Primary Sources
Digital Archives
The National Archives collects and preserves the records of the U.S. Government. It’s estimated that this agency holds ten billion records. (And that’s only one percent of the government’s documents!) To avoid getting overwhelmed, start from the National Archives’ special page for History Day Projects. You may also want to browse their Online Exhibits.
Try searching a general topic with the word WOMEN or MEDICINE after it. Like “women’s rights” or “pioneers.” This will streamline your search options. Otherwise you will get thousands of search results.
Cool collections you might want to explore to get inspiration!
If the National Archives collects key documents from our nation’s government, the Library of Congress (LoC for short) collects important records created by the American people, including books, newspapers, maps, music, films, and photographs. To see primary sources organized by topic, browse the library’s Primary Source Sets for Classrooms, their U.S. History Primary Source Timeline, and Topics in Chronicling America, which features the Library’s extensive digitized newspaper collection.
Try searching a general topic with the word WOMEN or MEDICINE after it. Like “women’s rights” or “pioneers.” This will streamline your search options. Otherwise you will get thousands of search results.
Cool collections you might want to explore to get inspiration!
In addition to offering Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Libraries from all over the world share digitized items from their collections. Good for older secondary sources (history books published more than a decade back). Check back here when you get ready to look for primary sources!
Digital Public Library of America allows you to search for primary sources in the digital archives of dozens of state, university, and community libraries across the nation. The quantity of primary source material here is mind-boggling. Do *not* start here. Instead, search DPLA once you have a topic picked out and narrowed to a very specific subject. If you don’t already have your topic picked out, stick to the exhibitions and primary source sets.
Newspaper Databases
Library of Congress Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Scans of American newspapers from 1777 to 1963 (though most stop around 1920) including newspapers from all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Mariana Islands. As of 2020, they also have fantastic coverage of many small town newspapers in Arkansas. The pages are scanned using OCR technology. Search for a keyword and the search engine will find the keywords within the text of pages.
Primary Sources: Periodicals & Magazines
HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital library with many free full-text books and magazines (especially materials published before 1924.) To avoid pulling up results available only to subscribers, check “Full view only” when you search for key terms.
Other Primary Sources Databases
Arkansas’s Stories: Primary Sources
Want more resources?
Want more resources? Check out Digital Archives Outside of Arkansas with Arkansas-Focused Records and Archives with a General History Day Focus
Arkansas Traveler Databases
All Arkansas residents have remote access to an outstanding collection of research databases through the Arkansas Traveler Database project. These are high-quality, subscription resources paid for by the Arkansas State Library and the Arkansas Department of Education with your tax dollars.
Having trouble logging into a Traveler Project database? If you are having trouble accessing a database from your home or school, you may need to turn on your computer or tablet’s location services. (This is how the state library ensures that users are in the state of Arkansas.) If you prefer not to enable your device’s location services, you can access these resources from your local public library or log in using your library card number. Arkansans living near or the border of the state may also run into difficulties. Users living near a border may report access problems to katie.walton@ade.arkansas.gov.