HISTORY 201: The Historian's Craft: Nation Breakers, Nation Makers (Spring 2025) : Primary Sources
This course guide is designed for students of History 201: Nation Breakers, Nation Makers to help them in their research.
- Welcome!
- Primary Sources
- Finding Books
- Locating Article Databases
- Finding Articles
- Evaluating Articles
- Writing & Citing Resources
- Get Help with Your Research
Special Collections
- Introduction to Special CollectionsInterested in using primary sources in Special Collections? Learn how to find materials and plan your visit using this online tutorial
- WHS ArchivesThis course provides an overview of what archives are, what sorts of materials you can find at the Wisconsin Historical Society, and how to find and access archival materials.
- UW ArchivesLearn what archival repositories are, what types of materials they have, and what to expect when visiting the UW-Madison Archives.
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs or oral histories. They enable researchers to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period to help them understand and interpret the past.
Examples of primary sources include diaries, speeches, letters, memos, manuscripts, and other papers; memoirs and autobiographies; records of information collected by government agencies and organizations; published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles) written at the time; photographs, audio recordings, and moving pictures or video recordings; research data; and objects or artifacts.
For additional help identifying primary sources, consult our Primary Sources for Humanities and Social Sciences Research Guide.
Primary Source Databases for Latin America
- Confidential Print: Latin AmericaBritish government documents c 1820-1970 created by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of rulers such as Perón in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil.
- Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers*In Spanish* Open access newspaper collection of over 1,000 titles from Mexico’s pre-independence, independence and revolutionary periods (1807-1929) documents the dramatic events of this era and include coverage of Mexican partisan politics, yellow press, political and social satire, as well as local, regional, national and international news.
- Latin American NewspapersDigital archive of newspapers published in 20 countries in Latin America from 1805 to 1922. Browse by publication to view limited content in English.
- Mexico in History: Colonialism to RevolutionDocument archive of a wide variety of topics related to Mexican history (1500-1929), from Spanish colonization and “New Spain”, through the Mexican War of Independence to the Mexican Revolution. The material is mostly in Spanish and covers a wide variety of topics and research interests, including early linguistic studies of Indigenous languages of Mexico, records of the Mexican Inquisition, church and mission documents, administrative and land records, and a variety of manuscript and photographic records of the Revolution.
- Revolution and Protest OnlineSearchable, multimedia collection supporting the study of important events and themes related to revolution and protest from the 18th century through the 21st century. Content in English and Spanish.
- The U.S. and Castro's Cuba, 1950-1970: The Paterson CollectionArchive of declassified U.S. government records related to diplomatic, economic, military, and cultural relationship between the United States and Cuba in the era of Fidel Castro (1926-2016). Materials were sourced from presidential libraries, government archives, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of State (DOS).
Finding Books
Books may be or contain primary sources. Examples may include personal narratives, memoirs, and autobiographies, collected works, and collections of documents. They may be published at the time or compiled and published at a later time.
The following catalogs can help you find both print and electronic books.
- Library CatalogThe Library Catalog is the UW-Madison Libraries' catalog. It contains materials from the Wisconsin Historical Society, as well as, special collections from across campus.The Library Catalog is the online catalog of more than 6 million books, periodicals, videos, audiobooks, music recordings, maps, music scores, microforms, Internet sites, electronic books, and computer databases currently owned or licensed by more than 30 University of Wisconsin-Madison campus libraries. The Library Catalog provides access to what is owned by UW libraries outside of Madison through its UW System Search option. The Library Catalog also contains records for most of the items which on order. The Library Catalog does not include journal articles, although it can be used to determine which journals we have. It also does not include some special collections, the records of some libraries/reading rooms, and materials that have not yet been converted from the card catalog (mainly items from Memorial or State Historical Society libraries). Hint: Use My Library Catalog Account to access a list of what you have checked out, to renew items, or to see what's waiting for you. Use Place Requests to recall a book from the current borrower, to retrieve a book from the shelf, or to borrow from another UW System library.
- WorldCatWorldCat is a catalog of libraries from around the world and can be used to request items through interlibrary loan.WorldCat is a catalog of more than 49 million books, serials, audiovisual media, maps, archives, manuscripts, scores, and computer files owned by more than 9,000 OCLC member libraries around the world, including UW-Madison and the Library of Congress. More than 400 languages are represented. One of its many uses is the ability to make online interlibrary loan requests for books.