French Studies: Primary Sources

Library resources for the study of French and Francophone language, literature, and culture.

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are the evidence of history. They are the first-hand accounts of an event or period of time created by participants or observers. There are many kinds of primary sources including texts (letters, diaries, government reports, newspaper accounts, novels, autobiographies), images (photographs, paintings, advertisements, posters), artifacts (buildings, clothing, sculpture, coins) and audio/visual (songs, oral history interviews, films).

See the History Research Guide for information on how to find specific types of primary sources.

Digital Collections

Gallica
Digitized collection from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).
Electronic Enlightenment
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Offers access to correspondence between the great thinkers and writers of the 18th century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers.
Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
Digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in libraries, archives, and private collections
Réseau des bibliothèques francophones numériques
Découvrez le patrimoine documentaire numérique de la Francophonie
Diderot's Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une Société de Gens de lettres was published under the direction of Diderot and d'Alembert. Also, in English.

ARTFL Project
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Collection of classical French writings including literary and political works
Hathi Trust
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Digital library of books and journals scanned by a partnership of major research institutions and libraries. During the closure of the Libraries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) permits special access for UW faculty, students, and staff to specific digital materials in HathiTrust that correspond to physical books held by UW Libraries. To access these materials, you must log into HathiTrust with the yellow log in button. See our HathiTrust Guide

Bibliothèque Bleue Online
Mass-produced, inexpensive books that were sold to peasants for pennies by colporteurs (peddlers), the Bibliothèque Bleue was comprised of texts ranging from the practical (recipes, almanacs, and how-to books) to the pious (hagiographies, prayer books, and other religious instruction) and to the entertaining (fiction, romans de chevalerie, songbooks, burlesque), providing a unique insight into the popular culture of 17th to mid-19th century France.
CESAR - Calendrier Electronique des Spectacles sous l’Ancien Régime
CESAR is a dynamic resource at the service of all those with an interest in the French theatre of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe
Maps the trade of the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel (STN), a celebrated Swiss publishing house that operated between 1769 and 1794.
H-France Digital Humanities Database
A searchable database of French and Francophone Studies digital projects.

France

Archives Nationales

ARTFL Project
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Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective
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