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Winman Library: Primary Sources

Summer 2023

Primary Source Images

 
  • New York Public Library Picture Collection Online
    Contains 30,000 high-resolution digital images taken from the New York Public Library's extensive collection of books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, and prints. Most images are pre-1923, and the collection is especially strong in the areas of fashion and natural history
     
  • Perseus Digital Library
    Extensive digital library of primary source texts and artifacts, covering Ancient Greece and Rome, the English Renaissance, and early North American history.
     
  • Picture History
    Accesses thousands of high-quality digital images and video clips documents over 200 years of American cultural, political, military, and social history. Offers a variety of search functions as well as the ability to save or e-mail images for free.
     
  • Picturing US History
    From the website: "Picturing United States History: An Interactive Resource for Teaching with Visual Evidence is a digital project based on the belief that visual materials are vital to understanding the American past. "
     
  • Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
    Provides access to more than one million historically significant digital images, some of which can be freely downloaded.

Primary Sources

A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study. Examples include: Autobiographies, diaries, e-mail, interviews, letters, minutes, news film footage, official records, photographs, raw research data, speeches, government documents.

One great resource is the New York Times Historical (1851-)

  • This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time. You will need your CLAN library barcode number.

You can also contact the Library of Congress Librarian if you can't find what you need.