Guides: Primary Sources at Baylor University Libraries: Free Online Primary Sources

Free Online Primary Sources

18thConnect: What is 18thConnect?
Not just a clearinghouse to identify online digital texts from the 18th Century, this website also seeks to provide peer review for these sites and reflections on best practices in digital scholarship in 18th century materials.

Library of Congress Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning." Primary Source. Library of Congress.

American Women
A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States. Part of the American Memory project, but worth mentioning separately.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
Interviews with over 2,300 former slaves conducted by the Federal Writers' Project. Originally published in microfilm these narratives are now available digitally. Interviews can be browsed by the slave narrator, the state (volume), or searched by keyword. Includes 200 digitally reproduced photographs selected from the 500 of the original publication. Includes a link to useful background information on the project and its contents. Subset of the American Memory Collection.

Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century

Medieval Sourcebook: Introduction
The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history. Arranged in three "index" pages, by period/region, by broad subject, and a third index for saints' lives, it presents the full-text of primary documents and some reviews of important scholarly studies.
N I N E S | What is 9s?
Like it's sister site, 18thCollection, this web site points to digital collections for the long 19th century (1770-1920). It also covers Great Britain and America, provides peer-review of digital collections, and access the tool JUXTA which compares and collates multiple copies of the same work, and IVANHOE, "a collaborative game space for interpreting textual and other cultural materials."
Repositories of Primary Sources
A listing of over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar.
TARO Texas Archival Resources Online
TARO is a project of the Texas Digital Library Alliance.