Which search terms to use?
When looking for primary sources about events, periods, people, environments, geographies, flora, fauna, etc. depicted in a novel or story, choose search terms that represent those things. However, at the heart of thinking of search terms is the idea of anticipating what words might appear in an article about your topic.Primary source research challenges you to think of terms that would have been in use during the time period you're researching. This can even mean using search terms that today are known to be misnomers, or that are offensive but that in the past were common and perhaps even considered polite.
Broad primary source collections
These are large, topically diverse collections of digitized primary sources.
- Hathi Trust A large book digitization project where you will find a variety of kinds of primary sources.
- Digital Public Library of America Digitized archival collections from libraries, museums, and archives from around the country.
Primary sources - newspapers, magazines, etc.
These resources contain digital reproductions of historical newspaper and magazine articles.
- America's Historical Newspapers-Indiana State Collection and African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Primary sources - other source types
These resource contain digitized primary sources of a variety of sorts - diaries, journals, letters, official documents, and more.