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HIST 2950 - Making of Modern Europe from the French Revolution to WW2: Primary Sources

MU Special Collections

Europeana

Individual Countries

European national libraries are usually best searched in the languages of the countries involved, though some may have English language interfaces. Try to find out the European-language terms for subjects or periods of interest. For instance, the French term for "interwar period" is L'entre-deux-guerres You can also search names of places, people, individual years, or named events/regimes.

English Language Periodicals (and books) from the "long 19th century"

Historical Film/Video Archives

Finding Primary Sources in the Library Catalog

key source for 17th c British history.  Photo by pobrecito33 (Flickr)There are certain words that appear in the subject headings of items in the UM LIBRARIES CATALOG that constitute primary sources.  The most important of them is sources, but there are others.

In the simple keyword search box, you can put such words after SU: in order to specify the SUBJECT field.

ex.: SU:Paris and SU:sources

In the advanced keyword search, you can put your search term(s) in the top box, and in the second box, put the word(s) you're using to locate primary sources in the next box, and change the drop-down menu to Subject:

Keywords that will help you find primary sources:

  • sources
  • correspondence
  • sermons
  • diaries
  • personal narratives
  • interviews
  • quotations
  • collections
  • speeches
  • manuscripts
  • archives
  • conduct manuals

Depending on the period being studied, it can also be helpful to limit your search by publication date.

More keywords identifying primary sources in Library of Congress Subject Headings

To find the papers of a historically prominent individual, use the Advanced MERLIN Search.  Use the first line to specify the author (surname first, e.g., Jefferson, Thomas) and the second line to specify papers in the title.  You can also use the Advanced search to combine any of the above primary source oriented keywords with a particular author.