LibGuides: HIST 4303: The Civil War (Fall 2022): Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are materials that were produced during the period you are researching or by people who witnessed or were involved in events.

They include materials such as letters, diaries, speeches, company records, government documents, newspapers, films, photographs, artifacts, etc.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman.

Image courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.

Citation:
Bradford, Sarah H. "Harriet Tubman." Wood engraving. As published in Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes from the Life of Harriet Tubman, frontspiece. W.J. Moses, Auburn, New York. 1869.

CARS checklist

Dr. Robert Harris invented a very simple checklist for anyone using information sources:

Credibility. Accuracy. Reasonableness. Support.

He explains it at his Web site VirtualSalt.

Special Collections

Image courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.

The Department of Archives and Special Collections houses a variety of rare and unique materials. The Department is located on the third floor of the William H. Hannon Library on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. Use of the department's materials is by appointment only, but visitors are welcome to visit the gallery space anytime during opperating hours.

For information on making an appointment, please call 310.338.5710 or email Special.Collections@lmu.edu and refer to the hours and rules of the Department.

To search Special Collections holdings on this topic, use the Online Archive of California search box at the link below, and search: lmu civil war. You can also search by collection name:

008 Richard Blackstone Military Papers, 1864-1925

056 Civil War Memorabilia Collection

069 Allen Jenkins United States Army Discharge Papers

079 Civil War Union Officer’s Campaign Trunk

103 Loyola Marymount University Civil War Collection

MS122 Francis John Baptiste Romer Civil War Scrapbook and Newspaper Clippings Collection

Online Archive of California search

Recommended LMU Primary Source Collections

America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
Subjects: MANY
Description: General primary source collection from Readex containing full text. Includes materials from 1639-1819. Mainly focused on the United States. Mostly in English, but contains some material in other European and Native American languages.
Contents: Books; Book Chapters; Primary Sources
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Subjects: MANY
Description: General primary source collection from Readex containing full text. Includes materials from 1690-1922. Mainly focused on the United States.
Contents: Primary Sources; Newspapers

The following is a short list of primary resources recommended by Professor Bittel and the LMU Reference Librarians. These are intended as starting points, not resources that will provide exhaustive primary sources on your topic. Consult a reference librarian as needed!

American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Subjects: MANY
Description: General primary source collection from ProQuest containing full text. Includes materials from 1700s to 1900s. Mainly focused on United States.
Contents: Popular (Non-Scholarly) Articles - Magazines; Trade/Professional Articles; Primary Sources

Civil War Letters and Diaries
This resource contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Particular care has been taken to index this material so it can be searched more thoroughly than ever. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The product includes 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland Planter William Claytor.

Civil War Primary Source Documents This link opens in a new window
Subjects: History, African American Studies
Description: Primary source collection from EBSCOhost containing full text.
Contents: Popular (Non-Scholarly) Articles - Newspapers; Popular (Non-Scholarly) Articles - Magazines; E-books; Primary Sources

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
This resource includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
more...less...
Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants. The collection will be particularly useful to researchers, because much of the original material is difficult to find, poorly indexed, and unpublished; most bibliographies of the immigrant focus on secondary research; and few oral histories have been published.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
North American Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
more...less...
Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. The materials have been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies, supplemented by customer requests and more than 7,000 pages of previously unpublished material. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.

ProQuest Civil War Era This link opens in a new window
Subjects: History
Description: Primary source collection from ProQuest containing full text. Includes materials from 1820-1880. Mainly focused on United States.
Contents: Popular (Non-Scholarly) Articles - Newspapers; Primary Sources
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Subjects: Women's and Gender Studies, History
Description: Primary source collection from Alexander Street Press containing full text. Browse or search by movement name (e.g. Age of Consent, Temperance Movement, etc.)
Contents: Primary Sources
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
Subjects: History, Women's and Gender Studies, African American Studies
Description: Primary source collection from Alexander Street Press containing full text. Includes materials from 1857-1912.
Contents: Popular (Non-Scholarly) Articles - Newspapers; Primary Sources

Non LMU Primary Resources

The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
An extensive publication produced by the United States at the end of the 19th century to provide access to the official documentation of the military conflict between the states.
Cornell University Library: Making of America Collection
The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. It contains over 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
The Civil War in American Memory at the Library of Congress
"This guide is a compilation of many of the Civil War resources at the Library of Congress, along with links to selected resources outside the Library. The resources are organized by format."
Documenting the American South
"Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes fifteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs."
The Gilder Lehrman Collection
The Gilder Lehrman Collection is a unique archive of primary sources in American history. Owned by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and located at the New-York Historical Society, the Collection includes more than 60,000 letters, diaries, maps, pamphlets, printed books, newspapers, photographs, and ephemera that document the political, social, and economic history of the United States

Non-text sources

History beyond the text : a student's guide to approaching alternative sources by edited by Sarah Barber and Corinna M. Peniston-Bird
Call Number: Main Stacks: D5 .H556 2009