The Mina Rees Library offers access to scores of databases that contain primary sources.  Formats include manuscripts and archives, historical newspapers and magazines, comics, zines, government documents, maps, data, film and video, audio, images, artworks, literary texts, printed ephemera, and more.

Using these databases, you could read ancient Greek poetry or peruse the diaries of people who lived through the American Civil War.  You could watch 20th century newsreels or study Native American constitutions, charters, and treatises spanning the 17th to the 20th centuries.

You could read Spanish language newspapers published in New York City the 1800s or historical newspapers from Africa, the Caribbean, China, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, and other places around the globe.

A handy filter on the A-Z Databases page of the Library’s website allows you to limit the list of more than 350 databases by type. Two categories will be especially helpful for researchers seeking primary sources: Primary Source Collections and Newspapers.  Selecting either of these options will bring up a list of resources with succinct descriptions to help you select databases for your research.

Happy researching!

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