Research Guides: HIST 103: A Beginner's Guide to Forgery (Gillingham): Find Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources provide the raw data you use to support your arguments. For historical research, primary sources are those documents which provide evidence of how things were at a particular time in history, and can include newspaper articles, oral histories, manuscripts or letters, or images. Primary sources have to be considered in their historical context, and you can use secondary sources like journal articles and books, or reference sources like encyclopedias, to make sense of what find in those primary sources.

Digital Collections of News and Art

Access World News This link opens in a new window
Access World News is a comprehensive resource that includes a variety of news publications worldwide. These sources include major national and international newspapers, as well as local and regional titles as well as newswires, blogs, web-only content, videos, journals, magazines, transcripts and more. Access World News is updated daily. This database combines news articles from more than 12,000 sources and over 200 countries. Much of the material in non-English languages has been translated into English, but a significant amount of material is presented in the original language.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
For searching and browsing American newspapers published in three centuries, America's Historical Newspapers is the most comprehensive online resource available. Continually expanding, it offers searchable digital facsimiles of thousands of titles from all 50 states. With eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries and much more, this acclaimed collection uniquely chronicles the evolution of American culture and daily life from 1690 to the recent past.
ACCESS RESTRICTED to Northwestern University faculty, staff, and students of the Evanston and Chicago campuses except for use by a category of staff who have been advised of the unavailability of the resources to them. No interlibrary loan allowed. Visiting scholars are permitted use under the following terms: The definition of an Authorized User under this Agreement can be expanded to include visiting scholars while at the Licensed Site for business purposes with the Licensee, provided that in no case use by visiting scholars is done in a manner or magnitude as to act as a replacement for the visiting scholar's or visiting scholar's institution's own subscription to either the Products or the purchase of other NewsBank products. lf NewsBank reasonably determines that use by visiting scholars hereunder may be impairing NewsBank's ability to make sales of the Product or other NewsBank products to other customers, NewsBank may require such use by visiting scholars to be modified or terminated, either entirely or with respect to the visiting scholar(s) whose activity is impairing NewsBank's business.
Artstor This link opens in a new window
New interface available at JSTOR Artstor.

Artstor is a digital image library that provides over 1.6 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences from around the globe and across time periods. Included are images from international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates. Register for free with the site to access its full range of services.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full-text and full-image articles from: The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010), The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010), The Baltimore Sun (1837-1996), The Boston Globe (1872-1990), Chicago Defender (1909 - 2010), Chicago Tribune (1849-2013), Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832 - 1953), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2009), The Cincinnati Enquirer (1841-1922), Cleveland Call and Post (1934–2010), Detroit Free Press (1831-1999), The Guardian and the Observer (1791-2003), Irish Times and the Weekly Irish Times (1859-2020), The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990), The Jewish Exponent (1887-1990), Kansas City Call (1919-2010), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2010), Los Angeles Times (1881-2014), Louisville Defender (1951-2010), Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010), Minneapolis Star Tribune (1867-2001), New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), The New York Times (1851-2018), New York Tribune / Herald Tribune (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), The Times of India (1838-2001), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2010), The Washington Post (1877-2006), Le Monde (1944-2000), Indianapolis Star (1903-2004)
Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Full text of the Times of London from 1785 to 2014.

Subject Specialist

Michelle Guittar

Email Me

Contact:

Main Library
Northwestern University
1970 Campus Dr
Evanston, IL 60208

847-491-8961

Subjects: Comparative Literary Studies, Latin American Studies, Latina/o Studies, Spanish and Portuguese