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Primary Sources

Guide to conducting research with primary sources.

Resources by Format

Use the pages on the left or links below to find resources by format:

Search Tips

Example keyword search terms include:

  • United States OR u.s. OR usa AND colonialism
  • United States AND colonial AND government
  • United States AND politics AND 1700s OR 18th century OR eighteenth century
  • Democracy AND United States AND history
  • Slavery AND United States AND history
  • Minorities AND United States history
  • United States race relations history
  • Immigrants AND United States history
  • Indigenous peoples AND United States history
  • Social classes AND United States history
  • Slave insurrections AND United States
  • Abolition AND United States
  • United States AND women's history
  • Sexual minorities AND United States history
  • African American women's history
  • Latina women United States history

Once you locate items of interest such as ebooks and articles, you may find it useful to search by subject headings or categories.

  • Within a database, subjects and categories are located at the bottom of an item record. 
  • Click on the hyperlinked subject or category text to initiate a new search using these filters.
  • Perform an advanced search by limiting your search to subject and copying and pasting the subject you would like to search.

 

Use Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT to tell the search engine exactly what you're looking for.

Using AND: United States AND U.S.

Using OR: medical OR scientific experimentation

Using NOT: Black history NOT slavery