Finding Primary Sources

Sources can be found numerous classes of historical record.  This page lists a variety of such classes and offers links to resources for exploring them.

Searching in HOLLIS

For general instruction on using HOLLIS, see the Library Research Guide for Ethnicity, Migration, Rights

Archival Records

To find Harvard archival collections, see the Library Research Guide for History: Archives and Manuscripts.

Bibliographies

Find bibliographies in HOLLIS by searching your keyword plus the word Bibliography (which must be limited to Subject). Example.

Diaries and Other Personal Writings

To find them in HOLLIS search:  ("Chinese Americans" OR "Chinese United States") AND (diaries OR archives OR correspondence OR narratives). The Subject term Biography will retrieve a mixture of biographies and autobiographies.

Narratives is short for Personal narratives which refers to accounts of wars and of diseases.

In HOLLIS:

Subject contains: Epidemiologists
AND
Subject contains: sources OR narratives OR diaries OR correspondence OR interviews OR oral

Digital Libraries

HathiTrust Digital Library includes a searchable database of digitized books and periodicals contributed by numerous libraries. Includes items contributed by these libraries to Google Books and to Internet Archive but with some unique material. Each full text item is linked to a standard library catalog record, thus providing good metadata. The catalog can be searched separately. Globally full text searchable.

Internet Archive offers full text for a variety of digitized books and periodicals.  Also includes archived web pages (Wayback Machine), as well as manuscripts (a few), digitized microfilm, films, audio files, TV News, and more.  Many recent books are full text viewable if you set up a free account. You can use a Google password.

Details on searching HathiTrust and Internet Archive

Digital Libraries by State: These websites list hundreds of local, state, and regional resources.

Document Collections

To find more collections of primary sources, search Sources as a Subject keyword. Sources usually refers to published collections of primary sources of several different types. 

Chinese AND immigration AND Sources  [Use caps for AND]

Since Sources is a common word, 'Limit to: Subject' eliminates many irrelevant results.

National Library of Medicine Digital Collections: Cholera Online, 1817-1900

Films

Streaming Video @ Harvard

National Library of Medicine Digital Collections: Tropical Disease Motion Pictures

Government Documents

Government documents are publications intended to be released to the public. They include publications of national, state/province, and  local departments of public health. Guides are available:  U.S. (National)  --  U.S. (state/local)

In HOLLIS Library Catalog Advanced Search, search, say, Nigeria as Author. This will yield, largely, Nigerian government publications.

LLMC Digital
Go to Online Services, then Browse Collections.  A rich source of legislative and judicial documents

Images

Pictures for Her: History of Women in Medicine search in HOLLIS contains several collections of women practicing medicine in various countries.

Magazines/Periodicals

Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe)

Newspapers

Chronicling America, enhancing access to historic American newspapers (1836-1922) (Library of Congress) offers searchable full text. Also includes the valuable U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present, in which searches can be limited by language and ethnicity.

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection (1799-1971) in America’s Historical Newspapers. Title list (In Quick Facts & Overview box on the right). The titles marked Forthcoming are in fact available now. Asian newspapers are largely Japanese.

Ethnic NewsWatch (1959- ) offers full-text of 90 newspapers and other periodicals (1990- ) and of 30 African American, Hispanic American, and Native American newspapers and other periodicals (1959-1989). Includes book/film/television reviews. Lists of periodicals by ethnicity.

For general newspaper coverage, see Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes.

Oral Histories

See the Library Research Guide for History

Policy Literature

PolicyFile (1990-) offers public policy reports and studies published by think tanks, university research programs, research organizations including the OECD, IMF, World Bank, the Rand Corporation, and a number of federal agencies.

Policy Archive is a digital library of public policy research containing over 30,000 documents.

Think Tank Search - from the Kennedy School of Government, a customized Google search of documents produced by think tanks.

Google advanced search. You can limit by domain: .org

Statistics

Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States (Migration Policy Institute)

Health Statistics (UC Davis Library guide)