Archival Collections
Libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies often digitize material and make it available online. Here are some examples:
Locating primary sources for historical research is an iterative process. It often involves consulting the secondary sources, tracking down primary sources used by others, going back to the literature as new names, events, and concepts emerge, then back to the tracking down potential primary documents.
For historians, some of the most fruitful searching happens when looking for books in OneSearch. When searching, keep the following in mind.
Search for authors - Individuals, organizations, and government branches/agencies can all be authors, and can be searched in library catalogs. Results might include autobiographies, published correspondence and diaries, interviews, government reports, hearings, and studies, periodicals and bulletins, and archival collections.
Know your subject headings - It helps to get to know how subject headings are used to describe your topic. For example, the subject headings Cuban Americans and Cubans--United States have slightly different meanings, and both could be useful for studying Americans of Cuban origin or Cubans in the United States, respectively.
Use publication date filter strategically - You can limit results by date of publication, such as 1890-1940. Keep in mind that some primary sources may be collated and reprinted in a later book that would not appear if this filter is used. Copies of primary sources may also be included in some secondary sources- esp. in scholarly books.
Databases with historical newspaper and magazine articles:
Includes full page images of newspaper articles, including advertisements. Indexing is keyword. The library subscribes to the full package: New York Times 1851-2017, Wall Street Journal 1889-2003, Washington Post 1877-2004, Christian Science Monitor 1908-2007, Los Angeles Times- 1881-1996. For recent newspaper articles, see our Newspaper Databases.
Restricted to Stetson students, faculty, and staff. Includes all issues of Time Magazine from 1923 to 2000. Advertisements are included. PDF full text. Instructions for browsing. If you are looking for the records of Time Inc., visit the New-York Historical Society webiste at https://www.nyhistory.org/library/time-inc-archive
Databases with other types of primary sources:
A digital image library of collections of art, architecture, humanities, and science images with descriptive information. Artstor migrated to the JSTOR site in 2024.