Primary Sources Guide: Primary Sources Online

The British Library's collection of over 170 million items includes artifacts from every age of written civilization. The digital collection covers 15 centuries of digitized artwork and manuscripts, archived British newspapers, and maps from around the globe.

Europeana Collections provide access to over 50 million digitized items – books, music, artworks and more. The dedicated thematic collections on art, fashion, music, photography and World War I contain galleries, blogs and exhibitions.

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents on one site, in a variety of ways. Content in the WDL includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films.

Links connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. In addition you will find video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation.
The sources cover a broad range of historical happenings (political, economic, social and cultural). The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. Founded in 1949, CRL supports original research and inspired teaching in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences by preserving and making available to scholars a wealth of rare and uncommon primary source materials from all world regions.

The Hanover Historical Texts Collection makes available digital versions of historical texts for use in history and humanities courses. Their collection covers materials from Ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval and Modern Europe, Africa and Asia, and 17th though 20th Century America.

Digital collections encompassing Greek and Roman Materials, 19th-Century American, Renaissance Materials, the Richmond Times Dispatch, and more.

Over 300 annotated primary sources focused on children and youth throughout world history.

CyArk is a non-profit organization committed to digitally recording and archiving the world's most significant cultural heritage sites.

The Avalon Project mounts digital objects related to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government, from 4000 B.C.E. to the 21st Century.

The oral history collections at the British Library cover a wide range of subject areas. The interviews made available here are only a small selection from the many thousands held in the British Library. Visit the Oral History section on the website for an overview of the collections and search for all British Library oral history recordings using the online Sound and Moving Image Catalogue.