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HON 410 sec. 1008, Reading and Writing Historical Fiction. (McMahon): Primary sources

Writing advice, primary source collections, and historical background for writers

Databases: Primary Source Collections

The full text of letters and diary entries, often from works that have been previously published as books containing collections of letters or diaries. Use the Browse indexes to find works about specific historical or life events.

Use the date range limit to narrow your search to a relevant time period. 

free online collections (find more on Historic Newspapers page)

lists and search tips

Search for articles published in popular magazines and journals from different times in history.

Collections of several types of primary sources curated around a topic or theme.

Digitized collections of books published during different time periods.

Official government publications, including laws, treaties, and records of legislative proceedings.

United States

Great Britain

Digitized photos, films and art images.

These links allow you to search across multiple databases at the same time.

Freely available online collections

Microfilmed research collections

What is a Primary Source video

Blogs & web projects

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