History research requires primary sources (there are exceptions of course). There is no one place to find primary sources as the primary sources depend on the type of research you are doing. Below are general links to primary sources for world history. Keep in mind that finding contemporary newspaper articles for an event (the Titanic sinking, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln) are considered primary sources. The Library subscribes to the historical New York Times, and the full San Francisco Chronicle, as well as other historic newspapers, also included in this list.
Here are various primary source collections of possible interest (below). If you are looking for something specific, try searching for it on the web. For instance, if you would like the text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, go to your favored search engine, and put your search in quotes like this: "i have a dream" "martin luther king". The results will be actual video of him making the speech as well as links to the text of the speech. Always put the named object in quotes to keep the words as a phrase. Obviously, only do this if you know what the source is called! This is a great way to find government documents of all sorts, speeches, interviews, and even contemporary news stories if someone has scanned said stories and placed them on the web. Please do ask for help if you can't find what you are looking for!
Eyewitness to History - The sources are pulled from interviews, books, newspapers, to give an idea of who saw what during an historical event.
German History in Documents and Images - from the German Historical Institute. Primary source documents range in date from 1500 to the current time.
Historic Moments - "Each exhibition tells a story using documents, photos, videos and in some cases personal accounts of events." From Google Cultural Institute.
Internet History Sourcebooks - "The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use." The site links to sourcebooks for ancient, medieval, and modern history, with smaller sourcebooks for ethnicities, gender studies, and more. From Fordham University.
Internet Women's History Sourcebook - A look at women throughout world history, from Fordham University.
National Archives - United States National Archives has a featured exhibits page. Many of their sources are documents relating to the history of the US, but there are also photographs and other records here as well. Not all are accessible online.
New York Public Library Digital Collections - Over half a million prints, photographs, documents, maps, and ephemera in a variety of topics and themes.
Pacifica Radio Archives - an online source for interviews and other audio, providing excellent primary sources for a variety of events worldwide. Browse the offerings to find audio recordings of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, reactions to the Tet offensive, and to the Dan White verdict after the murder of George Moscone.
Primary Source Sets - From the Library of Congress, a running list. Most of the images and documents are digitized from special collections.
World Digital Library - a giant library catalog taking searchers to digital objects such as photographic images, artwork, and scanned documents.
World History Sources - An organized and annotated list of Web links for primary source discovery, arranged chronologically. From George Mason University.
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