection of Associated Press Wire Copy on the assassination of President Kennedy rounds out the Kennedy era materials in this module. The Johnson administration collections chronicle the seven years of tumult and unparalleled change from the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 and the War on Poverty to civil unrest and fighting in Vietnam. Nixon administration materials consist of Nixons White House files as well as a collection of the official transcripts of proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the four major Watergate-related trials.

Available through June 30, 2025

The Cold War takes center stage in the Truman files on international relations, and the stalling of Trumans Fair Deal program are documented in the files that pertain to domestic concerns. The Eisenhower files focus on national defense, Cold War preparedness, the Soviet Union, economic issues, and tariff negotiations. This module will include White House files for the presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Richard M. Nixon.

Available through June 30, 2025

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.