Primary Sources - Library Subscriptions - History Guide - Research Guides at Eastern Michigan University

NEW Primary Source Databases

The EMU Library has expanded our offering of primary source databases.

EMU authentication is necessary to use these sources.

Black Thought and Culture (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search or browse pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders.
Subjects: History
Info types: Primary sources
Border and Migration Studies Online (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search or browse streaming videos and documents on worldwide border and migration issues.
Subjects: Social Sciences
Info type: streaming videos, documents
Chicago Defender (1909-2010) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse historical news, editorials, ads, and photos. Includes first-hand accounts and coverage of politics, society and events.
Civil Rights and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Publications covering civil rights in the United States including hearings, legislative histories, publications from the Commission on Civil Rights, articles, and more.
NOTE: The EMU Library does NOT subscribe to the HeinOnline collection materials listed under the tab Scholarly Articles & Other Documents.
Disability in the Modern World (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search or browse primary and secondary source material related to disability.
Subjects: Diversity
Info types: Streaming videos, books, documents
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Culture, and the Environment (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search or browse documents related to the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850.
Subjects: History
Info types: narratives, diaries, journals, letters
History Vault (via ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Access digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, government records and many more primary source materials. Collections include Civil Rights and Black Freedom Struggle; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; Women's Studies; International Relations; Military Conflicts; Early America.
LGBT Thought and Culture (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
Subjects: Diversity
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
Info type: Manuscripts, Documents
Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse historical news, editorials, ads, and photos from Detroit-based newspaper. Includes first-hand accounts and coverage of politics, society and events.
Michigan Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search and browse the backfiles of Battle Creek, Lansing, and Port Huron newspapers in PDF. Includes news, editorials, ads, photos, graphics.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives providing personal views of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
Info type: Diaries, Oral histories
Student Activism This link opens in a new window
Collection covering student protest, political actions, and equal-rights advocacy in the United States from the 20th and early 21 century.
Subjects: History, Political Science, Activism
Info type: Primary Sources, Articles
Twentieth Century Religious Thought II,III,IV (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Cross-search works related to worldwide religious thinkers from the early 1900s until the first decade of the 21st century. Covers voices from Islam, Judaism, Eastern Religions, and Christianity.
Subjects: Social Sciences
Women & Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (via Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Search and browse material related to social movements and U.S. and women's history.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Archival backfiles of leading women's interest magazines.
Access Tips:Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through 2005.

Primary Source Databases

Historic Documents This link opens in a new window
Documents on significant events of each year 1972 - current
Subjects: History, Politics, International Affairs
Info type: primary sources, speeches, government reports, treaties, court decisions, presidential statements, studies
New York Times Backfile (1851 - 2019) This link opens in a new window
Cover to cover in pdf. Includes news, editorials, photos, graphics, ads.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
All known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world, as well as materials on free African-Americans in the colonies and the U.S. before 1870. Included are every statute passed by every state and colony, all federal statutes, all reported state and federal cases on slavery, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on the subject.
NOTE: The EMU Library does NOT subscribe to the HeinOnline collection materials listed under the tab Scholarly Articles & Other Documents.

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Library of Michigan Databases

Apply online for a Library of Michigan card and get access to their newspaper, history, and other databases. All Michigan residents and also out-of-state students enrolled in a Michigan college or university are eligible.