Primary Sources | Library | University of Portland

Home >>
Library >>
Find Articles >>
Primary Sources

Library: History

What is a Primary Source? In history, primary sources are the raw material that you will analyze and interpret to better understand the past. They are produced during the time of the event or phenomenon you are investigating and will bring you as close to the past as is possible. Primary sources can take many forms including the words of participants or eyewitness descriptions, official records or governments or organizations, photographs, film or other media, and artifacts.

Using UP WorldCat to locate primary sources Add one of these terms to your UP WorldCat keyword search with “su:” in front. For example: oregon pioneer su:sources

Bibliography
Charters, Grants, Privileges
Correspondence
Description and Travel
Diaries
Interviews
Pamphlets
Personal Narratives
Sources
Speeches

Library indexes to primary source newspaper and magazine articles

Nineteenth (19th) Century U.S. Newspapers -- Searchable full text of U.S. newspapers from 1800-1900.

Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature – covers 1802-1907.

Oregon Newspaper Index - covers 1850-1987. Learn how to obtain Oregonian articles.

New York Times (Proquest Historical Newspapers) -- Searchable full text of the New York Times from 1851-2007.

Readers' Guide Retrospective -- General interest periodicals reflecting a history of 20th century America. 1890-1982.

Newspapers

– United States

Nineteenth (19th) Century U.S. Newspapers -- Searchable full text of U.S. newspapers from 1800-1900.

Chronicling America --View newspaper pages from 1836 to 1922.

California Digital Newspaper Collection -- Article-level digital facsimiles of California newspapers published 1846 to present.

Oregon Newspaper Index -- Covers 1850-1987. Learn how to obtain Oregonian articles.

New York Times (Proquest Historical Newspapers) -- Searchable full text of the New York Times from 1851-2007.

– Outside of US

Australian Newspapers (National Library of Australia) -- Historic Australian Newspapers from 1803 to 1954. Ongoing project of the National Library of Australia.

La Presse Quotidienne (Gallica) -- Online archive of historic French newspapers from the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, reflecting political, economic, literary, artistic and scientific thought of the times.

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg - Zeitschriften und Zeitungen -- A small collection of German language 19th and early-to-mid 20th century newspapers from the University of Heidelberg.

Biblioteca Nacional de España -- A large digital collection of Spanish newspapers from the National Library of Spain.

Magazines

Nation [Online] 1865 - 1 month ago (PDF)

New Republic [Online] 1914 - present (PDF)

Saturday Evening Post [Online] 1931 - present (PDF)

Time Magazine [Microfiche] 1936 - present; [Microfilm] 1923 - 1935; [Online] 1923 - present (HTML)

Vanity fair, selections from America's most memorable magazine: a cavalcade of the 1920s and 1930s Oversize PS536 .V3 1960

Newsweek [Microfiche] 1940 - present; [Microfilm] 1933 - 1939

Life Magazine [Paper] 1936 - 1972

Ebony [Online] 1945 - present (PDF)

U.S. News & World Report [Microfiche] 1953 - 2010; [Microfilm] 1948 - 1953

National Review [Online] 1955 - present (PDF)

Advertising

Ad*Access -- An extensive online database of over 7,000 advertisements from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisement Collection available from the John W. Hartman Center at Duke University. The images are from U.S. newspapers and magazines from 1911 through 1955.

Emergence of Advertising in America -- Over 2,800 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States.

Found in Mom's Basement -- A blog devoted to vintage advertising.

More assistance

Using Primary Sources on the Web

Email the reference librarians or use the Library Chat box on the right-hand side of this page.