Research and Course Guides: + Find Primary Sources for Historical Research: Books

Finding Primary Sources in Books

Search LibrarySearch to find primary sources in books and ebooks. When searching the catalog, you will want to use specific subject headings in your searches to single out the primary source materials. These subject headings are specialized "tag" added to the records to books by catalog librarians to provide accurate descriptions of books. Using the following subject headings in your search will help you find the source material you seek:

correspondence	literary collections
personal narratives	pictorial works
songs and music	sources
diary or diaries	documents
interviews

Find Primary Source Books in Databases

The UST libraries subscribe to various databases which provide online access to primary source books.

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
The Early American Imprints collection is a searchable full-image primary source collection that features books, pamphlets, and ephemera documenting life in 17th- and 18th-century America. It includes materials relating to agriculture, foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, slavery, temperance, and witchcraft.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926 This link opens in a new window
Sabin Americana, 1500–1926 is digital archive of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean the from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online is searchable full-image primary source collection which features books, pamphlets, tracts and ephemera printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales in British North America as well as works published in English printed elsewhere between 1473 – 1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online captures the essence of the Enlightenment in Great Britain between 1701 and 1800 through digital access to materials ranging from books and directories to Bibles, sheet music, sermons and advertisements. It delivers every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
The African American Studies Center contains brief articles on all aspects of the African-American experience along with images, primary sources, time lines, maps, tables, and reference resources.