Created by witnesses or recorders who experience first-hand the events or conditions being documented, primary sources are first-hand testimonies that provide direct evidence from a particular period of history. Primary sources may be everyday items produced whilst an event or phase is occurring, such as photographs, letters, periodicals and manuscripts, but can also include artefacts compiled later, such as memoirs and oral histories.
Access the GALE Primary Sources and Tools self paced tutorial to learn how to search the Gale Primary Sources collections and how to use Gale's digital humanities tools to analyse text.
Focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in Southern Africa, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The contents of this primary source collection document colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region.
World Heritage Sites: Africa is made up of 20 sub-collections and more than 57,000 objects ... The collection includes photographs, 3D models, GIS data, site plans, aerial and satellite photography, images of rock art, excavation reports, manuscripts, traveler's accounts, historical and antiquarian maps, books, articles, and other scholarly research.
Archival material relating to the trade and cultural relationships between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th century and early 20th century.
Digitisation of Cornell University Library's Charles W. Wason Collection (c1750-1929), including additional secondary resources, including academic essays, an interactive chronology and guides.
Contains the Macartney and Amherst Embassies, the Opium War, Arrow War, Boxer Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, the opening of treaty ports, the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and the birth of the People's Republic. Includes maps, drawings and photographs, and personal accounts.
Spanning 1800 to 1980s. Archival original documents, largely from Historical Archives of China and the British Library. Text can be analysised using the associated Gale Digital Scholar product.
Makes available the complete British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan during the period 1919-1980. The archival materials in the database consist of diplomatic dispatches, letters, newspaper cuttings, maps, reports of court cases, biographies of leading personalities, summaries of events and diverse other materials.
This collection covers the years from 1947 to 1980, encompassing files on all the countries of South Asia: principally India and Pakistan, but also Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon/Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and the Maldives. The collection is split into three, chronologically based parts: Section I: Independence, Partition and the Nehru Era, 1947-64; Section II: South Asian Conflicts and Independence for Bangladesh, 1965-71; Section III: Afghanistan and the Cold War, Emergency Rule in India, and the Resumption of Civilian Rule in Pakistan, 1972-80
Archival material relating to the trade and cultural relationships between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th century and early 20th century.
Coverage 1701 to 1800. Includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Primary sources related to the cultural, political, and social history of Native Peoples of North America from the 17th Century to 1986.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has throughout its history consistently stood at the center of controversies involving the rights of Americans. Its records offer researchers a unique view of the inner workings of the organization and the hundreds of groups with which the ACLU interacted.
Expands dramatically the range of legal primary source documents available to researchers. This collection significantly deepens critical understanding of social, economic, political, and historical issues by surfacing over half a million pages of briefs from appellants, appellees, and supporters (amicus briefs), with their respective replies, as well as appendices, memoranda, petitions, plaintiff statements, transcripts, and more from the various circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
Part I, 1620-1926: Contains more than 1,300 individual titles sourced chiefly from the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University, with additional materials provided by the Law Library of Congress. Its 1.8 million pages span over 300 years of legal primary sources, such as early U.S. state codes, municipal codes, constitutional conventions and compilations, and other documents. -- Part II, 1763-1979: Extends this acclaimed archive into the second half of the twentieth century with more than 1.6 million scanned pages drawn from the three world-class American law libraries: the Harvard Law School Library, the Yale Law Library, and the Law Library of Congress.
This archive contains unofficially published accounts of trials, official trial documents, briefs, and arguments as well as official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings, and arbitrations from England and America.
A compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements from across the political spectrum.
Public domain primary sources:
Documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Primarily British Empire.
Public domain primary sources:
Australia's national statistical agency and an official source of independent, reliable information. Access to the full range of the Bureau's statistical and reference information, including census data from 1996 onwards.
Digital collection of Australian information including newspapers, governement gazettes, maps, magazines, newsletters, books, pictures, photographs, archived websites, music, diaries, letters, personal archives and inteviews.
Primary sources that document the dynamics of Western economics and business between 1450 - 1945. Includes material on trade, finance, the modern labor movement, slavery, colonization, monarchy, revolution, social history, gender, politics, trade and transport.
Collects a variety of primary sources that document the history of forced migration before, during and after World War II.
Public domain primary sources:
Covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century in Britain.
British Library Newspapers consists of collections from the British Library which span three hundred years of newspaper publishing in the U.K.
Coverage 1701 to 1800. Includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Primary sources and essays relating to the life and times of Victorian London. Access to maps, cartoons, street literature, slang dictionaries and ballads. Useful for students of literature, cultural studies, urban studies, geography and built environment, criminology, social history and leisure and tourism.
This archive contains unofficially published accounts of trials, official trial documents, briefs, and arguments as well as official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings, and arbitrations from England and America.
Access to primary sources in social history with material related to British life dating from 1937-1967. Includes diaries, day surveys, topic collections, and file reports, an interactive chronology with key social, politial and cultural moments, an interactive map, photos and posters.
A compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements from across the political spectrum.
Public domain primary sources:
Covers a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward, including U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history.
British Library Newspapers consists of collections from the British Library which span three hundred years of newspaper publishing in the U.K.
Archival material relating to the trade and cultural relationships between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th century and early 20th century.
Digitisation of Cornell University Library's Charles W. Wason Collection (c1750-1929), including additional secondary resources, including academic essays, an interactive chronology and guides.
Coverage 1701 to 1800. Includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Contains newspapers and periodicals 1685-1835. Includes rare journals, covering all aspects of social, political and literary life in this time period.
Collects many of the working notebooks, verse manuscripts, correspondence, diaries and personal journals of prominent writers including William Wordsworth and his contemporaries.
Full text searchable digital edition of the London Times . Note: Coverage 1785-2014.
Public domain primary sources:
Covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century in Britain.
Covers a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward, including U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history.
British Library Newspapers consists of collections from the British Library which span three hundred years of newspaper publishing in the U.K.
Archival material relating to the trade and cultural relationships between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th century and early 20th century.
Spanning 1800 to 1980s. Archival original documents, largely from Historical Archives of China and the British Library. Text can be analysised using the associated Gale Digital Scholar product.
Digitisation of Cornell University Library's Charles W. Wason Collection (c1750-1929), including additional secondary resources, including academic essays, an interactive chronology and guides.
Contains the Macartney and Amherst Embassies, the Opium War, Arrow War, Boxer Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, the opening of treaty ports, the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and the birth of the People's Republic. Includes maps, drawings and photographs, and personal accounts.
Spanning 1790-1920, this archive is on Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, contains manuscripts, books, broadsheets, and periodicals, printed matter. Documents can be converted to text and analysed using Gale Digital Scholar.
Original archival content from The Economist with text translations available. Text can be analysed with accompanying Gale Digital Scholar tool. Note: Coverage from 1843 to 2015
Search and browse every printed copy of the Finanacial Times Newspaper. Topics include economic and business history and current affairs.
Primary sources and essays relating to the life and times of Victorian London. Access to maps, cartoons, street literature, slang dictionaries and ballads. Useful for students of literature, cultural studies, urban studies, geography and built environment, criminology, social history and leisure and tourism.
Collects many of the working notebooks, verse manuscripts, correspondence, diaries and personal journals of prominent writers including William Wordsworth and his contemporaries.
Full text searchable digital edition of the London Times . Note: Coverage 1785-2014.
Spanning 1790-1920, this archive is on Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, contains manuscripts, books, broadsheets, and periodicals, printed matter. Documents can be converted to text and analysed using Gale Digital Scholar.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has throughout its history consistently stood at the center of controversies involving the rights of Americans. Its records offer researchers a unique view of the inner workings of the organization and the hundreds of groups with which the ACLU interacted.
Includes pre-1926 treatises and similar monographs on foreign, comparative and international law, sourced from the collections of the law libraries at Yale, George Washington University, and Columbia University.
This archive, which complements the collection of treatises found in Foreign, Comparative and International Law 1600-1926, provides an interpretive analysis with books on codes, the "primary sources" of law.
Expands dramatically the range of legal primary source documents available to researchers. This collection significantly deepens critical understanding of social, economic, political, and historical issues by surfacing over half a million pages of briefs from appellants, appellees, and supporters (amicus briefs), with their respective replies, as well as appendices, memoranda, petitions, plaintiff statements, transcripts, and more from the various circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
Originally derived from two essential reference collections for historical legal studies, the Nineteenth Century and Twentieth Century Legal Treatises microfilm collections. Provides digital images on every page of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926.
Part I, 1620-1926: Contains more than 1,300 individual titles sourced chiefly from the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University, with additional materials provided by the Law Library of Congress. Its 1.8 million pages span over 300 years of legal primary sources, such as early U.S. state codes, municipal codes, constitutional conventions and compilations, and other documents. -- Part II, 1763-1979: Extends this acclaimed archive into the second half of the twentieth century with more than 1.6 million scanned pages drawn from the three world-class American law libraries: the Harvard Law School Library, the Yale Law Library, and the Law Library of Congress.
This archive contains unofficially published accounts of trials, official trial documents, briefs, and arguments as well as official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings, and arbitrations from England and America.
A compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements from across the political spectrum.
Collects many of the working notebooks, verse manuscripts, correspondence, diaries and personal journals of prominent writers including William Wordsworth and his contemporaries.
Covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century in Britain.
British Library Newspapers consists of collections from the British Library which span three hundred years of newspaper publishing in the U.K.
Original archival content from The Economist with text translations available. Text can be analysed with accompanying Gale Digital Scholar tool. Note: Coverage from 1843 to 2015
Contains newspapers and periodicals 1685-1835. Includes rare journals, covering all aspects of social, political and literary life in this time period.
Search and browse every printed copy of the Finanacial Times Newspaper. Topics include economic and business history and current affairs.
Full text searchable digital edition of the London Times . Note: Coverage 1785-2014.
Full text archive which contains reviews of books, theatre and musical performances, art exhibitions, film and other cultural events. Note: Coverage 1902-1914.
Provides a significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender.
This global archive covers the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. Focus is on the evolution of feminism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Public domain primary sources:
Covers a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward, including U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history.
Contains research, analysis and commentary originating from the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Archive includes original scanned documents and OCR text of the orginial documents, also audio, photographs, maps. Covers twentieth century global world history. Part of the Gale Primary Sources collection. Content can be used in conjunction with Gale Digital Scholar for text analysis.
Documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Primarily British Empire.
This original will help scholars to explore the history of fifteen major commodities and to examine the ways that these have changed the world.
JSTOR Global Plants offers access to botanical resources from dozens of herbaria, libraries, museums and other research institutions. The database includes plant type specimens from herbaria around the world, scientific research articles and correspondence dating back hundreds of years, and full-text books and reference works on botany.
Primary sources that document the dynamics of Western economics and business between 1450 - 1945. Includes material on trade, finance, the modern labor movement, slavery, colonization, monarchy, revolution, social history, gender, politics, trade and transport.
Collects a variety of primary sources that document the history of forced migration before, during and after World War II.
Collects many of the working notebooks, verse manuscripts, correspondence, diaries and personal journals of prominent writers including William Wordsworth and his contemporaries.
Full text searchable digital edition of the London Times . Note: Coverage 1785-2014.
Full text archive which contains reviews of books, theatre and musical performances, art exhibitions, film and other cultural events. Note: Coverage 1902-1914.
Public domain primary sources: