Librarian
reference@carleton.edu
What is a primary source?
There's no one thing, but for historians, it's generally something that was created at the time of the event. Try searching using terms like: biography [also use for autobiographies], newspapers, "personal papers" [use for archival material], correspondence [use for letters], personal diaries, photographs, videos, interviews, pamphlets, artwork, sources [a common one!], and many other types of things!
STRATEGY: Use bibliographies and notes of seconary lit
Historians not only reference the secondary sources they use, but they also document their primary works carefully. As such, you can use the bibliographies and notes to learn about specific titles of sources (Dahomey and Its Neighbors) as well as types of sources (travel accounts, early treatises, letters) that historians use to explore a subject.
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A comprehensive collection of scholarship that focuses on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Contains scholarly articles, reference works, primary sources, timelines, biographies, images, maps, charts and tables, and film clips, among many other things. - Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
This is a key starting place for research in several different fields, providing bibliographies on current scholarship on topics from the social sciences and humanities.
STRATEGY: Find ethnographies
Ethnographies from current or previous anthropologists may contain rich description of historical cultural practices. As such, these ethnographies can complement written primary sources and images, providing an additional window into ethno-historical group about which you are writing.
- eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Access full-text ethnohistories and ethnographies on cultures from around the world. The documents are organized into cultures and ethnic groups and are indexed at the paragraph level. - Catalyst This link opens in a new window
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Search for ethnographic materials in our library catalog. TIP: Search for country or culture name along with the words ethnology or ethnography.
Best bets for searching in Catalyst or Worldcat...
- [name of empire] + ethnology
- Subject (contains) West Africa History Sources
STRATEGY: Search a digitized collection (texts and images)
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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A digital repository of hundreds of thousands of images. Documentation is included. Learn to use ARTstor better with tutorials on YouTube. - Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
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Primary documents in economic history from the University of London Library, Harvard Business School, Butler Library at Columbia University, and from the libraries of Yale University. Covers the period 1450 - 1850. - DPLA: Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
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Aggregates millions of digital items from libraries and collections across the country, such as the Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota Public Radio, the National Archives, Harvard University, Hathi Trust, Internet Archive, and NYPL.
