Many libraries and organizations are making digital materials available online.
To find these collections, use a search string with terms relevant to your topic in Google or another search engine. For example:
digital collection site:edu "african methodist episcopal church"
You can also try the same search limiting to site:org rather than site:edu BUT:
Be careful!
EDU = educational institution
ORG = organization, which can mean almost ANY kind of noncorporate organization. If you aren't familiar with the organization, do some research on it! Who are they? What do they promote? Are they reliable?
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Questions to ask when you are assessing online primary-source collections:
Use Google, Wikipedia, & other sources to research the authors, organizations, or institutions responsible for the page and its funding.
Don't just trust the About page!
These primary-source databases are available to GSU affiliates.
If you are accessing them from off campus, you will be asked to sign in with your Campus ID and password.
Selecting this link will bring you a filtered list of all AM primary source content within the Database A-Z list. Previously: Adam Matthew Digital Collection
African American Communities This collection, which consists of pamphlets, newspapers, and periodicals, reveals the challenges of racism, discrimination, integration and how these construct a unique African American culture and identity. The collection is centered on Atlanta, Chicago, New York and other municipalities in North Carolina.
American History This unique collection documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. Sourced from the archives of the Gilder Lehrman Collection.
American West Find historical documents, maps, chronology, posters, and primary sources on the westward expansion in America from the early eighteenth (1700s) to the mid-twentieth century (1950s).
Apartheid South Africa First hand accounts of South Africa's apartheid regime. British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning from 1948 to 1980.
China, America and the Pacific Primary sources on the history of the North American trade and cultural exchange with China in the 18th and 19th centuries. Also covers China's economic dealings with the whole of East Asia and the Pacific.
China: Culture and Society This collection contains pamphlets on China from Cornell University Library's, Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia. Coverage: 1750 - 1929.
China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 This digital collection presents English-language sources relating to China and the West from 1793 to 1980.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals From its roots as an Anglican evangelical movement driven by lay persons, this resource encompasses publications from the CMS, the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society.
Colonial America Colonial America makes available all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series from The National Archives, UK. It contains the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 Papers generated by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices concerning Africa. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. 
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969This collection consists of the Confidential Print for Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of populist rulers such as Perón in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil.
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 Papers generated by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices concerning the Middle East. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 Papers generated by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices concerning North America. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices.
Defining Gender Primary source documents relating to gender from the British archives. It includes archival documents, essays, biographies, and more.
Eighteenth Century Drama The John Larpent Collection of plays submitted for license in London between 1737 and 1824, with contextual documentation.
Eighteenth Century Journals Rare eighteenth century periodicals, each chosen to convey the eclecticism and evolution of the publishing world between 1685 and 1835.
Empire Online A digital archive enabling research of colonial history, politics, culture and society spanning five centuries, and charting the rise and fall of empires around the world.
Everyday Life and Women in America, c1800-1920 Primary source books, pamphlets, periodicals, and broadsides covering American popular culture, social history, family life, education, race, class, and employment from 1800-1920.
First World War Portal, The Highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments on both sides of the conflict and in multiple theatres of war, from personal collections and rare printed material to military files, ephemera and artwork.
Foreign Office Files for China Section Access documents from the British Foreign Office related to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980.
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan Access files from the Foreign Office and Dominions Office related to the history of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Foreign Office Files for the Middle East An essential resource for understanding the events in the Middle East during the 1970s.
Frontier Life Covers settlements across North America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand from 1650 to 1920. Includes documents on the creation of new states, trade networks, and movements of people alongside the marginalization and decline of indigenous peoples.
Global Commodities Provides a vast range of materials sourced from over twenty key libraries and more than a dozen companies and trade organizations around the world. Sources will help scholars explore the history of fifteen major commodities and their global effect.
Grand Tour A collection of manuscripts, which allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections.
India, Raj and Empire Provides an in depth history of South Asia foundation of East India Company and Independence of India and Pakistan.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This database presents a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans.
Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954 Jewish Life in America will enable you to explore the history of Jewish communities in America from the arrival of the first Jews in the 17th century right through to the mid-20th century.
Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture Periodicals, photographs and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world (1850 through the 1980s).
Literary Manuscripts: Berg Drawn from the nineteenth century holdings of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library.
Literary Manuscripts: Leeds Examine complete images of 190 manuscripts of seventeenth and eighteenth-century verse held in the celebrated Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds.
London Low Life London Low Life is a full-text searchable resource, containing colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London
Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 provides complete coverage of the Cabinet conclusions (minutes) (CAB 128) and memoranda (CAB 129) of Harold Macmillans government, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees (CAB 134).
Market Research and American Business Reports, 1935-1965 Provides a unique insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through access to the complete market research reports of Ernest Dichter, the era’s foremost consumer analyst, market research pioneer and widely-recognised ‘father’ of Motivational Research.
Mass Observation Online Archive, 1937-1967 This resource offers revolutionary access to one of the most important archives for the study of Social History in the modern era.
Medieval Family Life This resource contains full colour images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise papers from The Paston, Cely, Plumpton AND Armburgh family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where available.
Medieval Travel Writing This new collection from Adam Matthew Digital presents manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period, highlighting journaeys from central Asia and the Far East.
Meiji Japan The collection spans the full range of Morses interests from his career as a natural historian to his life-changing experiences in Japan, including diaries, correspondence, research files, drawings, lecture notes, publications, scrapbooks and manuscripts.
Migration to New Worlds This collection charts the emigration experience of millions across 200 years of turbulent history, exploring the rise and fall of the New Zealand Company, discover British, European and Asian migration and investigate unique primary source personal accounts.
The Nixon Years, 1969-1974 This collection provides complete FCO 7 and FCO 82 files for the entire period of Richard Nixons presidency.
Perdita ManuscriptsProduced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University, the project seeks to rediscover early modern women authors who were lost because their writing exists only in manuscript form.
Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900This unique collection showcases the development of 'popular' medicine in America during the nineteenth century, through an extensive range of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals.
Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest: Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950 - 1975Popular Culture explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975, offering thousands of color images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia from this exciting period our recent history.
RomanticismThis digital collection offers students and researchers of the Romantic period unique access to the working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and Robert Southey.
Sex & Sexuality: Module IThe first module covers a broad range of topics and is drawn from leading archives around the world. Module I focuses on sexology and the work of sex researchers, combining advice sought by members of the public with the corresponding answers, thoughts on research proposals and work sent by academics and medical professionals to the Kinsey Institute.
Sex & Sexuality: Module IIThis second module is focused upon the lived experiences of individuals from across the spectrum of human sexuality, including heterosexual and LGBTQI+ experiences, at different times in history specifically from the nineteenth century up to the present day.
Shakespeare in Performance This database showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library, highlighting the story of Shakespeare's plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice The material in this resources includes the material included focuses on the varieties of slavery, the legacies of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery in the twentieth century.
Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History This resource brings together hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century.
Victorian Popular Culture A portal comprised of four modules for the for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Virginia Company Archives This online project presents those Ferrar Papers which are in Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Women in The National Archives This collection consists of a finding aid to women's studies resources in The National Archives, UK, and original documents that cover the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and the granting of women's suffrage in colonial territories, 1930-1962.
Worlds Fairs Explore the phenomenon of world's fairs from the Crystal Palace in 1851 and the proliferation of North American exhibitions, to fairs around the world and twenty-first century expos.
The collection, which also includes biographic details, is designed for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
History Vault's Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century is a collection of primary sources, including government records, organizational papers, speeches, and other documents. It also includes ProQuest's University Publications of America (UPA) and Black Freedom Struggle I and II.
The material in this resources includes the material included focuses on the varieties of slavery, the legacies of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery in the twentieth century. Offers primary source documents and secondary sources allowing for exploration and comparison of material related to slavery, abolition, and social justice.
This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive, multidisciplinary video subscription containing over 80,000+ titles supporting the entire range of curriculum, from anthropology to zoology.
A video library containing over 30K titles (279K segments) in Humanities & Social Sciences, Business & Economics, Health, and Science.
An encyclopedia of history, this database is a collection of videos providing footage of seminal historic events and hundreds of profiles of great American leaders and personalities.
Select "Newspapers" in the Databases by Subject dropdown menu on the library's homepage to get a listing of all of our newspaper databases
(both current and historical).
***Please note: The library no longer subscribes to Nexis Uni.***
Try these databases for current newspaper coverage:
New!! Comprehensive access to the New York Times:
This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new windowThis database features a wealth of new material and a new, dynamic interface that makes it easier than ever to explore the events that shape our world
A business information and research tool used to locate information on a variety of topics, including politics, current events, trends and government data.
Provides limited access to Atlanta Business Chronicle. Login information is below.
Warning: Use of the Factiva service is restricted to reader access of the content for research and education purposes only. Text mining and analytics of the content is not permitted.
TO LOGIN TO FACTIVA
Go to: https://my.openathens.net/
Enter and select “Georgia State University Library” in the “Find My Institution” search box
The login information for Factiva will be displayed. If prompted, use the username and password provided.
NOTES:
A comprehensive database of legal materials and journals, including federal and state statutes, codes, regulations, and case law materials
James P. Danky, ed., African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography (1998) is a good starting point for identifying titles of historical African-American periodicals.
Founded in 1928 by W. A. Scott, the Atlanta Daily World became the first successful African American daily newspaper in the United States.
The digitized Chicago Defender served as the de facto national black newspaper in the U.S., and was the most influential African-American newspaper of the 20th century. Coverage: 1910 to 1975.
The database SPORTDiscus will include citations from other sports magazines. If you see an article from a sports magazine listed there that sounds useful, click on the "Find It @ GSU" button, and you'll be taken to a page with a link that says "Request item via Interlibrary Loan." Follow those prompts to place a request for that article to be sent to you electronically -- for free -- through our Interlibrary Loan system. (Click here for more information about Interlibrary Loan).
Wikipedia has a list of "Sports Magazines Published in the United States" that may suggest other useful titles. To see if GSU provides access to a particular magazine, select "Journals" from the dropdown on the library's homepage and type in the magazine title:
Even if we don't provide access, however, SPORTDiscus may include citations from that magazine. To see if SPORTDiscus includes citations from a particular magazine, use Advanced Search, select "SO Source" from the dropdown, and type in the magazine title:
See also our Newspaper Holdings research guide for more information about current and historical newspaper holdings.
AS THE ONLY major daily newspaper in the Atlanta area, The AC provides a glimpse into the political, economic, cultural, and social life of the southeastern United States. Content ranging from Reconstruction through the late 20th century.
This indexing provides access to top news stories, and covers bibliographic information, companies, people, and products ranging from 1987 - current.
This long-running daily afternoon paper served as the newspaper of record for the nation's capital, covering national politics and the daily activities of every branch of government.
