Children & Youth in History offers sources about young people from around the world & across centuries, with a tremendously helpful guide to understanding & interpreting primary sources on children & youth.
Image: "Schoolchildren, Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho, 1940s."
Early America
19th Century U.S.
20th Century U.S.
A full-text collection of advice manuals covering all aspects of social, political, cultural and professional life in the U.S. during the 20th century. Includes textbooks, etiquette guides, self-help books, instructional pamphlets, and how-to books.
Dates: 1890-1985 CE
Key Sources - All Eras
HathiTrust contains millions of digital books, journals, government documents, and other volumes, all digitized from research libraries. The collection includes both public domain and in-copyright works across a full range of subjects.
A wide variety of primary source sets from American women's history, including Black liberation, suffrage, temperance, and more.
Dates: 1600-2000 CE
The diaries and letters of over 1300 North American women, mostly white and elite. Common topics include health, relationships, religion, politics, economics, home life, and travel.
Dates: 1600-1950 CE
International collection of digitized books, pamphlets, magazines, journals and newspapers from pertaining to social history, women's and gender studies, and women's rights.
Dates: 1543-1988 CE
Find a good secondary source, and work backwards. See what primary sources the author consulted, and search for them (you will probably find other relevant sources this way).
Think like an archivist. In archives, sources aren't organized by subject as they are in the library, but by the person, organization or group that created them. Start from what you know -- names of people, organizations, schools, or programs -- and do an internet search using that name plus a word like "papers" or "collection." Example: the Mary Lyon Collection
Tips for finding primary sources from the Library at UC-Berkeley - Includes information about finding particular types of sources and searching with information you already have.
