Explore Primary Source Collections - ARTH 315/HIST 316 - History of Modern Architecture

Understanding Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are documents (or other kinds of materials) created in the past that can help us gain insight into a specific time period. Primary sources provide ideas and evidence about events in the past. Scholars use the evidence found in primary sources to draw conclusions and construct narratives about the past.

In art history, primary sources might include:

letters or records of sales between artists, patrons, dealers, friends, etc.
exhibition reviews or eyewitness accounts of events (reviews of the 1913 Armory Show, photos of World's Fairs)
ephemera (items not meant to be kept long-term): ticket stubs, exhibit pamphlets, t-shirts, playbills, tote bags, etc.

Primary sources can also include the original object of study, such as buildings, original paintings or photographs, historic fashion or furniture, and other objects and remnants of material culture.

The boxes below include links to many digital collections of primary sources. You can also use these strategies to find primary sources in other ways (for example, diaries or letters that have been reproduced in books).

Digital collections: Digital collections are often organized by topic, or allow you to search by keyword or subject headings (i.e. special terms that are used to label what a source is about, like "Labor laws" or "Civil Rights Movement"). Digitized archival collections may also be organized using a finding aid.
Library catalogs: Some primary sources are reproduced/republished into books. To find these in a library, try searching for your keywords and one of these subject headings for primary sources:
--correspondence; --description and travel; --interviews; --maps; --narratives; --collections; sources; --pictorial works; --diaries; --biography, --quotations; --discovery and exploration

When working with primary sources, you can start with simple questions that help you understand the object's context (who made it, how, and why?). It's also useful to keep in mind what possible questions you can ask of the material beyond the obvious: what arguments or assumptions are made by the author of the material? How does it relate to other texts or sources? What rhetorical strategies does the author use?

The questions below are not a full list, but can help you get started with evaluating and thinking about primary sources and how they might support your own research.

Who created this document? Who took this photo? Who wrote and received this letter?
What do you know about this organization?
What do you know about the historical context of the source?
How does the source creator fit into this historical context? What was his or her role?
Why was this source created?
What kinds of factual information does it provide?
What is conveyed, but not necessarily intentionally?
What is not conveyed in this source? What isn't being said?
What us surprising, unique, puzzling, interesting in this source?
How does the creator of this source convey information?
How is the world today different than when this document was created?
How might this source have been received in its time?
How does this source compare to accounts in secondary sources?
What do you believe and what doesn't seem credible about this source?
What do you still not know and where might you find it?

Learn More: How to Read a Primary Source
Strategies for reading primary sources, from Bowdoin College.

General Collections

These collections contain primary sources on a large variety of topics, places, and points in history. If you're just getting started, they can be a good way to explore possible objects or themes you can address in your coursework.

American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Collection of digitized primary sources depicting the history of the United States of America from the earliest settlers to World War II, including correspondence, diaries, government documents, business records, books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, photographs, artwork, and maps.
Indigenous Peoples of North America This link opens in a new window
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Collection of primary source documents from American and Canadian government sources and institutions, tribal publications, and documents from Indian-related organizations, including a selection of indigenous-language materials. The collection covers topics such as Indian removal, Indian wars and the frontier army, Indian delegations and Indian-federal relations, treaty policies, government boarding and missionary schools, dances and festivals, Indian languages and linguistics, water and fishing rights, civil rights, and more.

Digital Public Library of America - Browse by Topic
Digitized primary sources from libraries, archives and museums across the U.S., organized into easy-to-navigate topics like "The Civil War," "Food," and "Women in Science."
NYPL Picture Collection
New York Public Library Online Picture Collection has more than 30,000 digitized images, mostly created before 1923.
Library of Congress: American Memory Project
HOW TO USE: The Library of Congress has hundreds of collections on different subjects. You can use the left-hand menu filters to limit collections and browse through collectios, or search with keywords to find individual sources/objects.
Images from the National Library of France (BNF)
NOTE: Default view is in French. To change to English, use the menu in the upper right corner and look for FR -> EN.

Industry, Technology, Urbanism, Design

World's Fairs: A Global History of Expositions This link opens in a new window
Online resource offers insight into over 200 world’s fairs and international expositions. The database provides digital access to primary source material collated from thirteen archives in North America, the U.K., and France. Material includes pamphlets, guide books, official catalogues, periodicals, minutes, and correspondence. There is also a selection of visual material including maps, photographs, postcards, and illustrations.

African American Photographs for the 1900 Paris Exposition
W.E.B. Du Bois and Thomas J. Calloway spearheaded the planning, collection and installation of exhibit materials for the Paris Exposition. The Library of Congress holds approximately 220 mounted photographs reportedly displayed in the exhibition, as well as material specially compiled by Du Bois.

Archival Collections from the Art Institute of Chicago
The AIC Archives collect artists’ and architects’ papers that illuminate the development of art and architecture in Chicago and the Midwest from the 1870s to the present, as well as complement the museum’s permanent collections.

Sanborn Maps This link opens in a new window
Access the digital Sanborn historical map collections (1867-1970) for the states of Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming; and the District of Columbia. These maps show the history, growth, & development of American cities, towns, and neighborhoods. Tutorial for the [Sanborn Maps database.

U.S. Steel Gary - Photographs Collection
The U.S. Steel Gary Works Photograph Collection, a series of more than 2,200 photographs of the Gary Works steel mill and the corporate town of Gary, Indiana, held by the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest. In images of compelling diversity, historians and the general public can view all aspects of this planned industrial community: the steel mill, the city, and the citizens who lived and worked there.
National Library of Medicine
National Library of Medicine's free online repository of biomedical resources including books, still images, videos, and maps. All of the content in Digital Collections is freely available worldwide and, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. Digital Collections provides unique access to NLM's rich historical resources, as well as select modern resources.
Labor History at the Kheel Center (Cornell)
Digital collections and exhibitions of materials related to the history of labor, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster.

Prints, Ads, & Consumer Culture

Huntington Libraries: Prints and Ephemera
Extensive collection of digitized prints and ephemeral materials from the 19th and 20th centuries, including items related to the California Gold Rush, the citrus industry, and propaganda from the first World War.

Emergence of Advertising
Advertisements and items from 1850-1920
AD*Access
U.S. and Canadian advertisements from 1911-1955, from the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University

Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 This link opens in a new window
Provides a unique insight into the world of buying, selling and advertising in pre- and post-war America. Access thousands of market research reports by pioneering analyst Ernest Dichter and his Institute for Motivational Research, commissioned by advertising agencies and global businesses.
Trade Catalogues and the American Home This link opens in a new window
Collection explores domestic consumerism, life and leisure in America between 1850-1950. This resource presents a wealth of highly illustrated primary source documents that highlight commercial tastes and consumer trends and provide a valuable visual record for a breadth of interdisciplinary study.
Tutorial for the Trade Catalogues and the American Home database.

Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
A searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Pages, advertisements, covers and fold-outs have been included, with rich indexing enabling researchers to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.
Tutorial for the Vogue Archive database.
Harper's Bazaar Archive This link opens in a new window
Includes complete runs of US and UK editions of Harper's Bazaar, from 1867 to present (US edition) and 1929-2015 (UK edition). This resource is fully indexed and searchable and includes full color collection of approximately 500,000 pages, which provides insight in American, British, and international fashion, society, and popular culture from the mid-19th century forward.

Fine, Popular, and Performing Arts

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Contains over a million images documenting artistic traditions across many cultures and time periods. Updated frequently, please check back often for updated searches & collections. Note: ARTstor users must create a free account to save and share images. Users must turn off the popup blocker.
Tutorial for the ARTstor database.
Art & Architecture Archive This link opens in a new window
Full-text archive of magazines comprising key research material in the fields of art and architecture, dating from the late-nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Subjects covered include fine art, decorative arts, architecture, interior design, industrial design, and photography.
Tutorial for the Art & Architecture Archive database.

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels: Volume 1 This link opens in a new window
Covers major works from North America and Europe, beginning with the first underground comix from the 1950s and continuing through to modern sequential artists. The collection contextualizes these original works with 25,000 pages of interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines, including The Comics Journal. Tutorial of the Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels: Volume 1 database.

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
The BICLM at Ohio State hold thousands of original comics and cartoon artworks, many of them digitally available through the library.
Library of Congress -- Cartoons & Caricatures

Theatre in Context Collection This link opens in a new window
Covers all aspects of the Canadian and American Theatre, including major reference materials, plays, people, theatres, production companies from the 1600s to the present. Collection also includes playbills, posters, photographs, and related theatrical ephemera. Note: Previously called North American Theatre Online. Tutorial of the Theatre in Context Collection database.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.
Tutorial for the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive database.

Ruckus! American Entertainment at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Yale)
Bonnie and Semoura Clark, Black vaudevillians, provided segregated entertainment for Black Americans in the South and Midwest. The Black Vaudeville Collection contains photographs and ephemera depicting predominantly Black vaudeville acts including photographs of chorus girls, minstrels, and cross dressers, handbills and programs and two ink and wash drawings of Bonnie and Semoura Clark, dated 1913.
Federal Theatre Project Collection
The Federal Theatre Project Collection contains administrative records, play service and research records, library records, and production records created or collected by the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) from 1935 to 1939. A few items in the collection were created before or after this time period but directly relate to the 1930s material. This collection consists of original materials with some duplicates and photocopies.

Harry Ransom Center for Media Studies (UTexas)
The Ransom center includes original materials related to the history of photography and film, including images from Niépce and Daguerre's early experiments.
Eastman Museum Collections
Images related to the history of photography and film, including photographic and cinematographic technology.
Library of Congress: Daguerrotypes
LOC holds almost 700 daguerreotypes, including several hundred images from Mathew Brady's studio. The majority of the images are portraits, but the collection does include a few early architectural views, outdoor scenes, and copies of works of art.
African American Photography Collection (Yale)
This collection presents a vivid picture of Black life and American racial attitudes from the 1850s to the 1940s; the Collection includes photographs in all formats, including hundreds of daguerreotypes and tintype portraits documenting both known and unknown African American subjects.
Women in the History of Photography (Yale)
Collection of original sources that meant to identify, collect, preserve, and share information about women in photography, as documented by Peter Palmquist.
Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O'Keeffe Archive (Yale)
The Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O’Keeffe Archive contains thousands of letters and hundreds of photographs in addition to a collection of literary manuscripts, scrapbooks, ephemera, fine art, and realia, primarily dating between 1880 and 1980, which document the lives and careers of the photographer/publisher/gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz and the painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

Through the Camera Lens: The Moving Picture World and the Silent Cinema Era, 1907-1927 This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of the early-20th century magazine, Moving Picture World, which set a standard for the coverage of silent film, reviewed current releases and published news, features, and interviews relating to all aspects of the industry.

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion PItures from 1894-1915
Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.