primary sources

How Sara Georgini Does History with the John Adams Papers

The series editor for the Papers of John Adams at the Massachusetts Historical Society discusses her work as a public historian. 

The Incarcerated are Producing a "Shadow Canon" of Writing on Prisons and Society

Scholars like Doran Larson and Vesla Mae Weaver are working to bring the writings of incarcerated men and women to light as valuable sources of insight not only on prison life but fundamental questions of freedom. 

The Schlesinger Diaries—A Gift to Historians that Keeps Giving

by Rafael Medoff

The late historian's diaries highlight discrepancies between Schlesinger's public defenses of Franklin Roosevelt and his private knowledge of FDR's attitudes toward Jews and positions on the Holocaust. 

Returning Trump's Stolen Records Won't Make America's Archives Complete

by Karin Wulf

While government archives, libraries and other repositories preserve a wealth of the records of the nation's past, the preservation of records is also a record of prejudice and exclusion. Historians must still work against the current to research the stories of women, the poor, and racial minorities. 

Where are the Women in History?

by Amanda B. Moniz

Women's histories have frequently been written in the past, but in ways that are inaccessible to researchers in the present. One example is the way that women reformers were presented as exemplars of Protestant evangelical rectitude. 

Climate Change Just Erased the Past in Kentucky. Where Will it Happen Next?

by Tina A. Irvine

The archives of the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County were inundated by flood waters on July 28—a devastating loss of one community's history and culture, and a warning to historians that our knowledge of the past is at risk from climate change. 

Teaching the History of Campus Police

by Yalile Suriel

The FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin offers an insight into how law enforcement in the 1970s increased its presence on college campuses and redefined the function and goals of campus police forces. Here's how one professor has used this source in class. 

Archival Structures and the Preservers and Retrievers of Stories

by Fernando Amador II

"Historians rarely understand the terminology, organizational strategies, or labor required for establishing and maintaining an archive, and I was no exception."

Library of Congress will Acquire Neil Simon's Papers

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden expressed gratitude to Simon's widow Elaine Joyce Simon for the donation, which enhances the library's holdings in performance arts and ensures future researchers will be able to access his work. 

Two of Darwin's Journals Mysteriously Reappear After 20 Years

One of the notebooks contains the naturalist’s “Tree of Life” sketch from 1837, which sought to map out evolution and the relationship between species. Above the sketch are two words: “I think.”

The 1950 Census was a Last-of-its-Kind Treasure Trove of Information

by Dan Bouk

"As we celebrate the release of the 1950 Census records, it is an opportune moment to think again about the role the census has played — and may still play — in preserving the nation’s past by preserving a substantial accounting of each of us."

Preserving the Past in the Digital Age Still a Headache

"Our information and cultural history may not be as secure as we believe it to be."

Howard University Gets $2M Grant to Digitize Archive of Black Newspapers

The project will create the largest and most accessible archive of historical Black newspaper content in the world. 

Amplifying Voices on the Margins: Researching Cincinnati's Black History

Howard University's Nikki M. Taylor explains that the primary sources are often rife with racist perspectives, but can still offer insight into how local Black communities have worked for self-determination. 

Teaching Slavery to Middle Schoolers Raises Emotions. It's Not a Bad Thing

by Mary Niall Mitchell and Kate Shuster

A new digital project helps teachers use advertisements seeking the return of enslaved people who escaped as a way of understanding the people whose self-liberation forced those stories into the printed record.

Yizker Bikher Books Commemorate Holocaust Deaths – but also Celebrate Jewish Communities’ Life

by Jennifer Rich

There is another way to honor those 6 million murdered: remembering the ways they lived, not only the ways they died.

Introducing “Disciplining The Nation”

by Matt Guariglia and Charlotte Rosen

"Rooted in racial slavery, settler colonialism, and U.S. empire, policing and incarceration in the United States were slowly and meticulously built over time for the purpose of subordinating, punishing, and exploiting populations –and historians have the documents to prove it."

Are Historians Too Credulous of the Single Culprit Explanation of the Reichstag Fire?

by Benjamin Carter Hett

Did Marinus van der Lubbe act alone in setting the Reichstag Fire? Historians who accept that theory – including giants in the field like Richard J. Evans – should recognize conflicts of interest in the sources supporting it and dig in to newly available archives to make sure. 

New Website to Offer View of Uncensored GI Opinion about World War 2

"So much of what we know about the everyday experiences of Americans who served in the war comes from such sources as letters that were censored, memories recorded later, or films,” says historian Edward Gitre of the American Soldier in World War II Project. 

What Can 19th Century Whaling Diaries Tell Us About Climate Change?

Whaling ships' logbooks contain detailed navigational notes and descriptions of wind and weather, which can help construct a picture of climate patterns on distant stretches of ocean.