Reference Resources: Primary Sources -- U.s. History

Abortion: A Documentary And Reference Guide
This 2008 work "explores the evolution of America's abortion debate in a balanced selection of over 40 primary documents by doctors, feminists, religious leaders, politicians, extremists, and judges from the 19th century to the present day." Each document is followed by a brief analysis.
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Adams Papers (Digital Edition)
Self-described as the "definitive record of the nation’s first great political family." Comprises John Adams’s complete diaries, selected legal papers, and the ongoing series of family correspondence and state papers -- all 30 volumes of the Adams Papers that have so far appeared in print. (Future volumes will appear in installments.)
The library also has printed volumes.
Acquisition of this resource was made possible by a generous gift from the Friends of the Library of Washington and Lee University.
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America's Founding Charters: Primary Documents Of Colonial And Revolutionary Era Governance (Volume 1)
This is the first volume of a three-volume set (2006) which contains about 260 documents on the "origins, developments and growth, and defenses of colonial governance," including royal charters, sermons that question or bolster the established order, pamphlets, state constitutions, and debates over the make-up of the Continental Congress and Articles of Confederation. Documents are accompanied by commentaries.
Here are links to Volume 2 and Volume 3.
You can view the table of contents for all three volumes here.
Purchase was made possible by the Lois Ferguson and Fred Carrington Cole Endowment.
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American Journeys
Over 150 rare books, original manuscripts, and classic travel narratives.
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American Memory
Digital copies of over 7 million items from the Library of Congress's National Digital Library.
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American Social History Online
"Provides access to distributed digital library collections pertaining to 19th- and 20th-century U.S. social history. The 175 collections represent such institutions as the Library of Congress, Harvard University, and the California Digital Library and contain 514,708 photographs and cultural materials, books and pamphlets, journal articles, maps, short music videos, data sets, political cartoons and posters, and oral histories."
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Bibliography Of Virginia
Google Books scan of Earl Swem's famous 1917 listing of all Virginia state "official publications" from 1776 to 1916. Does not contain links to documents. The library also has a printed copy.
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Civil Rights Digital Library
Primary sources and other educational materials on the "struggle for racial equality in the 1950's and 1960's" in the U.S. Includes: a video archive of news footage; access to resources from over 75 universities, museums, archives, and other institutions; collections of instructional materials.
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Civil War In America From The Illustrated London News
Digitized collection of about 1,700 articles from the weekly Illustrated London News containing coverage relating to the United States, especially the American Civil War, in issues dating from January 1861 to December 1865.
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Discovering American Women's History Online
Provides access to over 400 "digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States."
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Documents Of United States Indian Policy
Third edition (2000) contains over 200 documents (listed chronologically), with brief commentary on each. The library also has a printed copy.
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Early Americas Digital Archive
"A collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820."
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Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources
Published in 2006, this is a collection of about 175 primary source documents which focus on the environment, including speeches, legislation, articles, essays, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, songs, etc., with accompanying information on context. You can view the table of contents here.
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FamilySearch
Free service provides access to genealogical information on millions of individuals from several countries, including the U.S. The information comes from census records, vital (birth, death, marriage) records, social security records, and other sources. Geographic coverage varies greatly. One recent addition which received a lot of publicity was Virginia marriage records from the Freedmen's Bureau.
(A better resource for searching U.S. Census records is Heritage Quest.)
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Foreign Relations Of The United States
FRUS is the U.S. Government's official collection of publicly-available diplomatic papers. At the present time, there is a time-lag of about 30 years between a document's creation and its appearance in the set.
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Founders' Constitution
Compilation of documents important to the development of constitutional government in the U.S.
The printed multi-volume set is available in the library collection.
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Gender Issues And Sexuality: Essential Primary Sources
A collection (2006) of about 200 documents, including "speeches, magazine and newspaper articles, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, essays, and much more," on gender and sexuality during the last three centuries. Each entry is accompanied by commentary of the document's context and significance.
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Hein Online
A multifacted repository of online materials for legal and historical research. (W&L Law Library subscription)
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HeritageQuest Online
A multifaceted resource for U.S. historical and genealogical research, including information from the decennial census, Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank records, Congressional actions, books, articles, and more.
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Historic Documents
Contains texts and commentary on over 3,000 documents, ranging from "presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions." Coverage begins with 1972.
Much of the value of the database lies in CQ's analysis of the actual document, summarizing the history, issues, personalities, and controversies surrounding the item.
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In The First Person
This is an index of over 2,500 collections of English-language oral history transcript collections and audio recordings, providing access to materials from over 9,000 individuals.
Note: While this database is free, access to some transcipt collections may be by subscription only; if you are unable to use a collection, please report it to a member of our Reference staff.
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LexisNexis Congressional -- Hearings
Washington and Lee University's subscription includes "access to every published and unpublished Congressional hearing from 1824 through the present."
The database is comprised of two chronologically-based components:
1980-date   Includes timely, but "unofficial," transcripts and some supporting documents. Some records do not include direct access to text at all.
1824-1979   The Digital Collection includes "official" PDF forms of hearing transcripts and associated documents for all hearings from the time period.
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LexisNexis Serial Set Digital Collection
This form of the Serial Set contains records dating from 1789 to 1969.
Later records are available in this contemporary database.
Still being published in paper form in the 21st century, the modern Serial Set is now almost exclusively a collection of Congressional reports and documents. However, for most of its history, it was much more than that, including hundreds of thousands of reports in a wide variety of subject areas from dozens of government agencies.
For more information, see this page and this University of Michigan display.
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Making Of America
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
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Newspapers, Historical
Collection of resources, including online databases and microforms, available to Washington and Lee University researchers.
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P.A.I.S. (Public Affairs Information Service) Archive
This is the backfile of PAIS International, extending coverage back to materials dating back to 1915, up to the mid-1970's. It includes citations selected sources from about 120 countries on all aspects of public policy and political and social issues. The database contains over 1.2 million citations to selected articles, books, essays, reports, and other types of publications, drawn from over 3,600 sources.
The database is updated monthly.
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Papers Of George Washington (Digital Edition)
Electronic edition derived from the Papers project begun in 1969 by the University of Virginia and the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. As of 2006, the database includes the first 52 volumes of the print series. More material will be added within a year or so of the release of future print volumes.
Acquisition of this resource was made possible by a generous gift from the Friends of the Library of Washington and Lee University.
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Papers Of Thomas Jefferson (Digital Edition)
"Digital edition brings together all thirty-three volumes published through 2006 into one searchable online resource. This content will be joined soon by the first four volumes of the Retirement Series sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which documents the time between Jefferson’s return to private life and his death in 1826."
Acquisition of this resource was made possible by the Friends of the Library.
The library also has printed copies of the original series and the retirement series.
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Periodicals Index Online (PIO)
An index to millions of articles published in over 4,000 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences with deep chronological coverage going back over 200 years.
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Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources
A collection (2006) of about 200 documents, including "speeches, magazine and newspaper articles, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, essays, and much more," on terrorism in the past three centuries. Each entry is accompanied by commentary of the document's context and significance.
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