This guide provides a list of sources for researching primary documents (newspapers, letters, diaries, and other documents) from U.S. history, from colonial times to 1900. Two other guides will be very helpful: American History Resources: A Library Collections Guide and How to Distinguish Primary and Secondary Sources.

World Wide Web Text Archives

American Memory 16th-20th century
Library of Congress digital collection of books, maps, ephemera, music, spoken word, that "document the American experience." Full list of collections.

Early Encounters in North America 1542 - 1900's.
Includes transcriptions of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters. Authors include: Native Americans; European explorers; missionaries; travel and nature writers; settlers; and others.

Early American Imprints 1639-1800
Also available in McHenry Microforms, call no. PS503.E37 1974. Known as the Evans Imprints, this large document collection reproduces 42,000 early American publications; every book, pamphlet, and broadside published in America.

Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610-1791
Also available in McHenry Microforms, call no. F1030.7.Z951 1960. Searchable text of the English translation of the original volumes.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries 1675-1941
The searchable and browsable database contains the full-text of women's diaries and letters.

Pennsylvania Gazette 1728-1800
Considered The New York Times of the 18th century, the newspaper provides the reader with a first hand view of colonial America, the American Revolution and the New Republic.

Documenting the American South 18th through 20th century
A digital collection of texts, images, and sound files (including oral histories of more current events), that focus on southern U.S. history and culture. Full list of collections.

Making of America 19th century
University of Michigan and Cornell University collaborative digitization project. A collection of primary source material from the antebellum through reconstruction period of U.S. History. Subject browsing available.

North American Slave Narratives 1800's - early 1920
Autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920.

Godey's Ladies Book 1830-1865
The publication was intended to entertain, inform, and educate the women of America. Includes fashion descriptions and plates, biographical sketches, articles about handcrafts, dance, health & hygiene, recipes & remedies, and sheet music.

HarpWeek 1857-1912
Full-image reproductions of Harper's Weekly, an important weekly magazine read by Americans during the 19th century.

The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective 1860-1865
Major articles gleaned from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury, and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.

African American Newspapers: 19th Century
Text from the following newspapers: Freedom's Journal, March 1827 - March 1829; The Colored American, January 1837 - December 1841; The North Star, December 1847 - April 1851; The National Era, January 1847 - March 1860; Provincial Freeman, 1854-1857; Frederick Douglass Paper, 1851-1859; and The Christian Recorder,1861 - 1902.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries 1855-1875
Searchable text of letters and diaries by the famous and the unknown, giving perspectives of Northern, and Southern, and foreign observers.

Microfilm Collections

The Carter Family Papers. 1659-1797. McHenry Microforms call no. CD3029.5.C33H6 1967. Includes documents, correspondence, and diaries of London Carter (1710-1778), a successful Virginia planter and politician, and his son Robert Wormeley Carter (1734-1798). Topics include the tobacco and slave trades as well as political debates in the Virginia House of Burgesses. More information on the family and the microform set is available in the Guide to the microfilm edition of The Lee family papers, microforms call no. CD3029.5.C33H6 1967, Guide.

Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and Parts Adjacent in America. 1688-1761. McHenry Microforms call no. E98.M6C65 1688a. The company sponsored missionaries in America to convert the Native Americans. This collection contains a reproduction of the Letter Book, which holds the correspondence of the company's governors, clerks and treasurers with the commissioners in America. A personal name index is available in the Guide to the microfilm edition, microforms call no. E98.M6C65 1968, Guide.

Early American Newspapers. Location: McHenry Microforms section 5. Includes the Boston Gazette 1719-1820, American Weekly Mercury 1719-1746, Connecticut Courant 1764-1820, Georgia Gazette 1763-1770, New York Mercury 1752-1768, New York Weekly Journal 1733-1751, Pennsylvania Evening Post 1775-1784, Pennsylvania Ledger 1775-1778, and miscellaneous South Carolina newspapers 1728-1815.

Virginia Gazette. 1736-1780. Location: McHenry Microforms section 3.

The Lee Family Papers. 1742-1795. McHenry Microforms call no. CD3029.5.L4H6 1966. Includes bills, receipts, and personal, political, diplomatic and commercial correspondence. Subjects include the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. The papers include The Proceedings of the Secret Committee of the Continental Congress, and papers of John Ross, William Brigham and Robert Morris. More information on the family and the set is available in the Guide to the microfilm edition of The Lee family papers, McHenry Microforms call no. CD3029.5.L4H6 1966, Guide. 

Records of the British Colonial Office: The American Revolution. 1772-1784. McHenry Microforms call no. JV1016.G74 1984. A print index is also available in the Microforms room, call no. JV1016.G74 1984 Guide.

Times of London. 1785 - current. McHenry Microforms. Index available on McHenry Reference Table 14, call no. Also indexed in Historical Newspapers Online.

New York Times. 1851-current. McHenry Microforms. Index available on McHenry Reference Table 14, call no. AI21.N44. Also searchable full-text in Proquest Historical Newspapers.

Santa Cruz Sentinel. 1856-current. McHenry Microforms. Index for 1856-1884 available in McHenry Reference, call no. AI21.S38.

Santa Cruz Surf and Superior California Farmer. 1883-1919. McHenry Microforms. Index available in McHenry Reference, call no. AI21.S36.

Mountain Echo (Boulder Creek) 1896-1916. McHenry Microforms. Index available in McHenry Reference, call no. AI21.M64 C67 1999.

Reference Materials

Early American History Resources: A UCSC Library Collections Guide. Provides information on library catalogs, article databases, books, and internet resources useful for researching early American history.

Harvard Guide to American History. Location: McHenry Reference Desk call no. Z1236.H27 1974. Many primary documents are listed in chaper 9, Biographies and Personal Records as well as other sections of the book under the heading Personal Accounts.

American National Biography. Online database of biographical information on men and women throughout US history. Searchable by several criteria including date of birth of death. For each entry, provides a bibliography of secondary and primary source materials for further research.

Additional materials: Search CRUZCAT

Examples of Library of Congress subject headings:

United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
United States -- History -- Sources
Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
Pennsylvania -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
California -- History -- 1846 1850 -- Sources