Research Guides: 19th Century Primary Sources: Primary Source Databases

Databases with 19th Century Primary Sources

In these boxes you will find a selection of databases containing primary source materials focused on nineteenth century North America. Databases are grouped by subject and type

African American Communities
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community. Key themes include desegregation, civil rights, race relations, African American culture.
Note: This collection is owned in perpetuity by Davidson College.
Documenting the American South
A collection of primary sources on Southern history, culture, and literature from the colonial period through the early twentieth century. Includes diaries, first-person narratives, literary works, photographs, and other materials.
North Carolina Digital Collections
Historic and recent photographs, state government publications, manuscripts, and other resources on topics related to North Carolina. The Collections are free and full-text searchable, and bring together content from the State Archives of North Carolina and the State Library of North Carolina.
Each item in the collections has a rights statement included in its description, which identifies any restrictions on use.

Church Missionary Society Periodicals
Documenting missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports on global missions and cultural encounters.
Note: This collection is owned in perpetuity by Davidson College.
Civil Rights in America: From Reconstruction to the Great Society
Archive of official publications and primary source material related to civil rights in the United States from the 19th century through the 20th century.
Digital Transgender Archive
Contains an array of digitized materials on transgender history and culture. The collection functions as an extensive hub of resources, drawing content from archives across the U.S. and Canada.
Indigenous Peoples: North America
Gain insight into the cultural, political, and social history of Native Peoples from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
Manuscript Women's Letters & Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society
Digital facsimiles of manuscript letters and diaries written by American women from New England families.
Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
Research, study, and discover endless teaching possibilities on understanding slavery from a multinational perspective.
Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
Content focuses on slavery from Africa across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, from the origins of transoceanic slavery through the emancipation generation. In conjunction with The "Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation" a digital academic journal that publishes original, peer-reviewed datasets about the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants drawn from documents produced from the fifteenth to the early twentieth-centuries.

African American Historical Serials Collection
This unique resource documents the history of African American life and religious organizations from 1829 and 1922.
Accessible Archives
Search Nineteenth Century newspapers across the following collections:
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century, The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective, The Liberator, and Godey's Lady's Book.
America's Historical Newspapers
Database of newspapers including African American Newspapers (1827-1998), Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876), Early American Newspapers (1690-1922), Hispanic American Newspapers (1808-1980).
Part of the Archive of Americana.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980
Includes many newspapers published bilingually in Spanish and English, including many long scattered and forgotten titles published in the 19th century.
This collection is based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project” directed by Professor Nicolás Kanellos at the University of Houston. It is a subset of America's Historical Newspapers and part of the Archive of Americana.

Archive of Americana
Historical collections that contain books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America over centuries.
History Vault
History Vault provides access to digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Discover primary source collections of the long nineteenth century. Sourced from almost one hundred major world libraries.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
A rich collection of primary sources related to U.S. history and culture; materials are drawn from the Library of Congress and other research libraries.
This collection is public domain and are not protected by copyright.
Digital Public Library of America
Contains materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the United States.

National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans
Smithsonian Collections Online
Digital facsimiles of primary and secondary sources from the Smithsonian Institution's archives, libraries, and museums.