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Primary Sources

Primary Sources

First Person Accounts, Actual Documents of the Time, Speeches, and More...

Featured Sites
 
The American Memory
This digital collection at the Library of Congress is a comprehensive source of primary materials on every aspect of American history.

Calisphere
This large collection of digital resources on California history is based on the primary sources of the collections at the University of California Library System

The Green Book (Jim Crow and Historical Thinking)
The full title of the book is The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide and was first published in 1936. The book was printed every year after that until 1966.

The American Folklife Center
The everyday and intimate creativity that all of us share and pass on to the next generation:
  • The traditional songs we sing, listen and dance to
  • Fairy tales, stories, ghost tales and personal histories
  • Riddles, proverbs, figures of speech, jokes and special ways of speaking
  • Our childhood games and rhymes

Major Collections of Primary Resources
The following reputable sites link to thousands of primary sources.

Subject Directories
  • History Matters: The U.S. Survey on the Web
    Designed for high school and college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history  
 
Photographs and other Non-Print Resources