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Eastern Michigan University Halle Library

Primary Sources - U.S. History Digital Collections

This guide highlights trusted digital collections for researching primary sources in U.S. history across periods, regions, and themes.

Searching for Primary Sources Online

The number of websites offering primary sources continues to grow, and Google has search tools that can help you find relevant materials.

Below is an example of a Google search for primary sources on witches and witchcraft.Screenshot of a Google search for primary sources about witches. The search bar shows the query: "witch*" AND "primary sources" OR "documents" site:.edu OR site:.org. The example highlights the use of quotation marks for phrases, the asterisk for word variations, the connectors AND and OR, and the site limiters for educational and organizational domains.

Key points to remember:

  • Use words and phrases that are commonly used for primary sources: correspondence, diaries, documents, letters, narratives, papers, primary sources, sources, and speeches. A librarian can help with generating these search terms.
  • Use quotation marks (" ") to search for phrases (exact words in an exact order).
  • Combine synonyms or similar terms with parentheses.
  • Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to find alternate word endings.
  • Exclude words with a hyphen (-). Think of it as subtracting a term from your search. (For example, witch* -Salem)
  • Use OR (in all caps) to search for either term.
  • Use AND (in all caps) to retrieve results with both words.
  • Limit your results to a specific domain using site:.edu or site:.org, which often lead to more reliable primary source collections.