Primary Sources Overview
Primary sources are original documents from a given historical period, as opposed to secondary sources, such as journal articles, which provide information about and analysis of events and primary sources.
Primary sources can take many forms, including: newspaper articles from the period, diaries, letters, photographs, autobiographies, posters, advertisements, original manuscripts, speeches, poems, oral histories, interviews, laws, transcripts, congressional hearings, pamphlets, and more.
Primary sources defined in more detail.
Start by doing some background reading: The more you know about key events, people, laws, and especially terminology used during the time period you are researching the more successful your research will be.
Searching for primary sources in USC Libraries' catalog:
Use search terms that reflect the types of material you’re looking for, such as: sources, diaries, pamphlets, correspondence, speeches, manuscripts, personal narratives, interviews, etc.
For example: japaenese americans AND sources
asian americans AND interviews
Asian Amerian Primary Sources
Asian Americans and Seattle's Civil Rights History Provides access to oral histories, photographs, maps, documents and more
Asian Nation: The Landscape of Asian America Run by a scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, this site aims to serve as "an authoritative, one-stop information resource and sociological exploration of the historical, demographic, political, and cultural issues that make up today's diverse Asian American community."
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation AIISF's mission is to promote a greater understanding of Pacific Coast immigration and its role in shaping America’s past, present and future. AIISF has created an online repository of stories entitled “Immigrant Voices."
Digital History - Asian Voices Categories include: Asia Discovers America, Asians and the Making of America, World War II and Asian Americans, The Newest Immigrants
Calisphere Provides access to primary resources covering California history from 1780-present. Includes a themed collection on Asian Americans and items related to the Chinese Exclusion Act and over 200 artifacts relating to the 442nd Regional Combat Team.
Survey of Race Relations This resource resulted from an investigation, launched in the early 1920s and headquartered at Stanford University, into the economic, religious, educational, civic, biological, and social conditions among Chinese, Japanese, and other non-European residents of the US and Canadian Pacific Coast. The holdings consist primarily of life-history questionnaires; in addition, there are numerous personal reflections, financial records, conference reports, meeting notes, bibliographies, printed materials and more.
Ethnic Newswatch (login required)
Coverage spans 1959-present
Includes articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers from ethnic and minority presses. Ethnicities include: African American/Caribbean/African; Arab/Middle Eastern; Asian/Pacific Islander; European/Eastern European; Hispanic; Jewish; Native People.
New America Media (NAM) is the country's first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. NAM is dedicated to bringing the voices of the marginalized - ethnic minorities, immigrants, young people, elderly - into the national discourse. Can browse stories by ethnic group (Asian, South Asian). Also includes polls and the National Online Directory of Ethnic Media.
Chinese American Primary Sources
- Chinese American Experience: 1857-1892Articles and advertisements from Harper's Weekly Magazine
- Chinese Historical Society(USC Digital Library) The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California Collection documents artifacts from two sites in Southern California. The first site is represented by about 1,040 color images of artifacts from the original Los Angeles Chinatown; an additional 150 images document artifacts from the site of a Chinese laundry in Santa Barbara.
Additional information can be found at the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California website.
Japanese American Primary Sources
- Ansel Adams: Japanese-American Internment Photographs(Library of Congress) Includes digital scans of both Adams's 242 original negatives and his 209 photographic prints (with the print on the left and the negative on the right).
- Densho: The Japanese America Legacy ProjectDensho's mission is to preserve the history and stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II in camps in the US. Access to Densho's digital archive of internment camp newspapers and other primary sources is available with free registration; other materials are available without registering
- Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life This link opens in a new windowLogin required
Over 24,000 pages from twenty-five titles of relocation camp newspapers, from 1942-1945.
- Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive (JARDA)Part of Calisphere. Includes photographs, letters and diaries, oral histories, art, and more.
- Pacific CitizenAn important publication of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
Issues available online from 1929-1955 - Rafu ShimpoKey California Japanese American newspaper. USC currently has partial coverage of 1936-1953, and is continuing to build its collection for these years (available on microfilm).
Korean American Primary Sources
- Korean American Digital Archive(USC Digital Library) This collection brings more than 13,000 pages of documents, over 1,900 photographs, and about 180 sound files together chronicling the Korean American community during the period of resistance to Japanese rule in Korea and reveals the organizational and private experience of Koreans in America between 1903 and 1965.
South Asian Primary Sources
- The South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)Founded in 2008, in Philadelphia, PA, in order to document and provide access to the diverse and relatively unknown stories of South Asian Americans. This collection collects information from he South Asian diaspora in the United States, including those who trace their heritage to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the many South Asian diaspora communities across the globe.
- South Asia DiasporaPart of UC Berekely's South Asians in North America archival collection
Southeast Asian Primary Sources
- SEAAdoc: Documenting the Southeast Asian American ExperienceThis UC-Irvine resource provides access to primary and other resource material focusing on the experience of post-1975 refugees and immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
- Southeast Asian ArchiveThis UC-Irvine site provides information about its special collections concerning the experience of Vietnamese, Laotian/Hmong, and Cambodian people in the US and diaspora.
Legal & Legislative History
- Avalon Project (Yale University)Contains digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.
- Famous Trials of the 20th CenturyCompiled by Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, this resource provides primary source and other materials concerning some of the 20th Century's key trials.
- Nexis Uni (formerly LEXIS/NEXIS Academic) This link opens in a new windowLogin required Full text of state and federal legislation and laws. Also contains business, financial, medical, biographical, government and domestic and international newspaper resources.
- The Oyez ProjectA multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States, its justices, and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955.
- Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new windowLogin required
Includes hearings (testimony), committee prints, reports, documents, and full text of bills and public laws; provides full-text access to the U.S. Statutes at Large from 1789 to the present. The U.S. Statutes at Large is a chronological compilation of federal laws, joint and concurrent resolutions, presidential proclamations, reorganization plans, and constitutional amendments. - U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs 1832-1978 This link opens in a new windowLogin required Historical records and briefs of the U.S. Supreme Court
- Research Guide for finding Laws from the 13 coloniesFrom Bowling Green State University
- ProQuest History Vault: Law and Society Since the Civil War: American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library This link opens in a new windowLogin required
(1861-1961)
Large primary source collections covering a range of topics and time periods
These mega-sites are good places to start your search for primary sources
- Alexander Street Press Oral Histories Online This link opens in a new windowOral History Online provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. The collection also provides keyword searching of more than 329,400 pages of full-text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life. It also contains pointers to over 4,200 audio and video files and almost 19,000 bibliographic records.
- American History in Video This link opens in a new windowLogin required
Includes newsreel footage relevant to America's involvement in various wars as well as treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
You will also find documentaries on various topics relating to Asian American history. Includes the complete series of United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel, available in their entirety, capturing history as it was made and reported to viewers of the time. Also includes 750 documentaries from PBS, California Newsreel, A&E, Bullfrog Films, Documentary Educational Resources, The History Channel, and others. - American Periodicals 1740-1940 This link opens in a new windowLogin required Includes digitized images of over 1,800 American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the 20th century.
- History MattersA gateway to online primary source collections. Click the link on the website to enter the database.
- Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new windowTranslated and English-language radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, government documents and books providing global insight on immigration in the mid-to-late 20th century
- Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new windowFrom government-led population drives during the early nineteenth century through to mass steamship travel, Migration to New Worlds showcases unique primary source material recounting the many and varied personal experiences of 350 years of migration. Explore British Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolors, and oral histories supplemented by carefully selected secondary research aids. The resource is provided by Adam Matthew.
- U.S. History In Context This link opens in a new windowLogin required Provides access to over nearly 5,000 primary documents, as well as 185,000+ reference articles, over 613,000 periodical articles, and more than 73,000 images. This database covers themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present. The material also includes citations from the Institute for Scientific Information's Arts and Humanities Citation Index, as well as the entire "American Journey Online" series.