Research Guides: Gale Primary Sources and Digital Scholar Lab: History

Best Bet Primary Sources That Support History Research

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Primary Sources - General History Archives

The Making of Modern Law: American Civil Liberties Union Papers is an archive dedicated to the ACLU, the principal defender of the rights that citizens can assert against their government for most of the twentieth century. ACLU files featured in the collection include bills; legal briefs; correspondence from concerned parties such as those objecting to military service belonging to religious or political groups, or union organizers and members; court documents; legal case files; memorandums; minutes from meetings; newspaper clippings; reports; scrapbooks; and telegrams.

The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender dating back to the sixteenth century. With material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including both major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups, the documents in this collection present important aspects of LGBTQ life. Researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas.

Associated Press Collections Online brings to life historical events from around the globe with award-winning news coverage, imagery, and behind-the-scenes context. A vast presentation of the history and back story of the venerable Associated Press—decades worth of wire copy, correspondence, memos, internal publications, and more—the Associated Press Collections Online meets the research needs of a variety of disciplines, including journalism, history, women's studies, political science, sociology, business, and more.

Chatham House Online Archive contains the publications and archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the world-leading independent international affairs policy institute founded in 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference. The Institute's analysis and research, as well as debates and speeches it has hosted, can be found in this online archive, subject-indexed and fully searchable.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a fully text-searchable corpus of books, pamphlets and broadsides in all subjects printed between 1701 and 1800. ECCO is a digitization of the eighteenth-century section of the works catalogued in the English Short-title Catalogue (ESTC). The ESTC project records all works published or printed in Britain, Ireland, territories under British colonial rule, and the United States. It also catalogues material printed elsewhere which contains significant text in English, Welsh, Irish or Gaelic, as well as any book falsely claiming to have been printed in Britain or its territories.

The Making of the Modern World is an archive covering the history of Western trade, encompassing the coal, iron, and steel industries, the railway industry, the cotton industry, banking and finance, and the emergence of the modern corporation. The archive also strongly features the rise of the modern labor movement and the making of the working class, colonization and the evolving status of slavery, the Atlantic world, Latin American/Caribbean studies, social history, gender, and the economic theories that championed and challenged capitalism in the nineteenth century.

This collection unites multiple, distinct archives into a single resource of over 100 types of primary source documents. Content consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages. Because some documents are rare and in delicate or extremely fragile condition, Gale coordinates closely with curators and preservationists to maintain the originals. With authoritative content, extensive bibliographic information, and innovative technology, Nineteenth Century Collections Online is positioned to revolutionize research on the nineteenth century.

Political Extremism and Radicalism provides insight on unorthodox (by contemporary standards), fringe groups from both the right and left of the political spectrum through rare, hard to access primary sources. Content supports scholars and students answering questions on philosophical, social, political, and economic ideologies as well as on contemporary issues surrounding gender, sexuality, race, religion, civil rights, universal suffrage, and much more.

Showcases a range of ideas, initiatives, and social movements devoted to people-powered politics and organizing from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries. Ranging beyond a few specific movements, the archive paints a broad picture of the counterculture and many disparate organizations that represent this moment in modern Western history. Although the archive concentrates mainly on the United States and the United Kingdom, it also covers events and topics from around the globe. Alternative press publications throughout the archive represent antiestablishment and countercultural ideas and movements through art, satire, humor, and alternative lifestyles. The alternative-press titles in the collection are unique, examining social issues, politics and government, sexuality, diversity, and more.

Drawn from Joseph Sabin’s famed bibliography, this archive is one of the most comprehensive resources on the study of history and culture in the Americas, spanning more than 425 years. Provides firsthand accounts of all aspects of the Americas, including life in North, Central, South America, and the West Indies. Topics covered include slavery, colonization, Native peoples, war, religion, social and political reforms, and economic development.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive is devoted to the study and understanding of the history of slavery in America and the rest of the world from the 17th century to the late 19th century. Archival collections were sourced from more than 60 libraries at institutions such as the Amistad Research Center, Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Archives, Oberlin College, Oxford University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Yale University; these collections allow for unparalleled depth and breadth of content.

State Papers Online provides access to the British State Papers, the papers of the Secretary of State from Henry VIII’s accession in 1509 to 1782. Covering a wide range of documents, subjects, and importance, they concern internal English/British affairs and administration of the country, and foreign affairs, marriage alliances, treaties and wars. Here are original letters written by Henry VIII and subsequent monarchs, ministers, officials and clerks, together with those sent from European rulers and their officials, and the people of Britain of all social levels. These papers form a major source for Early Modern Studies of Britain and Europe.

Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence compiles files from government departments to provide researchers with access to detailed, previously classified documents from the communications gathered by Britain and its empire throughout the twentieth century.

Contains declassified material originating from many U.S. government bodies and agencies, including CIA, FBI, Justice Department, National Security Agency, State Department, and the White House. Covers major domestic and international events since the end of World War II.

The Women's Studies Archive connects archival collections concerning women's history from across the globe and from a wide range of sources. Focusing on the evolution of feminism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the archive provides materials on women's political activism, such as suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, and socialism, and on women's voices, from female-authored literature to women's periodicals. By providing the opportunity to witness female perspectives, Gale's Women's Studies Archive is an essential source for researchers working in Women's History, Gender Studies and Social History.

Primary Sources - Newspaper Collections

The Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950 provides users engaged in research of the twentieth century a delightful range of art, stories, articles, and advertisements offering valuable insight into life in the United States during the Depression era and World War II. The archive features adventure stories; short-short stories (approximately 1,000 words); serial stories; mystery, suspense, and spy stories; human interest stories; Westerns; biographies and autobiographies; love stories; stories from World War I and World War II; humor stories; articles; and art.

As a new American nation emerged in the 1800s, the first draft of history was written by those who experienced it and recorded it in newspaper pages from coast to coast. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers provides an as-it-happened window on events, culture, and daily life in nineteenth-century America that is of interest to both professional and general researchers. With 1.8 million pages available, the collection features publications of all kinds, from the political party newspapers at the beginning of the nineteenth century to the mammoth dailies that shaped the nation at the century's end. Major newspapers stand alongside those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women’s rights groups, labor groups, and the Confederacy.

Largest single collection of the news media for the 17th & 18th century available digitally. From Reverend Charles Burney’s personal collection, includes titles from England, Scotland, Ireland, and several British colonies.

17th and 18th Century Nichols Newspapers Collection features London newspapers and pamphlets gathered by antiquarian and printer John Nichols. This collection, sourced from the Bodleian Library, spans the years 1672 to 1737 and complements the titles and issues found in 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers.

The Economist Historical Archive comprises the complete content of all printed editions of the Economist. The Economist is the most important international weekly for economic and financial policy. The issues provide a unique, unbiased analysis of major world events, facilitate the comparison of economic trends across continents and centuries, and offer an ideal historical resource for cutting-edge ideas in an easily digestible form.

The world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, marking a revolution in journalism and news reporting. The publication presented a vivid picture of British and world events -- including news of war, disaster, ceremonies, the arts, and science -- with coverage in the first issue ranging from the Great Fire of Hamburg to Queen Victoria's fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.

Primary Sources - Archives Unbound Topic Areas

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents. A multi-disciplinary resource, collections cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Particular strengths include U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history. Collections are chosen based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.

African American Studies