What is a Primary Source?
A primary source is a record of an event, an occurrence, or a time period produced by a participant or observer at the time. Typically, primary sources include:
- unique documents or manuscripts (letters, diaries, journals, writings, speeches, photographs, scrapbooks, etc.)
- historic records of an organization (correspondence, memoranda, minutes, annual reports, etc.).
- government documents & maps
- artwork & artifacts
- music & audiovisual materials (film, audio and video tape)
- electronic computer files
Primary Sources
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African Diaspora [ProQuest] 1860-present This link opens in a new window Primary source materials on the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France.
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CyberCentro Directory of search engines and newspapers throughout Latin America organized by country
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Digital Library of the Caribbean The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) was established in 2004 with nine (9) founding partners, five from the Caribbean and four from the United States. cooperative of Partners and Associate Partners dLOC provides users free and open access to Caribbean cultural, historical, scientific and research materials held in archives, libraries, museums, private collections, and other institutions of memory.
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History Commons: Indigenous Peoples Social Justice and Culture This link opens in a new window 100,000+ blogs, magazines, videos, podcasts, tweets, newspapers, and other content from more than 1,000 organizations representing indigenous perspectives.
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History Commons: Refugees, Migration, and Borders Social Justice and Culture This link opens in a new window Stories from and about refugee and migrant communities from Cold War migrations to current displacements.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR includes numerous images, journals, newspapers, and more that can be used as primary sources.
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La Colección Puertorriqueña Digital collections from the Coleccion Digital Puertorriqueña at Coleccion Puertorriqueña of the University of Puerto Rico Library. These collections include variuos magazines, newspapers, and books.
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LACLI An international collaboration to create a repository of free online resources for Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian studies
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LANIC: Latin American Network Information Center Search for web resources by subject, in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
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Latino-Hispanic American Experience: Series 1 (Arte Público Series 1) This link opens in a new window A digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature and culture. “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project” – from which the collections draws its content, is the largest national project ever to locate, preserve and disseminate Hispanic culture of the United States in its written form since colonial times until 1960.
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Latino-Hispanic American Experience: Series 2 (Arte Público Series 2) This link opens in a new window Manuscript, book, and newspaper content in the areas of Hispanic American civil rights, religion, and women’s rights ranging from the eighteenth through the twentieth century. The database features over 250,000 pages of manuscript content, over 100 newspaper titles, and over 400 books. The collection draws its content from the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project” that seeks to gather lost or rare documents and publications pertinent to Hispanic history and culture.
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UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Includes links to electronic journals, news sources, and magazines and the CLNet Research Center (arranged by topic).
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Political Database of the Americas (Georgetown University) includes election data, executive and legislative branches, political party information (by country)
Tamayo, Rufino painter. Nature and the Artist; the Work of Art and the Observer. fresco painting (technique), 1943. Smith College Museum of Art (Northampton, Massachusetts, United States). src021701. Smith College Imaging Center Collection. Smith College Image Collections, JSTOR
Get help with primary sources
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Find Primary Sources Links to collections at Smith, in the Five Colleges, on the web, and via the library's many subscription databases.
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Citation Guides & Style ManualsSmith Libraries guide links to online versions of MLA, Chicago, and other popular manuals for writing papers and formatting footnote and bibliography citations. Includes a section on how to cite images.