Introduction to Historical Research : Archival sources
This guide is an introduction to selected resources available for historical research. It covers both primary sources and secondary materials.
Sample Digital Archival Collections
A growing number of archival materials are being digitized and researchers are able to access increasing amounts of materials online.
Here are a few examples of the sorts of materials available:
- American Memory--Library of CongressAmerican Memory provides free access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral HistoriesProvides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives.In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants. The collection will be particularly useful to researchers, because much of the original material is difficult to find, poorly indexed, and unpublished; most bibliographies of the immigrant focus on secondary research; and few oral histories have been published.
- SixtiesThe Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America.The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America vividly conveying the zeitgeist of the decade and its effects into the middle of the next. Alongside 70,000 pages of letters, diaries, and oral histories, there are more than 30,000 pages of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare audio and video materials. The collection is further enhanced by dozens of scholarly document projects, featuring richly annotated primary-source content that is analyzed and contextualized through interpretive essays by leading historians.
- Electronic EnlightenmentContains correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the eighteenth century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. It is an aggregation of 53,000 primary source letters from more than 6,000 writers and numerous presses.An ongoing scholarly research project of the University of Oxford and other universities and organizations, Electronic Enlightenment offers access to the web of correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the eighteenth century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. EE is an aggregation of 53,000 primary source letters from more than 6,000 writers and numerous presses. Readers can explore writer's views on history, literature, language, arts, philosophy, science, medicine, and personal, social and political relations.
- British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries 1500 - 1950A vast collection of British and Irish women's diaries and correspondence, spanning more than 300 years, it brings the personal experiences of nearly 500 women.
Finding Archival Sources
Archival sources can often be difficult to find, however, there a number of tools that can help you find both local, national, and international archival materials.
- UW-Madison Library CatalogThe library catalog contains information about the archival holdings in the University Archives, Special Collections, and the Wisconsin Historical Society.
- Archival Resources in Wisconsin: Descriptive Finding AidsPresents archival finding aids prepared and contributed by: The University of Wisconsin Archives and Records Management Service, University of Wisconsin Memorial Library Department of Special Collections, Wisconsin Historical Society, and the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures.
- UK National Register of ArchivesThe indexes to the National Register of Archives contain references to papers of approximately 150,000 corporate bodies, persons and families relating to British history with a further 100,000 connected records.
Local Digital Archival Collections
- The Aldo Leopold ArchivesAldo Leopold is considered by many to have been the most influential conservation thinker of the 20th Century. Leopold's legacy spans the disciplines of forestry, wildlife management, conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, restoration ecology, private land management, environmental history, literature, education, esthetics, and ethics.
- Gay Peoples Union CollectionPresents digital copies of primary source materials documenting GPU -- the most important gay and lesbian rights organization in Milwaukee during the 1970s -- and Milwaukee's gay liberation movement. Materials were selected from collections housed in the UWM Libraries Division of Archives and Special Collections.
- The State of Wisconsin CollectionThe collection includes published material as well as archival materials such as books, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, maps and other resources.The State of Wisconsin Collection brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary materials: writings about the State of Wisconsin and unique or valuable materials that relate to its history and ongoing development. The collection includes published material as well as archival materials. The materials were digitized from a variety of formats including books, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, maps and other resources deemed important to the study and teaching of the State of Wisconsin.
- American JourneysCreated by the Wisconsin Historical Society this collection contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.
- Turning Points in Wisconsin HistoryThe most important historic events in Wisconsin through hundreds of eyewitness accounts, pictures, and museum objects.
Local Archives
Archival sources are available in print in many locations on campus and in Madison. This is a list of a few locations of interest:
- University Archives
- Wisconsin Historical Society
- Wisconsin Center for Film & Theatre Research
- Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
- Wisconsin Music Archives
- Wisconsin Veterans Museum
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Special Collections
- Historical Services at the Ebling Library