Guides: American Revolution: Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases

American Historical Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Includes journals, magazines, and periodicals published between 1684 and 1922.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full-text coverage of 19th century newspapers from across the U.S. published between 1800 and 1900. Many published in what were, at the time, territories. Florida newspapers include papers from St. Augustine, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Pensacola. This database funded by the College of Law.
Prestatehood Legal Materials This link opens in a new window
Brief overviews of state histories from colonization to statehood with links to full-text documents.
Congressional This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of historic and current congressional information, including bills & laws, hearings, CRS reports, committee prints, reports, and the Congressional Record. Congressional Documents (1789-Present), Congressional Hearings (1824-Present), Congressional Record (1873-1997), Congressional Research Reports (1916-2003), Serial Set (1789-Present), Serial Set Maps (1789-1969).
Artstor This link opens in a new window
A digital image library of collections of art, architecture, humanities, and science images with descriptive information. Artstor migrated to the JSTOR site in 2024.

Primary Source Websites

Many libraries, archives, and museums digitize archival material and make it freely available online to anyone. A sample of relevant digital archives are linked below. To look for more, try Googling your topic + digital archives or libraries or collections.

Library of Congress American Revolution Digital Collections
The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of primary source materials associated with the American Revolution era (1763-1783), including manuscripts, broadsides, government documents, books, images, and maps.
National Archives Online Exhibits
National Archives Military Resources: American Revolution
A compilation of resources on the American Revolution compiled by the Archives Library Information Center at the National Archives and Records Administration. It includes links to documents and images at the National Archives, as well as links to external sites.
American Archives: Documents of the American Revolutionary Period, 1774-1776
Beginning in 1837 the printer Peter Force, devoted 16 years to collecting thousands of pamphlets, booklets, and newspaper articles pertaining to the "Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America" from the Revolutionary Era in order to preserve them for future generations. He published them in a set of 9 large volumes that he called the American Archives. By the late 20th century Force's collection of materials from the years 1774-6 had become a valuable scholarly resource, as it contained the only surviving copies of many important documents.
The American Revolution - A Documentary History
The Avalon Project at Yale Law School presents a compilation of primary source documents from 1764 to 1783 associated with the American Revolution.
The Coming of the American Revolution, 1764-1776
The Massachusetts Historical Society's site contains primary sources and contextual essays arranged into 15 topics relating to the events leading up to the American Revolution
Spy Letters of the American Revolution
This online exhibit from the Sir Henry Clinton Collection at the Clements Library, University of Michigan, examines the everyday intelligence operations of both the British and American armies. Many of the letters highlighted in this digital exhibit were pivotal to the successes and failures of sieges, battles, and surprise attacks. The exhibit includes a gallery of letters, a timeline, biographical information, stories, and a variety of educational resources.
The Battle of Bunker Hill
The Massachusetts Historical Society's online exhibit on the Battle of Bunker Hill. The exhibit presents personal accounts and eyewitness descriptions of the battle, along with contemporary maps, drawings, engravings, broadsides, and artifacts, either preserved by the participants or found on the battlefield.

How to Find primary sources in OneSearch

To find primary source material in OneSearch, type in keywords for your topic and add one of the words below as a second keyword. For example: "Abigail Adams" correspondence
women "american revolution" letters

correspondence	diaries	interviews
manuscripts	narratives	sources
speeches	letters	documents

OneSearch This link opens in a new window
Select the Stetson Collections Only option to search for items accessible through the duPont-Ball Library.

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American Revolution

Primary Source Databases

Primary Source Websites

How to Find primary sources in OneSearch