Historical newpapers and magazines
If you are researching a historical period, event, or person, old newspaper and magazine articles can provide valuable contemporary accounts. The resources below are useful for finding such content.
- 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window The 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers contains articles from 1,270 newspapers, pamphlets, and proclamations. It is s named for the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) who collected what represents one of the largest single collections of 17th and 18th century English news media.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection database provides full text access to thousands of historical periodical publications. This database, which is made up of 50 collections, contains scans of each page of all publications, including illustrations. The results list takes you to the article level and allows you to browse the entire issue of the publication.
- Chronicling America This link opens in a new window Chronicling America is a digitization project which provides access to historical newspapers and is a collaborative effort of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. It is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program. The database also includes a directory of newspaper titles from 1690 to the present which provides basic information about the title such as dates of publication and what libraries have print or microfilm copies of the title.
- National Geographic Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window National Geographic Magazine Archive provides electronic access to the National Geographic from 1888-1994. Search or browse every issue.
- New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Search the complete text of the New York Times from 1851 to 3 years prior to the current year. Includes PDF images of original articles with photographs and drawings, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements.Note: An additional year of content is added annually.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window The Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 provides indexing to many popular publications of the 20th century, containing all of the content of the original paper volumes.
The University Libraries also have back issues of hundreds of newspapers and magazines in physical formats, including The Times (of London). See the box below for more information about The Times.
Many newspapers and magazines are available in the microform collection on the first floor of Bracken Library.
Back issues of additional magazines (and scholarly journals as well) are available in hardcopy in the Bound Periodicals collection on Bracken's second floor.
The Times (of London)
The Times of London is available in the University Libraries' microforms collections, for the years 1788 to 2011.
One strategy for using this resource would be to identify the dates of any events you wish to research, and then to peruse the issues of The Times that were published that day and the following few days.
The Official Index to The Times (later titled Index to the Times and then The Times Index) is available at Bracken Library for the years 1923 to 2013. The index will allow you to look up articles about a topic and see when they were published in The Times and on what page.
For help using microforms or the index, you may contact a librarian.
The Times (London, England)Publication Date: 1788-2011
Diaries, letters, and historical documents, books, and imprints
The library databases and external websites below provide access to additional sorts of primary sources, including letters and diaries, and historical documents and imprints.
- Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window Early English Books provides access to nearly every book published in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473–1700. It contains more than 17 million scanned images. Book come from more than 200 libraries.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new window Empire Online contains primary sources which help students and researchers to explore colonial history, politics, culture and society. Materials include diaries, slave papers, memoirs, fiction, maps, images, and much more.
- First World War: Personal Experiences This link opens in a new window First World War: Personal Experiences contains more than 5,000 primary resource documents related to World War One such as, diaries, journals, letters, and other materials. It also includes many secondary resources such as scholarly essays, a slideshow gallery, teaching pages, interactive maps, and chronologies.
- Internet Ancient History Sourcebook A collection of texts from ancient civilizations curated by Fordham University. Some texts are hosted by Fordham and some at other sites.
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook An online collection of primary sources mostly related to Medival Europe, hosted by Fordham University. Includes maps and some full-text documents.
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook A collection of texts from the Reformation through the 21st century curated by Fordham University. Some texts are hosted by Fordham and some at other sites.
Diaries, letters, and other firsthand accounts in book format
Diaries, letters, interviews transcripts, and other kinds personal accounts are also sometimes collected and published as books, and can be found in OneSearch.
To find diaries, letters, etc. in book format, start in OneSearch's advanced search page and choose search terms that express your topic, e.g. "World War II." In a second text box, type another term, depending on what sort of writing you want to find: "Diaries" for diaries or journals, "correspondence" for letters, "interviews" for interviews, and "narratives" for other kinds of firsthand accounts. Change the drop-down menu next to the second box from "all fields" to "subject terms."
To narrow your search to books, you will apply a couple filters from the left side of the results page. Below "content type," click "book/ebook."
Diaries, letters, etc. are often preserved and made accessible at the archives of libraries, universities, museums, and other institutions. See the digital and physical archives boxes below.
Digital archives
These sites provide archival and primary sources in a variety of formats - including those listed separately above - covering many different places and historical periods.
- Cambridge Digital Library Over the course of six centuries Cambridge University Library's collections have grown from a few dozen volumes into one of the world's great libraries, with an extraordinary accumulation of material. The collections cover every conceivable aspect of human endeavour, spanning most of the world's cultural traditions.
- Digital Bodleian In an effort to make portions of our collections open to a wide variety of users from around the world for learning, teaching and research, the Bodleian Libraries have been digitizing library content for nearly twenty years. The result is over 650,000 freely available digital objects and almost another 1 million images awaiting release.
- Eyewitness to History A collection of firsthand accounts of historical events made available by Ibis Communications, Inc., a publisher of educational materials.
- Hanover Historical Texts Collection The Hanover Historical Texts Collection makes available digital versions of historical texts for use in history and humanities courses. Search by keyword, or browse the listings below.
- Avalon Project Key historic documents in full text.
- Library of Congress' Digital Collections The Library of Congress' Digital Collections include electronic reproductions of documents, personal papers, photographs, art, sound recordings and more on a broad range historical and cultural topics.
- Ball State University's Digital Media Repository The Digital Media Repository offers online reproductions of documents, photographs, and audiovisual recordings on a number of subjects of local and national historical significance.
- Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) provides access to content from American libraries, archives, and museums. Although many items in the DPLA are in the public domain, some items are not. Check the "Rights" field of the item record for the copyright status.
Physical archives
In many cases, materials of historical interest have not been digitized but are accessible in the archives of the institutions that hold them. Though such manuscripts, letters, diaries, books, etc. might be delicate and valuable, archivists nonetheless strive to make them available for research.
- Balls State University Libraries' Archives and Special CollectionsBall State University Libraries' Archives and Special Collections is on Bracken Library's second floor and houses a variety of materials of historical interest. Use their finding aids to determine whether letters, diaries, or personal papers on your topic are available at Ball State.
- National ArchivesA variety of historical documents, government and military records, works of art, and online exhibits are available through the National Archives' website.
- ArchiveGridArchiveGrid will help you locate letters, diaries, and personal papers in archival collections outside Ball State, should you wish to travel to use them or inquire about the availability of electronic reproductions.
If you wish to use physical materials at an archive, it is often a good idea to contact the staff prior to your visit. This will enable them to remove items from storage for you, and to inform you of any restrictions or conditions on the use of the materials.