Primary Sources - UGS 302: The Land Before Us - Bsumek - LibGuides at University of Texas at Austin

Find Primary Sources

Check these out, in addition to the primary sources listed on each Suggested Resources page:

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources from collections across the US. Includes items from the Portal to Texas History.
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) contains metadata records —information describing an item —for millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Each record links to the original object on the content provider’s website. The DPLA brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. The DPLA aims to expand this crucial realm of openly available materials, and make those riches more easily discovered and more widely usable and used.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Alternative and small press archives, including the alternative UT student paper "The Rag."
Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Virtual Landscapes of Texas This link opens in a new window
Publications related to the landscape and geology of Texas.
Provides full text access to the publications related to the landscape of Texas. These public domain documents have been made available through the combined efforts of the TX Treasures program of the Texas State Library, the University of Texas Libraries - Digital Library Services Division: Digitization Center, and the Walter Fund of the UT Geology Foundation.

PCL Map Collection
UT has a large and famous map collection, available online and in print win PCL.
Collections Portal for UT Libraries
Scanned items from the UT Libraries collections including photos, architectural drawings and other documents related to campus buildings and grounds.

Local Newspapers

Daily Texan
Find current and historical issues of the Daily Texan.
Austin American Statesman (Historical), 1871-1980
Austin American-Statesman, 1997-2019
Once in the database, use the drop down in the top row to select (SO) journal name and type in "Austin-American Statesman." Then type keywords in the other boxes.
Austin American-Statesman, 2007-present
Once you are in the database, choose Search. Once on the search page, click on the blue arrow by "source" and type in Austin American-Statesman. Then type your keywords into the search box and you'll be just searching the Statesman.

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are produced by participants or direct observers of an issue, event or time period. These sources may be recorded during the event or later on, by a participant reflecting upon the event. In some cases, it will be difficult to obtain the original source, so you may have to rely on copies (photocopies, microfilm, digital copies). Copies or transcriptions of a primary source still count as a primary source.

Some examples of primary sources include:

Newspapers
Speeches
Government documents
Legal documents
Public opinion polls
Personal materials, including letters, diaries, interviews, memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories
Images
Works of art (novels, plays, paintings, etc.)