Primary sources

Search tips

Start local by searching digital primary sources at UTL:

Begin by exploring the Primary Sources at U of T Libraries page, a resource developed by library staff to help users understand what are primary sources and to help them get started with their historical research.

Primary source databases by title. UTL has purchased digital archives to over 200 resources from across the world in many disciplines. Results can be narrowed by discipline (art, religion, sociology, etc.) or by geographical area of study (African, Jewish, German, Slavic and East European Studies, etc.).

Some examples:

  • America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922
  • Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange
  • Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive
  • Stalin Digital Archive

Search our digital newspaper archives. You can search directly across hundreds of papers. Useful, too, is the LibGuide to our newspaper holdings in various formats.

There are several governmental LibGuides to help locate information on the Government of Canada, foreign governmental bodies, the United Nations (UN), and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).

Locate published primary sources through LibrarySearch in print and as e-books:

Documents, such as correspondence, diaries, interviews, speeches, etc., can be found as published sources by searching the catalogue option of LibrarySearch. The results include a filter sorted by genre, for example, fiction, poetry, interviews, diaries, or personal narratives, which can then be checked out in print format from the library or be read online as an e-book.

The example below is a search by the keyword "Euromaidan" in the University of Toronto Libraries' catalogue. The results are filtered by language equals "English" and the genres limited to personal narratives, biography, interviews, and pictorial works. These are firsthand accounts of people who participated in Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity in late 2013 to early 2014.

LibrarySearch catalogue results by genre

Search by Author:

  • Memoirs, speeches, writings, or correspondence of a person can be found by doing a Browse Search by author using the name (last name first) of the person.
  • Materials published by an organization can also be found by searching for the organization as an author. 

Search by Subject. Usually, library catalog records have at least one Subject describing the general topic of the book, video, or other material. Subjects can be subdivided to indicate further topical breakdown, geographical location, time period, or the form of the composition. Some of the form subdivisions that indicate the items is a primary source include:

  • Correspondence, Diaries, Interviews, Speeches, Trials, Pamphlets, Pictorial Works
  • Personal narratives: first person accounts of a particular event or time period (useful for research on battles or wars)
  • Sources (collections of primary sources)

Search by Keywords:

  • Use the Advanced Search to combine one of the form subdivisions above as a Subject with keywords or subjects for a topic.

Limit by Date:

  • Remember, primary sources were written around the same time as an event or during a particular historical time period. To find contemporary writings, you can do advanced searches in the library catalog by subject and limit to the years in question.  A word of caution: this search strategy will not find materials that were reprinted later.

Primary-source search example

Other UTL Resources

Discover Archives

A shared portal for exploring archival holdings at the University of Toronto and its federated colleges. The database contains descriptions of material related to the University of Toronto's history, as well as records from private individuals, families, businesses, and organizations.

UTL Digital Collections

Petro Jacyk Central & East European Resource Centre

  • Guide to Special Collections at the University (Manuscripts, Archives, Microform collections, Online resources)
  • Guide to Slavic and East European Resources. This guide includes annotated links to selected electronic resources, such as online library catalogues, archival guides, digital collections, dictionaries and encyclopedias, databases, e-journals, and search engines.

Further afield:

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History

Sponsored by the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, EuroDocs is a digital history portal that offers links to online facsimiles, transcriptions, and translations of European primary historical sources.

Online Primary Resources for Russian, Caucasian, Central Asian, Eastern and Central Europe Studies

The database is curated by the Centre for Russian, Caucasian and Central European Studies (CERCEC), in Paris (France). It aims to provide researchers and students with sources from Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern and Central Europe put online in recent years thanks to intensive library digitization policies in these zones as well as in the West.