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Texas A&M University Libraries

Research Guides

Sociology

What are primary sources and Archives?

Primary sources (a.k.a. "original documents") are very important to historical research.  These are materials created at the time of the events under investigation.  These sources are available at the TAMU Libraries in a wide variety of formats including print, microfilm, and digital.  Examples of primary sources may include (but are NOT limited to):

  • diaries,
  • manuscripts,
  • correspondence,
  • newspapers and magazines from the time period (including the advertisements), 
  • published sermons,
  • business reports,
  • maps,
  • photographs,  
  • government materials including legislative testimony and votes, reports, hearings, and court opinions.

Special collections materials are information objects, such as rare books or manuscripts, which may be considered “rare” due to expense, scarcity or associations (e.g. people that used or owned the material). We have preserved them for their enduring cultural, historical or evidentiary value.

Archival materials consist of historical records or information objects selected for preservation due to their enduring cultural, historical or evidentiary value. These items are often unique.
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Using Archives: a Guide to Effective Research [ Society of American Archivists ]
How archives function, how to identify appropriate archives for your research and how to access historical materials and research at an archives.

Best Bets

Gale Primary Sources [TAMU]
Gale Primary Sources is an integrated research environment that allows users to search across TAMU's purchased Gale primary source collections: *17th and 18th Century Burney Collection *Archives Unbound *Archive of Sexuality & Gender *The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2011 *Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) *The Making of Modern Law *The Making of the Modern World *Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 *The Times Digital Archive *U.S. Declassified Documents Online *U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978.

The one below is the screen capture image of Archives Unbound, which includes African American Studies, American Studies, Asian Studies, Business & Economic History, Culture Studies, Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies, Health & Environmental Studies, International Relations, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Law, Politics & Radical Studies, and Native American Studies.


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See "Permitted Uses" - https://www.cengagegroup.com/legal/terms-gale/


JSTOR [TAMU]
Access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. You could also go to the collection list page to browse or search within the primary sources directly.


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Visit the Copyright Clearance Center to get permissions
https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004880127-Getting-Permissions-for-a-JSTOR-Article

 

Library of Congress Digital Collections [Web]

Provides free Internet access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

 

HathiTrust Digital Library
is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future. The HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the immense collections of partner institutions in digital form, preserving them securely to be accessed and used today, and in future generations. There are more than 1.8 million titles in the public domain available in the HathiTrust Digital Library, and more than 7 million total digitized volumes.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers 
provides full text and images for major US and African American newspapers dating as far back as 1764. All of the ProQuest Newspapers use the same interface and allow for targeted searching using various limiters (e.g., date, section, etc.). Please note: Historical Newspapers may not be searched simultaneously with non-historical papers.