Highlighted below are essential primary source databases available through Tulane University Libraries, as well as key open access resources. For specialized resources according to specific world regions, topics, chronologies, and material types, consult the Library Guides listed in the box at the bottom of the page.
Major Platforms & Vendors
The following are major primary source platforms/ vendor pages where you can access dozens of digital collections in one place.
Tulane University Libraries provides access to more than 60 Alexander Street Press collections. These collections include wide-ranging video and music content, as well as digitized primary source documents for Black Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Native American Studies, Migration Studies, and more.
Tulane has access to:
- Academic Video Online
- African Diaspora, 1860-Present
- Alexander Street Press Video
- American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
- American History in Video
- Art and Architecture in Video
- Asian American Drama
- Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection
- Black Drama: Third Edition
- Black Short Fiction and Folklore
- Black Thought and Culture
- Black Women Writers
- Border and Migration Studies Online
- British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
- Broadway HD Collection
- Caribbean Literature
- Contemporary World Drama
- Dance Online: Dance in Video
- Dance Online: Dance Studies Collection
- Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts
- Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation
- Early Encounters in North America
- Ethnographic Video Online
- Film Scripts Online
- Illustrated Civil War: Newspapers and Magazines
- Images of the American Civil War: Photographs, Posters, and Ephemera
- Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period
- Latin American Women Writers
- Latino Literature
- LGBT Thought and Culture
- Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries
- Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies
- Music Online (Alexander Street Press)
- Music Online: African American Music Reference
- Music Online: American Music
- Music Online: American Song
- Music Online: Classical Music Library
- Music Online: Classical Music Reference Library
- Music Online: Classical Scores Library
- Music Online: Contemporary World Music
- Music Online: Jazz Music Library
- Music Online: Opera in Video
- Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries
- Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
- National Theatre Collection
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
- North American Indian Drama
- North American Indian Thought and Culture
- North American Women's Drama
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries
- Performance Design Archive Online
- Revolution and Protest Online
- Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period
- Social Theory
- South and Southeast Asian Literature
- The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974
- Theatre in Context Collection
- Theatre in Video
- Twentieth Century Advice Literature
- Twentieth Century North American Drama
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Coherent Digital offers three major primary source platforms, each containing multiple sub-collections: Africa Commons, History Commons, and Latin America Commons. There is no single landing page to search across Coherent Digital's Commons collections. Use this link to access them on the A-Z database list.
Africa Commons:
- African History and Culture
- Black South African Magazines
- East African Newspapers, Magazines, and Films
- Southern African Films and Documentaries
- West African Magazines
History Commons:
- Indigenous Peoples Social Justice and Culture
- LGBTQ+ Social Justice and Culture
- Refugees, Migration, and Borders Social Justice and Culture
- African American Newspapers parts I-XIIS (formerly Accessible Archives)
- Civil War Collection Part 1, A Newspaper Perspective
- The Liberator, 1831-1865
- The South Carolina Gazette, 1732-1780
- The Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1800
- The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue
- Pennsylvania Newspaper Record
- Reconstruction of Southern States: Pamphlets
- Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
- Twelve Years a Slave
- The Virginia Gazette, 1736-1780
Latin America Commons:
- Latin American History and Culture
Your gateway to all Gale digital archives that Tulane University Libraries owns. Contents span the early modern period to 21st century, with strengths in U.S., U.K., Brazilian, and South African archives and collections.
Adam Matthew Digital (AM) is an academic publisher based in the U.K. and U.S. that specializes in online primary source databases. There is no single landing page for the 55+ AM collections that Tulane University Libraries (TUL) has access to. Use this link to access AM collections on TUL's A-Z Database List.
TUL has access to:
- African American Communities
- American Committee on Africa: Liberation Movements, Solidarity and Activism
- American History, 1493-1945
- American West
- Apartheid South Africa
- China, America and the Pacific
- China: Culture and Society
- China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980
- Church Missionary Society Periodicals
- Colonial America, Modules 1-2
- Colonial Caribbean
- Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966
- Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969
- Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969
- Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961
- Defining Gender, 1450-1910
- Eighteenth Century Drama
- Eighteenth Century Journals
- Empire Online
- Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings
- Everyday Life and Women in America, c. 1800-1920
- First World War
- Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980
- Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980
- Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981
- Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters
- Gender: Identity and Social Change
- Global Commodities
- Grand Tour
- India, Raj and Empire
- Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America
- Jewish Life in America, c.1654-1954
- Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture
- Literary Manuscripts, 17th-18th Century Poetry
- Literary Manuscripts: Berg
- Literary Manuscripts, 17th-18th Century Poetry
- London Low Life
- Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963
- Market Research and American Business Reports, 1935-1965
- Mass Observation Online Archive, 1937-1967
- Medieval Family Life
- Medieval Travel Writing
- Meiji Japan
- Migration to New Worlds
- Nixon Years, 1969-1974
- Perdita Manuscripts (Women Writers, 1500-1700)
- Popular Culture in Britain and America
- Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900
- Race Relations in America
- Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape
- Sex & Sexuality
- Shakespeare in Performance
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
- Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History
- Victorian Popular Culture
- Virginia Company Archives
- Women in The National Archives (U.K.)
- World’s Fairs
Continuously growing digitized collection of unique manuscript and archival materials, including letters, personal and organizational papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and more. Tulane has access to 20 modules from 3 series: Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; and Workers, Labor Unions, Progressives, and Radicals.
The Library of Congress has vast digital collections of audio recordings: books/printed materials: film and video; legislation: manuscript/mixed materials; maps; notated music; newspapers and periodicals; personal narratives; photos, prints and drawings; software and e-resources; web archives and web pages; and 3D objects.
Digitizations of primary sources from Tulane University's archives and special collections, along with other distinctive content from the Tulane University community:
Historical Newspapers
Tulane University Libraries provides access to thousands of historical newspaper titles from the U.S. and around the globe. In addition, some sites, like the Library of Congress and Google News, make historic press available for free. Below are the most important aggregators and and multi-source platforms to discover historical newspapers. For a more extensive list of individual databases, see the News & Newspapers Library Guide.
Search America's historic newspapers from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
The East View Global Press Archive® (GPA), in collaboration with the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), is working to creating one of the most comprehensive collections of digital news sources from around the world. Currently, this expanding collection contains the following subsections/archives: East African Newspapers; El Caribe Digital Archive; El Mundo Digital Archive; Imperial Russian Newspapers; Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers; Izvestiia Digital ArchiveIzvestiia Digital Archive; Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers; Literaturnaia Gazeta Digital Archive; Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers; Prensa Libre; Post-Perestroika Newspapers; Pravda Digital Archive; South Asian Newspapers; and Southeast Asian Newspapers collections.
The Google News Archive Search allows you to access to more than 100 North American, Latin American, and European historical newspapers in English, French, Spanish, German, and select other languages.
Advanced search page to access all ProQuest News & Newspaper databases available through Tulane University Libraries, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, historical Black and Jewish newspapers, Latin American newsstream, and more.
Portal page to access all the Newsbank/Readex collections that Tulane subscribes to: Access World News (which includes the Times-Picayune Collection and Louisiana Newspapers), Archive of Americana (African American Periodicals, America's Historical Imprints), World Newspaper Archive (African Newspapers, Latin American Newspapers, South Asian Newspapers), Defining a Nation: The Literature of Early America, Hispanic Life in America, and Black Life in America.
Extensive online database of 4,000+ and growing historical newspapers from the early 1700's into the 2000's published in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Panama, Australia, Papau New Guinea, and the Philippines. Includes Louisiana Weekly (1956-1963) and 36 other Louisiana newspapers.
To clip, save, and share articles, sign in and create a free Newspapers.com or Ancestry.com account.
A collection of the international design magazine from its first issue in 1920 through 2011, presented in a cover-to-cover format. Each issue features photography and information on architecture and interior design, art and antiques, travel destinations, and various products.
Covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
Includes magazines and trade publications in music, theatre, film, gaming, and performing arts business industry from the early 1900s to the early 21st century.
Tulane has access to EIMA2 Cinema, Film, and Television (Part 1) and the coverage is from 1880-2000.
Extensive collection of the long-running business magazine dating from its very first issue in February 1930 through December 2000 in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format.
Full text of this American political magazine from 1857 to 1912. Features foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays, humor, and illustrations. Extensive coverage of the American Civil War, including illustrations. Includes artwork of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast.
Includes 23 pro-union titles, 11 pro-confederate titles, 15 campaign newspapers, and 600 letters and diaries, complete with illustrations, cartoons, and searchable text. Among the 19th-century newspapers and magazines included are Douglass' Monthly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Harper's Weekly, Atlantic Monthly, and Vanity Fair.
Jet was originally a weekly published as a sister publication to Ebony Magazine by John H. Johnson beginning in 1951. It was published weekly and covered art, fashion, entertainment, culture and news related to the African-American community. EBSCO's full-text archive is searchable from cover to cover and offers essential historical content, much of which is not available on any other EBSCO full-text product. Articles and cover pages are fully indexed and advertisements are individually identified, ensuring researchers and readers can quickly and accurately locate information.
ProQuest's Women's Magazine Archive is an archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. The magazines are all scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color, including images and advertisements
This resource includes: Archive 1: Better Homes & Gardens (1922-2005); Chatelaine (1928-2005); Good Housekeeping (1885 to 2005); Ladies’ Home Journal (1883-2005); Parents (1926-2005); Redbook (1903-2005). Archive 2: Town and Country (1846 to 2005); Woman’s Day (1937 to 2005); Cosmopolitan (1886 to 2005); Seventeen (1944 to 2005); Essence (1970 to 2005); Women’s International Network News (1975 to 2003). Archive 3: Company (1978 to 2005); Cosmopolitan UK Edition (1972 to 2005); Flare (1979 to 2005); Good Housekeeping UK Edition (1922 to 2005); Prima (1986 to 2005); and She (1955 to 2003).
The complete archive of fashion and lifestyle magazine Women's Wear Daily from its first issue in 1910 to the present. Issues are scanned cover to cover, including all advertisements and images, in high resolution and full color, presented in page-image format with searchable text.
Books
The databases listed below are particularly helpful for discovering books printed from the inception of the European moveable-type press (late 15th century) to the early 20th century. For old books published in countries outside the U.S., check that country's national library website.
A digitized collecction of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
A partnership of academic & research institutions offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Note: not all titles are available as full-text.
NOTE: Tulane University has switched to using a new method for logging in to HathiTrust. Researchers that have previously built a personal collection in HathiTrust will need to take action to recover access to that collection before December 1, 2024. Instructions for collection recovery can be found at https://www.hathitrust.org/tulane-university-login-changes-september-2024/
Provides access to family history via documents that record the lineage of individuals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and more.
Comprehensive collection of significant primary documents central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Collections cover the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post-World War II through the 21st century, with access to declassified government documents. The DNSA is comprised of many database collections which can be searched individually or together. Created in partnership with the Nation Security Archive.
The resource comprises the following databases; Afghanistan: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1973–1990; The Afghanistan War and the United States, 1998-2017; Argentina, 1975-1980: The Making of U.S. Human Rights Policy; The Berlin Crisis, 1958–1962; Chile and the United States: U.S. Policy toward Democracy, Dictatorship, and Human Rights, 1970–1990; China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960–1998; CIA Covert Operations: From Carter to Obama, 1977-2010; CIA Family Jewels Indexed; Colombia and the United States: Political Violence, Narcotics, and Human Rights, 1948-2010; The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962; The Cuban Missile Crisis: 50th Anniversary Update; The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited: An International Collection, From Bay of Pigs to Nuclear Brink; Death Squads, Guerrilla War, Covert Ops, and Genocide: Guatemala and the United States, 1954-1999; Electronic Surveillance and the National Security Agency: From Shamrock to Snowden; El Salvador: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–1984; El Salvador: War, Peace, and Human Rights, 1980–1994; Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–1980; The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal, 1983–1988; Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980–1994; Japan and the United States: Diplomatic, Security, and Economic Relations, 1960–1976, 1877-1992, and Part III, 1961-2000; The Kissinger Telephone Conversations: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977; The Kissinger Transcripts: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977; Mexico-United States Counternarcotics Policy, 1969-2013; The National Security Agency: Organization and Operations, 1945-2009; Nicaragua: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1978–1990; Peru: Human Rights, Drugs and Democracy, 1980-2000; The Philippines: U.S. Policy During the Marcos Years, 1965–1986; Presidential Directives on National Security, Part I: From Truman to Clinton; Presidential Directives on National Security, Part II: From Truman to George W. Bush; South Africa: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1962–1989; The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947–1991; Targeting Iraq, Part 1: Planning, Invasion, and Occupation, 1997-2004; Terrorism and U.S. Policy, 1968–2002; U.S. Climate Change Diplomacy: From the Montreal Protocol to the Paris Agreement, 1981-2015; U.S. Espionage and Intelligence, 1947–1996; U.S. Intelligence and China: Collection, Analysis and Covert Action; The U.S. Intelligence Community: Organization, Operations and Management, 1947–1989; The U.S. Intelligence Community After 9/11; U.S. Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction: From World War II to Iraq; U.S. Military Uses of Space, 1945–1991; U.S. Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Politics in the Missile Age, 1955–1968; U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy, 1945–1991; U.S. Policy in the Vietnam War, Part I (1954-1968) and Part II: (1969-1975); U.S. Policy toward Iran: From the Revolution to the Nuclear Accord, 1978-2015; and The United States and the Two Koreas, Part 1 (1969-2000) and Part II (1969-2010).
These digitized historical military documents are primarily sourced from the U.S. and U.K. National Archives, U.S. public libraries, and the Center for Research Libraries. Tulane has access to the following collections: Black History; Census; Korean War; Indian and Mexican American Wars; Native American; Non Military; US Revolutionary War (United States); War of 1812 (United States); US Civil War; US Civil War (Confederacy); US Civil War (Union); World War I (United States); World War II (United States); and Vietnam War.
A comprehensive resource of historic and current congressional information, including bills & laws, hearings, CRS reports, committee prints, reports, member biographies, committee assignments, voting records and financial data, the text of the Congressional Record, and the full text of key regulatory and statutory resources. Tulane has access to content through 2024.
More Library Guides with Primary Source Databases
The primary source databases listed above are the most important and wide-reaching platforms available through Tulane University Libraries. For listings of primary source databases relating to specific regions, themes, and material types, explore these library guides:
