Edwin H. Mookini Library

Primary Sources

On this page:

What Is a Primary Source?

The Library of Congress defines primary sources as "the raw materials of history - original documents and objects which were created at the time under study."

University of California at Irvine has a good list of the variety of items that can be primary sources - don’t think just documents!

Student Guide to Research in the Digital Age: How to Locate and Evaluate Information Sources (UH Hilo access)

Videos

Finding Primary Sources in LibCat and Ebook Central

You can craft a LibCat or Ebook Central search using keyword(s) specific to your topic and one at a time of the words from the list below:

  • autobiography
  • cases
  • correspondence
  • description and travel
  • diaries
  • fiction
  • interview
  • personal narrative
  • pictorial works
  • "primary source"
  • poetry
  • short stories
  • sources

Examples of Primary Sources in Mookini Library

This list represents just a small sample of the works available in the library:

  • After the Nightmare: a Survivor of the Cultural Revolution Reports on China Today (published 1986)
  • The American Nation: Primary Sources
  • Beyond Words: Images from America's Concentration Camps
  • Constitutional Journal: A Correspondent’s Report from the Convention of 1787
  • Early Modern Catholicism: An Anthology of Primary Sources
  • Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England
  • Evaluating Evidence: A Positivist Approach to Reading Sources on Modern Japan (also available as an ebook)
  • The Forties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period
  • Hawaiʻi Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture
  • Korea: Cold War and Limited War
  • Medieval Christianity in Practice
  • Milestone Documents in American History: Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped America
  • Milestone Documents in World History: Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped the World
  • The New Arab Revolt
  • Religion in Early Stuart England, 1603-1638: An Anthology of Primary Sources
  • Schlager Anthology of the American Revolution (see below for online access)
  • Schlager Anthology of Early America (see below for online access)
  • Schlager Anthology of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (see below for online access)
  • Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered By African, Asian, Hispanic, And Native Americans, 1790-1995
  • Voices of the Vietnam POWs: Witnesses To Their Fight
  • Women Together: A History in Documents of the Women's Movement in the United States

Finding Primary Sources on the Internet

General Sites

The Library of Congress provides topic sets, resources by state, and research guides all focused on primary sources. Example of a topic set: Finding Our Place in the Cosmos: From Galileo to Sagan and Beyond

Chronicling America is an ongoing project from the Library of Congress to digitize historic newspapers. Coverage from 1777 to 1963 for some papers. Includes many historic Hawaiʻi newspapers (dates vary).

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has Primary Source Sets that “are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources” from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Example of a topic set: Japanese American Internment During World War II

Duke Digital Collections from Duke University Libraries is “Digitized historic photographs, advertisements, texts & more from Duke's unique library collections.”

JSTOR Primary Sources includes 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, and World Heritage Sites: Africa.

JSTOR Reveal Digital "develops Open Access primary source collections from under-represented 20th-century voices of dissent, crowdfunded by libraries. The content is curated and sourced from a wide array of libraries, museums, historical societies and individual collectors. The results are diverse thematic collections of scholarly value available to everyone everywhere." Collections include:

  • Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movememt
  • Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents in the 1920s
  • HIV, AIDS & the Arts
  • American Prison Newspapers 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside
  • Student Activism on Campus in 20th-Century America
  • Independent Voices

Finding Primary Sources for Teachers and Students from the National Archives

Internet History Sourcebooks Project - from Fordham University, covering Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History, plus East Asian, Islamic, Gay/Lesbian/Transgender, Women’s History, and more!

Internet Sites with Primary Sources for History from Bowling Green State University

LIFE Photo Archive hosted by Google “Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.”

Primary Source Topic Guides More than 100 topics from Christopher Newport University.

Shakespeare Documented “is the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare.”

Although you shouldn’t use Wikipedia as a source, you can use it to find sources. Many entries, including the one about Primary Sources, have an External Links section at the bottom that can lead you to reputable sources.

Hawaiʻi and Pacific

Papakilo Database by The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) “is the ongoing development of a cutting edge and comprehensive “Database of Databases” consisting of varied collections of data pertaining to historically and culturally significant places, events, and documents in Hawaiʻi’s history. This online repository of data will greatly increase OHA’s ability to preserve and perpetuate cultural and historical information and practices, thus providing an invaluable resource to educate other regulatory agencies, OHA’s Native Hawaiian beneficiaries, and the general public.”

Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, makes “resources available for the use, teaching, and revitalization of the Hawaiian language and for a broader and deeper understanding of Hawaiʻi.”

  • Nupepa Hawaiian Newspaper Collection is “a collection of historic Hawaiian-language newspapers published between 1834 and 1948. The newspaper images can be retrieved by word search, title, date or place.”

Hawaiʻi State Archives with a mission “to ensure open government by preserving and making accessible the historic records of state government and to partner with state agencies to manage their active and inactive records.”

  • Digital Archives of Hawaiʻi - Beta (testing) version. “The mission of the Digital Archives project is to develop a digital archives repository capable of providing reliable, long-term access to trustworthy digital records to the public and government entities of the State of Hawaiʻi, now and in the future.”

Bishop Museum Library and Archives - "contains an incredible variety of publications of and about Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, from examples of the earliest descriptions of the Pacific by western voyagers, to the first texts printed in Hawaiian and Pacific languages, and onward into the present with ever-increasing examples of creativity and scholarship...and diverse collections of manuscripts, photographs, artwork, oral histories, sound recordings, and maps.”

Lyman Museum - “houses a superb collection of artifacts and natural history exhibits as well as special exhibitions and archives.”

Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. III: Indigenous Voices
A comprehensive resource of documentaries, feature films, and short films made by and for indigenous people and communities from around the world. More than 650 titles available. UH Hilo access | Hawaiʻi CC access

Digital Pasifika aims “to empower people in and of the Pacific Islands, enabling them to see, discover and explore items of digitised cultural heritage that are held in collections around the world. People of the Pacific may not be aware these items or records exist, and we want to support them as they connect with these aspects of their own culture and history.”

History: Australia, New Zealand & Oceania: Primary Sources by the University of Washington Libraries is a “research guide to primary and secondary sources for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Island history.”

ScholarSpace is “an open-access, digital institutional repository for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa community {which} stores the intellectual works and unique collections of the UH at Mānoa academic community and also provides a permanent web location for those accessing these resources.”

eVols is an open-access, digital institutional repository for the University of Hawaiʻi community and researchers around the world which provides a home for material which the Library or the University digitizes as part of grant projects and digital library program initiatives.

Center for Oral History serves to “collect, document, preserve, and highlight the recollections of Native Hawaiians and the multi-ethnic people of Hawaiʻi {by producing} oral histories and interpretive historical materials about lifeways, key historic events, social movements, and Hawaiʻi’s role in the globalizing world, for the widest possible use {by developing} books, articles, podcasts, and videos based on oral histories...”

UH Mānoa Guides

These guides contain more than primary sources. Some links may be restricted to Mānoa students - if you have trouble with a link, please email mookini@hawaii.edu.

All Mānoa Guides grouped by department - including government documents, maps, and archives.

Hawaiian and Pacific Collections Guides - guides for specific courses and research topics.

Hawaiian and Pacific Resources Online - Find Images - various digital images collections.

Citing Primary Sources