Searching for Primary Sources
When keyword searching for primary sources, remember that the term "World War I" was not in use until World War II. Even the term "Great War" probably was not used from the start of the conflict. The terms used to describe this conflict changed over time and will be different depending on the author of the source. Consider searching for specific battles, geographic locations. using terms like "European War" to find materials.
Digital Primary Sources from KU Libraries
- African American newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new windowAfrican American Newspapers, 1827-1998 provides access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers. Over 50 are from Kansas.
- America's historical newspapers. Kansas newspapers This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to Kansas newspapers published in Kansas from 1827 to 1998. Among those included are Emporia Gazette, Leavenworth Bulletin, Topeka Weekly Capital, and Sedan Lance.
- American periodicals series online This link opens in a new windowAmerican Periodicals Series Online includes digitized and images of the pages of over 1,100 American magazines and journals published from 1741 through 1940.
- Associated Press This link opens in a new windowContains the photograph archives of the Associated Press. New content is added constantly and spans over 180 years.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new windowProvides more than one million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences.
- Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010) This link opens in a new windowThe Baltimore Afro-American was one of the most circulated African-American newspapers on the Atlantic Coast. This database includes the from 1893 to 1988.
- Black thought and culture : African Americans from Colonial times to the present. This link opens in a new windowBlack Thought and Culture includes non-fiction writings by important African Americans.
- C19, the nineteenth century index This link opens in a new windowThis combined index includes the American Periodicals Series, British Periodicals, and Poole's Index.
- Chicago Defender (1905-2010) This link opens in a new windowThe Chicago Defender remains the largest and most influential African American newspaper since World War I. More than two thirds of its readership resided outside of Chicago.
- Chicago Tribune This link opens in a new windowSearch the Midwest's most important paper from 1849 to 1992.
- Christian science monitor (1908-2003) This link opens in a new windowThe Christian Science Monitor provides secular, balanced coverage of international news and events for the twentieth century.
- CrisisThe Crisis, f the official publication of the NAACP, is a journal of civil rights, history, politics, and culture. Please note this is not a complete collection.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (1–4) This link opens in a new windowThis archive contains primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. Among the periodicals included are Billboard, Variety, and Broadcasting.
- Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs This link opens in a new windowThe Gerritsen collection includes 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowThis rather complicated to use database contains government information from all three branches of U.S. government. Ask if you need help.
- Historical statistics of the United States This link opens in a new windowHistorical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition contains over 37,000 different time-series statistics providing a quantitative view into American history.
- Humanities & social sciences retrospective This link opens in a new windowIndexes the most important journals in the humanities and social sciences published in North America and Europe from 1907 to 1984.
- Irish times (1859-2015) This link opens in a new windowPublished in Dublin, this historical database of the Irish Times from its time as a Protestant nationalist paper to its transition to be a voice of Irish unionism.
- Los Angeles times (1881-2010) This link opens in a new windowThe Los Angeles Times provides historical analysis of the development of California and the Pacific Rim.
- NAACP Papers This link opens in a new windowThis digitized collection of the NAACPS papers which are held at the Library of Congress are available here. this collection includes memos, briefings and other materials from the local to national civil rights movement.
- New York Times with index This link opens in a new windowProvides access to full page and article images with searchable full-text from 1851 to 4 years ago.
- New York Tribune, 1841-1922 This link opens in a new windowOne of the most influential newspapers of its time, the New York Tribune reported on events, arts, sports, business and finance covering from 1841-1922.
- North American immigrant letters & diaries This link opens in a new windowNorth American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories covers the experiences of new American immigrants 1840 to the present, with the majority focusing on 1890 to 1920.
- Philadelphia tribune, 1912-2010 This link opens in a new windowThe oldest continuously published daily black newspaper in the U.S.
- Pittsburgh courier (1911-2010) This link opens in a new windowThe Pittsburgh Courier was the most widely circulated black newspaper in the U.S. in the early 20th century.
- Reader's guide retrospective This link opens in a new windowIndexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States during the Twentieth Century.
- Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926 This link opens in a new windowBased on Joseph Sabin's bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America From its Discovery to the Present Time, this collection includes books, pamphlets, serials and other works. about North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean.
- Serial set maps This link opens in a new windowA digital version of the more than 50,000 maps published within the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980.
- Social explorer This link opens in a new windowContains over 15,000 thematic and interactive maps based on the entire U.S. Census from 1790 to 2000.
- Statistical abstract of the United States (1878- : Proquest) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Provides thousands of tables and millions of data points across a wide variety of topics.
- Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2021 This link opens in a new windowSearch the archive of Britain's largest traditional Sunday paper.
- Times digital archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new windowFrequently called the London Times, this paper is an important artifact to understand the history of London and Britain.
- Times Literary supplement historical archive, 1902-2019 This link opens in a new windowA weekly literary review that was started in 1902 by the same publishers as the Times.
- U.S. Congressional serial set (Readex) This link opens in a new windowAccess all the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
- U.S. Serial Set (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowTexts from the bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
- Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs, 1832-1978 This link opens in a new windowThis database contains records and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court from 1832-1978.
- Victorian popular culture This link opens in a new windowExplore popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930.
- Vogue archive This link opens in a new windowThe entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present. Vogue is a unique record of popular culture that extends beyond fashion.
- Wall Street journal (historical) This link opens in a new windowView full page and article images as well as keyword search the Wall Street Journal from 1889 to 17 years ago.
- Washington post This link opens in a new windowIncludes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1877 up to 7 years ago.
- Women and social movements in the United States. Basic edition This link opens in a new windowBrings together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women's reform activities in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000.
Searching the Online Catalog for Primary Sources
Searching "World War I" in the library catalog or any database based on the Library of Congress subject headings will not retrieve all materials. The correct subject heading for World War I is "World War, 1914-1918" which is what should be used to search for materials related to World War I. Keyword search "World War, 1914-1918" and then add the additional keyword that indicates the kind of primary source desire.Examples are correspondence, letters, personal narratives, documents, and sources.
Here is a link to the KU catalog for personal narratives (a term for memoirs, diaries, journals) from World War I.
- KU Libraries CatalogThe KU Libraries Catalog identifies materials available on campus. Use a Keyword search to start--then use subject headings to find additional materials.
- HathiTrust digital library This link opens in a new windowThis large digital library includes the collections of many of the United States' largest research collections. KU's membership in the trust grants our patrons the ability to download entire works that are out of copyright.
- WorldCat This link opens in a new windowWorldCat can be used to identify primary and secondary sources not held in the KU collection. Once identified, materials can be request through Interlibrary Loan.
Websites for Primary Sources
- Europeana 1914-1918A collection of personal letters, pictures, postcards and other items from across Europe.
- The First World War - The National ArchivesDigitized records from the British Library.
- The First World War Poetry Digital ArchiveContains all archival materials related to the literary history of World War I.
- International Encyclopedia of the First World War: 1914-1918 OnlineResource with many more links to WWI resources.
- The World War I Document ArchiveContains links to official documents and papers, memoirs, and images.