Described below are databases of digitized archival collections covering a variety of materials and subject areas. These can be good place to start in locating specific items related to your topic.
NOTES
- For a more complete listing of primary source information and databases, review the contents of the Primary Sources Research Guide.
- To locate historical materials by discipline, review the Libraries Research Guides or contact the librarian subject expert.
- Contact the USC Libraries Special Collections department on the second floor of Doheny Library to locate unique archives held at USC or at various libraries and organizations throughout Los Angeles.
COMPREHENSIVE PRIMARY SOURCE DATABASES
- Archive of Americana -- a comprehensive historical collection of primary source materials that includes features over 1,375 newspaper titles from all 50 states, more than 100,000 books, broadsides and pamphlets as well as essential U.S. government publications and more from the following collections: Early American Imprints: Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American Imprints: Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; American Broadsides and Ephemera; America's Historical Newspapers; American State Papers, 1789-1838; and U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980.
- Archives Explorer – provides complete access to unique primary source collections from archives around the world. Collection themes include: area studies, cultural studies, empire and globalism, ethnic studies, gender and sexuality, history, politics, literature, theater, and war and conflict.
- Archives Unbound – provides centralized searching of twenty-three digitized primary source collections that include monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, and photographs examining literary, political, and social culture of the last 500 years.
- ARTstor – provides access to nearly a million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences, from the late 1930s to the present from reliable sources that have been rights-cleared for use in education and research.
- Calisphere Digital Archive -- University of California's free public gateway to a world of primary sources. More than 150,000 digitized items, including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts, reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history.
- Gale Primary Sources – provides access to millions of pages of content spanning many centuries and geographic regions. Users can explore a wide range of content including books, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, maps, and more.
NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE COLLECTIONS
- America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1998 – provides cover-to-cover access to the images and full-text content from than 1,000 historical newspapers published from all fifty states.
- British Library Newspapers 1600-1950 -- provides full text access to more than 240 newspaper titles that reflect the diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries in Great Britain. The series is comprised of approximately 6.4 million pages of historic content, from articles to advertisements.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers and Magazines – provides access to 45 major national and international newspapers covering from 1812-2012. Every issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format. Also included is full-text access to more than 1,800 popular magazines published between 1740-1940.
EXAMPLES OF SPECIALIZED SOURCES
- National Security Archive – non-profit center that provides open access to evidence-based research emphasizing primary-source documentation based, in part, U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests and other sources related to national security.
- Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels –contains more than 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this art form.
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.