LibGuides: History (Yale-NUS College): Primary Sources

Primary Sources

A primary source is a document that was created at the time of an event or subject of study. It is created first-hand by observers or participants of that event or subject.

For example, if you are studying the experience of immigrants to Singapore as a colonial port city from 1819 - 1945, you might consult the following primary sources:

Local newspapers from the time in English and other languages
A novel by an immigrant to Singapore about her experience
Census records showing the various ethnic groups settled in Singapore at the time
A trunk filled with personal items that an immigrant brought with her to Singapore
Autobiographies of immigrants, including those published many years later
Maps that show the location of immigrant settlements
Travel and immigration documents of immigrants from that time
Oral histories of immigrants giving interviews about their experience

A primary source does not have to be a written document; it can also be an object, building, film, painting, poster, song etc. A primary source is made at the time of an event or subject of study, but it does not matter what it is.

Secondary sources are created after an event or subject of study and are removed from the actual event. Books written by historians about a topic are secondary sources because they are not created first-hand by observers or participants. See the tabs on Articles/ Databases and Books to learn more about secondary sources.

Newspapers

Newspapers can be primary sources if they are presenting first-hand accounts at the time of the event you are studying. These are excellent historical newspaper resources. For more information about newsmedia resources, see the Newspaper/Media Research Research Guide.

NewspaperSG
Online repository for current and historical Singapore and Malaya newspapers. This resource is best for historical content, whereas current newspapers are more easily accessible elsewhere.
17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
This collection of early English newspapers contains 1 million newspaper pages. It covers newspaper titles from London, the British Isles, and colonies. The collection is full text searchable.
Eighteenth Century Journals (1685-1815)
Includes extremely rare eighteenth century periodicals, each chosen to convey the eclecticism and evolution of the publishing world between 1685 and 1835.
Gale Newsvault
This digital newspaper archive offers access to over 400 years of newspaper content. You can browse by location or publication. It covers the Economist, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Times, Times Literary Supplement and many more.
Proquest Historical Newspapers
You can search 9 databases for full text newspaper articles through Proquest Historical Newspapers. The databases are: Chicago Defender (1910-1975); Chicago Tribune (1849-1990); The Guardian (1821-1900) and The Observer (1791-1900); The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003); Los Angeles Times (1881-1990); The New York Times (1851-2010); The Times of India (1838-2005) and The Wall Street Journal (1889-1996).
19th Century British Library Newspapers
19th Century British Library Newspapers offers 2 million newspaper pages from newspapers selected by experts in the field. Many full runs of newspapers are available and are full text searchable.
NewspaperCat
NewspaperCat offers online digitized historical newspaper content from newspapers published in the United States and the Caribbean. It currently covers over 1,500 full-text newspaper titles.
Lantern: Media History Digital Catalog
The Lantern platform offers digitized book and magazine content focusing specifically on the history of film, broadcast, and recorded sound.
Opinion Archives
The Opinion Archives platform allows you to search historical and current newspaper content and links to the full text article. It covers a list of American newspaper titles.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
This digital repository from the Library of Congress allows you to search historic newspaper pages from the U.S from 1836-1922. It also provides a Newspaper Directory with information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

Primary Source Databases

These are some examples of excellent resources in which you can find primary sources:

HistorySG: A resource guide
HistorySG is an online guide to events in Singapore history from 1299 to the present. Each event is briefly described, followed by links to relevant content. Much of the linked content will be primary sources like newspaper articles, letters, etc.
Archives Online [National Archives of Singapore]
The Archives Online is the National Archives of Singapore's online portal and repository. You can search and access various collections including government records, maps and building plans, oral history interviews, photographs, and posters.
MusicSG
MusicSG is a digital archive of published Singapore musical works including music recordings, lyrics, scores, biographies, and articles on Singapore music.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (1500-1900)
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is an online archive of primary sources on the lives of British and Irish women from 1500 - 1900. Search and browse first-hand accounts from 500 women in over 90,000 pages of letters and diaries.
Early English Books Online
EEBO is an online collection of English-language books printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America from 1473-1700. The books in this collection cover English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
ECCO is an online collection of mostly English-language primary sources from the eighteenth century. There are 33 million pages of books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more.
Empire Online
Empire Online is an online collection of primary sources for the study of the history and theory of 'Empire'. It includes both visual and printed primary sources as well as some secondary sources like commentaries and scholarly essays.
South Asia Archive
South Asia Archive contains reports, rare books, and journal runs from the Indian Subcontinent
India, Raj & Empire [National Library of Scotland]
This resource is composed of items from the National Library of Scotland's manuscript collection. Sources are organized by topic and include letters, images, government documents and more. It consists of primary sources relevant for those studying the History of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Nineteenth Century Collections Online is a primary source repository focusing on the long nineteenth century. It includes images, advertisements, autobiographies, and more.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries (Colonial - 1950)
North American Women's Letters and Diaries is an online archive of primary sources on the lives of American women from the colonial era to 1950. Search and browse first-hand accounts from more than 1,000 women in more than 150,000 pages of letters and diaries.
JSTOR 19th Century British Pamphlets
19th Century British Pamphlets, created by Research Libraries UK (RLUK), contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in research libraries in the United Kingdom. The digitization of more than 26,000 pamphlets from seven UK institutions brings together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th century Britain. The collection was created with funding from the JISC Digitisation Programme.
JSTOR Global Plants
The Global Plants database contains more than two million high-resolution type specimens, and this number continues to grow. Plant type specimens are in great demand for scientific study because of their pivotal role as original vouchers of nomenclature. They also act as a historical record of changes in various flora.
JSTOR Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa
Experience the phenomenal independence movements of southern African nations through this digitized collection of thousands of documents and other primary sources.
JSTOR World Heritage Sites: Africa
World Heritage Sites: Africa is made up of 20 sub-collections and more than 57,000 objects. Selected sub-collections include the Heinz Rüther Collection from the University of Cape Town, the Kilwa Archive from the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), and the Smithsonian Heritage Collection. World Heritage Sites: Africa links visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites.
Medieval Travel Writing
Provides an extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing. The core is a collection of medieval manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The main focus is accounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India and China.
Early American Imprints
Features full-text access to comprehensive online resources offering more than 150,000 early American books, pamphlets, broadsides and rare printed materials that illuminate centuries of American history, culture and daily life. These resources feature extensive indexing and full bibliographic information.
Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia Online
The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia is one of the most important European primary sources for the study of the modern Gulf region from the 17th to the early 20th century. The Gazetteer was compiled and written by John Gordon Lorimer (1870-1914), an official of the Indian Civil Service. The Gazetteer was intended as handbook for British policy makers and agents in the area. The wealth of historical, political and geographical information from which Lorimer composed the Gazetteer was sourced from official documents of the British government in India and the Gulf, from British naval and military establishments and the East India Company archives, and first-hand research and surveys. It is the fullest account of the state of knowledge of the region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and as such is still an important tool for researchers.
Chinese film and newsreel scripts from the Cultural Revolution online
Produced mostly by the Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio of China, documentary films and newsreels were two of the major mass media and communication channels in China from the 1950s through the 1970s. They covered all aspects of social activities, though the emphasis was on developments and achievements in the building of a socialist country. In order to reach even broader public audiences, government agents produced and printed the transcripts and shot lists for the films and sent them to cities and rural areas. The bulk of the items in the collection are transcripts for the documentary films and newsreels from the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976.
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Interface in English. Full text content in Chinese.
U.S. intelligence on the Middle East, 1945-2009
This comprehensive document set sheds light on the U.S. intelligence community's spying and analytic efforts in the Arab world, including the Middle East, the Near East, and North Africa. It covers the time period from the end of World War II to the present day, up until the 2002-2003 Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) assessments, the Global War on Terror, the Iraq War, and Iran's nuclear program. Topics covered include U.S. recognition of Israel and the 1948 Middle East war, overthrowing Mohammed Mossadeq in Iran (1953), 1956 Middle East war, 1967 Middle East war, Israel and the atomic bomb, Muammar Qadhafi's 1969 coup in Libya, 1973 Middle East war, 1973-1974 OPEC oil embargo, the fall of the shah of Iran and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini (1978-1979), Iran-Iraq war (September 1980-August 1988), Lebanon (1982-1984), the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (1990), the Iraqi WMD intelligence assessments (2002-2003), the abortive Syrian nuclear program (2006-2007), the Iranian nuclear program (1970s-present), the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the U.S.-Israeli intelligence relationship, and spying on Israel."
U.S. intelligence on Europe, 1945-1995
This collection of over 4,000 formerly classified U.S. government documents provides a comprehensive survey of the U.S. intelligence community's activities in Europe, including Eastern Europe, Turkey and Cyprus, covering the time period from the end of World War II to the fall of the Iron Curtain and beyond.

Oral Histories

These are examples of excellent resources in which you can find oral histories:

Oral History Interviews [National Archives of Singapore]
Access audio recordings of oral history interviews from this collection on the National Archives of Singapore's online platform.
Sounds: Oral History [British Library]
Access a small selection of what is available in the oral history collections at the British Library from this online platform.
Oral History and Folklore [National Library of Australia]
This collection includes oral history interviews of Australians from all walks of life from the 1950’s to the present.
Regional Oral History Office [University of California]
The Regional Oral History office from the University of California offers online transcripts and YouTube videos of their oral history interviews. Their interviews cover topics like arts; business; community history; food; law; natural resources, politics; science; social movements; and University of California history. Their primary focus is California and the U.S.

These are good resources on how to conduct your own oral history projects:

Tips for interviewers [Regional Oral History Office]
The Regional Oral History Office from the UC Berkeley Library offers a list of 19 pieces of advice on approaches and techniques for oral history interviews.
Planning an Oral History Project [The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress]
The American Folklife Center recommends practical steps to take before you begin an oral history project.
Web Guides to Doing Oral History
The Oral History Association maintains a list of web guides to doing oral history. It provides useful links to resources related to digital technologies as well as interviewing and preservation techniques.