Library Guides: United States History: Primary Sources by Type

UW Libraries Search

Primary sources by type

General Collections for U.S. History

American Memory Project
Major database of historic photographs, government documents, pamphlets, etc. from the Library of Congress.
Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
Diverse collection of materials from Yale University with an emphasis on U.S. and diplomatic history.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
More than 60,000 documents detailing the political and social history of the United States held at the NY Historical Society.

Search Tips to locate letters, diaries, etc.

Start with a search in the UW Libraries Catalog (search box above) and combine your subject with terms from the box at right. After searching, you can change the drop down box from Articles, Books, and More to UW Tacoma Library to see what is immediately available on this campus.

Sample Searches:

adams and letters
washington and papers
1812 and sources

Results:

My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
UW Tacoma Library Stacks
E322 .A4 2007
George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
Available online.
The Early National Period
UW Tacoma Library Stacks
E301 .P87 2004

Search Terms for Primary Sources

Useful terms for locating primary sources in the search box above:

sources
personal narratives
correspondence
letters
diaries
journals
interviews
sermons
documents
papers