Research Guides: HIST 4600: U. S. South 1860 to Present: Primary Sources

How-To Video: Searching Historical Newspapers

Searching for Primary Sources
This learning module will help you understand how to develop a list of keywords and identify and search within appropriate databases to find primary sources.

Newspapers and Magazines

African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Contains information about cultural life and history during the 1800's and includes first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, the humanities, world travel and religion.
African American Newspapers Series 1: 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Provides access to U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African-American experience. This collection includes historically significant papers and features many rare 19th-century titles.
Atlanta Constitution (1868-1942) This link opens in a new window
Newspaper includes obituaries, stocks and editorials.
Charlotte Observer (1886-present) This link opens in a new window
Charlotte Observer online from 1886 to the present.
Charlotte Observer Historical Archive, 1886-2018 (via Readex) This link opens in a new window
Includes obituaries, stocks, editorials and first-hand accounts of events.
Chicago Defender (1910-1975) This link opens in a new window
A leading African-American newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside of Chicago.

Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers 1789-1963
Newspaper digitization project from the Library of Congress

Harper's Weekly: 1857-1912 This link opens in a new window
A 19th century illustrated newspaper from 1857-1912. Includes news stories, illustrations, cartoons, editorials, biographies, literature and advertisements.
Historic North Carolina Digital Newspaper Collection This link opens in a new window
Newspapers.com North Carolina Collection includes digitized content from over 1,000 NC county newspapers.
History Commons - North America This link opens in a new window
19th Century African American newspapers, American County Histories to 1900, American Civil War Primary Sources, and more.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers and magazines produced by feminists, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, and the extreme right-wing press.
New York Times Historical Archives (1851-2020) This link opens in a new window
Major global newspaper including news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, as well as photos and advertisements.

North Carolina Newspapers (1824-2012)
Collection includes a selection of student and community newspapers from schools and towns around North Carolina

Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Index for general-interest, news, and opinion magazines published primarily in the United States.
Times Picayune (1923-1988) This link opens in a new window
News Orleans-based newspaper covering 1923-1988

Government Documents

ProQuest Congressional Hearings This link opens in a new window
Access congressional publications dealing with the wide variety of topics addressed by Congress.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1817-1962.

Databases and Websites

African American Communities (Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories.

Documenting the American South
Primary source materials relating to Southern history. Open access.
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A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Includes: First-Person Narratives of the American South; Library of Southern Literature; North American Slave Narratives; The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865; The Church in the Southern Black Community.

Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia This link opens in a new window
Diaries, journals and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans and travelers to Appalachia.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Colonial to 1950 - includes the experiences of 632 women as revealed in diaries and letters.

North Carolina Digital Collections
contain historic and recent photographs, state government publications, manuscripts, and other resources on topics related to North Carolina
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Collections bring together content from the Archives and Library of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

City and Business Directories: North Carolina, 1886-1929 Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Historical, personal, and professional information about the inhabitants of a city and city organizations.

Edited Collections

You can find some primary sources in books. Below is a list of relevant subject headings. When searching for these in the catalog, try adding "sources", "documents", "correspondence" or "letters" to your search.

African Americans -- History -- 1863-1877 -- Sources.

Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Sources.

Living Charlotte

Living Charlotte: The Postwar Development of a New South City, 1944-1987
Partnering with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, J. Murrey Atkins Library is leading Living Charlotte, a project to digitize audio oral history recordings, municipal city planning and development documents, and the personal and legal papers of key individuals in the civil rights and desegregation movements.

NCpedia

DigitalNC

HathiTrust

A repository for digital collections. Items in the public domain (works published before 1923) are freely accessible online.