Word to the wise...
As is the nature with historical research, especially research from the pre-20th century, digital access to all manner of primary sources cannot be guaranteed. Additionally, not every primary source, no matter how relevant to your research topic or interest, will have a corresponding non-French translation, making reading the source that much more difficult.
Long story short, for your primary source analysis paper (or all of your work with primary sources in the class), let the sources help guide your topic. Don't get stuck with a research topic that has no accompanying or available primary sources, no matter how interesting, provocative, or impactful the topic may be. Try to balance your desire to conduct important historical research with the reality of being a college student living and working in the United States!
Primary Source Collections
Full UR Primary Sources List: https://libguides.richmond.edu/history/primarysources
- 19th Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks This link opens in a new windowSearch primary source documents that focus on issues at the intersection of gender and class -- from the late eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early twentieth century -- through a European and North American perspective. (Gale)
- Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source documents on history, culture, peoples, and societies of Latin American and the Caribbean. Documents include original manuscripts, signed letters, expedition records, reports, maps, diaries, descriptions of voyages, and ephemera. (Gale)
- Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new windowSearch thousands of hand-written primary source documents and indexes that document colonial history from the earliest English settlements in North America, piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean, slave trade, and English conflicts with the Spanish and the French. (ProQuest)
- Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920 This link opens in a new window
Find primary source material covering the rapid revolution of the justice and penal system during the nineteenth century, as well as the rise of sensationalism around crimes and criminals that captured the public's imagination. On one end of the spectrum, you will find trial transcripts, court proceedings, and the development of the police and forensic techniques; on the other end, you will also find popular fiction and detective novels; and bridging the two are newspaper accounts, true crime literature, and related ephemera. (Gale)
- Making of Modern Law This link opens in a new windowFind primary source documents that explore all aspects of American and British law. Access ACLU papers, records from the U.S. Court of Appeals, legal treatises from the 19th and 20th centuries, trial documents dating back to the 1600s, and U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs. (Gale)
- State Papers Online, 1509-1714 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source documents from the British government. This database includes the papers of the Secretary of State from Henry VIII's accession in 1509 to 1714. Topics covered include internal English/British affairs, administration of the country, foreign affairs, marriage alliances, treaties, and wars. (Gale)
Full News Sources Guide: https://libguides.richmond.edu/newssources
- Access World News (Historical and Current) This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from thousands of US and global news sources. It includes some audio and video news sources, as well as traditional newspapers. (Newsbank/Readex)
- New York Times (Website) This link opens in a new window
*Redeem a code and create an account using your UR email address to access the New York Times' website. Your account will be active for 26 weeks, after which you will need to repeat the process and redeem the code again. Note: If you have a current paid New York Times subscription, cancel your paid subscription, prior to redeeming the code and registering. Our subscription does NOT contain access to Games or Cooking. Once registered, you will have access to the New York Times articles from 1851-present. For the date range 1923-1980, users are limited to 5 accesses per day. Note: Web-only content is not linked in OneSearch. You must access the website directly for those articles. (New York Times)
- New York Times Historical Newspaper & Index This link opens in a new windowAccess the archives of the New York Times from 1851-2019. (ProQuest)
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from the archives of the Times of London newspaper, which covers general news, culture, fine arts, politics, history, and more. (Gale)
- Wall Street Journal (Website) This link opens in a new window
Read articles published on WSJ.com. Note: If you want to access WSJ using an app or via Google, create an individual account using your UR email address OR enter the email address in the app and send yourself a one-time passcode to login. The app does not redirect to the UR login screen, so you can't use your UR password. Note: Web-only content is not linked in OneSearch. You must access the website directly for those articles. (Dow Jones)
- Wall Street Journal Historical Newspaper This link opens in a new windowAccess the archives of the Wall Street Journal from 1889-2011. (ProQuest)
- Washington Post (Website) This link opens in a new window
*Follow these instructions to create an account with your Richmond email address. Read articles published on Washingonpost.com. You must both verify your email address and activate your subscription after creating your account. If you do not see your account name, try disabling all ad blockers in your browser. Note: Web-only content is not linked in OneSearch. You must access the website directly for those articles. (Washington Post)
- Washington Post Historical Newspaper This link opens in a new windowAccess the archives of the Washington Post from 1877-2006. (ProQuest)
Note: Collection titles marked with an asterisk (*) have a substantial amount, or even a majority, of content in French. They may still contain English and non-French translations of works, but be prepared to see a lot of French language content.
- EuroDocs - France Primary DocumentsCollections of websites focused on France by various time periods, hosted through EuroDocs.
*Note: Not all of the links in this collection may still be active. - Gallica*The open access digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Offers all types of media: print (monographs, periodicals and press) in image and text mode, manuscripts, sound recordings, graphic material, maps and plans.
- French Revolution Digital ArchiveCollaboration between Stanford University and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) to make primary sources on the French Revolution available to scholars and researchers.
- Digital Library of the CaribbeanCollaboration between 90+ institutional partners across the U.S. and the Caribbean to "[provide] users free and open access to Caribbean cultural, historical, scientific and research materials held in archives, libraries, museums, private collections, and other institutions of memory."
- The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert (English Translation)"First published over the course of more than twenty years (1751-1777), the 32 volumes of 'the Encyclopédie' include 21 volumes of text with more than 70,000 articles on subjects ranging from asparagus to zodiac...this website is a collaborative effort of volunteer translators who share an interest in the Enlightenment and a belief in the value of making freely available to English readers articles from the Encyclopédie."
- ARTFL-FRANTEXT This link opens in a new window
Find and read French-language texts from the 12th-20th centuries. Genres include novels, verse, theater, journalism, essays, correspondence, and treatises. Subjects include literary criticism, biology, history, economics, and philosophy. (University of Chicago)
- French Political Pamphlets*The collection of French Political Pamphlets in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections (LTPSC) at Brigham Young University features more than 2,400 pamphlets published between 1547 and 1626.
- French Revolution Pamphlets*The French Revolution Pamphlets digital collection consists of pamphlets produced from 1779 to 1815. Although the French Revolution happened in the decade ranging from 1789 to 1799, this collection of pamphlets documents the time leading up to the revolution through the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Often privately printed due to newspaper censure by the monarchy, the pamphlets were used to disseminate information and ideals concerning nationalism, citizenship, personal freedoms, and social injustice.
- H-France: Digital Humanities DatabaseA searchable database of French and Francophone Studies digital projects.
*Note: Not all of the links in this collection may still be active. - Principal Documents of the French RevolutionEnglish translations of key documents from the French Revolution.
- World Digital LibraryDigitized primary sources on a wide range of topics and countries. Available through the Library of Congress.
- Narrative of a voyage to the West Indies and Mexico in the years 1599-1602 by Samuel ChamplainTranslated from the original and unpublished manuscript, with a biographical notice and notes by Alice Wilmere. Edited by Norton Shaw. Available through the HathiTrust digital library.
Help Menu
- Library Catalog This link opens in a new windowSearch our library catalog (aka OneSearch) for all types of sources. It combines results from many of our databases. (Ex Libris)
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowUse this discovery tool to search most of the University Libraries' collections, including books, journal articles, newspapers, dissertations, music, and video recordings. (Ex Libris)