Research Guides: Humanities Core: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary Sources are "documents, images, or artifacts that provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence of the topic under humanistic investigation... these sources are original documents or artifacts that were created at a particular moment in time and are often intimately related to their author or maker." - Humanities Core Handbook, Chapter 1

Primary Source Portals

Primary Sources for History Research Guide
This guide, maintained by our Research Librarian for History, identifies hundreds of resources for finding historical primary sources. Discover resources by geographic region, population, and document type.
Gale Primary Sources
Artemis Primary Sources allows researchers to uncover primary source documents in archives where they may not have thought to look, greatly enhancing their research experience. By building a seamless research environment for multiple collections, Gale is creating the largest digital humanities and social sciences collection in the world.

Digital Primary Source Collections

The most comprehensive and updated listing of the library's streaming media options are found on our Streaming Media Research Guide.

As a student, you are not limited to the library's holdings of streaming media content for your research project. If you have access to other streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Disney+, Apple, etc., you are welcome to use films and media you find through those platforms as well. You may also use any media or film that you personally have access to in another way (e.g. Bluray, DVD, etc).

Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new window
A collection of the 500 most requested Hollywood and feature films of all time.
UCInetID authentication required to log in.
Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to streaming videos in a variety of subject areas, including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. This database includes films, documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, field recordings, commercials, and raw footage.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy provides access to contemporary and classic feature films and documentaries, from the major Hollywood studios as well as independent and international filmmakers.
New World Cinema: Independent Features and Shorts, 1990-Present This link opens in a new window
A collection of films selected from the catalogues of independent distributors such as Kino Lorber, First Run Features, Film Movement, MK2, and Global Lens.

Silent Films - Internet Archive
Collection of silent feature and short films that are now in the public domain
AdViews
Thousands of historic commercials created for clients or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency or its predecessor during the 1950s - 1980s

For more information about the library's various e-book collections, visit our eBook Research Guide.

General places to look for digitized books and texts

The Internet Archive
Millions of free books, archived websites, film, music, and more.
American Libraries collection
Over 3 million digitized texts from academic and public libraries across the US. Collection within the Internet Archive.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.
Gallica
Digital library of the Bibliotheque nationale de France, with thousands of digital objects, including images, texts, digitized books, maps, videos, and more.

Special Topics - also see the "Sources by Topic" tab

The Pulp Magazine Archive
Archive of pulp fiction published from 1896-1950s. Includes Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Weird Tales (includes writings by H.P. Lovecraft), Horror Stories, and other titles in the science fiction, gothic, horror, and mystery genres.
Solidarity! Revolutionary Center and Radical Library
Collection of digitized political and radical zines on a variety of topics.
American Libraries Fairy Tale Digital Collections
Over 1400 full-text fairy tales and legends from around the world. Included Grimm's and Andersen's tales, as well as tales from India, Japan, Ireland, China, Turkey, South Africa, Poland, Russia, and more.

Also see the "Sources by Topic" tab

Artstor Digital Library This link opens in a new window
A searchable database of digital images (digitized and born digital) covering many time periods and cultures and spanning areas of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, anthropology, women’s studies, and other forms of visual culture. This database allows you not only to search and view images in high resolution quality, but also the ability to download, save, and organize images.
In order to save or download images, users must create an account.

Advertising Archives
Digital collection of mostly print advertisements, primarily from the UK and Europe
Museum Computer Network (MCN) "Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources"
Hundreds of links to online collections from museums; portals to digitized artworks and exhibitions; virtual tours of art, history, and natural science museums; digitized library and archive collections
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Hundreds of digitized archival materials and collections from the Library of Congress. Most items are manuscripts or images.
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
The New York Public Library Digital Collections is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.

There are several more comprehensive guides for finding newspaper sources:

News and Newspapers Research Guide (for more current news sources)
Historical Newspapers Tab on the Primary Sources for History Research Guide (for historical news sources)

Current News (last 20 years)

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to U.S. federal and state statutes, regulations, court cases, administrative agency decisions, law reviews, to selected court briefs and pleadings, and legal news sources. Also includes international, national, local newspapers, and wire services, as well as radio and television transcripts. Business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters and various directories are also available. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pais.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Global full-text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich websites.
Maximum 12 users at a time.

Historical News

Proquest Newspapers
Digital archive of full-text current and historical newspapers on the ProQuest platform. Titles include Alt-PressWatch, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, US Major Dailies (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LA Times, Chicago Tribune) and 20+ national and international historical newspapers.

Newspapers.com World Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to over 200 million scanned pages of 4,900+ historical newspapers, dating from the early 1700s into the early 2000s. Contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles to small local newspapers in the United States and other countries, including Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Panama.

Pulp Fiction, Sci-Fi, and Comics

Pulp Magazine Archive Archive of pulp fiction published from 1896-1950s. Includes Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Weird Tales (includes writings by H.P. Lovecraft), Horror Stories, and other titles in the science fiction, gothic, horror, and mystery genres.
Golden Age Comics We are the original and still the premier site to read and download Golden and Silver Age comic books. Plus, we also hold a large and growing selection of comic strips and pulp fiction.
American Libraries Science Fiction Digital Collections Over 2000 science fiction texts - a subset of the American Libraries collection in the Internet Archive

Children's literature

American Libraries Fairy Tale Digital Collections Over 1400 full-text fairy tales and legends from around the world. Included Grimm's and Andersen's tales, as well as tales from India, Japan, Ireland, China, Turkey, South Africa, Poland, Russia, and more.
NYPL Children's book illustrations Nearly 2000 illustrations from children's books in the New York Public Library collection
Princeton University’s Soviet Children’s Book Collection Interactive database of children's book illustrations from the little-known and rarely-seen Soviet children's book collection from the Princeton University Cotsen Collection.
UCLA Children's Book Collection This collection includes over 1800 full-text digitizations of children's literature, mostly from the 19th century.

Alchemy and the Occult

University of Amsterdam's Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Digitizations of thousands of ancient books on spirituality and philosophy
The Getty Alchemy Collection The Getty Alchemy Collection includes books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries dealing with the art and science of alchemy. In addition to their influential allegorical and fantastic imagery, Alchemical texts record recipes and techniques for applications across the visual arts, including pigments, dyes, metal-alloys, and effects in glass, as well as the acidic washes of etching and lithography.
American Libraries Ghosts & Spiritualism Digital Collections Nearly 1500 texts on the occult, spiritualism, psychic arts, ghosts, necromancy, and more.

Travel, Exploration, and Colonization

Santa Clara University Voyages and Castaways Digital Collections Full-text digitizations of texts related to sea voyages of the 18th and 19th centuries
American Libraries Voyages and Travel Digital Books Collections Nearly 3000 texts related to voyage adventures, travel, and exploration
American Libraries Seafaring Digital Collections Over 1000 images and texts related to sea travel, ocean life, and more.

Special Collections and Archives

Digitized Primary Source Collections at UCI

Many of the digitized primary sources from both UC Irvine as well as our sister campuses can be found in Calisphere. This is a good place to start.

Calisphere This link opens in a new window
Aggregates digital collections of primary source material from all 10 UC libraries, as well as other libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and cultural heritage organizations in California. The collections provide open access to photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.

Links for searching and viewing UCI's Primary Sources

Here you can search for material to request to view in person once the library reopens.

UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
Search for books and more at in the UC system Limit to Special Collections and Archives to find many primary source materials
Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new window
Provides public access to detailed descriptions and finding aids of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.

Please refer to the pages below to learn more about when you can visit or contact spcoll@uci.edu to make inquiries about collection availability.

UCI Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives houses the UC Irvine Libraries' collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, photographs, and other rare and special materials. Located on the 5th floor of Langson Library
OC&SEAA
The Orange County & Southeast Asian Archive (OC & SEAA) Center at UCI Libraries provides a collaborative space with services and resources to guide users seeking to document and study the history of the Orange County area and its changing demographics. Located below the Gateway Study Center.