Research Guides: European History: Primary & Reference Sources -- Europe General

Primary Sources in European History

Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
Full Text Books in European languages from the 15th century to the early 20th Century
Additionally, there are sources discussing the history of the working class, the history of slavery and colonization, the labor movement, as well as other topics that relate to and challenge capitalism.
Language: English, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Italian, and other European languages.
HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
An enormous collection of both in-copyright and public domain book and serial resources, many from the 19th and early 20th century.
HathiTrust is a collective of academic and research libraries that digitizes materials, whether they are in-copyright or the public domain, for the purpose of preservation. Eligible students with a print disability can request a copy of any book in the collection, regardless of copyright status.
Language: English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.
Keywords: Hathi Trust
Visual History Archive This link opens in a new window
Video Testimonies of survivors and witness of genocide. Includes the testimony of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, the Nanjing Massacre, The Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Guatemalan Genocide. Note: Registration is required upon initial login for all users.
All Kinyarwanda and Mandarin-language testimonies have English subtitles, although other languages do not.
Language: English, German, Armenian, Mandarin, etc.
Keywords: VHA USC Shoah Foundation
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Access first-hand accounts of Nazi persecutions in video testimonies from survivors, bystanders, resistors, and liberators.
Content type: Videos
Special Note: You are required to create a free account with Aviary and then request access to testimonies.
Once you have logged in with your Aviary account, you will have to request access to one testimony and agree to the conditions. After you have received access to the first testimony, you will request access to additional testimonies, but you will receive access permission almost immediately.
Language: English, Hebrew, French, Slovak, German, Russian, etc.
Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs‎ This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore this large women's history collection to trace the evolution of feminism and women's rights in various countries over the span of five centuries.
Content type: Primary sources, books, pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence
Coverage dates: 1543-1945
Publications originate from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.
Language: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, etc.

History Online
is good to browse and also has a good search page with drop down menus.
Nine: Nineteenth Scholarship Online
Links and information leading to digital and analog primary and secondary resources in 19th century. Some full text; some citation information.
Internet Archive
Exhaustive repository of and gateway to recordings, videos, and texts. A good place to find multi-media.
more...less...
Grateful Dead concerts, old commercials, links to e-book projects -- also home to "The Way back Machine," which is itself a history of the World Wide Web.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Search here for comprehensive coverage of news and current events, government, business, medical, and legal topics, as well as general reference information.
Content type: Newspaper articles, trade journal articles, broadcast transcripts, financial reports, federal and state case law, medical abstracts, corporate profiles
Coverage dates: 1980-present
Language: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese
Keywords: Lexis Nexis

List of online newspaper archives
Wikipedia list of online historical and contemporary newspapers, some for free, some for pay. For other newspapers available from the Libraries, see the newspaper list under Databases on the library homepage: http://libraries.claremont.edu/resources/databases/
Post-Reformation Digital Library
Rich Collection of primary texts from theologians, religious figures, and philosophers -- many in the original languages. Includes major editions of Bibles.
The Avalon Project
is a very rich resource hosted by the Yale University Law School with special emphasis on law and diplomacy from ancient to modern.
The Early Modern Europe
is part of The Internet History Sourcebook and is excellent gateway to primary resources and reference sources.

New York Times, Historical This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Access full page scans of the print edition of The New York Times newspaper complete with advertisements.
Content type: Newspaper articles, advertisements
Coverage dates: 1851-2012
Language: English
Keywords: NYT ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Political Extremism and Radicalism This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore and compare documents from both far-right and far-left groups in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Content type: Primary sources, government reports, books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, interviews, correspondence, pamphlets, images
Coverage dates: 1800-2010
This database does not provide a precise methodology for how it identifies a political movement to be on the extremities of the right or left wing.
Language: English
Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Access full page scans of this daily, national British newspaper, including images and advertisements.
Content type: Newspaper articles, primary sources
Coverage dates: 1785-2019
Includes coverage of business, sports, and the arts, as well as weather reports, birth and marriage announcements, death notices, and obituaries.
Language: English
European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: German Colonies in Asia and the Pacific: From Colonialism to Japanese Mandates, 1910-1929 This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore materials related to U.S. consular activities in Germany's Pacific colonies and German-leased territories in China.
Content type: Primary sources, correspondence, reports, maps
Coverage dates: 1910-1929
Materials from the U.S. Department of State Central Files.
Language: English
Keywords: Archives Unbound
SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries and Assets in Neutral Countries This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Access records of the Allied SAFEHAVEN program to explore topics related to Nazi financing, stolen art and other assets, German businesses, and Third Reich leaders.
Content type: Government reports, correspondence, military attaché reports
Coverage dates: 1944-1945
SAFEHAVEN was the code name of a project of the Foreign Economic Administration, in cooperation with the U.S. State Department and the military services, to block the flow of German capital across neutral boundaries and to identify and observe all German overseas investments.
Language: English, German, Spanish, etc.
Keywords: Archives Unbound
Europe and the Ottoman World: Diplomacy and International Relations This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore the relations of Europe and the Ottoman World through material culture produced between 1475 and 1874.
Content type: Primary sources, correspondence, treaties, travel accounts, books
Coverage dates: 1475 -1874
Language: English French, German, Ottoman Turkish, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian and Latin.
Keywords: Arcadian Library Online
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore archival resources focused on women's history, political activism, feminism, and literature from around the world.
Content type: Newspaper articles, magazine articles, correspondence, memoirs, pamphlets, biographies, personal papers
Coverage dates: 1820-1999
Includes materials on women's political activism relating to suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, socialism, and more. Includes women's voices, from female-authored literature to women's periodicals. The Library has access to the “Issues and Identities”, "Voice and Vision", and “Female Forerunners Worldwide” sections of this resource.
Language: English, Dutch, French, German

Primary Sources in Library Catalogs

Primary sources of all types can also be found in our regular, circulating books, in special collections, and beyond. Here are few ways to find primary texts and sources by using our own Library Search.

1. Use the author search to find books we have by a particular author, politician, journalist or another type of historical witness

2. Do an advanced keyword search in The Library Search and then limit by publication year under “limit your search”) (note: you can also limit by language and many other ways)

3. . Do an advanced keyword in Library Search and then limit to the word "sources" in the subject field (by using the dropdown menu), for example:

"Spain and Civil War" in the subject field

"sources" in the subject field.

(this brings us the Library of Congress Subject subheading “sources” which is sometimes used to designate primary source collections of different kinds — as in

Spain History Civil War, 1936-1939 Sources.

A rich source of primary materials is Honnold/Mudd Special Collections and its librarians.