LibGuides: HIS 378: Capstone Course for History Majors: Primary Sources

Finding Newspapers

Finding digitized newspapers can be done a few ways. If you do not find it using this method, try using the main library search bar, or contacting the Ask a Librarian service.

Use the UT Libraries Journals search to find the Austin-American Statesman:

1) Click on the Journals link below the main search bar on the main UT Libraries homepage

Click here to see the rest of the instructions.

2) Search for the publication (ex. Austin-American Statesman). Note the many different versions and years covered.

3) Finding the right version is a game of trial and error. Scroll down to see if these editions include the years you want to access. Once you find it, click on the link for the collection under "View Online".

4) Log in with your UT EID & Password and begin your journey by searching the entire publication, search within the issue or browse by year:

Primary Source Databases By Themes

African American Newspapers, Series 1
1827 - 1998. Unlimited users.

Updated regularly (until completed). When completed, will provide online access to approximately 270 African American U.S. newspapers. Features papers from more than 35 states. The newspapers were scanned from the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Kansas State Historical Society and the Library of Congress.
African American Periodicals
1825 - 1995. Unlimited users.

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995, features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres.

Austin Women Activists Oral History Project
Audio and transcriptions. You can search on the transcripts with FIND, or read entire interviews.

The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part One
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century consists of 73 collections of primary source documents from the records of federal government agencies, the personal papers of African Americans and the records of civil rights organizations.
Chicago Defender (Historical)
1910 - 1975. Unlimited users.

Includes the full image of articles published in the Chicago Defender from 1910 to 1975. You can browse individual issues by clicking Publications at the top of the screen, or search by keyword(s), author(s), article title, date ranges, and more. Includes illustrations and advertisements. The Chicago Defender was the most influential African-American newspaper of the 20th century. With the majority of its readership outside the Chicago region, it served as the de facto national black newspaper in the U.S. The Defender covered events in the South, such as lynchings, that Southern black newspapers could not safely report. The paper was a major influence for the Great Migration of African Americans to the North in the early 20th century. Later issues of the Chicago Defender (1989-2015) are in the Ethnic Newswatch database.

Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Oral Histories of the Multiracial Freedom Struggles in Texas
Videotaped interviews of Black and Mexican American interviewees around the state. Includes subjects such as Austin Brown Berets, desegregation, Black and Mexican American student activism.

HistoryMakers
1801-present. Unlimited users.

This resource’s unique content is primarily composed of video oral histories recording the African American experience in the first-person. Testimonies captured in The HistoryMakers Collection interviews are conducted in homes and offices across the United States and abroad. The interviews reveal the broad scope of narratives of African American men and women who have made significant contributions to American life, history, and culture during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files
1913 - 1972. Unlimited users.

The NAACP branch files in this module chronicle the local heroes of the civil rights revolution via NAACP branches throughout the United States, from 1913-1972. The contributions of scores of local leaders—attorneys, community organizers, financial benefactors, students, mothers, school teachers, and other participants—are revealed in these records. The Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files in this module of NAACP Papers will allow researchers at all levels new opportunities to explore the contributions of NAACP local leaders. The branch files also indicate how effectively the NAACP national office used the branch network to advance the NAACP national program. The Youth Department Files document how the NAACP tapped the energy and talent of college students and other young people at the state and local levels.
Additional information is available on the History Vault LibGuides site.

University of Texas desegregation documents at Briscoe Library
Curated by Margaret Schlankey. The URL links to a BOX folder with selected documents regarding desegregation at UT in the 1950s and early 1960s, scanned from the U. T. President’s Office Records and U. T. Chancellor’s Office Records: The folder includes a metadata document describing the documents and their original locations.

Women and Social Movements (U.S.)
1600 - 2000. Unlimited users.

Updated quarterly. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. A resource for the teaching the history of women in the United States. Consists of 74 editorial projects with more than 2200 primary documents intended for use in high school and college history classrooms. Also includes a major collection of links to related websites and a search engine that permits users to do full text searching of all the primary documents mounted on the site.

See more primary sources related to the history of African Americans and the African Diaspora on our U.S. History guide.

Alt-Press Watch
1970 - present. 4 users.

Updated monthly. Provides full-text coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press in America. Includes a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society, such as ecology and the environment, grassroots organizing, labor, indigenous peoples, and public policy.

The Freedom Archives
This collection features a variety of sources focusing on the Vietnam anti-war movement and the Vietnamese liberation struggle.

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Included in this collection are first hand encounters of the war, flyers for Bay Area anti-war actions, information on Vietnamese political prisoners, stories of how the war affected the women of Viet Nam, and anti-war art.

Human Rights Studies Online
1900 - 2010. Unlimited users.

Provides access to primary and secondary materials (including 75,000 pages of text and 150 hours of video) on human rights issues in the 20th and early 21st centuries in Africa, Asia, Europe, United States, and Latin America. Subject coverage includes Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, Sierra Leone, and dirty wars in Latin America.
Independent Voices
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

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.
Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960–1975
1950 - 1981. Unlimited users.

Primary source documents on the Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy from 1960-1975. Collections on the Vietnam War cover U.S. involvement in the region from the early days of the Kennedy administration, through the escalation of the war during the Johnson administration, to the final resolution of the war at the Paris Peace Talks and the evacuation of U.S. troops in 1973. Along the way, documents in this module trace the actions and decisions at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, as well as events on the ground in Vietnam, from the perspective of State Department officials, Associated Press reporters, and members of the U.S. Armed forces, including the Marines and the Military Assistance Command Vietnam.
A more detailed description of the contents of this collection can be found here.

ARTstor
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

Updated regularly. Comprised of over 2.5 million digital images of visual material encompassing artistic and historical traditions across many time periods and cultures. Focuses on, but is not limited to, the arts. Includes architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture. Designed to be used by researchers in fields that do not traditionally use images as well as by art historians.
In order to take advantage of all the features of the site, you must register or log in with the service. The registration and login links are visible once you enter the database.

The Freedom Archives
This collection features a variety of sources focusing on the Vietnam anti-war movement and the Vietnamese liberation struggle.

more... less...

Included in this collection are first hand encounters of the war, flyers for Bay Area anti-war actions, information on Vietnamese political prisoners, stories of how the war affected the women of Viet Nam, and anti-war art.
Heresies PDF Archive
The archive of the feminist art collective, The Heresies, published from 1977-1993.
Images of Labor and Social Justice: The Art of Richard V. Correll

Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1
Colonial times - 1960. Unlimited users.

Provides access to a digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature and culture. Includes historical articles, newspapers, religious pamphlets, broadsides, historical books, letters, short stories, poems, advertisements, and more. The content is in Spanish (80%) and English (20%), and is searchable in both languages. Materials are drawn from the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project.
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 2
19th and 20th century. Unlimited.

Presents thematic content focusing on the evolution of Hispanic civil rights, religious thought, and the growing presence of women writers from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Rare and relevant books and newspapers – including rare anarchist newspapers – are presented in their original form. Extensive manuscript collections of both organizations and individuals are included for viewing, and are indexed for ease of search and maximum discovery. This collection offers a unique approach by focusing exclusively on the Latino-Hispanic history of the United States.
HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index
1970 - present. Unlimited users.

Updated annually. Citations to articles, essays and book reviews relating to Latin America or from Latin American periodicals. Primarily Spanish, English and Portuguese titles.
Independent Voices
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

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.

Onda Latina: The Mexican American Experience
226 digitally preserved audio programs including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community from the radio series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.

Texas Newspaper Archive
1838 - 2019. Unlimited users.

Digitized copies and content of Texas newspapers, including The Daily Texan (1913-1979), Galveston Daily News (1865-2013), San Antonio Express (1865-1974), San Antonio Light (1883-1977) and hundreds of other Texas newspapers.

Also, see our many library research guides on Latinx Studies for additional resources and research help.

Austin Women Activists Oral History Project
Audio and transcriptions. You can search on the transcripts with FIND, or read entire interviews.
Chicana Por Mi Raza
Includes important material about Chicana Women’s Liberation and other aspects of the Chicana/o movement. Includes documents, photographs, and other material. (Be sure to see “recent uploads.” See, for example, material related to Evey Chapa.
Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Oral Histories of the Multiracial Freedom Struggles in Texas
Videotaped interviews of Black and Mexican American interviewees around the state. Includes subjects such as Austin Brown Berets, desegregation, Black and Mexican American student activism.
El Despertador
published by the UT chapter of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). Scattered issues from 1975-77, including coverage of sit-in and other protests
Latina History Project
From Southwestern University. Includes taped 1994 speech by Gloria Anzaldúa, along with transcribed oral histories of Maria Elena Martinez and Martha Cotera, digitized exhibitions, biographies, histories.
Mexican American Studies and Activism Scans
Curated by Carla Alvarez, Benson Library. Twenty documents pertaining to Mexican American studies, politics, and activism, culled from different archival collections. The URL links to a UT Box folder. [Contact Adriana Cásarez to request access]
Tejano Voices
Includes oral history interviews and transcripts with Civil Rights activists Can limit search by region/search for Austin stories. The interviews were conducted in the 1990s/early 2000s but people reflect on student and Austin activism from the 1960s/1970s. Try searching on University of Texas, and selecting Austin-related interviews. There are important ones in this collection! In addition to the interviews, there are short biographies.

Alt-Press Watch
1970 - present. 4 users.

Updated monthly. Provides full-text coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press in America. Includes a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society, such as ecology and the environment, grassroots organizing, labor, indigenous peoples, and public policy.
Daily Texan - Newspaper Archive
1900 - 2019. Unlimited.

Digitized copies and content of the Daily Texan.
Independent Voices
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

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.

The Rag
The Rag was an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas from 1966-1977.
Onda Latina: The Mexican American Experience
226 digitally preserved audio programs including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community from the radio series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.
People's History in Texas
Founded in 1975 by five women, most former UT students. Watch two latest documentary productions, Stand-Ins and The Rag. They also have a separate archive of their research materials.

Alt-Press Watch
1970 - present. 4 users.

Updated monthly. Provides full-text coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press in America. Includes a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society, such as ecology and the environment, grassroots organizing, labor, indigenous peoples, and public policy.
NEPIS: National Environmental Publications Information System
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

Updated regularly. Provides full text access from a collection of over 7,000 archival and current documents published by the Environmental Protection Agency. Allows searching, viewing, and printing, including full images of all original pages and full-text. Includes documents that are no longer available in print form.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is an online library providing free and open access to the legacy literature of taxonomy and biodiversity. Materials in BHL are provided by a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries who have come together to digitize the literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make it available as part of a global 'biodiversity commons.' The bulk of material in the BHL is in the public domain in the United States, meaning that the publication date is prior to 1923. Many of the collections contain rare published literature previously available only to those who could visit the institutions.
Users may search the entire library by multiple access points, read the texts online, or download selected pages or volumes as PDFs. For more information about what types of materials are included in the collection, see BHL's Collection Development Policy.

“Focus on the 40 Acres”, Alcalde, September 1968
“A President’s Country”, Alcalde, April 1966
Alcalde alumni magazine. Margaret Schlankey located 2 important articles about UT and urban renewal.

See more Environmental History Resources

AFL-CIO News
Publication produced by the AFL-CIO. Volumes 1-41 (1956-1996) are available;
CIO News
Publication produced by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Volumes 1-18 (1937-1955) available;

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Each volume can be searched separately by keyword.
Images of Labor and Social Justice: The Art of Richard V. Correll
Labor Archives of Washington
Hundreds of primary textual and visual resources relating to Pacific Northwest labor history more accessible to the public in this digitized collection

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A selection of digitized items drawn from the Labor Archives of Washington Collections and UW Libraries Special Collections including records documenting the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, Filipino and Asian American cannery unionism, labor espionage and spies, labor and the New Deal, the Everett Massacre and Centralia Tragedy, and WTO protests Seattle.
Labor Research Guide at the Briscoe
It reflects a sample of the holdings in the varied and extensive collections at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin
Proceedings of the AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention
Currently, proceedings from 1991-2013 are available.

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After 2001, the biennial convention changed to a quadrennial convention. The full text is keyword searchable. See the AFL-CIO website for web-based formats of these proceedings.

Austin History Center - LGBT Resource Guide
A guide to collections and resources relating to LGBTQ culture in Austin.

glbtq.com Archive
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

glbtq.com, which housed the world's largest encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, closed on August 1, 2015. Most of the encyclopedia's entries, essays, and interviews have been archived online.
An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture (glbtq). Contains over 900 entries and includes photographs and illustrations. Covers a wide array of historical figures and subjects such as art, literature, history, pop culture, sports and film. Articles were written/edited by scholars in the field of gender studies.
Independent Voices
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

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.
LGBT Thought and Culture
Late 19th century - present. Unlimited users.

LGBT Thought and Culture is an online primary source database hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection contains seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.
The resource provides a look into LGBT life from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, covering topics such as bars and saloons, gay communities, clubs and social organizations, gay activism and activists, gay rights, AIDS, films, politics, books, medical treatments and procedures, gender identity, discrimination, and more.
Includes material from the Kinsey Institute Archive and Library, the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the Jeanne Cordova Papers, the Magnus Hirschfeld Collection, and more.

University of North Texas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Archive
A repository for records documenting the history and culture of the LGBT communities in the South and the Southwest.

Briscoe Civil Rights and Social Justice Collection
The center’s resources include a wide range of materials relating to civil rights, labor organization, anti-war protest, criminal justice and prison reform, LGBTQIA+ rights, women’s rights, and environmental activism.

Daily Texan - Newspaper Archive
1900-1979. See later years in the Texas Scholar Works repository: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21545

Digitized copies and content of the Daily Texan.

El Despertador
UT Austin student newspaper of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO); sporadic coverage, 1975-1977
The Rag
The Rag was an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas from 1966-1977.

Boston Women’s Health Book Collective Records
The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective is renowned for its grassroots global effort to advance the health and rights of women and girls.
Discovering American Women's History Online
This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.

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The database offers the following features:

Detailed descriptions and links to more than 700 digital collections

Quick access to basic and advanced searches on every page

Options for browsing by subject (300+ entries), place, time period, and primary source type

Options for narrowing search results by subject, time period, place, and primary source type

Independent Voices
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

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.

The Margaret Sanger Papers
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Papers of the noted birth control pioneer
Population and Reproductive Health Oral History Project
Includes accounts of individuals throughout the world who have made important contributions to the field. Reflecting the voices and perspectives of advocates, communication specialists, lawyers, managers, physicians, researchers, social workers and others, the series addresses the historical period 1965-2005.

Austin Women Activists Oral History Project
Audio and transcriptions. You can search on the transcripts with FIND, or read entire interviews.
Chicana Por Mi Raza
Includes important material about Chicana Women’s Liberation and other aspects of the Chicana/o movement. Includes documents, photographs, and other material. (Be sure to see “recent uploads.” See, for example, material related to Evey Chapa.
Latina History Project
From Southwestern University. Includes taped 1994 speech by Gloria Anzaldúa, along with transcribed oral histories of Maria Elena Martinez and Martha Cotera, digitized exhibitions, biographies, histories.

Independent Voices
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

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.

The Ladder
The monthly publication of the lesbian activist organization, The Daughters of Bilitis, from 1956-1972.
NOTE: This resource is in print at the PCL. It includes an index for finding articles on a particular topic. If you have questions about using this, ask Gina Bastone!

LGBT Thought and Culture
Late 19th century - present. Unlimited users.

LGBT Thought and Culture is an online primary source database hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection contains seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.
The resource provides a look into LGBT life from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, covering topics such as bars and saloons, gay communities, clubs and social organizations, gay activism and activists, gay rights, AIDS, films, politics, books, medical treatments and procedures, gender identity, discrimination, and more.
Includes material from the Kinsey Institute Archive and Library, the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the Jeanne Cordova Papers, the Magnus Hirschfeld Collection, and more.

Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America documents the lives of women of the past and present for the future and furthers the Radcliffe Institute's commitment to women, gender, and society. See their digitized archival collections.
Tutorial for Archival Research on Women's Human Rights
This tutorial is designed to help you research women's human rights using the archives at UT Austin.

Women and Social Movements (U.S.)
1600 - 2000. Unlimited users.

Updated quarterly. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. A resource for the teaching the history of women in the United States. Consists of 74 editorial projects with more than 2200 primary documents intended for use in high school and college history classrooms. Also includes a major collection of links to related websites and a search engine that permits users to do full text searching of all the primary documents mounted on the site.

“Women Today” Program, Longhorn Radio Network, 1972, Produced by Frieda Wernden.
URL is to shared BOX folder. Includes 13 shows with interviewer Beulah Hodge. In 1986, Wernden cofounded WINGS: Women’s International News Gathering Services, and continues to produce news programs nearly 35 years later.

Women's Magazine Archive
Late 1800s - 2005. Unlimited users.

An archival research resource comprising the full backfiles of leading women’s interest consumer magazines. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.

“Focus on the 40 Acres”, Alcalde, September 1968
“A President’s Country”, Alcalde, April 1966
Alcalde alumni magazine. Margaret Schlankey located 2 important articles about UT and urban renewal.
Austin History Center General Collection Photographs
KSAS-NBC 5 News Collection
Part of Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/
Keyword searches combining terms like University of Texas, Negro or African American, Mexican American, Austin combined with selected "NBC News Scripts" under "Serial/Series Title" will show relevant TV news scripts
People's History in Texas
Founded in 1975 by five women, most former UT students. Watch two latest documentary productions, Stand-Ins and The Rag. They also have a separate archive of their research materials.
Portal to Texas History
“Rare historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas,” drawn from collections of hundreds of partners around Texas. Search on keywords or collections, delimit by date span and AUSTIN.
University of Texas Board of Regents Minutes
Search on keywords (e.g., Negro, urban renewal, Ethnic Studies, desegration . . .), select minutes, then use Find function on PDF to pursue those terms within the minutes, which are usually hundreds of pages. Excellent source for UT! Connect to other sources such as the Austin-American Statesman, Daily Texan, The Rag, perhaps oral histories (no guarantees).

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Find Primary Sources by Type

See more primary source databases and browse by type (images, newspapers, personal papers, etc) on this section of our U.S. History guide.

Primary Sources Guide

Learn more about primary sources, what they are, and how to use them.

Primary Sources Library Guide

HIS 378: Capstone Course for History Majors

Primary Sources

Finding Newspapers

Primary Source Databases By Themes

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Primary Sources Guide

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