Get help

History and cultural heritage

Find content for history and cultural heritage programs and courses.

Primary sources

What are primary sources?

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.

Key primary source databases

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. 

Public domain primary sources:

Public domain primary sources:

Public domain primary sources:

Public domain primary sources:

Public domain primary sources:

Public domain primary sources:

Public domain primary sources:

Griffith Archive