Library of Congress - Finding Primary Sources - History - Research Guides at Tarrant County College

Library of Congress Search Tools and Methods

Getting Started with Primary Sources

A guide to finding primary sources, includes curated Primary Source Sets of documents and images. On the left-hand side of the screen there are numerous Topics and Eras options to select from and search thru. (Notice how Primary Source Set is selected as the Classroom Material Type.)

In a similar vein there is also the U.S. History Primary Sources Timeline featuring nine different periods in American history from the 1600s to 1968. Clicking in them will provide you with an overview and then selected documents from the time period.

An alternate search technique is to Google Library of Congress, primary resources, and then your subject of study. Example: Library of Congress primary resources Roosevelt site:.gov

Including the site:.gov will limit the Google results to official government sites only.

Curated Primary Source Groupings

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election
Consists of 59 sound recordings of speeches by American leaders from 1918-1920. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding WWI and the subsequent presidential election of 1920. Speakers include Warren G. Harding, James Cox, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel Gompers, Henry Cabot Lodge and John J. Pershing. Speeches range from one to five minutes.
American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
Presents 253 narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search and read newspaper pages from several states, including California; search a directory (including library holdings) for U.S. newspapers published from 1690-present.
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
Created by a group of U.S. government photographers, these images show Americans in every part of the nation. Early years emphasize rural life and the negative impact of the Great Depression, farm mechanization, and the Dust Bowl. Later years focus on the mobilization effort for World War II.
Federalist Papers
Series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison between October 1787 and May 1788 to encourage support for ratification of the proposed United States Constitution.
Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
The collection includes proclamations, advertisements, blank forms, programs, election tickets, catalogs, clippings, timetables and menus. They capture the everyday activities of ordinary people who participated in the events of nation-building and experienced the growth of the nation from the American Revolution through the Industrial Revolution up to present day.

Finding Primary Sources - History: Library of Congress

Library of Congress Search Tools and Methods

Curated Primary Source Groupings