Research Guides: English: Primary Sources

Literary Primary Sources

Library of Congress
Searches across and provides access to the more than 300 digital collections created by the Library of Congress. Includes photos, prints, drawings, maps, books, manuscripts, audio recordings, films, notated music, newspapers, and archived websites.

American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Contains magazines, journals, and newspapers which were first published between 1740-1940. Periodicals appear in their original form, with the typeface, illustrations and even the layout unaltered.
British Periodicals I & II This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
The Digital Public Library of America 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.

Early English Books Online (EEBO), 1475-1700 This link opens in a new window
Digital access to more than 100,000 literary and historical classics.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.

Historic American Newspapers
Library of Congress searchable and full text newspapers from 1836 to 1922 in selected states. Directory of newspapers from 1690 to present.

Internet Archive This link opens in a new window
Over 2.5 million full-text books online. Download free books and texts. The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR contains scholarly material dating back to the 17th century. In additional to archival scholarly journals, users can find monographs, reviews, letters, oral histories, and more. To access older material, use the advanced search page to limit by date, or display results in reverse chronological order.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from scholarly journals and literary magazines are combined with critical essays, work and topic overviews, full-text works, biographies, and more. Researchers at all levels will find the information they need, with content covering all genres and disciplines, all time periods and all parts of the world.