ENG 120 & ENG 200 (Campus) Research Guide
Statista
What is it?
Statista This link opens in a new window is a database specifically designed to provide statistical data, often using charts, graphs, and infographics that make great visuals for presentations.
Statista provides citations for it's graphs, charts and infographics by clicking on the quotation mark icon. Additionally, Statista provides a direct link to the source where the data came from to the right of the chart/graph/infographic.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowStatista is one of the leading statistics companies on the internet, providing users with an innovative and intuitive tools for researching quantitative data, statistics and related information.
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons.
Taken from the American Library Association / Reference and User Services Association http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources
American History Primary Sources
The following is a list of selected digital collections that include images, manuscripts, maps, and government documents.
- American MemoryMaintained by the Library of Congress, American Memory has well over 5 million primary source documents related to American history online.
- David Rumsey Historical Map CollectionThe David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has over 20,000 maps and images online and focuses largely on North and South America.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaResources from US libraries, archives and museums, including photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and more.
- Documenting the American SouthDAS is maintained by the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and is dedicated to "providing access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.
- Edward E. Ayer Digital CollectionOne of the world's premiere sources of primary documents on American Indians. Topics covered include Native American archaeology, ethnology, art, and language; the history of the contact between Europeans and native peoples; voyages, travels, and accounts of early America; the development of cartography of the Western Hemisphere; and the history of the aboriginal peoples under the jurisdiction of the U.S. in the Philippine Islands and Hawaii.
- Harvard University Digital CollectionsHarvard University has a number of digital collections that focus on different topics, geographical areas, and time periods.
- Library of Anglo-American CultureThe History Search allows you to browse documents by country/event of interest. Note: not all documents are primary sources and many are in languages other than English.
- Library of Congress Picture CollectionThe Library of Congress has made 1.25 million digitized photographs searchable using this new interface. Collections range from digitized cartoons and baseball cards to depression-era photographs documenting the struggle of migrant workers.
- The Making of AmericaFrom the University of Michigan, Making of America (MoA) 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. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
- National ArchivesSearch the entire collections of the Nation's Record Keepers.
- NY Historical Society | Making History MatterNYHS manuscript collections relating to slavery
- NYPL Archives & ManuscriptsFrom the New York Public Library you can search "over 60,000 linear feet of personal papers and organizational records supporting historical research".
- Oral Histories of the American SouthA project to digitize 500 interviews, this collection contains interviews with civil rights leaders in the south and southern politicians such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
- Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & ImageOver 2,000,000 images from various collections of rare books, manuscripts, papyri, photographs and sheet music are available for your viewing. Each collection has its own web site that is unrestricted in the interests of knowledge and learning.
- Suffragist Oral History ProjectFrom UC Berkeley Library, this collection contains 12 interviews with participants in the suffragist movement.
- University of New Hampshire Digital CollectionsThe University of New Hampshire has digitized documents relating to New Hampshire history including government documents, photographs, maps, etc.
World History Primary Sources
The following is a selected list of digital collections supporting world history research.
- Ancient History SourcebookThis site focuses on online texts, which, for the most part, means public domain texts translated more than 75 years ago. In many cases it is these older translations which are used in commercially available sourcebooks. Coverage ranges from Mesopotamia to the origins of Christianity
- Avalon ProjectYale Law School’s Avalon Project contains digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Covers time periods from ancient history to the modern day.
- Digital ScriptoriumThe Digital Scriptorium is a growing image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.
- Euro DocsSearch primary sources by European country of origin
- European History Primary Sources from the British LibrarySearch for primary sources from the British Library by country, language, period, subject, or type of source.
- Hanover Historical Texts CollectionThe Hanover Historical Texts Collection makes available digital versions of historical texts for use in history and humanities courses. Material touches on the Crusaders, Italian Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, French Revolution, and many other topics.
- Internet History Sourcebooks ProjectFrom Fordham University, find primary sources for Ancient, Medieval, and Modern periods. The site offers several subdivisions (i.e. African, women, etc.) as well
- The LabyrinthFrom Georgetown University: Medieval studies scholarly resources compiled and organized from around the world. Contains texts in all European languages, including Latin and Greek.
- Library of Congress Global GatewayThis resource contains a number of digitized international resources including cuneiform tablets, photographs and manuscripts.
- Perseus Digital LibraryTufts University brings you an evolving collection of resources for the study of the ancient world, including archaeology, atlas, texts and translations, text tools and lexica.
- World Digital LibraryThe World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.