Humanities I: Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources are the "raw stuff" of history, created or experienced during the time period being studied. 

• Provide firsthand accounts, viewpoints, and evidence contemporary to the time.
• Examples: photograph, diary, speech, map, newspaper article, video footage, legal document, etc.

Secondary sources analyze and interpret historical events, periods of time, or phenomena, and use primary sources to do so.

• Review, critique, synthesize, and interpret information, usually written well after the fact. 
• Examples: academic books, textbooks, encyclopedias, biographies, reviews, journal articles, museum exhibits, etc.

Explore the sections below to get started with your search for a primary source. The Digital Public Library of America is a great place to start. This list is robust, but not exhaustive! Depending on our topic you may want to search on your own for primary sources. Here are some tips:

• Look for historical societies or museum websites specific to the geographic area you are studying.
• Find a tribal website, which may have a history section.
• In many cases librarians have already done the work for you! On Google, search for your topic + "libguide" and look at results from libraries and .edu web addresses. Here is an example of a search for sources that might be helpful if you were writing a story about the "true" story of Pocahontas. 

The Digital Public Library of America includes over 40 million primary documents, photographs, and other primary sources from archives and libraries across the United States.

• Search by keyword from the homepage. Use quotation marks to limit your search to specific terms (for example, searching for "Pequot War" will bring up more relevant resources than searching for Pequot War without quotation marks).
• Browse the Primary Source Sets by using the dropdown menus located at the top center of the webpage.
• If you find an item you are interested in, click on "View Full Item" to learn more about it from the owning institution.
• To cite an item, click on "Cite this Item" on the right side to generate an MLA or Chicago citation. 

Primary Source Sets of interest: 

• Cross-Cultural Colonial Conflicts

• Perspectives on the French and Indian War

• American Indian Boarding Schools

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian related resources 

• The American Indian Movement, 1968-1978

EnCompass: A Rhode Island History Digital Textbook is a project of the Rhode Island Historical Society and Providence College. There are a small number of curated primary sources, some related to Roger Williams and Rhode Island American Indian communities. 

• A small number of primary sources from the Rhode Island State Archives related to the Narragansett tribe in the 17th and 18th centuries. 
• Yale University's Digital Collections includes a number of primary sources related to Northeastern Native American communities in the 17th and 18th centuries. Highlights include a 1677 map of New England, the title page to Roger Willams' A Key into the Language of America, and The present state of New-England ; being a narrative of the troubles with the Indians in New-England... by William Hubbard.
• Primary sources and information on the Pequot War from the Connecticut Historical Society.
• The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636-June 1776. Declaration of the Pequot War on page 25 in the viewer. 
• The Library of Congress has a primary source sets on the topics of Thanksgiving.
• William Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation, including an account of the Pequot War and the Patuxent tribe's assistance of the starving settlers. 
• Electronic Texts in American History from the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. See pages 20-21 for an account of the Pequot attack on Wethersfield in Newes from America... by John Underhill (1638). 
• The Occom Circle presents digitized writings of Samson Occom (1723-1792). Occom was "a Mohegan Indian, Presbyterian minister and missionary, intertribal leader, public intellectual, and important Indian writer."

• Explore the history of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through images and documents.
• The Indigenous Digital Archive preserves the history of the the U.S. government Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
• The IDA Treaties Explorer - Explore 374 ratified treaties from the U.S. National Archives and explore related maps. 
• The 1983 Mashantucket Pequot Indian Claims Settlement Act.
• The Library of Congress has a primary source set on the topic of Native American Boarding Schools. 
• University of New Mexico guide to The Dakota Access Pipeline: Native American Perspectives
• Christopher Newport University guide to Native American - American Indian Primary Sources. The guide features a huge range of communities and time periods, as well as topics such as education, arts and culture, and the Native American press. You will not be able to access the ebooks in this guide, but check out the online resources. If you find an ebook you are interested in in this guide contact a librarian for assistance locating it.
• The American Indian Digital History Project contains digitized documents, photographs, and indigenous newspapers. 
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990).
• The U.S. National Library of Medicine has an excellent online exhibit called "Native Voices: Native Peoples' Concept of Health and Wellness." Explore primary sources including images and interviews. 

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) contains extensive collections of clothing, objects, crafts, and material culture from many Native American communities.

• Use the collections search feature and try searching for specific communities, such as "Narragansett" or "Pequot." 
• Browse the online exhibits for more ideas. 

Pequot basket. Date unknown. The National Museum of the American Indian.

• Narragansett Indian Tribe 
• Tomaquag Museum
• Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
• Passamaquoddy People