Library: Political Science at Webster University Library: Primary Sources

Primary and secondary sources

What is a primary source?

A primary source is a first-hand account or other evidence coming directly from an event. This might include letters, legal documents, speeches, diaries, interviews, data, and even video or audio recordings.

What is a secondary source?

A secondary source is one that someone has created by engaging with the primary sources. Scholarly articles, nonfiction books, newspaper articles, and other interpretations are secondary sources.

How do I find a primary source?

Each situation will be different, but you may consider:

Looking for materials written by a person that you're writing about, or by others that witnessed the events
Looking for legal documents when appropriate.
Searching for interviews with people connected to the events that you address in your paper
Checking the bibliographies of secondary sources to see if they contain primary sources
Searching online collections of archives or museums related to your topic, or reaching out to museum professionals if documents are not available online.

Primary Source Databases

International Newsstream (proquest)
This databases offers the most recent news content from outside of the U.S. and Canada with archives that stretch back decades.

US History (Gale in Context)
A resource merging Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.
World History (Gale in Context)
A resource that delivers a chronicle of the great cultures and societies that have formed the history of the human race. Rare primary sources, reliable reference and multi-media content put this vast topic into context for students.

eBooks on Primary Sources

Analyzing and writing with primary sources by Wendy Conklin
Publication Date: 2015
ebook

Places to Find Primary Sources

Below is a list of additional official websites that offer free access to online collections of primary resources.

Case Law Access Project
The Caselaw Access Project (CAP) includes all official, book-published United States case law.
The site includes all state courts, federal courts, and territorial courts for American Samoa, Dakota Territory, Guam, Native American Courts, Navajo Nation, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The earliest case is from 1658, and the most recent cases are from 2018.
Congress.gov
The site provides access to legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC’s Congressional Research Service.
DocsTeach (National Archives)
DocsTeach.org collection contains thousands of primary sources related to American history through the National Archives.
International Criminal Court
This website contains court records, core legal texts, and other documents from The International Criminal Court (ICC).
Library of Congress Primary Sources
The Library of Congress noted as the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections.
The State Historical Society of Missouri
The State Historical Society of Missouri Digital Collections provide online access to photographs, art, maps, diaries, letters, books, articles, and oral histories telling the story of Missouri’s history, people, and culture.
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To access digital Newspapers, use this link: https://shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp
National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides public access to billions of records from all three branches of the United States government.
State Department Historian
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.
UN Documents
UN documents include resolutions from legislative bodies, such as the General Assembly, Security Council, and the Economic and Social Council, which often contain a work mandate to be carried out by the UN Secretariat, or the UN system. Additionally, reports of the UN Secretary-General assess the state of the Organization and announce new work initiatives. Access to cases and rulings by the International Court of Justice, the main judicial body of the UN, is also available. On this website, you can search for meeting records, summaries of conferences, UN reports, treaties, maps, yearbooks and more.
U.S. Census Bureau
The Census Bureau is best known for the decennial population and housing census, but it also collects population and housing data between censuses through a variety of surveys. It conducts economic censuses every five years which include both economic and business data. It collects economic and business data between censuses as well.
WGBH Open Vault
Open Vault is the home of WGBH Media Library and Archives, providing online access to unique and historically important content produced by the public television and radio station WGBH. The ever-expanding site contains video, audio, images, searchable transcripts, and resource management tools, all of which are available for individual and classroom learning. Visitors can become a "member" (free) of Open Vault: to access records and save findings.