Primay Source Digital Collections
Read the description of the databases to determine which ones will be most relevant to your topic.
- America's historical imprints This link opens in a new window
Provides a single search site for the following individual Early American Imprint databases: Evans: 1639 - 1800, Shaw: 1801 - 1819, and Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia: 1801 - 1819.
- American HIstory in VideoProvides full access to acclaimed videos on all eras of American history to provide contextualization of women’s issues within American society and history. Includes transcripts of the video content for citation purposes.
- American Memory: Women's History CollectionsAccess to seven collections from the Library of Congress including pamphlets, broadsides, books, and photographs from 1600 – 2000; includes highlights from the Library of Congress’ Manuscripts Division on women’s history.
- Colonial State PapersFull-text and transcripts of documents relating to the early colonial period (1574 – 1739), including British documents on the transport of women prisoners to work on the plantations and the position and conditions of free women in the North American colonies.
- Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
Provides access to digitized documents and images regarding the American South from the first colonies in Virginia through the 20th century.
- Dolley Madison Digital EditionFull-text, searchable edition of Dolley Madison’s correspondence, currently complete through April, 1837. Wife to President James Madison, and hostess at many points for President Thomas Jefferson, her correspondence details social, historical, and cultural issues of the early republic era.
The larger collection of which Dolley Madison’s papers are a part include the papers of George Washington, John Adams and the Adams Family, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Each of these would provide insight into the role of American Women during the nation's founding era. - Early English Books Online (EBBO)Fully searchable digital facsimiles of all books published in English in Great Britain and the North American Colonies from 1473 – 1700. Useful source for public attitudes towards women and advice to women.
- Eighteenth century collections online This link opens in a new window
A fully text-searchable corpus of books, pamphlets and broadsides in all subjects printed between 1701 and 1800.
- Empire online This link opens in a new window
Provides access to primary source documents from libraries and archives around the world on the building of modern empires from the 15th to the 20th century.
- Everyday Life and Women in America c.1800-1920 This link opens in a new window
Provides access to images of rare books, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.
- HathiTrust digital library This link opens in a new window
A large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally by libraries.
- Papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry This link opens in a new windowThe papers, letters, and family plantation records of this mother-daughter pair from South Carolina span colonial-era America to the early Jacksonian era of the United States. This collection includes the surviving documents – letters, travel notebooks, and the recipe (receipt) books of these women, and legal and business documents relevant to their families’ plantations. Gathered together, these documents witness to nearly a century of domestic and political life, the role of women in the management of plantations and agriculture, travel, and to the changes that occurred in social life as America moved from a colony to a nation. Material may be browsed by topic (documents, travel journals, recipe books) or searched by keyword, person, place, or document type. Excellent introductions to the collection and its sections. UVA-Rotunda.
- Sabin Americana 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides full-text access to the majority of items printed about the Western hemisphere (North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean) for years 1500 to 1926.
- U.S. Serial Set, 1789 - PresentU.S. Government publications, hearings, etc. on issues related to women: education, orphanages, penitentiaries, etc.
We also have the print edition and the maps and some documents may be better seen in the print version. - Women & Social Movements in the US, 1600 - 2000Contains over 110 document projects and archives (most uniquely available in WSM only) with 4 – 6 new projects/archives being added annually; over 2600 primary source resources, including the proceedings of women’s abolitionist movements and women’s rights conventions prior to 1866; and full-text coverage of the scholarly journal Women and Social Movements in the United States which covers all eras of American women’s history.
