What is a primary source?
Primary sources may be letters, manuscripts, newspapers, clothing, pottery, recorded sound or other items that offer original evidence of a civilization, a person, an event or a place. Since a single primary source reflects one point of view, consulting various sources is necessary in an attempt to understand different perspectives and distinguish between historical fact and fiction.
OSU Libraries makes available databases of primary sources. See the various sections of the this subject guide for selected databases that include documents, newspapers, and other source materials.
Special Collections at OSU Libraries
Special Collections
Find brief descriptive information on OSU special collections and links to more information. Link to the specific special collection to find specialists who can assist you with finding primary resources in those collections
Find manuscript collections using the Discover search - https://library.osu.edu/
-use the default search space; enter keywords; select the Special Collections box.
Find books in Special Collections using the OSU Library catalog.
- go to http://library.ohio-state.edu/ and select the type of search (eg. keyword, subject, author etc.)
- enter search terms and then click on the box that says "Search Full Catalog" and select Spec Collections & Archives
- click on the submit button. All results will be items in Special Collections
Digital Collections is a searchable database of selected items from three library collections. The number of images will increase as we add items to the database. Also use the Discover search - https://library.osu.edu/
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940
“As part of the Archives of Sexuality & Gender series, this collection enables students, educators, and researchers to thoroughly explore and make new connections in subjects such as LGBTQ history and activism, cultural studies, psychology, sociology, health, political science, policy studies, human rights, gender studies, and more. Selection of materials for this milestone digital collection is guided by an advisory board consisting of leading scholars and librarians in sexuality and gender studies.”
Crime
Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920
Contains manuscripts, books, broadsheets, and periodicals. The collection covers Europe, North America, India, and the Antipodes and includes material in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Using this archive, it is possible to trace the influence of a legal judgment or development of a penal methodology through various different jurisdictions. Includes a wealth of English archival crime material, both rural, as with the Althorp papers, and urban, with collections of police correspondence from London and Manchester.
British Online Archive - Colonial and Missionary Records
Offers a wide range of items to interest those researching territories colonized by Britain including: America, India, Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and Melanesia. Some of the documents were created made by the East India Company and the missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. NOTE: When doing a keyword search check the box for “show licensed material only.”
Chinese Recorder and The Protestant Missionary Community In China/1867-1941
Although it was intended primarily for the missionaries in China, the Chinese Recorder also circulated to mission supporters and theological schools in the home countries. At its height its circulation was only 3,000 copies, but its readership certainly far surpassed that number; it seems likely that one person at each mission station subscribed, but everyone at the station read it. From its earliest issues, it is evident that it had correspondents at all the major mission locations. The history of the publication is unclear, except from the Chinese Recorder itself, since it ceased publication in December 1941 following the entrance of the United States into the Second World War.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals (19th century-21st century)
"This resource encompasses publications from the Church Missionary Society, the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounters."
Methodist Church Archives: Missionary Activities
This collection comprises materials relating to Methodist Episcopal Missionary activities, particularly in reference to Italy
Wars in the 20th century
French Documents and Manuscripts in Gallica
First World War [database purchased by OSU Libraries]
Searchable database of original documents and publications from the period on the origins of the war through the peacemaking process. The three available modules are Personal Experiences, Propaganda and Recruitment, and Visual Perspectives and Narratives. Documents include British Confidential Print: First World War: General Correspondence from 1914-1919 (FO 438).
Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War
“Over 1,500 periodicals written and illustrated by serving members of the armed forces and associated welfare organisations published between 1914 and the end of 1919 are included. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover, in full colour or greyscale.”
World War I Posters at the Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division makes available online approximately 1,900 posters created between 1914 and 1920. Most relate directly to the war, but some German posters date from the post-war period and illustrate events such as the rise of Bolshevism and Communism, the 1919 General Assembly election and various plebiscites.
The majority of the posters were printed in the United States. Posters from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia are included as well.
Personal Journals of World War I held by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at The Ohio State University.
Selected Guide to Oral Histories at OSU and the Web
Find Oral Histories or Interviews using OSU Libraries Resources
Find text and video of oral histories by using the advanced menu search
-Change the first pull down menu to subject and use the word interviews
-On another search line include relevant key word
-Restrict to videos by using the Location menu and select Web E-Video
A different search strategy would be to deploy a keyword search to combine a relevant keyword with “oral history”
“civil rights” and “oral history”
Note: May find oral histories and works that used oral history as a resource
Selected Databases with Video and/or Text Available from OSU Libraries
Ohio State University Archives Oral Histories
“The OSU Oral History Program documents the history of The Ohio State University by interviewing faculty members and administrators, as well as former students.”
United States Senate Historical Office Oral History Collection. JK1161 .U65 MICROFICHE 2nd Floor Thompson Library Microform division.
Black Studies in Video Use Advanced Menu; enter keywords/names; scroll down to Content Type and limit only to interviews
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 Use the Search tab and limit to interviews or oral history using the Document Type limiter
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories Find video interviews by selecting the Browse tab and then select Showcase. Scroll down to Ellis Island Oral History Project. Also use the Search tab and select Advanced Search. Limit to oral history using Document Type
The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960–1974 Limit to interviews and oral histories by selecting the Search tab and then limiting the Document Type
Visual History Archive. Los Angles: USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. Requires free registration. Search cataloguing and indexing data for 54,369 videotaped interviews conducted with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and genocides in the 20th century - The 1937 Nanjing Massacre; The 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda; The 1915 Armenian Genocide; The Guatemalan Genocide, which occurred during the country’s 36-year Civil War; The 1975 Cambodian Genocide. For a guide to the collection see http://libguides.usc.edu/vha NOTE: This resource contains copyrighted material. See the Terms of Use.
Selected Resources with Text and/or Audio and Video Freely Available on the Web
Ellis Island Oral Histories Requires free registration. Includes about 1893 interviews “dedicated to preserving the first-hand recollections of immigrants who passed through the Ellis Island immigration station between 1892 and 1954 and the employees who worked there.” NOTE: This resource appears to be searchable only by names of immigrants.
Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories “The Kent State Shootings Oral Histories project collects and provides access to personal accounts of the May 4, 1970, shootings and their aftermath.” There are 123 oral history accounts. On May 4, 1970 13 students were shot by members of the Ohio National Guard at a student demonstration. “The protests at Kent State were part of a widespread spontaneous reaction to the announcement by President Richard M. Nixon of the U.S. incursion into Cambodia [during the Vietnam War,] which had begun only days earlier.”
Columbus Jewish Historical Society Oral Histories Offers transcripts of oral history interviews of persons from the Columbus Jewish community reflecting on their lives and mainly local Jewish events and institutions from the past up to today.
War Stories
"Represents the experiences of West Texas military veterans and their families from World War I to the present. These are stories of those who served and those who hoped and prayed for their loved ones’ safe return."
Additional Resources for Locating Oral Histories
Columbia Center for Oral History. New York: Columbia University. [CATALOG TO COLLECTION ONLY] Includes “over 10,000 interviews, the CCOH Archives is one of the largest oral history collections in the United States.”
Selected Oral History Projects. UCLA Libraries Links to oral history projects in the United States
Selected General Resources on Conducting Oral Histories
NOTE: OSU Libraries has many books on the subject of oral history. For books that focus on methods of conducting oral histories see Oral history -- Methodology
Conducting Oral Histories. UCLA Libraries Web site with Information about preparing for and conducting an oral history interview
Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History. [EBook] Donna DeBlasio, Swallow Press, c2009.
Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. [Print book] Donald Richie, Oxford University Press, 2003.
Holocaust And Records Of Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution Of Nazi War Crimes
This collection provides unique documents on the investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed by Nazi concentration camp commandants and camp personnel. Documents include: correspondence; trial records and transcripts; investigatory material, such as interrogation reports and trial exhibits; clemency petitions and reviews; photographs of atrocities; newspaper clippings; and pamphlets.
Correspondence From German Concentration Camps And Prisons
Collection consists of items originating from prisoners held in German concentration camps, internment and transit camps, Gestapo prisons, and POW camps, during and just prior to World War II. Most of the collection consists of letters written or received by prisoners, but also includes receipts for parcels, money orders and personal effects; paper currency; and realia, including Star of David badges that Jews were forced to wear
French Revolution Digital Archive
"A collaboration of the Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque nationale de France"
Including French Revolution Images and the Archives Parlementaires linked below. Also includes a timeline.
French Revolution Images: Iconography from the collections of the Bibliotheque nationale de France
"The 5,126 images selected for this digital archive concentrate solely on the period from 1787 through 1799, from the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the Revolution through the emergence of Napoleon. Only visual materials directly tied to the Revolution itself are included."
France in America
“A bilingual digital library …[that] explores the history of the French presence in North America from the first decades of the 16th Century to the end of the 19th Century… [It illustrates] the major role played by France in the exploration and settlement of the continent and its participation in several events which indelibly marked the history of the United States: the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the cession of Louisiana. The site will be completed in fall 2006 with a panorama of economic, scientific, literary and artistic exchanges between the two nations in the course of the 19th Century.”
French Political Pamphlets 1547-1626
"The collection of French Political Pamphlets in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University features more than 2,100 pamphlets published between 1547 and 1626. Over the next four years, the Library will digitize and make these pamphlets available for online research, with a goal of adding 500 pamphlets each year beginning in 2009."
Gallica (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) Offers access to 70,000 digitalized books, 80,000 images, and to several dozens of hours of audio resources. The site is organized by themes including France in America (see above), Voyage en Afrique, Les Societes Savantes en l’Aquitaine et la Lorraine, and Voyage en France.
Eurodocs: History of France
Selected documents, antiquity to present
Duetschland.de
Link to libraries and archives
AIM25 - Archives in London and the M25 area
Provides "electronic access to collection level descriptions of the archives of over one hundred higher education institutions, learned societies, cultural organisations and livery companies within the greater London area. This work is in progress - new data is being added regularly."
Georgian Papers Catalog
Georgian Papers Online is the catalogue of the Georgian Papers Programme, a five-year project to transform access to the extensive collection of Georgian papers held in the Royal Archives and Royal Library at Windsor.
British Online Archive - Colonial and Missionary Records
Offers a wide range of items to interest those researching territories colonized by Britain including: America, India, Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and Melanesia. Some of the documents were created made by the East India Company and the missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. NOTE: When doing a keyword search check the box for “show licensed material only.”
British Documents on the End of Empire
Download document volumes on the following: Series A, v. 1. Colonial policy and practice, 1924-1925. -- v. 2. The Labour government and the end of empire, 1945-1951. -- v. 3. The Conservative government and the end of empire, 1951-1957. -- Series B, v. 1. Ghana. -- v. 2. Sri Lanka. -- v. 3. Malaya. -- v. 4. Egypt and the defence of the Middle East. [also at OSU in print] -- v. 5. Sudan. -- Series C, v. 1. Records of the Colonial Office, Dominions Office, Commonwealth Relations Office and Commonwealth Office (in one part, 1995), [also at OSU in print] -- 2. Records of the Cabinet, Foreign Office, Treasury and Other Records (in one part, 1998), [also at OSU in print].
Cabinet Papers, 1916-1986
Search full text and retrieve pdf of documents produced or provided to the British Cabinet. At this time the documents include "Conclusions" for cabinet discussions and agreed action points; "Memoranda" for policy proposals and positions taken by ministers or government departments; "Notebooks" for transcripts of cabinet discussions revealing a minister's stance before consensus; "Precedent" books for policy on how the Cabinet works.
East India Company Records, 1550-1950
Offers India Office Records from the British Library, London containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1600 to 1947.
Colonial America
Colonial America will make available all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 (Colonial Office Record Group 5) series from The National Archives, UK, covering the period 1606 to 1822. CO 5 consists of the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a uniquely rich resource for all historians of the period.
Colonial State Papers
“This collection offers insight into the colonial history of North America and the West Indies. It includes the British National Archives collection CO 1—papers from the Colonial Office that were presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade during 1574-1757. More than 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 45,000 bibliographic records from Calendar of State Papers Colonial consists of bibliographic entries along with transcriptions, extracts and abstracts, in fully keyed XML. The papers offer fascinating insight into British trade, history and overseas expansion between the 16th and 18th centuries.” Colonial State Papers is only concerned with the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies. Papers and calendars on other regions are not included even though they may relate to American affairs. A search of CSP will produce calendar entries in CO record groups that were not digitized.
Defining Gender
Explores the study and analysis of gender, leisure and consumer culture using original primary source material from British archives. Offers “ephemera, pamphlets, college records and exam papers, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, account books, educational practice and pedagogy, government papers from the Home Office and Metropolitan police, illustrated writings on anatomy, midwifery, art and fashion, manuscript journals, poetry, novels, ballads, drama, receipt books, literary manuscripts, travel writing, and conduct and advice literature.”
Papers of Joseph Chamberlain
This collection demonstrates the rapid change in politics, particularly the constant change in allegiances between politicians and Chamberlain’s own development as a politician. Newspaper clippings of his early speeches, the only record still existing of them, can also be found in this collection, recording his political career from start to finish.
Papers of Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) remains the best-known of the Chamberlain family due to his controversial policy of "appeasement" towards Hitler. The Papers of Neville Chamberlain contain political papers documenting his policies as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister, but also highlight his personal correspondence with his family. These provide insight into the intentions behind his policies, his concerns at the development of the Second World War, as well as letters covering his life together with his wife Annie and his sisters, particularly Hilda and Ida. The correspondence of his wife with his biographer and the handling of his estates following his death can be found in this collection as well.
Papers of Sir Austen Chamberlain
The Papers of Sir Austen Chamberlain contains political papers that variously document his policies as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the House of Commons. These provide insight into the intentions behind his policies, the development of foreign affairs for both the First and Second World Wars, and his role in the wartime coalition government. The papers also include personal correspondence with his family, including his sister and wife, and highlight his close friendship with his stepmother, Mary Endicott.
Women in the National Archives
"A finding aid to women's studies resources in The National Archives [and] original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories...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."
Archives:
Archives in Italy
Diplomatic Archives in Italy
Selected Document Collections:
Digital Archives and Collections
Links provided by the Society for Italian Historical Studies
Selected Digital Collections
China
New Zealand
Digital Vatican Library
Offers access to the Vatican Library’s digitized collections of manuscripts and incunabula.
Perseus Digital Library
Classical documents supporting the humanities
Loeb Classical Library
LCL "presents a fully searchable virtual library of important Greek and Latin literature. Epic and lyric poetry; tragedy and comedy; history, travel, philosophy, and oratory; the great medical writers and mathematicians. More than 520 volumes of Latin, Greek, and English texts are available in a modern and elegant interface, allowing readers to browse, search, bookmark, annotate, and share content with ease."
Brill's New Jacoby
BNJ 'is a new edition of the 856 fragmentary historians that comprise F. Jacoby's monumental Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker Parts I-III, but with significant additions. Each author has a Greek text (updated from that of Jacoby where relevant); facing English translation; new, critical commentary (for the first time for authors 608-856, on which Jacoby did not write commentaries); a brief encyclopaedia-style entry about his life, works, importance, etc.; and a select bibliography."
Roman Provincial Coinage Online
Intended "to produce a standard typology of the provincial coinage of the Roman Empire from its beginning in 44 BC to its end in AD 296/7. The Roman Provincial Coinage Online project is confined to the periods AD 96–192 and 249–254, but other periods will be put online in the future. The database contains information on 23,322 coin types, based on 97,883 specimens (30,289 of which have images)."
Eurodocs
Variety of links related to texts, images, and scanning projects in ancient history
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
An ongoing project based on historical GIS, developed at Lunds universitet since 2012, under the Pelagios Commons umbrella. According to the “About DARE” page (viewed 30 September 2016), it “aims at a high level of accuracy and the integration of digital resources such as satellite imagery, national topographic maps, source texts, other source material, and scholarly literature.” The resulting atlas benefits from frequent (at least monthly) updating to incorporate additional data as well as new digital cartographic features. The locations of settlements, roads, structures of other types, bodies of water, and natural land features are mapped, with distinctive designations for partial and reconstructed names, sites known only by their modern names, uncertain locations, and so forth. In addition to Roman place names, Late Iron Age Celtic sites are included."
Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations (DARMC)
"DARMC makes freely available on the internet the best available materials for a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to mapping and spatial analysis of the Roman and medieval worlds. DARMC allows innovative spatial and temporal analyses of all aspects of the civilizations of western Eurasia in the first 1500 years of our era, as well as the generation of original maps illustrating differing aspects of ancient and medieval civilization. A work in progress with no claim to definitiveness."
OSU School of Architecture Digital Library
Images of ancient architectural structures and sites
© The Ohio State University - University Libraries
1858 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: (614) 292-OSUL (6785) | Fax: (614) 292-9101
Request an alternate format of this page | Accessibility | Privacy Policy
For all other requests, click Ask Us.