Library Guides: History: Primary Sources: 20th C.

Magazines

African American Periodicals 1825-1995
Features wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations’ bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
Coverage Dates: 1825-1995
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Black Studies Center
Contains fully cross-searchable texts including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, etc. Includes the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals Full Text, Black Literature Index, and the Chicago Defender historical newspaper.
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Ebony Magazine (Google Books)
1959-2008 issues of this popular, African-American focused magazine
Life Magazine (Google Books)
Magazines via Google Books
Browsable list of magazines available through Google Books.

Reader's Guide Retrospective 1890-1982
Contains comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.
Date Coverage: 1890-1982

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Letters and Diaries

Letters & diaries published as books can be found in the UM LIBRARIES CATALOG by adding keywords:

DIARIES
CORRESPONDENCE
PERSONAL NARRATIVES

North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Provides access to full-text letters & diaries by North American women from colonial times to 1950. This collection includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
Date Coverage: Colonial times-1950.

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Missouri Government

Oral History

Oral History Association
How to do oral history, how to use oral histories and where to find oral history collections
International Oral History Association
Find oral history for regions outside of the U.S.

Radio, Newsreels, Television

Historians will point out that newspapers are not really primary sources since they are not accounts by the historical actors involved. However, they do constitute at least contemporary writing/speaking about the incident that contain good information about the impression available to contemporaries about an event.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Tens of thousands of hours of U.S.public radio sound files from 1940 to the 21st century, with automated transcripts, contributed by over 100 radio stations, produced by the Library of Congress in collaboration with WGBS, Boston.
AP Archive
YouTube channel hosting uploaded video (TV news and newsreels) from the archives of the Associated Press, going back as far as 1895. Updated frequently, it includes playlists for categories like International Politics, Conflict and Terrorism; Science, Nature and Technology; Fashion and Beauty, etc.
British Movietone (1895-1986)
YouTube channel containing the entire archives of this large British newsreel producer, originally shot in 35mm film.
British Pathé on YouTube (1896-1976)
Archival video footage – not only from Britain, but from around the globe – of major events, famous faces, fashion trends, travel, sport and culture. The archive is particularly strong in its coverage of the First and Second World Wars.

Television News Archive
Includes over 835,000 records describing items of news content.
Date Coverage: 1968-date

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U.S. Government

For further information about federal government sources, see the guides to Federal Government Documents and the Primary Sources By Decade page. For Britain and foreign governments that were part of the British Empire, see the Parliamentary Papers guide.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides full text access to government information dating to 1789. Content is sourced mainly from Congress and its committees, but some executive branch reports to Congress are also included. Document types include hearings, congressional committee prints, House and Senate documents and reports, Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and more. For a complete description of ProQuest Congressional contents, coverage, and update frequency, consult the Content Coverage Chart on the database’s main search screen.
Date Coverage: Varies by section.

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U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
A vast primary source collection for U.S. political, social, cultural, military and ethnic history, as well as international relations, explorations, genealogy, commerce, industrial development and more.
Date Coverage: 1817-1980

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U.S. Statutes at Large
Provides full-text access to the laws of the United States from 1789 to the present. Includes public laws, private laws, concurrent resolutions, presidential proclamations, treaties with foreign nations (through 1849) and all treaties with Native American tribes.
Date Coverage: 1789 -date

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HeinOnline
The single most comprehensive source of treaties and other international agreements to which the United States has become a party. In addition, includes law and law-related periodicals.
Also includes a number of treaty guides and indexes, including Treaties in Force.
Date Coverage: 1925-date
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Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources 1600-1970
Based primarily on holdings of the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University, including early state codes, city charters, and documents relating to constitutional conventions. Access provided by the MU Law Library.
Missouri resources include state constitutional conventions, adopted Constitutions, and historical Revised Statutes, among other resources.
Date Coverage: 1800-1926
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Search Guide: http://proxy.mul.missouri.edu/login?url=http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/MOML?locID=mizzou_law&ste=24

Foreign Relations of the United States
The official documentary record of U.S. foreign policy. Includes a wide variety of primary source material, including declassified documents. Published approximately thirty years after the period covered.
The Vault: Digitized FBI Files
Digitized FBI files, organized by era and topic. Some collections may be searched by keyword.
Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (Yale)
Key historical documents in searchable full text, browseable by time period or by topic. Covers 2000 BCE to present.
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Date Coverage: 4000 BCE-present

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Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, 1976-present
Electronic and print publications from the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the U.S. government, with direct links to those that are available online.

Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Searchable full-image of the Chicago Defender (1909-2010), Chicago Tribune (1849-1996), Los Angeles Times (1881-1995), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-2003), New York Times (1851-2015), Wall Street Journal (1889-2002) and the Washington Post (1877-2002).

Factiva
More than 35,000 global publications from 200 countries in 26 languages; business, government and newswires; transcripts

Statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States
Presents the numerical history of the United States. It contains annual time series of quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history, all from the earliest times to the present.
Free account can be created for personalization.
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Public Opinion Polls

General Social Survey (GSS)
The GSS gathers data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes. Hundreds of trends have been tracked since 1972. In addition, since the GSS adopted questions from earlier surveys, trends can be followed for up to 70 years.
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The GSS contains a standard core of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Among the topics covered are civil liberties, crime and violence, intergroup tolerance, morality, national spending priorities, psychological well-being, social mobility, and stress and traumatic events.
Trends in public opinion : a compendium of survey data, 1933-1980
MU Ellis HN90.P8 N53 1989

For many more polling resources, see Sandy Schiefer's extensive guide on public opinion polls.

Public Opinion Polls
by Sandy Schiefer Last Updated Feb 14, 2024 363 views this year