Primary Sources
This page lists a variety of kinds of sources and offers links to resources for exploring them.
- HOLLIS
- Digital Libraries
- Bibliographies
- Document Collections
- Anthropological Studies
- Commerce
- Government Documents
- Images and Objects
- Islamic Africa
- Maps
- Missionary Writings
- Newspapers
- Slave Trade and Slave Narratives/Biographies
- Travel and Exploration Writings
To find books, periodicals, manuscripts, videos, etc., on a topic in HOLLIS, put in likely keywords and choose Library Catalog. Look at pertinent records and find the terms under Subject. For example, searching for the keywords Africa early art yields:
Early Art and Architecture of Africa, by Peter S. Garlake. Oxford History of Art. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. HOLLIS Record
Subjects:
Art, African
Architecture -- African
Under Refine my results: Subject on the right of the results list there are more main terms (Coins, Bronze, Women, Music, Excavations (Archaeology)) to try, but not the terms after the dashes ( -- Social aspects; -- History) which are called subdivisions. NOTE: If you hit one of the terms in this Subject list, HOLLIS will find records with the term, say "Excavations (Archaeology)", only on records in the set originally formed by searching Africa early art.
Redo your search using the terms that HOLLIS uses. Also, go to Starts with.../Browse (top black band) and put in Art, African adjusting to Browse by Subject. This is very useful in breaking down a large subject and in giving you more subdivisions, which can be applied to other Subject terms, to search. Thus:
- Art, African -- Bibliography
- Art, African -- Cameroon
- Art, African -- Historiography
Regional Subject Terms:
- Africa, Central: Here are entered works on the region of Africa that includes what are now the Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo (Democratic Republic), and Congo (Brazzaville), and also sometimes Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Burundi, and Rwanda
- Africa, East: Here are entered works dealing collectively with Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania
- Africa, Eastern: Here are entered works on the area extending from Sudan and Ethiopia to Mozambique
- Africa, English-speaking
- Africa, English-speaking West: Here are entered works dealing collectively with Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria
- Africa, French-speaking: Here are entered works dealing collectively with African countries where the French language has official status or has special cultural or historical importance
- Africa, French-speaking Equatorial: Here are entered works dealing collectively with Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), and Gabon
- Africa, French-speaking West: Here are entered works dealing collectively with Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo
- Africa, Spanish-speaking: Here are entered works that discuss collectively Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, areas of Morocco that were formerly under the control of Spain, and places on the North African coast that are under Spanish sovereignty
- Africa, North: Here are entered works dealing collectively with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya
- Africa, Northeast: Here are entered works dealing collectively with Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti
- Africa, Northwest: Here are entered works on the area extending eastward from Morocco, Spanish Sahara, and Mauritania to include Libya and Chad
- Africa, Portuguese-speaking: Here are entered works dealing collectively with the countries of Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Sao Tome and Principe.
- Africa, Southern: Here are entered works on the area south of Congo (Democratic Republic) and Tanzania. Works on the Republic of South Africa are entered under South Africa
- Africa, West
Searching within All English-language Works Published in a Country
In HOLLIS Library Catalog Advanced Search do searches of the form:
Code: MARC place of publication: nr [Code: MARC place of publication is toward the bottom of the search menu: Nigeria]
Whenever you have a reference to a useful book, look it up in HOLLIS and see what the Subject terms are.
Any pertinent book published during your era may be a primary source, but certain kinds of primary sources, including originally unpublished sources such as letters and diaries published later, have particular terms attached to their Subject terms in a HOLLIS record. Change Any field to Subject for cleanest results.
- --Archives
- --Correspondence
- --Description and travel
- --Diaries
- --Manuscripts
- --Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
- --Personal narratives (refers to accounts of wars and diseases only)
- --Sources (usually refers to collections of published primary sources)
When you find a pertinent book, go to Starts With.../Browse and put in the call number, adjusting the menu to Library of Congress (Wid-LC) or Other. This shows you other books on the same subject, even though they may be in storage or checked out.
See the Library Research Guide for History and the HOLLIS Help guide for more information on searching HOLLIS.
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,
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest
--To search, select Advanced Search and deselect the other archives under Limit to.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) offers full text for works, including much ephemera and many periodicals, dated 1475-1700. Uses Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) offers full text for English language works dated 1700-1800. Uses Library of Congress Subject Headings. Searchable by words and phrases based on the OCR text.
Corpus de la première littérature francophone d'Afrique noire, écrite et orale, des origines aux Indépendances (fin 18e siècle - 1960)
HOLLIS Record
Select Collections (top right, then Littérature française et francophone
Gallica includes the full-text for more than 100,000 volumes and 300,000 images covering the Middle Ages to the beginning of the twentieth century, with an emphasis on nineteenth-century material. Included are dictionaries and encyclopedias, journals, manuscripts, recordings and images.
To find bibliographies in HOLLIS, search bibliography as a subject along with relevant keywords and subject terms. Example.
In HathiTrust, do the equivalent search in Advanced Catalog Search. You can choose Full View Only.
In Internet Archive, search Subject:Bibliography AND Africa
Oxford Bibliographies contains rich lists of background materials and primary source materials for African countries (scroll down to each individual country name under "Countries") and for various themes and regions, including:
- Pre-colonial political systems
- Historiography and methods of African history
- African Oral and Written Traditions
A guide to original sources for precolonial western Africa published in European languages: for the most part in book form, by J.D. Fage. Rev. ed. Madison, Wis.: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1994, 200 p. (Print)
Online Version
A Supplement to A Guide to Original Sources for Precolonial Western Africa: Corrigenda et Addenda, by J. D. Fage, J. D. History in Africa, 1992,
Vol. 19,, p.201-236
Studying Africa: a guide to the sources, ed. by Marianne Andersson and Åsa Lund Moberg. Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, c2011 (online)
Bibliography of sources for pre-colonial epics, oral literature, complied by Nadine Boddaert. (scroll down to p.11 for the start of the bibliography)
Africa: a guide to reference material, by John McIlwaine. London ; New York : Hans Zell Publishers, 1993, 507 p.
HOLLIS Record
Internet Archive full text
Semper ex Africa ... A bibliography of primary source for nineteenth-century tropical Africa as recorded by explorers, missionaries, traders, travelers, administrators, military men, adventurers, and others, by Robert L. Hess and Dalvan M. Coger. Stanford, Calif., Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, 1972, 800 p.
HOLLIS Record
--Arranged by country. Largely post-1860 but some earlier.
Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism in South Africa: an annotated bibliography, by David Chidester, Judy Tobler, and Darrell Wratten. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997, 295 p.
HOLLIS Record
Islam in sub-Saharan Africa: a partially annotated guide, by Samir M. Zoghby, African Section. Washington : Library of Congress: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1978, 318 p.
HOLLIS Record with online version
Africa and the West: a documentary history, by William H. Worger, Nancy L. Clark and Edward A. Alpers. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010. (print)
The African past: chronicles from antiquity to modern times, ed. by Basil Davidson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964. (print)
The East African coast; select documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century, by G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1962, 314 p. HOLLIS record -- Internet Archive Full Text
Colonial Office (Great Britain) publications (Internet Archive). Largely post-1860, but includes 17 items 1829-1860. Scroll down to Collection, then Tear on the left. Includes:
- Cape of Good Hope government gazette
- Reports showing the Present State of Her Majesty’s Colonial Possessions
Nineteenth Century Collection Online contains the "Archive" titled Exploration and Colonization of Africa which includes the following collections. You can search within a specified colelction by opening Exploration and Colonization of Africa.and scrolling down.
- Colonial Africa Newspapers from the British Library (1821-1921)
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Bathurst, Gambia, British Africa, 1857-1889
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Cape Town, Cape Colony, 1800-1906
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Gaboon, 1856-1888
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, Portuguese Africa, 1854-1906
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Santiago, Cape Verde Islands, 1818-1898
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Sierra Leone, British Africa, 1858-1906
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in St. Helena, British West Africa, 1831-1906
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in St. Paul de Loanda, Portuguese Africa, 1854-1893
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Tamatave, Madagascar, 1853-1906
- Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Zanzibar, British Africa, 1836-1906
- International Population Census, Africa (1820-1931)
- Methodist Episcopal Church Missionary Correspondence, 1846-1912: Africa
- Personal Narratives and Reminiscences of the Exploration of Africa (1836-1913)
- Publications of the Cape Colony (Includes publications describing the pre-1860 Cape Colony)
- Selected Africa Collections from the Bodleian Library (1809-1903)
- Selected Colonial Office Files on Africa (1794-1919)
- Selected Foreign Office Files on Africa (1825-1905)
- Selected Narratives and Reminiscences on Colonial Africa (1792-1915)
- Yale Divinity School Periodicals on Africa (1800-1900)
To find bibliographies of anthropological studies in Africa, search in HOLLIS Advanced Search for Africa (or specific country names) and anthropology and bibliography as subjects.
Example search for bibliographies of anthropological studies of Africa
Source book for African anthropology, by Wilfrid D. Hambly. Chicago, 1937. 2 v.
HOLLIS Record
Full Text
Supplement: Bibliography of African anthropology, 1937-1949
Full Text
Anthropological bibliography of Negro Africa, by H. A. Wieschhoff, H. A. New Haven : American Oriental Society, 1948, 461 p.
Full Text
Anthropology Plus (Harvard Key required) Searches the major literature, including journals, in anthropology and related fields.
EHRAF: World Cultures (Human Relations Area Files) includes full text of books, periodical articles, manuscripts, and dissertations/theses on selected cultures of the world.
EHRAF: Archaeology (Human Relations Area Files) includes full text of books, periodical articles, manuscripts, and dissertations/theses on selected archaeological traditions.
To find commerce-related items in HOLLIS, search for Africa (or specific country names) and commerce as a subject.
Example search for Africa and commerce
The Making of the Modern World offers full text searching of works on economics and business published from 1450-1850 from the Kress Collection of Business and Economics at the Baker Library, Harvard Business School and the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library. Includes material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, public health, trade and transport.
British Records on the Atlantic World includes 13 collections listed on the HOLLIS record. Several concern the African slave trade.
East of Mina: Afro-European relations on the Gold Coast in the 1550s and 1560s: an essay with supporting documents, by A. Teixeira da Mota and P.E.H. Hair. Madison: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1988. 104 p.
HOLLIS Record
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers includes committee reports, draft bills, and other material emanating from the House of Commons. Includes reports submitted to Parliament. For more on Parliamentary papers.
Confidential print: Africa, 1834-1966 contains printed material, from single letters to large volumes, circulated to officials in the Foreign or Colonial Office, to the Cabinet, and to heads of British missions abroad. Nature and Scope
Government Publications Relating to African Countries Prior to Independence. This list can be browsed and publications found looked up in HOLLIS. If Harvard does not own them, they can be obtained via Interlibrary Loan from the Center for Research Libraries.
African blue books of statistics, 1821-1953. Colonial administrators filled out annual reports which were sent to the Colonial Office in London.
- type in relevant keywords, such as: rock paintings, Africa, names of countries
- limit Resource Type to "Images"
- change the Publication Date to "Date Range" and leave the start date blank - limit to the years you want
ARTstor is a database of digital images serving art history and the humanities.
- Use Advanced Search to limit by geographic region and time period
- Can limit by Place and Century or Period
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
- Choose "Search objects" on right-hand side of page
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture contains some drawings depicting life in Africa from the larger collection Slavery Images.
Basel Mission Archives (1815 until the mid-20th century) contain digitzed visual and cartographic material as well as catalog data relating to the Basel Mission’s work in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, especially Ghana (from 1828), India (from 1834), China (from 1847), Cameroon (from1886) and Kalimantan (from 1922).
Many museums have search engines for their collections with images of their objects.
World Heritage Sites AFRICA (Aluka)
African Rock Art Digital Archive
Mogadishu Images from the Past (Late 18th century-1990). Photographs, drawings, maps
Die Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG) Bildarchiv. Database of colonial era photographs, 1822-1936. Covers Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo, etc.
New York Public Library - Picture Collection Online
Gallica (Bibliotheque nationale)
Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history, translated by J.F.P. Hopkins ; edited and annotated by N. Levtzion & J.F.P. Hopkins. Cambridge [Eng.] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1981, 492 p.
Islam in the Indian Ocean world : a brief history with documents, by Omar H. Ali, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Boston : Bedford / St. Martin's, 2016, 157 pages
HOLLIS Record
Arabic literature of Africa online (includes writings before 1860)
Islamic Manuscripts from Mali - 32 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye of Boujbeha
Taʼrīkh al fattāsh = The Timbuktu chronicles, 1493-1599: English translation of the original works in Arabic by Al Hajj Mahmud Kat. Trenton, N.J. : Africa World Press, c2011. (print)
Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Saʻdī's Taʼrīkh al-Sūdān down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 1999. (print)
The travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325-1354. Trans. and ed. by C. Defremery, et al. Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press, 1958. (print)
The Harvard Map Collection contains one of the world’s finest collections of maps. Although their atlases are in HOLLIS, many of their individual maps are not. Som a visit is useful. As well as political and topographic maps, they have numerous thematic maps which map demographic, social, and economic other features.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
AFRITERRA Foundation is a non-profit Cartographic Library and Archive for rare maps of Africa.
Missionary Archives from Lesotho, 1832 - 2006
British Records of the Atlantic World, 1700-1900 includes:
- Part 10: Early colonial and missionary records from West Africa [includes early Gold Coast records from the archives of the USPG; the papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson, the first Governor of the Colony of Sierra Leone; An Account of Two Missionary Voyages by Rev. Thomas Thompson; and the letters of Rev. Philip Quaque]
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
--About the ABCFM
The Houghton Library here at Harvard holds the archives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. An online guide for the paper records in Houghton is available, but researchers are asked to use the microfilm which contains over half of the records (in Government Documents/Microtext, Level B, Lamont Library) where possible. An online guide to the microfilm is available together with an index of missionaries, and collection information (in Collection List under Papers of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. There is a book in the Houghton Library Reading Room which lists the original paper records and is annotated to indicate which of these are available on the microfilm. The main collection of ABCFM papers consists of documents, minutes and letters sent by the missionaries to the Board, arranged geographically by location of mission, then chronologically, then alphabetically by name of the missionary.
Archives Unbound: Global Missions and Theology includes personal narratives, organizational records and biographies of leaders, missionaries and churches. Includes materials on American domestic and foreign missionary activities, 1800-1899. More information.
Dictionary of African Christian Biography
African Newspapers (World Newspaper Archive) offers full text of about 40 newspapers covering various date spans, 1800-1922.
Slave Trade and Slave Narratives/Biographies
The African slave trade and its suppression: a classified and annotated bibliography of books, pamphlets and periodical articles, by Peter C. Hogg. London: F. Cass, 1973, 409 p.
HOLLIS Record
Internet Archive Online
--Includes bibliography of slave narratives/biographies and much other material. Table of Contents.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on almost 36,000 slaving voyages.
Slavery and Anti-slavery: A Transnational Archive. (1700-1940) includes books, pamphlets, newspapers and manuscript collections. Associated reference works and interpretive essays.
British Records of the Atlantic World, 1700-1900 includes:
- pt. 6. Papers of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, 1694-
Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, by Samuel Moore, (fl. 1854), "Includes information about Central Africa”
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. Vol. I. London: Author, 1789.
Slavery, Emancipation, and Abolition (Slave Narratives)
Travel and Exploration Writings
Travel books (first person accounts of travels) and guidebooks offer descriptions of particular places at particular times.
Find travel and exploration accounts in HOLLIS by searching the following subject terms:
- “Description and Travel”
- "Discovery and exploration"
Add "Early works to 1800" to your search as a subject if the results are not in the right time period.
Exploration and Colonization of Africa from Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Encyclopedia of Exploration to 1800: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to the History and Literature of Exploration, Travel, and Colonization from the Earliest times to the Year 1800, ed. by Raymond John Howgego. Potts Point, N.S.W.: Hordern House, 2003. (print)
A reference guide to the literature of travel; including voyages, geographical descriptions, adventures, shipwrecks and expeditions, by Edward Godfrey Cox. New York, Greenwood Press 1969, 3 v.
HOLLIS Record
--Africa in vol. 1, pp. 354-401. Annotated, chronologically arranged bibliography of works published largely 1554-1800, a few later up to 1934.