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Primary sources (historical)
| **An Introduction to Archival Research |
Library guide introducing users to archival research Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| **Gale Primary Sources Learning Center |
Use the links below for help on how to use these Gale Primary Sources:
Access level: John Jay |
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| **Guide to Primary Sources |
A library guide to researching primary sources. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodical Collection |
Provides digital access to the American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collections to American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912. The fifty thematic subsets include digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals detailing American history and culture from the mid-18th century through the late-19th century. Access level: John Jay |
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| American Memory Collections (LOC) |
Multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library of Congress' National Digital Library Program. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Black Thought and Culture |
Contains the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans, and includes interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other ephemeral material. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| Burney Newspaper Collection--17th and 18th Centuries (go to Learning Center for research help) |
A comprehensive collection of early English newspapers from London, the British Isles, and colonies, including many American titles. To learn more about how to use this archive and refine your research question go to the Learning Center. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| Census Data (Social Explorer) |
Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States through interactive maps from the present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys U.S. election data, U.S. crime data (FBI/UCR), World Development Indicators, and more. Alternate access via CUNY login credentials Alternate access via CUNY login credentials Access level: CUNY |
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| Census of Population and Housing 2010 |
Gateway to the 2010 Census from the U. S. Census Bureau. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Crime, Punishment and Popular Culture,1790-1920 (go to Learning Center for research help) |
Archive containing manuscripts, books, broadsheets, and periodicals from 1790 - 1920. The collection covers Europe, North America, India, and the Antipodes. Includes raw data about crime, its solutions, and the popular response. To learn more about how to use this archive and refine your research question go to the Learning Center. Access level: John Jay |
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| Criminal Trial Transcripts Collection, Lloyd Sealy Library |
An index to the Lloyd Sealy Library's Trial Transcripts of the County of New York 1883-1927. Several transcripts have been digitized and are available online. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Digital Public Library of America |
Portal to digital content held at the nations' archives, libraries, museums and other cultural heritage organizations. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Early English Books Online |
EEBO contains page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700. Access level: John Jay |
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| Eighteenth Century Collections Online |
A digital archive of 150,000 books published in the eighteenth century, covering a broad spectrum of topics like law, history, science, and art. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| Gale Primary Sources |
Cross-search dozens of historical archives covering hundreds of years of history through this single platform. Resources include monographs, manuscripts, trial transcripts, newspapers, maps, and photographs. Individual databases collections include :
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| Hein Online |
Several historical American and international law collections incuding law reviews and journals from their first volume of publication; the Federal Register; Presidential Documents; U.S. Congressional Serial Set; Attorney Generals Opinions; World Constitutions; Legal Classics; Slavery in America and the World; History, Culture and Law, and the newest collection, LGBTQ+Rights. A comprehensive user's guide to this database is available at https://heinonline.org/HeinDocs/HOLUserGuide.pdf. Access level: John Jay |
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| History of Capital Punishment Database |
Collection of materials from the National Death Penalty Archives on the nature, history, operation, effects, psychology, desirability, and compatibility with religious and moral precepts, of the death penalty. Includes periodicals, trials, hearings, bibliographies and other related works. Access level: John Jay |
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| History Vault (available through the NYPL) |
To access this database you must login with your NYPL library card. If you don't already have a NYPL library card you can apply for one here. This is a digital collection of manuscript and archival materials focusing on the 20th Century including main collections such as: Black Freedom Movement and Civil Rights (includes records of four of the most important civil rights organizations of the 1950s and 1960s: NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and CORE). Southern Life and Slavery (documenting the realities of slavery "at the most immediate grassroots level in Southern society" providing "some of the most revealing documentation in existence on the functioning of the slave system." Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Making of the Modern World |
Provides the full text of 61,000 works of literature in business, politics, and economics published from 1450 to 1850. Includes the full Goldsmiths Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| New York Times Historical File |
Full text of articles and page images of the New York Times from 1851 to 2014. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| Nineteenth Century Collections Online |
An eclectic collection of digital collections of primary source materials mostly from British and American libraries. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| Northeast Slavery Records Index (NESRI) |
A searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and enslavers in the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. NESRI indexes census records, slave trade transactions, cemetery records, birth certifications, manumissions, ship inventories, newspaper accounts, private narratives, legal documents and many other sources. The index contains over 35,000 records and it is expected to grow as John Jay College professors and students locate and assemble data from additional sources. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Roper iPoll |
Roper iPoll provides access to polls conducted by the Roper Center and hundreds of other organizations (corporations, nonprofit groups, research institutes, news organizations, etc.). Datasets can be downloaded, manipulated, and analyzed.
Access level: John Jay |
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| Slavery and Anti-Slavery |
Includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law |
Brings together all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Much of the non-legal material in this collection is based on the holdings of the Buffalo Public Library. Its rare book collection contains hundreds of nineteenth century pamphlets and books on slavery. A quick reference guide on how to ue this collection can be found at https://heinonline.org/HeinDocs/SlaveryQRG.pdf Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Social Explorer |
Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States through interactive maps from the present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys U.S. election data, U.S. crime data (FBI/UCR), World Development Indicators, and more. Alternate access via CUNY login credentials Alternate access via CUNY login credentials Access level: CUNY |
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| State Legislation Aggregator Search Sites |
These freely available websites aggregate state legislative information, providing a more uniform and user-friendly search experience and the ability to compare legislative activities across the states.
Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Umbra Search |
A searchable collection of over 500,000 primary source documents relating to African American history and culture digitized by over 1,000 libraries libraries and archives across the country. Access level: Freely available to the public |
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| Women and Social Movements in the U.S. 1600-2000 |
Brings together primary documents, books, images, scholarly essays, book reviews, audio recordings, Web site reviews, and teaching tools, all documenting the multiplicity of women’s activism in public life. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
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| World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean |
Brings together primary source documents relating to Latin America and the Caribbean; academic journals and news-feeds; reference materials; maps; statistics; audio and video. Covers politics, economics, religion, culture, international affairs, the environment, science and technology. Alternate access via CUNY login credentialsAccess level: CUNY |
