- Colorado State University Libraries
- Research Guides
- HIST 348: UNITED STATES, 1917-1945
- Finding Online Primary Sources
HIST 348: UNITED STATES, 1917-1945
Primary Source Databases via CSU Libraries
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940Made possible through the generosity of the College of Liberal Arts. Information on LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. Experiences of the LGBTQ community as a whole and individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations. Historical records of political and social organizations founded by LGBTQ individuals, publications by and for lesbians and gays, and extensive coverage of governmental responses to the AIDS crisis. Personal correspondence and interviews. Gay and lesbian newspapers, and much more.
- Archives UnboundCoverage: Varies
U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history. Broad topic clusters include: African American studies; American Indian studies; Asian studies; British history; Holocaust studies; LGBT studies; Latin American and Caribbean studies; Middle East studies; political science; religious studies; and women’s studies - Black Freedom Struggle in the United StatesCoverage: 1790-2000
Features approximately 1,600 primary source documents related to critical people and events in Black or African American history, particularly regarding the struggle against racial injustice in the United States. - Black Thought and CultureCoverage: Varies
Contains the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans, including interviews, journal articles, letters and other fugitive material. - Black Women in AmericaCoverage: Varies
Describes the achievements of black women throughout history and highlights their ongoing contributions in America today. - Gateway to North America: People, Places, and Organizations of the 19th-Century New YorkCoverage: 19th Century
Print and manuscript directories, member lists, travel guides and other sources, chronicling the people and organizations of New York City from the late 18th through the early 20th century. - North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral HistoriesCoverage: 1840 to present
Publications of all kinds, from the political party newspapers at the beginning of the nineteenth century to the dailies at the century's end. Includes major newspapers as well as those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women's rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and other groups and interests. Also included are illustrated papers. - Indigenous Peoples of North AmericaCoverage: 18th to 20th centuries
For research into the culture and heritage of indigenous people, a comprehensive yet personal collection covering the history of American Indian tribes and supporting organizations. Content is sourced from both American and Canadian institutions, as well as direct-from-source from newspapers from various tribes and Indian-related organizations. Also features indigenous-language materials, including dictionaries, bibles, and primers.
- Colorado Historic Newspapers CollectionCoverage: 1859 to 1923
Provides full-page images of newspapers published in Colorado from 1859-1922, and others post-1922 as copyright clearance permits. Newspapers within the collection come from throughout the state and include papers published in English, German, Spanish, or Swedish. - New York Times Historical Newspapers (1851-2008)Coverage: 1851-2008
This is the paper of record in the U.S., best known for its analysis of news, issues and social changes. Navigate by title, date, and page number. Photos, graphs, and tables are replicated providing cover-to-cover full image content. - The Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2006Coverage: 1822-2006
Provides access to the back issues of The Sunday Times (London). Resource for all humanities and social sciences courses, especially in history, media studies/journalism, literature, cultural studies, politics, and performing arts. - Times Digital ArchiveCoverage: 1785-2010
Sponsored By: Years 1986-2005 are a gift from the Irene Bostrom Endowment in the CSU College of Liberal Arts.
The Times Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times, one of the most highly regarded resources for the 19th – 20th Century history detailing every complete page of every issue from 1785. - Washington Post (1877-2000) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Coverage: 1877-2000
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
- Congressional Publications (ProQuest)Coverage: 1789- Present
This is a database of hearings, committee prints, reports, documents and other Congressional resources. Provides full text of hearings and citations and selected full text for other publication types. Primary source content on subjects ranging from war and military incursions to nuclear energy, space exploration, terrorism, and human rights - Historical Statistics of the United StatesCoverage: 1790 to present
Historical statistics of the United States, colonial times to 1970. Topics ranging from migration and health to crime and the Confederate States of America. - Serial SetCoverage: 1817-1994
All the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from 1817-1994. Covers subjects ranging from slavery in Antebellum America and the expansion of the American West and the impeachment of presidents to the founding of the United Nations, public and private legislation, and more.
- Ebony Magazine ArchiveCoverage: 1945-2014
Originally published by John H. Johnson beginning in November 1945, Ebony has served as an influential African-American magazine promoting stories important to the black community and focusing on the achievements of African-American leaders. Spanning 70 years of content, from 1945 through 2014, this searchable full-text archive provides an in-depth look at African-American business, history, politics, entertainment, fashion, and culture. - Eight CenturiesCoverage: 1106 to 1930
Eight Centuries (formerly: 19th Century Masterfile): 1106-1930 is a comprehensive database aggregating scholarly indexes to journals, newspapers, books, documents, artwork, and images.
- Time MagazineNational and international news, behavior, books, business, cinema, law, education, environment, modern living, music, nation, press, religion, theater, video and world.
- Architectural DigestAn international design authority, featuring the work of top architects and designers
- ForbesA global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle.
- FortuneAn American multinational business magazine headquartered in New York City
- Life MagazineAn American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000.
- BusinessWeekAn American weekly business magazine, published 50 times a year.
- U.S. News & World ReportAn American media company that publishes news, opinion, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis.
Freely Available Archival Collections
- 1920's & Prohibition
- World War I
- Great Depression
- World War II
- Women's Suffrage
- People
- Newspapers & Magazines
- Alcohol, Temperance & Prohibition
Collection of more than 1500 digitized pamphlets and other writings dealing with prohibition.
- Chicago Committee of Fifteen Records 1909-1927
"Twenty-six volumes were gathered for an investigation of Chicago crime, focusing on prostitution and the illegal sale of alcohol. Notes are from on-scene investigations, summaries of court records and newspaper clippings."
- Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
Materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years; includes books, images, articles and more; part of American Memory
- William H. Anderson and the Anti-Saloon League Papers 1903-1928
"Contains correspondence, press releases, speeches, and reports" that "document Anderson's work with the Anti-Saloon League "
- Europeana 1914-1918
Major ongoing project to digitize over 400,000 items illustrating the history of WWI primarily European in focus but does include material dealing with the US.
- North Carolinians and the Great War
Digitized collection includes published texts plus six hundred pages of manuscript letters and diary entries and images.
- Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections
Digitized collection includes photographs, diaries and other material dealing with the US military intervention against the Bolsheviks in northern Russia 1918-1919.
- World War I Pamphlet Collection
More than 200 pamphlets including political tracts, government publications and more.
- World War I Sheet Music
Over 1,800 examples of music from the WWI era.
- League of Nations: Statistical and Disarmament Documents
This collection contains the full text of 260 League of Nations document, with a focus on three areas: the founding of the League, international statistics published by the League, and the League's work toward international disarmament.
- The Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I
The newspaper's mission was to provide scattered troops with a sense of unity and an understanding of their part in the overall war effort. Date coverage is February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919.
- War Posters and Postcards
Posters from government, commercial and charitable organizations. Subject matter is diverse, covering such topics as military recruitment, rationing, films/theatre, anti-war movements and many others.
- Western European Theater Political Pamphlet Collection
Pamphlets collected by the Princeton University Library starting from the outbreak of World War I. The collection contains pamphlets published in Europe during and immediately after World War I. They cover a broad range of topics including the economy, the press, the military, arms, territorial disputes, and others. The collection also includes speeches, sermons, bulletins, calendars, and songbooks. Covers 1894-1918.
- World War History: Newspaper Clippings, 1914 to 1926
Newspaper clippings from the 400-volume, World War History: Daily Records and Comments as Appeared in American and Foreign Newspapers, 1914-1926. "The clippings yield significant information about the political, social, cultural, and economic impact of the war as it is taking place and its aftermath....and contain war-related editorials, features, cartoons, photos, maps, and more."
- World War I Document Archive
Contains full text, images, biographies, personal reminiscences and links to other web resources.
- World War I Postcards from the Bowman Gray Collection
Features a collection of war-themed cards produced in Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, and the U.S. during World War One (1914-1918).
- American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
2,900 life histories describe the informant's family education, income, occupation, political views and more; part of American Memory.
- Great Depression Interviews
Collection of 148 interviews originally compiled for a 1993 PBS broadcast; includes video plus transcripts; from the collection of Washington University.
- Voices from the Dust Bowl
Audio recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, publications, and ephemera documenting the everyday life of residents in migrant work camps in 1941-1942.
- Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection
1936 to 1943, over 900 posters.
- Civil Works Administration Photographs
Photographs of the Civil Works Administration projects in Washington.
- Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
Photographs and black-and-white film negatives from 1935-1944.
- California Odyssey: Dust Bowl Migration Archives: California State University Bakersfield
Transcriptions of interviews of people who participated in the Dust Bowl Migration, as well as photographs, articles and more from California State University, Bakersfield.
- The Caroline A. Henderson Digital Collection: Mt Holyoke University
Letters written by Caroline A. Henderson who farmed land in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years.
- The Great Depression Primary Source Sets: Library of Congress
Primary source documents from the Library of Congress covering the Dust Bowl Migration and the New Deal.
- The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945): National Archives
Digital collection of the National Archives, covering the Great Depression and WWII.
- Report of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee: August 27, 1936
Transcript of report to President Roosevelt on the drought of the Great Pains - August 27, 1936.
- Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941: Library of Congress
Selected digitized photos that depict the life of migrant farm workers living and working on Farm Security Administration camps in central California.
- WPA Posters: Library of Congress
Digitized collection of nearly 1,000 posters from the WPA (1936-1943).
Provides access to a number of digital collections. Topics range from military maps Japanese-American internment camp newspapers.
- Densho
Collection of oral histories, photographs and documents dealing with Japanese American history with special focus of World War II.
- Japanese American National Museum Collections
Digitized collections include WWII era diary, artwork and photos.
- Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives
Digitized photographs, documents, diaries, and and more illustrating the Japanese American experience especially during World War II.
- War Relocation Authority & the Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II
Collection of more than 60 WRA documents from the Truman Library.
- Holocaust Rescue and Relief
Digitized documents of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an organization that aided Holocaust survivors.
- Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal
The "official record of the trial of the major civilian and military leaders of Nazi Germany who were accused of war crimes." Also see the Nuremberg Trials Project & the Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Museum site includes a number of exhibits with primary documents including images and oral histories.
- Voices of the Holocaust
Collection of 70 early interviews of Holocaust survivors. Also see other oral history collections: Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive, Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust & Fritz Bauer Institute.
- Yad Vashem
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority includes more than 100,000 digitized photographs, the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names and exhibits.
- Battle of Britain
Royal Air Force Museum's site includes background information, daily reports and photographs.
- Federal Newsmaps
Collection of newsmaps, Army publications that depict key events in the war with maps and photographs.
- Imagebase WW2
Thousands of war images from the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation.
- Nanking Massacre Project
"Digital Archive of Documents & Photographs from American Missionaries Who Witnessed the Rape of Nanking."
- Nazi Invasion of Poland in 1939
Small digital collection of American photojournalist Harrison Forman's photographs & diary.
- PhotosNormandy
Photos documenting the Battle of Normandy and its aftermath (summer of 1944).
- Eisenhower Communiques
Communiques relate the daily progress of the Allied campaign in Europe from D-Day on June 6, 1944 until the German surrender on May 7, 1945.
- After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
12 hours of opinions gathered in the days and months following Pearl Harbor.
- Historic Publications from World War II
More than 300 US government documents dealing with the war effort at home.
- Real Rosie the Riveter Project
Oral history videos with women who worked in factories during WWII.
- World War Two Collection
This collection of over 600 items includes posters, pamphlets & other material from the WWII era.
- Digital Public Library of America: Women's Suffrage: Campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment
This set of primary sources—photos, advertisements, maps, and other documents—sheds light on that struggle toward the Nineteenth Amendment.
- National Archives: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment This link opens in a new window
The National Archives' primary source document collection includes letters, photographs, Congressional resolutions, and more.
- Catt Collection of Suffrage Photographs
More than 1,000 images mostly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection
The NAWSA Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. Part of American Memory.
- Woman Suffrage and Feminism Photographs in the Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection
More than 700 photographs especially of the 1913 International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) Congress
- Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party
More than 400 digitized photographs dating primarily from 1913 to 1922
- Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers
Correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting the life of Bell.
- Life and Times of Florence Kelley in Chicago, 1891-1899
Digitized collection includes correspondence, writings by Kelley and other material.
- Mckinley Assassination Ink
Transcriptions of articles, essays, editorials dealing with the McKinley assassination in 1901.
- Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library
Over 5,000 digitized items, including photographs, cartoons, newspaper articles, and diary entries.
- Thomas A. Edison Papers
Correspondence and other material dealing with the inventor from 1847 to 1897.
- Wilbur & Orville Wright Papers
Correspondence and other papers of the aviation pioneers primarily dating from 1900 to 1940; part of American Memory.
- William F. Cody Archive
Selections of letters, articles, images and more documenting Buffalo Bill.
- Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes
Diaries and letters from 1834-1893 of the 19th president of the United States.
- Amelia Earhart Papers
More than 3400 digitized maps, photos and other documents of the aviator.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Collections
Digitized documents dealing with diplomacy and other mattters.
- Historical Exploration of Father Charles E. Coughlin's Influence
Primary sources of the controversial priest include radio broadcasts, the newspaper, Social Justice, pamphlets and books.
- Wilbur & Orville Wright Papers
Correspondence and other papers of the aviation pioneers primarily dating from 1900 to 1940; part of American Memory.
- Chicago Examiner 1908-1918
The Chicago Public Library’s 10-year run of the Examiner, while incomplete, represents the longest run of the paper still available.
- Foreign Language Press Survey
Translations of Chicago ethnic newspapers from 1861-1938.
- Chicagoan 1926-1935
Chicago's version of the New Yorker magazine.
- Chronicling America
Selection of digitized newspapers covering a period ranging from 1836 to 1922.
- Crisis 1910-
Digitized version of the NAACP magazine from 1910 to the present.
- Media History Digital Library
Ongoing project to digitize classic media magazines including selected issues of Photoplay, Film Daily and Moving Picture World.
- Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
Digitized versions of The Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), and The Jewish Chronicle (1962-Present).
- Silent Worker 1888-1929
Popular national newspaper among the deaf population of the US.
- Stars & Stripes 1918-1919
Complete run of the WWI edition of the newspaper from February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919.
- All Hands 1922-2011
The magazine of the US Navy
- Democracy at War: Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War
Digitized collection of more than 144,000 newspaper clippings.
- Life Magazine 1936-1972
Digitized issues of the popular illustrated magazine.
- Pacific Citizen
Paper of the Japanese American Citizens League covering 1929 - 1955.
- Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
Digitized versions of The Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), and The Jewish Chronicle (1962-Present).
- Wartime Columns of Ernie Pyle
Collection of 40 columns by the noted WWII journalist.
- Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841-1902
New York paper from 1841-1902.
- Godey's magazine 1831-1898
19th century women's magazine; some years may be missing.
Search Engines
Search engines can be useful for locating specific primary source documents. If you use Google, enter the names of specific documents in quotation marks.
- "Works Progress Administration"
- "New Deal"
For broader searches, add primary source keyword terms, such as documents, primary sources, or papers to your search.
- "Great Depression" "primary sources"
- "Franklin D. Roosevelt" "speeches"