Finding Textual Primary Sources

Before you begin:

1. Have a good understanding of the topic - read encyclopedias and secondary sources
2. Identify persons involved with the topic (government officials, eye-witnesses, writers of the time period)
3. Determine what type(s) of information would be appropriate primary sources for your topic.

Search techniques:

1. Use the bibliographies and footnotes in the secondary sources to identify primary sources
2. Use as subject search terms: geographic areas, names of events (e.g. wars), names of organizations, and subject terms to find collections of primary documents that have been transcribed or guides to such collections
3. Use as author search terms: names of people including the position that they may have held ( e.g. United States President), and names of organizations to find papers, letters, memoirs, autobiographies
4. Search library catalogs for collections of primary sources in print, online, or in microform; search indexes for government documents and contemporaneous articles
5. Identify materials written at the time of your event by using date limits in catalogs and indexes

Search Library Catalogs (Colgate Library, ConnectNY, WorldCat)

Subject Searches
Appropriate subject headings will be combinations of words that indicate the type of material, time periods, and geographic areas, events (e.g. wars), or other topics.

Types of material
Combine subject headings with following phrases, used as subdivisions of subject headings, that indicate the type of material and often indicate collections of primary sources:

1. sources (documents collected from multiple sources)
2. correspondence (use with names or classes of people, families, ethnic groups, organizations)
3. diaries (use with names or classes of people, ethnic groups, organizations)
4. personal narratives (use only with wars)
5. interviews (use with names or classes of people, ethnic groups, organizations)
6. notebooks, sketches, etc. (use with names of people)
7. description and travel (use with names of places)
8. diplomatic history (use only with wars)
9. treaties (use with subjects, geographic areas, ethnic groups, wars)
10. speeches in congress

Time periods
Subdivisions that indicate time periods depend upon the subject heading they are combined with:

1. dates (e.g. --1783-1815, --1809-1817)
2. phrases that indicate a ruler, war, or other significant event in history (e.g. --Confederation, 1783-1789, --George III, 1760-1820, --Civil War, 1861-1865).

Date of publication may indicate time period. Any search can be limited by date, either before the search (WorldCat) or after the search (Mondo, ConnectNY).

Author Searches
Search organizations or names of key players in your time period as authors. Enter authors' names: last name, first name. Take the time to discover the “official” form of a name. Does it include middle names or initials or birth-death dates? Date of publication can indicate time period. Any search can be limited by date, either before or after the search.

 

Search Indexes for Primary Source Articles

Articles in magazines and newspapers contemporary with your topic are primary sources. When searching by keyword or in full-text databases remember to put yourself in the head of someone living at the time of the event you are studying. For example the term African-American has gone through several iterations, from Black to Afro-American to African-American (and other terms not so polite!).

Search organizations or names of key players in your time period as authors. Enter authors' names: last name, first name. Take the time to discover if the database you are searching uses middle names or initials. Date of publication can indicate time period. Any search can be limited by date, either before or after the search.

 

Search Government Documents Indexes

Some government documents from this time period are indexed by various titles located in Case Ref Documents (i.e., the documents are not in the catalog, and the indexes are not online). For other suggestions, see the Subject Guide: Government Information, United States

Checklist of U.S. Public Documents 1789-1909.
CASE Ref Document Z1223 .A113 1911
          Arranged by department/agency; no subject, title, or author index.

CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909.
CASE Ref Document Z1223 .A1134 1990
          Arranged by agency; subject and name indexes.

CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1910-1932.
CASE Ref Document Z1223 .A 1134 1990
Arranged by agency; subject and name indexes

LexisNexis Congressional
Indexes many of the documents that are generated by the federal legislative process. Very selective full text. Some congressional materials (pre-1976) are published in large sets with their own indexing. Ask for help!

LexisNexis Academic, click on “Legal” tab near top of page. State and federal court decisions and laws; Supreme Court merit briefs for
cases granted cert., amicus curiae briefs, joint appendices and special masters beginning in January 1979, with selected coverage from 1936. All briefs for cases granted cert. begins after 1993. Also includes all briefs for cases petitioning for cert. after 2001.