Research Guides: Primary Sources: Europe

Europe - Databases

ABC-CLIO World History: Modern Era This link opens in a new window
Background information, primary sources, and perspectives essays covering the evolution of modern Europe since the Renaissance; concurrent developments in Asia, Africa, and the Islamic world; the global impact of the Industrial Revolution; and the last 100 years of conflicts and international cooperation. Browse by content type, topic, and era.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars, researchers, and students at the college and university level. A multi-disciplinary resource, collections cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.
Cold War: Global Perspectives on East-West Tensions This link opens in a new window
Translated sources and analysis from around the world providing comprehensive coverage of the conflict that drove global politics from the end of World War II to the early 1990s.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. Collections include: Section I: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969. Section II: Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire. Section III: The Visible Empire. Section IV: Religion & Empire. Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, 1607-2007.
Infobase Modern World History This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive look at world history from the mid-15th century to the present. Thousands of subject entries, biographies, images, videos and slideshows, maps and graphs, primary sources, and timelines combine to provide a detailed and comparative view of the people, places, events, and ideas that have defined modern world history. Focused Topic Centers pull forward interesting entries, search terms, documents, and maps handpicked by our editors to help users find a starting point for their research, as well as videos and slideshow overviews to offer a visual introduction to key eras and regions.
Gale World History In Context This link opens in a new window
World History in Context provides information on topics related to the world history. Sources include reference works and primary historic documents.
Middle East And North Africa: Global Perspectives, 1957-1995 This link opens in a new window
This online archive offers first-hand reporting and deep analysis on important issues and historic events from Morocco to Egypt to Afghanistan with unique content not available anywhere else..
New York Times (1851-2018) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times - Historical provides page images of the newspaper beginning with the first issue in 1851 up until 4 years before present.
- 1980 - current can be found on ProQuest National Newspapers.
Salem Press - History This link opens in a new window
Salem Press provides e-books through databases of electronic reference books (e-books) that can be crossed searched. Salem Press history titles include a wide range of topics spanning American history and the world. Learn about important moments and figures in our history.

Europe - Internet Sources

Avalon Project [Yale]
Digital historical documents relevant to the fields of law, economics, politics, diplomacy and government on the World Wide Web. Currently contains, among other things, The debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, reported by James Madison, materials relating to the Nuremberg trials, works by Thomas Jefferson, and materials relating to diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
DPLA Primary Source Sets
Digital Public Library of America [DPLA] Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more.
EuroDocs
EuroDocs is a collection of links to open access facsimiles, translations and transcriptions of primary source texts that document political, economic, social and cultural history across Europe from the first century AD to the present. Documents are organized by country and when possible, ordered chronologically. Links to ancient Greece and Rome can be found under Greece and Italy, respectively.
Europeana
Europeana is a digital library which provides access to over 50 million digitized items - paintings, music, films and books from Europe's galleries, libraries, archives and museums like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the British Library in London and the Louvre in Paris.
European History Primary Sources
Index of scholarly websites that offer online access to digitized primary sources on the history of Europe. Read the brief guide to searching the portal first.
Eyewitness to History
History through the eyes of those who lived it. Covers the ancient world to the present.
Hoover Institution - Europe
Against the background of the great European war of the early twentieth century, Herbert Hoover’s idea of a scholarly institution collecting documentation on war, revolution, and peace was conceived and developed.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Collection of primary sources of historic documents from the early modern period to the present for both Europe and the Americas. Includes links to other sources of information on modern history and on the nature of historiography, and links to maps, images, and music. Has sections, along the left on the entry page, for Early Modern World and Colonial Latin America.
Wilson Center Digital Archive
Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains newly declassified historical materials from archives around the world--much of it in translation and including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes and more. The historical documents presented in the ever-expanding Digital Archive provide fresh, unprecedented insights into recent international history. By making new sources available and easily accessible, the Digital Archive serves to deepen and enrich international scholarship, history education, and public policy debate on important global issues and challenges. The Digital Archive supports the mission and research aims of three Wilson Center projects: The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), The North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP) and The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP).
World Digital Library - Europe
A vast collection digitized manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings from cultures all over the world.