Primary Source Databases
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The History Makers Digital Archive
The HistoryMakers, established in 1999, is a non-profit institution whose purpose is to record, preserve and disseminate the content of video oral history interviews highlighting the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements. Its aim is to provide a unique scholarly and educational resource for exploring African American history and culture. It is unique among collections of African American heritage because of its large and varied scope, with interviewees from across the United States, from a variety of fields, and with memories stretching from the 1890s to the present. Rather than focus on one particular part of a person’s life or a single subject, such as a career or participation in the civil rights movement, the interviews are life oral histories covering the person’s entire span of memories as well as his or her own family’s oral history. -
StatistaBusiness, marketing, demographic, and economic statistics along with content in the form of infographics, company/industry dossiers, market analytics, and forecasts.
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Facts on File American History OnlineSpans more than 500 years of political, military, social, and cultural history, highlighting the important people and events of the American experience.
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The National Archives - Topic SearchThe National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Search by topic for primary sources (records, photographs, documents, etc) related to your research.
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CQ Historic Documents 1972 to PresentEach annual volume includes approximately 100 documents covering the most significant events of the years 1972 - present. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.
Primary vs. Secondary
History in Images & Streaming Video - Alexander Street Press
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American History in Video – Alexander Street PressProvides a searchable collection of over 8,000 online streaming videos - including commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries - for the study of American history.
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Black Studies in Video – Alexander Street PressProvides a searchable online streaming video collection featuring award-winning documentaries, newsreels, interviews, and archival footage surveying African American history, politics, art and culture, family structure, social and economic pressures, and gender relationships.
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Black Thought and CultureBlack Thought and Culture contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.
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Current Affairs in Video – Alexander Street PressProvides a searchable streaming video collection of issue-based documentaries from around the world covering key issues and events of recent global history in the fields of Immigration and Border Studies, Middle East Studies, Urban Studies, Political Science, Globalization, and Human Rights.
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Environmental Studies in Video – Alexander Street PressContains hundreds of hours of film about various areas of environmental studies. Some environmental areas of study include ethics, law, planning, science, economics, and sociology.
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LGBT Studies in Video – Alexander Street PressProvides a searchable online collection of recent documentary, performance, animation, and biographical videos about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender political, cultural, and social movements.
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Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000Provides a collection of books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies that document women's activism in American public life.
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World History in Video – Alexander Street PressProvides a collection of critically acclaimed documentaries from independent filmmakers worldwide offering a geographical and chronological survey of human history covering Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania from the earliest civilizations to the fall of the Berlin Wall.