Research Guides: HIST 405- History of Early America (UNH Manchester): Primary Sources

Newspapers as Primary Sources

GICTestelb (2009, July 2). Newspapers-primary source? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18QjpURmVF0.

Historical Newspapers

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century This link opens in a new window
African American newspapers (also known as the Black press or Black newspapers) are news publications in the United States serving African American communities. Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russwurm started the first African American periodical, Freedom's Journal, in 1827. During the Antebellum South, other African American newspapers sprang up, such as The North Star, founded in 1847 by Frederick Douglass.
America's Historical Newspapers with Early American Newspapers Series 1-19 This link opens in a new window
Chronicles the evolution of American culture and society through eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries, and more. Funded by The James D. Merritt Memorial Book Fund Dates of coverage: 1690-1922
Boston Globe (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Dates of coverage: 1872-1993
Christian Science Monitor (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Dates of coverage: 1908-2011
Civil War: Part I: A Newspaper Perspective This link opens in a new window
A full-text, full-image collection of newspapers that includes eyewitness accounts and official reports of battles and events from the Civil War, advertisements, news articles and editorials. Dates of coverage: 1860-1865
Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922 This link opens in a new window
See America's Historical Newspapers with Early American Newspapers Series 1-19
Illustrated London News Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
Access the entire run of the world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper. Each page has been digitally reproduced in full color and every article and caption is full-text searchable with hit-term highlighting and links to corresponding illustrations. Dates of coverage: 1842-2003
Los Angeles Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Dates of coverage: 1881-2000
Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Search digital reproductions of articles and pages from The Times (London), including articles, editorials, and advertising. Variety of search options available including keyword, relevance, advanced, and browse by date. Dates of coverage: 1785-1985
Wall Street Journal (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Dates of coverage: 1889-2012
Washington Post (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Dates of coverage: 1877-2008

Alternative Press Sources

Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Coverage is both international and interdisciplinary. A comprehensive and up-to-date guide to alternative sources of information. Dates of coverage: 1991-current
Alternative Press Index Archive This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Coverage is both international and interdisciplinary. Companion to the Alternative Press Index. Dates of coverage: 1969-1990

Legal Information

The following online sources contain state and federal court cases, administrative rules, and current laws.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Image-based legal research collection: law and law-related periodicals, Congressional Record Bound volumes in entirety, coverage of US Reports back to 1754, world trials dating back to the early 1700s, legal classics from the 16th to the 20th centuries, the United Nations and League of Nations Treaty Series, all United States Treaties, the Federal Register from inception in 1936, the CFR from inception in 1938, and more.
Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
An online legal resource for law-related areas such as criminal justice, social work, business and education. This research tool features legal encyclopedias, court decisions, law reviews and journals, statutes, and more.

Policies, Polls, Maps and Historical Documents

Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
Database of public opinion polls containing the full text of questions and responses, from surveys, conducted in the United States and other countries around the world. Dates of coverage: 1986-current

Policy Archive
The Policy Archive is a searchable, open access archive of public policy research by a variety of national research organizations. Subjects include agriculture, business, culture and religion, demographics, energy, health, human rights, science and technology, trade, and much more.
Official Documents of the United Nations (ODS)
Includes official United Nations documents exclusive of sales publications, press releases, treaties, and Department of Public Information brochures.

Old Maps Online This link opens in a new window
Portal to key historical map collections including British Library, Harvard University, New York Public Library and many others. Use for a broad search for historical maps.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection This link opens in a new window
Focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of the Western Hemisphere, but covers other areas. Features innovative interfaces for searching by area and time range.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
Offers a single point of access to millions of freely available digitized itemsphotographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, maps, and morefrom Americas libraries, archives, and museums. In addition to a standard search engine, the portal provides searching and access by timeline, map, format, or topic.
American History in Video This link opens in a new window
Collection of video available online for the study of American history. It allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. Dates of coverage: 1600s-current
American State Papers This link opens in a new window
Contains the legislative and executive documents of the first 14 US Congresses. Arranged in ten subjects such as Foreign Relations and Military Affairs and with full-text search capability, this is a rich resource in primary documents on wide-ranging aspects of early American history. Dates of coverage: 1789-1838
Music Online: American Music This link opens in a new window
Provides access to music from America's past. Includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests and more.

Reader's Guide Retrospective

What is the Readers Guide Retrospective?

The Reader's Guide Retrospective is your BEST resource for finding primary source magazine articles published from 1900 to 1984.

Reader's Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Readers' Guide Retrospective is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Dates of coverage: 1890-1982

Ulrichsweb

Use this database to search for the following about any periodical:

Product description
Scholarly or non-scholarly, trade, magazine, etc.
What databases to search
Publisher information
Reviews of the periodical

Ulrichsweb
A comprehensive worldwide bibliographic database including info. on over 250,000 serials publications. Users can pinpoint specific journals or conduct broad based subject or publisher surveys.

Historical Magazines and Journals

Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Coverage is both international and interdisciplinary. A comprehensive and up-to-date guide to alternative sources of information. Dates of coverage: 1991-current
Alternative Press Index Archive This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Coverage is both international and interdisciplinary. Companion to the Alternative Press Index. Dates of coverage: 1969-1990

JSTOR
A digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources in a wide range of disciplines.

Historical Statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition
The standard source for the quantitative facts of American history. This resource contains a compendium of statistics from over 1000 sources that include over 37,000 data series -- three times more than in the previous edition -- and dozens of new topics, among them slavery, American Indians, and poverty.

Current Newspapers

Boston Globe (Current) This link opens in a new window
Access in HTML format to this daily newspapers and leading news source for Massachusetts. Also reports some New Hampshire news. Searchable by keyword, type of articles, etc. Dates of coverage: 1997-current
Christian Science Monitor (Current) This link opens in a new window
Access in HTML format. Covers international and US news and features. Dates of coverage: Jan. 2, 1980-current; except Jan. 3, 1989-Dec. 3, 1996
Los Angeles Times (Current) This link opens in a new window
Access in HTML format to this daily newspaper and a leading source of news on Southern California, entertainment, movies, television, music, politics, business, health, sports, environment, real estate and other topics affecting California. Dates of coverage: Dec. 4, 1996-current

US Newsstream
Formerly National Newspapers Expanded. Detailed indexing and access in html format to articles, editorials, etc. in newspapers from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington DC as well as the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal.

New York Times (ProQuest Current) This link opens in a new window
Access in HTML format to this daily newspapers and leading news source. Searchable by keyword, type of articles, etc. Dates of coverage: 1980-current

Newspaper Source
Cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, selective full text for more than 330 regional U.S. newspapers, and full-text transcripts from sources such as CBS News, CNN, FOX News, NPR, etc.

Union Leader This link opens in a new window
The New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News delivers news, information, and resources connecting the Granite State. Dates of coverage: 1989-current
Wall Street Journal (Current) This link opens in a new window
Access in HTML format to WSJ, which has extensive coverage of stock markets, finance, company news, investments and business-oriented news as well as in-depth features focusing on the national and world economy. Searchable by keyword, type of articles, etc. Dates of coverage: Jan. 8, 2010-current
Washington Post (Current) This link opens in a new window
Access in HTML format to this daily newspapers and leading news source. Searchable by keyword, type of articles, etc. Dates of coverage: Dec. 4, 1996-current
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Provides access to news, business, and legal sources, including US Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.

New Hampshire Newspaper Project

The UNH Manchester Library owns a collection of historical New Hampshire newspapers on microfilm. The newspapers were obtained through the New Hampshire Newspaper Project at the NH State Library. The full list of titles can be found here:

New Hampshire Newspaper Project
Ask a librarian for assistance locating the papers and/or using the microfilm reader.

Primary Sources in History

Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
Genealogical research database providing access to select census records, birth, marriage and death, military, probate, and immigration and naturalization records, as well as some genealogical newspapers and periodicals. Also included are guides to starting genealogical research and compiling a family history. Dates of coverage: 1600s-current
Godey's Lady's Book This link opens in a new window
The magazine was intended to entertain, inform, and educate the women of America. In addition to extensive fashion descriptions and plates, the early issues included biographical sketches, articles about mineralogy, handcrafts, female costume, the dance, equestrienne procedures, health & hygiene, recipes & remedies, etc. Dates of coverage: 1830-1875; Parts I-IV
Each issue also contained two pages of sheet music, written essentially for the piano forte. Gradually the periodical matured into an important literary magazine and contained extensive book reviews and works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and many other celebrated 19th century authors who regularly furnished the magazine with essays, poetry and short stories. The Lady's Book was also a vast reservoir of handsome illustrations, which included hand-colored fashion plates, mezzotints, engravings, woodcuts, and ultimately chromolithographs.
HEARTH - Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition, History This link opens in a new window
A core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines. Dates of coverage: 19th-20th century
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Includes the immediate experiences of women with thousands of pages of their diaries and letters, which can be browsed or searched in depth.

Interviews

American Memory (Library of Congress)
A rich archive of historical texts, personal narratives, photographs, films, and music from the nation's past.
In the First Person
"'In the First Person' is a landmark index to English language personal narratives, including letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories."

HIST 405- History of Early America (UNH Manchester): Primary Sources