What is a primary source?
A primary source is an information source that describes or depicts a historical period, event, person, or people and that was created around the time of the period, event, or person's life, and/or by someone with firsthand knowledge of the subjects.
Primary sources can take many forms. They can be letters, postcards, telegrams, diaries, journals, newspaper and magazine articles, government documents, business and organization records, photos, posters, pamphlets, handbills, and more.
Collections of historical newspaper and magazine articles
These electronic databases contain primary sources in the form of articles from newspapers and magazines, dating back to the 19th century. They are also characterized by different search interfaces with different filters and options. As you use them, take a moment before you begin searching to see how the search page and its options are organized.
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Newspapers.com (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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Internet Archive: Magazine Rack This subset within Internet Archive includes digitized reproductions of magazines, in some cases dating back to the 19th century.
If you are looking for articles from a specific newspaper or magazine, you can use Journal Search to determine whether it is available at Ball State University Libraries. Search for the newspaper or magazine by name in the box at the top of the Journal Search page.
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Journal Search Journal Search is a tool for finding journals, magazines, and newspapers in University Libraries' collections. You can search for a specific publication using the search box or browse publications by topic using the menus on the left.
The Chicago Tribune and more on microforms
The Chicago Tribune was founded in 1847 and today is one of the city's two major daily newspapers. At University Libraries, issues dating from 1849 to 2010 are available on microfilm. An index to the paper dating back to the 19th century is not available. A strategy to discover articles about the Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Affair, and the Pullman model town, however, would be to first identify dates when events of interest occurred and then peruse issues of the Tribune published shortly after.
Dozens of other American newspapers are available on microforms at University Libraries. Coverage dates vary.
Court cases
Nexis Uni contains the full text of court cases dating back to the second half of the 19th century. The guided search interface is recommended for finding them. Searches can be performed with case citations or by keyword searches.
Using OneSearch to find more primary sources at University Libraries
Primary source material at University Libraries can also be discovered in OneSearch. You can begin by entering search terms that represent your topic in the search box. Run a search, and on the results page use the "archival material" option in the content type filter; or "newspaper articles" and/or "magazine article" in the content type filter and then use the publication date filter to narrow your results to those create within a few years of the event you are researching.
Multi-format collections of primary sources
These electronic collections contain primary sources of many different kinds.
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Hathi Trust A large book digitization project where you will find a variety of kinds of primary sources.
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Internet Archive The Internet Archive specializes in preserving cultural, intellectual, and historical artefacts of a digital nature, including software, videos, sound recordings, images, and more than half a trillion web pages. The archive also includes about 28 million digitized books and texts.
ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid is an online resource that contains descriptions of the archival holdings of many libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and similar institutions. It allows you to search for a topic - perhaps a person, place, event, or organization - and learn where potentially relevant archival collections exist.
ArchiveGrid does not contain primary sources or archival materials itself, nor does it discern between physical and digitized collections. When you have discovered a collection of interest, you can visit the holding institution's website to determine whether any of the sources have been digitized and made available online.