Librarian
Research/IT Desk
Contact:
Contact the Reference Librarians online
reference@carleton.edu
reference@carleton.edu
507-222-4264
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!
Periodicals/Newspapers
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Search through hundreds of British periodicals from the late 17th century to the early 20th century, all available in full text. Also allows searching for cartoons, photographs, illustrations, and other images. Covers 1680 - 1930. - Times Digital Archive 1785 Onwards This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Full-text page images of The Times (London) from 1785 to 1985. Includes articles as well as advertisements, illustrations, and photos. - ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of digitized books published in the eighteenth century, 1701 - 1800. - NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
A rich collection of primary sources created or published in the nineteenth century. - Decolonization: the politics of independence in former colonial territories This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides primary source material from indigenous cultures within former colonial & commonwealth territories.
Visual and Moving Images
- Aluka: World Heritage Sites: Africa This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations and the full text)
An online digital library of scholarly resources that explores the archaeology, history and culture of Africa through its heritage sites and landscapes. - ARTstor This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
ARTstor's repository of hundreds of thousands of images, including art, architecture, design, is now part of JSTOR and will cease being its own database on August 1, 2024.
- "Africa" - British Pathé Films [ca. 1896-1958] (YouTube)[NOTE: This is just a sample search for the keyword "africa" -- try others!]
Before television, people came to movie theatres to watch the news. Over the course of a century, it documented everything from major armed conflicts and seismic political crises to the curious hobbies and eccentric lives of ordinary people. If it happened, British Pathé filmed it. - Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire [ca. 1897-1993](searches metadata, very few actual digitized films)
Search or browse through films depicting life in the British colonies. Of the films that are cataloged here, many have extensive critical notes written by scholars, and about a third are available to watch online.
- DPLA: Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
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.
- New York Public Library Digital CollectionsIncludes images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. For example: Images of Africans from the Schomburg collection.
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(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.
Advanced Google Search
These are some tips to make your Google searching more precise.
| Operator | What It Does |
| ~ (tilda) | searches for synonyms |
| inurl:org; inurl:edu | searches only these domains |
| filetype:pdf; filetype:xls; filetype:ppt | searches for only these types of documents |
| date..date (2008..2009) | searches for documents relevant to those years |
Examples:
1. sarah ~ Saartjie, Baartman ~Bartman ~Bartmann, ~Baartmen
2. "Jan van Riebeeck" filetype:jpg
3. "sarah baartman" site:.edu
