chimx
22nd May 2007, 23:33
Primary sources are the building blocks of historigraphical work as they are original documents originating from the time being studied. For centuries, documents of these kind were kept locked away in historical archives and available only to professional historians. However, with the growth of the internet, a great push has come for the free distribution of source material online. There is a growing virtual repository movement occurring as we speak.
I've always greatly appreciated revleft for its potential as a resource for its primarily student based membership. I thought it would be helpful to create a list of websites with online primary source material, organized by country. Of course, my knowledge of online primary source documents is quite limited, and I would love for other members to contribute to this list so that it remains a perpetual work in progress.
Note: there are a handful of websites that house a great deal of materials. For example, the Avalon Project at Yale (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/) will be reused given the scope of the online collection.
United States
* Foreign Relation of the United States -- 369 Volumes (1861-1960)
This series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian and printed volumes are available from the Government Printing Office. This collection is tens of thousands of pages of declassified internal government memos, notes, and orders, as well as public documents and treaties. As it deals with America's foreign relations, every volume has sections for countries or geographic regions throughout the world.
LINK (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=browse&scope=FRUS.FRUS1)
* Foreign Relations of the United States (1961-1968)
The volumes for the Kennedy and Johnson administration are available online through the State Department's website.
LINK (http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusonline.html)
* Treaties Between the United States and Native Americans (1778-1868)
This collection is courtesy of the Avalon Project at Yale University.
LINK (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/ntreaty.htm)
* Statutes of the United States Concerning Native Americans (1789-1887)
This collection is courtesy of the Avalon Project at Yale University.
LINK (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/native/namenu.htm)
* Online CIA Documents via Freedom Of Information Act (1943-2005)
Thanks to the FOIA, nearly 1500 declassified CIA documents have been put online on the CIA's website and is searchable through the body of each document. This is by no means a complete collection, but snail mail FOIA requests are also an option.
LINK (http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp)
* FDR Presidential Library Archives (1930s-1940s)
This collection is composed primarily of the President's Secretary File and includes thousands of papers from FDR's private safe, diplomatic papers, fireside chats, Vatican relations, and much more. Its an extremely useful online collection for anyone interested in the Great Depression and WWII years.
LINK (http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/online14.html)
* Online U.S. State Department Documents via Freedom Of Information Act (???-2007)
The State Departments FOIA section contains 61403 scanned declassified documents relating to the the United State's foreign policies. Documents go up to the present year, so this is a great place too look if a FRUS volume is not yet available online.
LINK (http://foia.state.gov/SearchColls/CollsSearch.asp)
* Geneal Resources
Avalon Archive (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/) - Contains an ever-growing and wide variety of documents relating to American history.
Interet History Sourcebook Project (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/) - Home to countless links to source material that covers topis that span the world and times. Some of the material is secondary, but a great deal is also primary documents.
United Kingdom
* British-American Diplomacy (1782-1863 )
A collection of diplomatic documents beginning with the Paris Peace Treaty available through the Avalog Archive.
LINK (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/britain/brtreaty.htm)
* Charles Booth Online Archive (1886-1903)
The Booth collection is a digitalized collection of Charles Booth's survey of life and labor in London. It examines specific districts and speaks of poverty in London. The detailed maps of poverty and affluence by district is particularly interesting.
LINK (http://booth.lse.ac.uk/)
* HistPop - Online Historical Population Reports for Britain and Ireland (1801-1937)
200,000 scanned pages of census data, registration reports, and legislation related to the population of Great Britain.
LINK (http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/)
* General Sources
The National Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/exhibitions/exhibitionlist_date.htm) - This website is set up through Britain's National Archives. It is written as secondary material, with frequent links to original scanned documents throughout the pages. The format is rather annoying and needs a general index for the original documents that are available online. Topics date back to 1000 years ago, up to the contemporary period.
Soviet Union
* The Soviet Experience in Afghanistan (1979-1989)
A collection of nearly 2 dozen documents from poliburo memos, CC reports, etc., dealing with the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan that have been translated into English. The website also contains related US-CIA documents that are available through links above.
LINK (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/soviet.html)
* Cold War International History Project at the Wilson Center (1945-1989). A collection of documents coming from Soviet Archives that deal with international Cold War issues. Topics include the Korean War, Sino-Soviet relations, Vietnam, and many others. Documents have been translated into English.
LINK (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection)
* General Sources
Annals of Communism (http://www.yale.edu/annals/electronic_texts.htm) - A very nice collection of primary documents ranging from the 1917 Russian Revolutions to Stalinist repression in the 1930s and KGB files. Some documents are in English, while others are in Russian.
China
*National Security Archive's Tienanmen Papers. (1985-1989)
These documents deal with American perceptions of the Tienanmen crisis and come from embassy cables, CIA reports, presidential memos, etc. One set of documents was released in 1999, while another set of documents was released in 2001, both by the National Security Archive.
LINK (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html) (1999 documents)
LINK (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB47/) (2001 documents)
Korea
*General Sources
Kimsoft (http://www.kimsoft.com/korea.htm) - An online collection of all things Korean. Includes news articles, poetry, historical memoirs, and secondary source material. Navigation is a bit convoluted so I highly encourage you to use the search feature at the very bottom of the website if you have difficulty finding the information you are looking for.
Latin America
*General Sources
Biblioteca Virtual Antorcha (http://www.antorcha.net/index/biblioteca.html) - An online collection of primary and secondary sources in Spanish dealing with 19th an 20th century issues.
-----
More later. I would love to keep this going. Please respond with further document sites!
I've always greatly appreciated revleft for its potential as a resource for its primarily student based membership. I thought it would be helpful to create a list of websites with online primary source material, organized by country. Of course, my knowledge of online primary source documents is quite limited, and I would love for other members to contribute to this list so that it remains a perpetual work in progress.
Note: there are a handful of websites that house a great deal of materials. For example, the Avalon Project at Yale (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/) will be reused given the scope of the online collection.
United States
* Foreign Relation of the United States -- 369 Volumes (1861-1960)
This series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian and printed volumes are available from the Government Printing Office. This collection is tens of thousands of pages of declassified internal government memos, notes, and orders, as well as public documents and treaties. As it deals with America's foreign relations, every volume has sections for countries or geographic regions throughout the world.
LINK (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=browse&scope=FRUS.FRUS1)
* Foreign Relations of the United States (1961-1968)
The volumes for the Kennedy and Johnson administration are available online through the State Department's website.
LINK (http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusonline.html)
* Treaties Between the United States and Native Americans (1778-1868)
This collection is courtesy of the Avalon Project at Yale University.
LINK (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/ntreaty.htm)
* Statutes of the United States Concerning Native Americans (1789-1887)
This collection is courtesy of the Avalon Project at Yale University.
LINK (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/native/namenu.htm)
* Online CIA Documents via Freedom Of Information Act (1943-2005)
Thanks to the FOIA, nearly 1500 declassified CIA documents have been put online on the CIA's website and is searchable through the body of each document. This is by no means a complete collection, but snail mail FOIA requests are also an option.
LINK (http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp)
* FDR Presidential Library Archives (1930s-1940s)
This collection is composed primarily of the President's Secretary File and includes thousands of papers from FDR's private safe, diplomatic papers, fireside chats, Vatican relations, and much more. Its an extremely useful online collection for anyone interested in the Great Depression and WWII years.
LINK (http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/online14.html)
* Online U.S. State Department Documents via Freedom Of Information Act (???-2007)
The State Departments FOIA section contains 61403 scanned declassified documents relating to the the United State's foreign policies. Documents go up to the present year, so this is a great place too look if a FRUS volume is not yet available online.
LINK (http://foia.state.gov/SearchColls/CollsSearch.asp)
* Geneal Resources
Avalon Archive (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/) - Contains an ever-growing and wide variety of documents relating to American history.
Interet History Sourcebook Project (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/) - Home to countless links to source material that covers topis that span the world and times. Some of the material is secondary, but a great deal is also primary documents.
United Kingdom
* British-American Diplomacy (1782-1863 )
A collection of diplomatic documents beginning with the Paris Peace Treaty available through the Avalog Archive.
LINK (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/britain/brtreaty.htm)
* Charles Booth Online Archive (1886-1903)
The Booth collection is a digitalized collection of Charles Booth's survey of life and labor in London. It examines specific districts and speaks of poverty in London. The detailed maps of poverty and affluence by district is particularly interesting.
LINK (http://booth.lse.ac.uk/)
* HistPop - Online Historical Population Reports for Britain and Ireland (1801-1937)
200,000 scanned pages of census data, registration reports, and legislation related to the population of Great Britain.
LINK (http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/)
* General Sources
The National Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/exhibitions/exhibitionlist_date.htm) - This website is set up through Britain's National Archives. It is written as secondary material, with frequent links to original scanned documents throughout the pages. The format is rather annoying and needs a general index for the original documents that are available online. Topics date back to 1000 years ago, up to the contemporary period.
Soviet Union
* The Soviet Experience in Afghanistan (1979-1989)
A collection of nearly 2 dozen documents from poliburo memos, CC reports, etc., dealing with the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan that have been translated into English. The website also contains related US-CIA documents that are available through links above.
LINK (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/soviet.html)
* Cold War International History Project at the Wilson Center (1945-1989). A collection of documents coming from Soviet Archives that deal with international Cold War issues. Topics include the Korean War, Sino-Soviet relations, Vietnam, and many others. Documents have been translated into English.
LINK (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection)
* General Sources
Annals of Communism (http://www.yale.edu/annals/electronic_texts.htm) - A very nice collection of primary documents ranging from the 1917 Russian Revolutions to Stalinist repression in the 1930s and KGB files. Some documents are in English, while others are in Russian.
China
*National Security Archive's Tienanmen Papers. (1985-1989)
These documents deal with American perceptions of the Tienanmen crisis and come from embassy cables, CIA reports, presidential memos, etc. One set of documents was released in 1999, while another set of documents was released in 2001, both by the National Security Archive.
LINK (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html) (1999 documents)
LINK (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB47/) (2001 documents)
Korea
*General Sources
Kimsoft (http://www.kimsoft.com/korea.htm) - An online collection of all things Korean. Includes news articles, poetry, historical memoirs, and secondary source material. Navigation is a bit convoluted so I highly encourage you to use the search feature at the very bottom of the website if you have difficulty finding the information you are looking for.
Latin America
*General Sources
Biblioteca Virtual Antorcha (http://www.antorcha.net/index/biblioteca.html) - An online collection of primary and secondary sources in Spanish dealing with 19th an 20th century issues.
-----
More later. I would love to keep this going. Please respond with further document sites!