LibGuides: History: Primary Sources by Era or Topic: The Americas, 1650-1800

The Americas, Primary Sources, 1650-1800

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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1690-1923
Historical newspapers from every state in the U.S.
American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society, Part I-V (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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1684-1912
Popular magazines, newspapers, and journals published in the United States.
EBSCO version offers subject indexing. Also searchable via Gale or Gale Primary Sources combined search portal.
American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new window
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1740-1940
Magazines and journals published in the U.S. mostly before 1900.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
1789-1924
Newspapers from the Library of Congress, including Nevada newspapers.
South Carolina Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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1732-1775, 1777-1780
The South Carolina Gazette published news and details of life and trade in America during the years prior to independence.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
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1770-1950
Diaries, journals, and letters written by famous and not-so-famous North American women.

American Broadsides and Ephemera This link opens in a new window
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1749-1900
Printed menus, advertisements, cards, playbills, poems and other printed items never intended to last.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
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1639-1800
Complete books, pamphlets and broadsides published in North America before 1800.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
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1801-1819
Complete books, pamphlets and broadsides published in North America between 1801 and 1819.
Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800) Text Creation Partnership This link opens in a new window
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1639-1800
Searchable full text collection of texts selected from the Early American Imprints (Evans) collection.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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1500-1926
Digital library of works written or published in the United States, as well as items printed elsewhere, that document the history of the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean) from 1492 to the mid-1800s.
Primary sources that offer original accounts of exploration, settlement, military actions, Native Americans, westward expansion, European relations with Latin America and more. Based on Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.

American History (Gilder Lehrman collection) This link opens in a new window
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1493-1945
Primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman collection about American history from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
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1400-1950s
Primary sources for American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books from pre-contact through the mid-20th century.
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
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1606-1822
British government documents from the CO 5 series about administering the American colonies.
Colonial Caribbean This link opens in a new window
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1624-1832
Colonial Office files from the National Archive U.K. about British governance of 25 islands in the Caribbean from 1624-1872 trace the rise and decline of trade in enslaved peoples, from transportation through trade and shipping to the rise of the abolition movement.
East India Company This link opens in a new window
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1599-1947
British government records from the India Office chart the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window
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9th century-2015
Cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and other primary sources revealing the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement and Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
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1650-1920
Primary sources like expedition records, letters, diaries and government records from Europeans creating colonies in North America, Africa, and Australasia.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
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1490-2007
Case studies documenting slavery in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba, along with material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade.
Victorian Popular Culture, 1779 to 1930 This link opens in a new window
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1779 to 1930
Primary source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain, and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. Has books, posters, scrapbooks and optical toys.
Virginia Company Archives This link opens in a new window
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1590-1790
Archival collection of the Ferrar Papers, 1590-1790, revealing details about the Atlantic world and early Colonial period.
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
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1500-1930
Manuscripts, pamphlets and books about witch hunts, including anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposés of persecutions, and philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms.
Women and Social Movements in the United States This link opens in a new window
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1600-2000
Books, images, historical documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies which document reform activities by and affecting women.

Congressional Publications (ProQuest Congressional) This link opens in a new window
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1789-
U.S. legislative information, including access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more. Includes the U.S. Serial Set.
Comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information, including access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more. Additionally, searchers can retrieve CIS Legislative Histories for public laws. Contains an index of congressional publications from 1789 to the present and locate information about members and committees. Statutes at Large and Congressional Indexes from 1789-1969 are included.
Indian Claims Insight 1789-2016 This link opens in a new window
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1789-
A one-of-a-kind research tool that provides researchers with the opportunity to understand and analyze Native American migration and resettlement throughout U.S. history, as well as U.S. Government Indian removal policies and subsequent actions to address Native American claims.
The database allows users to research the history of U.S. Indian claims from 1789 to the present. Unique compiled docket histories provide legal researchers with the ability to search the full text of all content related to each claim. Depending on the claim, the content can include not only court documents but also cited treaties, related congressional publications, and maps.
Military & Government This link opens in a new window
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1751-present
Government reports, laws, legislative histories, ebooks and selected scholarly articles related to branches of the United States armed forces.
Research government administration of the armed forces along with issues confronting the military on and off the battlefield with access to primary source documents including committee prints, government reports, congressional hearings, legislative hearings, etc. The database also includes books, serials, periodicals and scholarly articles.
Territorial Papers of the United States This link opens in a new window
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1764-1953
Archival records of each territory of the United States before statehood. Includes Native American negotiations and treaties, correspondence with federal agencies, military records, judicial proceedings, population details, financial statistics, land records, and more.
Official documents include correspondence between territorial officials and federal agencies, details of tribal treaties, accounts of battles and troop movements, petitions for statehood, and records of agricultural and industrial production. Collections also contain firsthand accounts of frontier life via letters and financial documents.

Americana This link opens in a new window
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1493-1975
Search all American history archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Combined search of American History, American Indian Histories and Cultures, American West, Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920, Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975, Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, and Virginia Company Archives.
AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
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1493-1975
Search all archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800) Text Creation Partnership This link opens in a new window
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1639-1800
Searchable full text collection of texts selected from the Early American Imprints (Evans) collection.
EEBO/Evans/ECCO Text Creation Partnership combination search This link opens in a new window
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1475-1800
Simultaneous search of selected books published between 1475-1800 in England and America.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Includes 19th Century UK Periodicals, Archives of Sexuality & Gender (LGBTQ History), British Library Newspapers, The Economist (1843-2014), Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Sabin Americana (1500-1926), China and the Modern World, London Times Digital Archive, and London Times Literary Supplement.
Historical Periodicals from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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1740-1940 with some more recent
Search all ProQuest historical periodical collections simultaneously.
American Periodicals‎ (1740 - 1940)
British Periodicals‎ (1681 - 1939)
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive‎ (1880 - 2000)
The Harper's Bazaar Archive‎ (1867 - current)
Periodicals Archive Online‎
The Vogue Archive‎
Women's Magazine Archive‎ (1846 - 2005)
The Women's Wear Daily Archive‎
Making of Modern Law (MOML): Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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1600-1926
The Gale Primary Sources interface allows cross-searching of five Making of Modern Law databases: Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law 1600-1926, Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources 1620-1926, Making of Modern Law: Treatises, 1800-1926, and Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926.
Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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1639-1922
Combined search of American historical newspapers (1690-1922), printed books (1639-1819), and pamphlets and ephemera (1749-1922).
Search all collections of historical primary sources from Readex simultaneously: America's Historical Newspapers, American Broadsides and Ephemera; American Pamphlets; Early American Imprints (Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker).

Microfilm Research Collections

UNLV Libraries Microform Collection Finder This link opens in a new window
Discover microform research collections at UNLV Libraries.
Browse or search brief descriptions of the research collections available on microform at Lied Library. Use a very broad search term (for example, try "women and history" instead of "Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention") because this tool searches short summaries of very large microfilmed collection. The Microform Collection Finder does not search the microfilm itself.

Web Sources

18thConnect
Unified search of online 18th century sources and scholarship
Virginia Gazette 1730-1780
The earliest Virginia Gazette was printed successively by William Parks, William Hunter, Joseph Royle, Alexander Purdie, Purdie & John Dixon, Dixon & Hunter, and Dixon & Thomas Nicolson, from August 6(?), 1736, through April 8, 1780, when the paper was moved to Richmond. On May 16, 1766, William Rind established a competing paper under the same title which was printed successively by Rind, Clementina Rind (his widow), and John Pinkney, until February 3, 1778. A third Virginia Gazette was inaugur
Manuscripts from Colonial Willamsburg
Correspondence, account books, deeds and legal papers from Williamsburg, VA

History: Primary Sources by Era or Topic

The Americas, Primary Sources, 1650-1800

Microfilm Research Collections

Web Sources

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