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HIST 373B: Women, Gender & the American Revolution

Strategies for Finding Primary Sources

Read your secondary sources carefully and make notes about the primary sources used. The kinds of primary sources you will find cited are:

  • Personal sources (letters, diaries, memoirs, travel journals, papers, etc.)
    • For items published in book form:  Use Knox Primo to locate copies.
    • For items published as articles in magazines and collections, such as historical society magazines:  Use the America: History & Life database to identify these.
    • Some items might be available for free in digital collections of libraries, archives or historical societies. Use Google to try to find these, or browse web sites of libraries, historical societies or museums to try to find these. Example: Correspondence between John and Abigail Adams at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
    • You may find references to items published online in proprietary digital collections. Unless Knox has a subscription to these collections, you will not be able to obtain these items.
  • Newspaper articles
    • Search the online newspapers collections describes on the "Primary Sources: Newspapers & Magazines" tab. Other newspapers might be available via interlibrary loan. Contact Laurie Sauer for help.
  • Government documents and proceedings of official bodies
    • Use what's available in Seymour Library (see the "Document collections" page on this guide). For other documents and proceedings use interlibrary loan.  Contact Laurie Sauer for help.
  • Manuscripts
    • Unless they are digitized in free online collections, you will have to travel to the owning library or archive to view the material. There are two notable exceptions: see the "Document collections" page under the "Primary sources" tab above.
  • Broadsides and pamphlets
    • Unless they are digitized in free online collections, you will have to travel to the owning library or archive to view the material. There are two notable exceptions: see the "Document collections" page under the "Primary sources" tab.
  • Ephemera, such as account ledgers, wills, tax receipts, other legal documents, etc.
    • Unless they are digitized in free online collections, you will have to travel to the owning library or archive to view the material.

Quirks of Old Documents