Primary Sources
This guide will provide more information about finding primary sources appropriate for your discipline and area of research.
Literature
In literature, primary sources are the original texts of an author. This can include novels, short stories, plays, or poems, which are often in a manuscript form. The databases below will help researchers find these types of materials.
For more research assistance, see the English Language and Literature guide.
Image shows a stack of yellowed, battered books
- Nineteenth century UK periodicals This link opens in a new windowThis database contains 2.1 million pages of periodicals published in Great Britain from 1800-1900. It includes publications on all aspects of the 19th century life--literature and culture, empire, feminism, the history of the book, the creative and performing arts, sport and leisure, science and medicine, the professions.The Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals series covers the events, lives, values, and themes that shaped the nineteenth century world. It provides an invaluable, fully-searchable facsimile resource for the study of British life in the nineteenth century—from art to business, and from children to politics. Few of the materials in this extensive collection have ever been reissued, in any format since original publication. Titles included have been identified and selected by leading scholars in nineteenth century studies; their choices reflect the broad scope and thrust of research and teaching in the twenty-first century. Part I covers the advent of commercial lifestyle publishing in Britain, drawn from the remarkable collections of the British Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Australia, and National Library of South Africa. The series acts as a barometer of literacy and social mobility in the 1800s, with a particular focus on the rarely documented aspects of women, children, humour, and leisure activity in the Victorian age. The rise of magazine publishing is reflected in the selection of publications, spanning publications aimed at and tailored to various audiences, including women and children. Part II looks at the role Britain played as an imperial power throughout the century, and contains periodicals from Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. The range of titles was selected by a team of more than twenty editors, all of which are specialists in the field of nineteenth century studies, and have been compiled from collections in the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Australia.
- AustLit This link opens in a new windowThis database is a searchable, scholarly source of authoritative biographical, bibliographic, critical, and production information about Australian writers and writing. Material dates largely from the arrival of European print culture in Australia (c. 1788) to the present.AustLit indexes Australian literary content from a range of print and electronic information sources. It also makes available selected critical articles and creative writing in full text. Whenever possible, AustLit provides access to freely available Internet publications. Coverage spans 1780 to the present day.
- American fiction, 1774-1920 This link opens in a new windowAmerican Fiction, 1774-1920 encompasses more than 17,500 works of prose fiction written by Americans from the political beginnings of the United States through World War I, including thousands never before available online.American Fiction, 1774-1920 encompasses prose fiction from the political beginnings of the United States through World War I. The collection is based on authoritative bibliographies including Lyle H. Wright's American Fiction: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography, widely considered the most comprehensive bibliography of American adult prose fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Geoffrey D. Smith's American Fiction, 1901-1925: A Bibliography, comprising nearly three-quarters of all adult fiction published in the United States during this time period. These texts reveal much about the socioeconomic, political, and religious tenor of America through centuries of radical change.
- Bob Gibson Collection This link opens in a new windowThe Bob Gibson Collection of Speculative Fiction consisting of approximately 28,000 hardcover and paperback books, pulp magazines and other materials reflect the collecting activities of the late Bob (William Robert) Gibson. This digitized collection contains a selection of 50 compilations/anthologies from the late 19th century.A selection of compilations from the Bob Gibson collection held in Special Collections. They contain short fiction stories published in popular periodicals from the 19th century.
- British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowBritish and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters. The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.This collection includes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
- Coverage is of materials written between 1500 and 1900.
- Includes fulltext of documents.
- CRL library catalog This link opens in a new windowThe approximately five million newspapers, journals, books, pamphlets, dissertations, archives, government publications, and other resources held by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) support original research and teaching. While these shared collections are largely paper and microform, CRL provides online access to a continually expanding body of digital materials. The "Topic Guides" section of the website is an excellent place to start as it has a number of topic guides organized by discipline or region.
- Access digitized content directly through CRL online catalog request other material through UofC Interlibrary Loans
Membership in Center for Research Libraries provides access to a wide range of uncommon materials, with a focus on news, law and government, finance, the history of science, technology and engineering, and the history and economics of agriculture. The approximately five million newspapers, journals, books, pamphlets, dissertations, archives, government publications, and other resources held by CRL support original research and teaching. CRL holdings include materials from all world regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central, South and Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. While these shared collections are largely paper and microform, CRL provides online access to a continually expanding body of digital materials. CRL digital collections of primary source materials support research and teaching in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. - Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new windowEarly Encounters in North America contains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters. Particular care has been taken to index the material so that it can be used in new ways.Early Encounters in North America documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. The project brings coherence to a wide range of published and unpublished accounts, including narratives, diaries, photographs, journals, and letters.
- Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowEarly English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.Early English Books Online (EEBO) features page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700. Over 200 libraries worldwide have contributed to EEBO. From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period and features a substantial number of text transcriptions specially created for the product. EEBO draws from four authoritative bibliographical resources – both Pollard & Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) in their revised versions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) and the Early English Books Tract Supplement – to present more than 146,000 titles and over 17 million scanned pages of content. Transcribed texts – TCP I and TCP II – are now included on EEBO, adding transcriptions to approximately 50% of the texts featured. EEBO also covers texts in more than 30 languages, ranging from Algonquin to Welsh, and incorporates variant editions and multiple copies. These collections were part of the original UMI Microfilms Collections Project.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowThis database includes resources such as books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides, works published in the UK during the 18th century, and an image gallery.A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. Subject categories include history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science, and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy; law; general reference. Also included are significant collections of women writers of the eighteenth century, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare. Where they add scholarly value or contain important differences, multiple editions of each individual work are offered.
- Gale Primary sources This link opens in a new windowThe Gale Primary Sources cross-search interface provides access to millions of pages of content spanning many centuries and geographic regions. Users can explore a wide range of content including monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, maps, and more.Gale Primary Sources is a universal research experience that combines Gale's acclaimed digital archives in a single cross-search interface. This powerful platform greatly enhances the research experience for students and researchers by broadening their discovery of primary source documents through the use of multiple search options and research tools. The Gale Primary Sources cross-search interface provides access to millions of pages of content spanning many centuries and geographic regions. Users can explore a wide range of content including monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, maps, and more. As Gale continues to create additional digital archives, we will automatically add the content to the Gale Primary Sources cross-search experience.
- Grand Tour (The) This link opens in a new windowThis collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections. This includes letters; diaries and journals; account books; printed guidebooks; published travel writing; paintings and sketches; architectural drawings and maps.These accounts of the English abroad, c1550-1850, highlight the influence of continental travel on British art, architecture, urban planning, literature and philosophy. This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections. We include letters; diaries and journals; account books; printed guidebooks; published travel writing; paintings and sketches; architectural drawings and maps. The Grand Tour is a wonderful source of information about daily life in the eighteenth century, highlighting such everyday issues as transportation, money, communications, food and drink, health and sex. The material also covers European political and religious life, British diplomacy; life at court, and social customs on the Continent, and is an invaluable resource for the study of Europe's urban spaces. There is a wealth of detail about cities such as Paris, Rome, Florence and Geneva, including written accounts and visual representations of street life, architecture and urban planning.
- Hathi Trust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowHathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. HathiTrust contains a number of collections, organized by subject topic and compiled by university institutions. It is recommended you start here to narrow your search.As a digital repository for the nation's great research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. It was initially conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California system, and the University of Virginia to establish a repository for those universities to archive and share their digitized collections, and quickly expanded to include additional partners with fast growing treasure of digitized collections.
- Latino literature This link opens in a new windowLatino Literature brings together more than 100,000 pages pages of poetry, fiction, and over 450 plays written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latino authors working in the United States. Among the gems of the collection are nearly 800 items (poems, novels, and plays) that have never been published before. Researchers will also find numerous Chicano folk tales and audio files of selected poems and plays. It contains over 133,465 pages.Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction includes more than 100,000 pages of poetry, short fiction, novels, and more than 450 plays. Nearly all of the content is in copyright, and most of the other items are long out of print or have never before been published. Besides serving as a rich resource for literature scholars, the collection also supports the study of American history, ethnic diversity, immigrations issues, and political history.
- Literature - Library and Archives CanadaLibrary and Archives Canada holds a vast collection of Canadian literature, including translations of these works into other languages, as well as a significant collection of Canadian children's literature which includes original children's book illustrations and manuscripts. Library and Archives Canada's holdings also include manuscripts, galley proofs, letters, audio and video recordings, book illustrations, photographs, journals and notebooks. The collections also cover small literary presses, private presses and the book arts and include books and periodicals about Canadian literature and its history.
- About Searching Collections - Libraries and Archives CanadaThis guide will walk you through a variety of FAQ's about searching collections on Libraries and Archives Canada such as: What is a Collection Search? What will I find? and what information will be yielded under each search tab.
- Literary manuscripts :17th and 18th century poetry from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds This link opens in a new windowThis database contains complete facsimile images of 190 manuscripts of 17th and 18th century poetry held at the University of Leeds. Full listings of the manuscripts, manuscript types, authors, first lines, verse titles and colour images available can be found via the Contents page.Complete facsimile images of 190 manuscripts of 17th and 18th century verse held in the celebrated Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds. These manuscripts can be read and explored in conjunction with the BCMSV database, which includes first lines, last lines, attribution, author, title, date, length, verse form, content and bibliographic references for over 6,600 poems within the collection. Additional features include interactive essays, biographies, a palaeography section with transcriptions and alphabets, and a large selection of colour images demonstrating over 320 examples of 17th and 18th century English handwriting.
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowThis database offers a broad and representative range of authors and their works including a deep collection of full-text critical and literary analysis. This also provides a wide array of primary sources.Gale Literature Resource Center offers the broadest and most representative range of authors and their works, including a deep collection of full-text critical and literary analysis for literary studies. The resource provides researchers with unbounding literary resources to support their literary responses, literary analysis, and thesis statements through a diversity of scholars and critics that ensure all views and interpretations are represented. Researchers can find up-to-date analysis, biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism, and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods, and from around the world. Gale Literature Resource Center brings together materials that support interdisciplinary approaches, information literacy, and the development of critical thinking skills. Researchers with a literature, history, arts, gender studies, or cultural studies focus can use this resource to analyze authors and works throughout time.
- London Low Life : street culture, social reform and the Victorian underworld This link opens in a new windowThis database contains primary sources such as colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 19th and early 20th century London.Full-text searchable resource, containing colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 19th and early 20th century London; designed for both teaching and study, from undergraduate to research students and beyond. Will be of interest to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including literature, cultural studies, urban studies, social history and the study of leisure and tourism. There is a strong emphasis on rare or unique material, particularly in the range of ephemera and street literature available.There is also an emphasis on visual material. The documents are drawn from the holdings of the Lilly Library, the rare books, manuscripts, and special collections library of the Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington.
- Medieval Family Life : the Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh papers This link opens in a new windowMedieval Family Life contains full-color images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise the Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor, and Armburgh family letter collections, along with full-text searchable transcripts from printed editions. Also includes family trees, chronology, a map, and a glossary.
- Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new windowThis resource provides an extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy. The core of the material is a collection of medieval manuscripts from libraries around the world and dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries.This collection presents manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East, including accounts of travel to Mongolia, Persia, India, China and South-East Asia. The collection also includes a number of important accounts of travels to or through the Holy Land although in this it makes no claims to full or even broad coverage: a separate collection, covering crusading and pilgrimage narratives, would be required for that. It features a number of medieval maps such as the famous ‘Beatus’ and ‘Psalter’ maps, individual manuscript illuminations, and some modern translations of key travel texts.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowThis database focuses on primary source collections of the long nineteenth century. Content includes manuscripts, maps, monographs, newspapers, and photographs.A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century. The content is sourced from the world's preeminent libraries and archives. It consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages. The content and its rich metadata are presented on a platform that is fully cross-searchable.
- Patrologia Latina This link opens in a new windowThis database contains prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes.The Patrologia Latina Database is an electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. The Patrologia Latina comprises the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216. The complete Patrologia Latina is included with all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's column numbers, essential references for scholars, are included.
- Perdita manuscripts This link opens in a new windowManuscripts on this website were written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the 16th and 17th centuries, sourced from archives and libraries across the United Kingdom and United States.Full digital facsimiles of over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women living in the British Isle during the 16th and 17th centuries. Contents include account books, advice, culinary writing, meditation, travel writing, and verse. Perdita manuscripts can be indexed by name, place, genre, and first lines of both poetry and prose.
- Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape This link opens in a new windowAll digitized documents are in colour and include: verse manuscripts, printed manuscripts, prose manuscripts, printed verse, correspondence, diaries, travel journals, autograph albums, guide books, fine art and maps.Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape presents the manuscript collections of the Wordsworth Trust, offering students and researchers of the Romantic period unique access to the working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers. Also included [are] over 2,500 fine art pieces from the Wordsworth Trust's fine art collection that serve to contextualize the work of the poets and writers represented in this resource. All documents have been digitised in full colour.
- Last Updated: Sep 3, 2024 2:44 PM
- URL: https://libguides.ucalgary.ca/guides/primarysources
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Subjects: History, History-Primary Sources, Library & Information Science, Reference Tools, Research, Writing
Tags: History, primary sources