[Publib] Primary Source Documents

[Susan Caulfield]

Maybe some of these will be helpful:

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
(there are primary source documents listed for each topic)

Avalon Project at Yale Law School - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy 

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program 
(Current collections include Women Working, 1800-1930, and Immigration to 
the United States, 1789-1930. )

Our Documents (from the National Archives)

Primary Documents in American History (from Library of Congress)

Are you looking only for American documents?

Susan T. Caulfield
Reference Librarian
Newton Free Library
Newton, MA
scaulfield at minlib.net


-----Original Message-----
From: "Maureen K" <swordnpenn at gmail.com>
To: Publib at webjunction.org
Cc: 
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 20:22:51 -0800
Subject: [Publib] Primary Source Documents

Publibbers . . . help!

A local middle school has assigned their eighth grade history classes to do 
a project with primary source documents from the 19th century. (One of the 
teachers, bless him, has come to talk to us about this assignment since we 
are where he is sending all his students.) They have to find one primary 
source document (around one page of a 19th century origin letter, newspaper 
article, speech, etc) in their area of interest, then find related secondary 
sources. 

The secondary sources aren't so much of a problem, but we're having the very 
devil of a time finding the primary source documents for these kids. Ours is 
a pretty small library and it's not easy to find these in our books. We can 
(and have) sent them to our big sister library about 20 minutes away, but of 
course there will always be those who come in the night before it's due 
and/or can't get up there. Some of the subjects we've had so far: slavery 
(on the pro side), the Emancipation Proclamation, Alexander Graham Bell, 
forensic pathology, the Women's Declaration of Independence, and the 
Louisiana Purchase. As you can see, they have all sorts of different 
interests!

Any great internet archives out there for the period between 1800-1899? I 
have used American Memory from the Library of Congress, with spotty success, 
and I also hear that the Navy website has a pretty good archive but I have 
not explored it yet. 

This project looks to extend through January. Any and all suggestions 
heartily welcome.

Maureen
swordnpenn at gmail.com
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