LibGuides: AFR 387: Performing Blackness / Thompson: Primary Sources: Start Here

Select Primary Source Databases

Black Drama This link opens in a new window
19th century - present. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Contains approximately 1200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. The content represents North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print.
The database covers key writings of the Harlem Renaissance, works performed for the Federal Theatre Project, and plays by critically acclaimed dramatists of the 1940s. The collection includes musical comedies, domestic dramas, folk dramas, history plays, anti-slavery plays, one-act plays, and other works. Many were published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies, others have never before been published or performed.
Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
Coverage varies. Unlimited users.
This collection is a black studies portfolio that brings together seminal documentaries, powerful interviews, and previously unavailable archival footage surveying the black experience. The collection contains 500 hours of film covering African American history, politics, art and culture, family structure, gender relationships, and social and economic issues.
Chicago Defender (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1910 - 2010. Unlimited users.
Includes the full image of articles published in the Chicago Defender from 1910 to 2010. 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 are in the Ethnic NewsWatch database.
HistoryMakers This link opens in a new window
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.
New York Amsterdam News (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1922 - 2010. Unlimited Users.
Full page and article images of various editions of the New York Amsterdam News newspaper, with combined coverage from 1922 to 2010. The newspaper offers primary source material relevant to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Coverage includes news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements. Later issues of the New York Amsterdam News are in the Ethnic NewsWatch database.

Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
1880s - 2000. Unlimited users.
An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are all included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews.
Los Angeles Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1881 - 2001. Unlimited users.
Updated annually. Provides comprehensive coverage for Southern California's largest daily newspaper. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1881. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1851 - 2018. Unlimited users.
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.
New York Times (Recent) This link opens in a new window
2008 - 3 months ago. Unlimited users.
Full-page images of The New York Times. Users can search PDF images of every part of every page, including full-text news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more, with keyword highlighting. Coverage begins in 2008 and goes up through the most recent issue, with a 90-day embargo.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated continually. Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an interface that offers discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
1890 - 1982. 4 users.
Contains comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Covers more than 375 titles.
Times Literary Supplement This link opens in a new window
2010 - present. Unlimited users.
An essential companion for studying and researching literary activity and critical opinion makers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1902, the TLS has scrutinized, applauded and dissected the work of leading writers and thinkers, offering comprehensive coverage of the most important publications, in every subject, in several languages, as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
1902 - 2014. Unlimited users.
The complete online fully-searchable edition of the Times Literary Supplement from the first edition in 1902 to 2014. This is the essential companion for studying and researching literary activity and critical opinion makers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1902, the TLS has scrutinized, applauded and dissected the work of leading writers and thinkers, offering comprehensive coverage of the most important publications, in every subject, in several languages, as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions.

African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
1827 - 1957. Unlimited.

Collection of African American newspapers that contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s, first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience.
African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
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 Newspapers, Series 2 This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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.
Atlanta Daily World (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1931-2010. Unlimited users.
Full page and article images of Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010) and Atlanta World (1931-1932), with searchable full text. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues of this historic Southern Black community newspaper, including news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, editorials, cartoons, and more.
Chicago Defender (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1910 - 2010. Unlimited users.
Includes the full image of articles published in the Chicago Defender from 1910 to 2010. 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 are in the Ethnic NewsWatch database.
New York Amsterdam News (Historical) This link opens in a new window
1922 - 2010. Unlimited Users.
Full page and article images of various editions of the New York Amsterdam News newspaper, with combined coverage from 1922 to 2010. The newspaper offers primary source material relevant to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Coverage includes news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements. Later issues of the New York Amsterdam News are in the Ethnic NewsWatch database.

Announces the third Melvin A. Butler Black Poetry Festival, presented by the Southern University Department of English. The event schedule is included on the poster. Activities include lectures, poetry readings, symposia, and music and dance performances. It is illustrated with portrait photographs of the participants and Melvin Butler.
Poster for Melvin A. Butler Third Annual Memorial Black Poetry Festival, 1974. (Resource found using Umbra Search)

African American Artists in Collections- explore a selection of works by African American artists included in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

Black Abolitionist Archive - a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum Black abolitionists and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of Black involvement in the anti-slavery movement.

Black Film Archive - Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films. In its current iteration, it showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1989 currently streaming.

Black Inventor - online museum focusing on top Black inventors over the last 300 years

Black Joy Archive - "The archive is intended to serve black people as a therapeutic practice in self-preservation and self-esteem, as we are continually asked to face painful imagery of folks who look like us...an open-call was made for individuals to submit images of their joy - be it childhood or family photos, candids or personal artwork they have created."

BlackPast.org - an online reference center makes available a wealth of materials on African American history in one central location on the Internet. These materials include an online encyclopedia of over 4,000 entries, the complete transcript of more than 300 speeches by African Americans, other people of African ancestry, and those concerned about race, given between 1789 and 2016, over 140 full text primary documents, bibliographies, timelines

Black Women’s Suffrage Portal - a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960.

Civil Rights Digital Library - includes a digital video archive of historical news, film and other primary sources. Can browse by media type.

Colored Convention Project, Digital Records - features hundreds of collected documents of the Colored Conventions movement, spanning from the 1830s through the 1890s.

Digital Harlem - information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930. Most of the material relates to the years 1920, 1925, and 1930.

Digital Library of the Caribbean - digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.

F.B. Eyes Digital Archive - The F.B. Eyes Digital Archive makes available for the first time a collection of 51 FBI files on prominent African American authors and literary institutions, many of them unearthed through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Guide to the Ida B. Wells Papers, 1884-1976 - partially digitized collection including original manuscripts, correspondence, newspapers and journal articles written and compiled by Ida B. Wells

HBCU Library Alliance Digital Collections - collection of primary sources from HBCU libraries and archives. Includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, memorabilia, event programs, and more.

Kyky Archives - a digital archive and educational resource for Black Lesbian, Queer, Gender non-conforming, and Trans People; featuring historical photos, records, art, and ephemera of the Black Queer community.

Library of Congress: African American History Online Resources - A large number of primary source collection materials related to African American history are digitized and available online via the Library of Congress's website, including manuscripts, newspaper articles, images, and rare books

RADAR: Repository of AUC Digital collections, Archives, and Research - Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library's institutional repository, including including research and scholarly output, archival collections, and theses and dissertations. Materials included in RADAR have been selected and deposited by the students and faculty of the member schools, Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, and Spelman College, and the librarians of the Robert W. Woodruff Library.

Rosa Parks Papers, 1866-2006 - includes approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division, documents many aspects of Parks's private life and public activism

Schomburg Digital Collections @NYPL - scroll down to see collections related to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; collections include photographs, prints, rare books, archival material, and more.

South Side Home Movie Project Archive - Collects, preserves, digitizes, researches and screens home movies made by residents of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. The archive includes small-gauge films (8mm, Super8mm, 16mm) covering a period from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Umbra Search African American History - this tool searches more than 500,000 digitized African American primary sources (letters, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, etc.) from over 1000 participating archives, libraries, and museums in the U.S. From the Univ. of Minnesota.

Umi's Archive - is a multipart, multimedia research project that digs deep into the life of one woman, Amina Amatul Haqq (1950-2017), neé Audrey Weeks, to explore the meanings of being Black and Muslim in the world.

African American Communities (AAC) This link opens in a new window
1869 - 1985. Unlimited.

Presents multiple aspects of the African American community through personal diaries and scrapbooks, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories.
Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new window
1500 - present. Unlimited.
Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender program spans the sixteenth to twentieth centuries and is the largest digital collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research and gender studies research. Documentation covering disciplines such as social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities around the world are included, as well as rare and unique books on sex and sexuality from the sciences to the humanities to support research and education. The selection of materials for this milestone digital program is guided by an advisory board consisting of leading scholars and librarians in sexuality and gender studies.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
1880s - 2000. Unlimited users.
An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are all included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Artemis Primary Sources is an integrated research environment that allows users to search across Gale primary source collections. Artemis Primary Sources takes users beyond a simple search and retrieve workflow, allowing them to analyze content using frequency and term-relationship tools. Currently, Artemis Primary Sources includes Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Nineteenth Century Collections Online. Other resources are being added.

Portal to Texas History
Includes historical newspapers, photographs, video and other primary sources from Texas

Women and Social Movements (U.S.) This link opens in a new window
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.

More Primary Source Databases

How to Analyze Primary Sources

While primary sources are often desirable for the raw, non-interpreted information they provide, it is important to analyze them for your research. Ask yourself these questions:

Who is the creator and what was their relationship to the event or issue?
Why did the creator produce this source?
Was the source for personal use? For a large audience?
Was the source intended to be public (newspaper) or private (correspondence)?
Everyone has biases. What biases or interests might have influenced how the source was created?
Can the source be substantiated by other primary sources? Can you confirm what the creator is saying?