Collins Memorial Library: History 200: Primary Sources: In-class Activity

Primary Sources in Library Collections (Print, Digital, and Archival)

For a portion of this library session, we will be working with a curated list of primary sources chosen from large-scale digital collections that Collins Library owns or provides access to. The spreadsheet is located here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hAnDc2YuP91jnEhTeyLKOfQqEAy9XB4pI0enorwQ4RA/edit?usp=sharing and you will need to be logged in to the University of Puget Sound Google Suite to access it.

Part A: As a group, we will be working with the selection from the Fannie Lou Hamer collection.

Part B: Individual work:

1) Skim through the list to see the dates, topics, and material types of the sources. Identify three sources that you might wish to explore more closely.

2) Choose one of the sources and spend about five minutes with it. What is especially interesting or intriguing to you about it? What kinds of questions do you have about it?

3) Identify at least two or three directions where you might take your investigation.

Newspapers & Magazines

New York Times Historical Newspaper This link opens in a new window
Includes full page images of the New York Daily Times (1851-1857) and the New York Times (1857-2017).
Los Angeles Times Historical Newspaper (1881-1996) This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue of the Los Angeles Times newspaper.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Contains comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Provides access to primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.
Nation Archive
Long regarded as one of the country's definitive journalistic voices of writing on politics, culture, books and the arts The Nation continues to stand as an independent voice in American journalism. This database contains full text for the complete archive of The Nation beginning with its first issue in 1865 through June 2020.

Making of America Digital Archive
Includes several 19th-century American journals.
Chronicling America
Digitized American newspapers, roughly 1836 to 1922.

Readers’ Guide Full Text Mega
Includes indexing as far back as 1983 and searchable full text of articles as far back as 1994. Provides access to illustrations, photographs and other graphical content from the original article. Subject coverage is multidisciplinary.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Focus is on ethnic area studies, and related arts, business, education, environment, history, journalism, political science and sociology news. Some Spanish language sources are available.
Alt-PressWatch
A full text database comprised of articles from alternative and independent press newspapers, magazines and journals.
Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980
Based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project" at the University of Houston, this collection represents the single largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Chicago Defender Historical Newspaper (1909-1975)
Founded in 1905, the oldest and most respected African-American newspaper in Chicago.