Research Guides: English 1110: Writing and Information Literacy: Working with Primary Sources

ASK US!

If you need additional help with your research for this class, including finding articles, organizing your research, or citing your sources, you can contact the Libraries' Ask Us! team here: https://library.osu.edu/askus (please let them know you are taking English 1110).

Working with Primary Sources: Best Practices

Here are additional resources to help you understand how you, as a researcher, can work with primary source material.

What is Primary Research and How do I get Started?
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Tips for Citing Primary Sources
Library of Congress and MLA guide

Selected Digitized Collections of Primary Source Material: Subscription Databases

Below are subscription databases of primary source materials available to OSU students, staff, and faculty. The "i" icon next to the title is a link to further information about a resource.

LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material also serves related disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts. Some publications may contain explicit content.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window An archival research resource comprising the full backfiles of leading womenâ€™s interest consumer magazines. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels This link opens in a new window Primary source database focusing on North American and European adult comic books and graphic novels. The collection includes original material from the 1960s to today along with interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines.
Historical Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window This database offers full text including images for several African-American newspapers from the 20th century, together in a searchable interface. Coverage includes: The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988)Chicago Defender (1910-1975)Cleveland Call and Post (1934-1991)New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
Japanese American Incarceration: Records of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946 This link opens in a new window Records of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946, Field Basic Documentation is an invaluable resource for scholars interested in better understanding the World War II incarceration of Japanese American citizens and residents. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a government agency tasked with rounding up Japanese Americans, incarcerating them into camps, determining their loyalty or disloyalty to the United States, and resettling them into U.S. society. The records are expansive, providing an extensive portrait of incarceration camp management, the failings of the segregation process, and the mindset of Japanese American incarcerees in the camps. In addition, the collection includes material on public relations and military recruitment. The documents in this collection include incarceration camp newsletters, WRA staff bulletins and administrative records, reports on important incidences, and general reports made at the closing of each camp.
Native American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window North American Indian Thought and Culture brings together more than 100,000 pages, many of which are previously unpublished, rare, or hard to find. The project integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files for the first time. The result is a comprehensive representation of historical events as told by the individuals who lived through them. The database is an essential resource for all those interested in serious scholarly research into the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples.

Finding Images Online

Creative Commons Search
Google Images
After you search by keyword, click on the Tools option on the results page and then Usage Rights. You can choose the option to view images with Creative Commons licenses.
Flickr--Creative Commons
Open Clip Art
Wikimedia Commons

Selected Digitized Collections from the University Archives and Special Collections

Our Choking Times Our Choking Times began in 1970 as the African-American students' newspaper. It was published until 1982 when its name changed to Spectrum and then Dimensions. Dimensions was published until the mid-1990s. This collection represents the copies held at the University Archives and is not a complete run. This collection contains 123 issues comprising 1,387 pages and 3,574 articles.
Makio (OSU Yearbook)
The Lantern (OSU student newspaper)
Women's Suffrage Collection
Rare Books & Manuscripts Library