Finding Primary Sources: World History

A collection of 78 posters relating to the Cultural Revolution.

"Mass education materials published in Hong Kong and in Mainland China, particularly Shanghai, in the years 1947-1954. These cartoon books, pamphlets, postcards and magazines, on topics such as foreign threats to Chinese security, Chinese relations with the Soviet Union, industrial and agricultural production, and marriage reform, were produced by both Kuomintang (Nationalist) and Gongchantang (Communist) supporters."

Presents texts from ancient to modern times. Material touches on the Crusaders, Italian Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, French Revolution, and many other topics. (Scroll down to you see Asia)

Subject listing of documents from East Asian history. Includes cultural origins; religious traditions; imperial China; western intrusion; Japan as a world power; and others.

Texts documenting the history of India. Topics include the formation of religious traditions; medieval India; Muslim-era India; western intrusion; and others.

Images, timelines, maps, and other information on the role of the Mongols in world history.

Reproductions of North Korean propaganda posters, dating from 1985-2002.

Contains scanned images and searchable full-text of 504 works in 3,134 volumes compiled during the years 1919 to 1936. Topics include history, astronomy, geography, politics, economics, and literature.

Life in the Song as seen through a 12th-century scroll.

Extensive and well-organized collection of links. For primary sources, see especially the sections "Maps of South Asia (and Beyond)" and "South Asian literature."

Accounts of emperor reigns in China from 1368-1644.

Written and photographed experiences of Europeans and Americans who traveled to Southeast Asia during the period of imperialism. Document dates range from 1633 to 1926.

Collection of print and visual resources. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range, topic or type of resource.

Collection of print and visual resources. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range, topic or type of resource

Collection of print and visual resources. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range, topic or type of resource.

Developed to create and maintain the Library of Alexandria's digital collections. Explore their large collection of Arabic digital books, photo albums and more.

Images selected from the extensive files of The New York Public Library's Picture Collection specifically to enrich and supplement the study of ancient cultures. Arranged alphabetically by subject to present a cross-section of customs from different ancient cultures.

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents on one site, in a variety of ways. Content on the WDL includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films. Browse by place, time, topic, type of item, language, and contributing institution.

The Ancient World Image Bank is a collaborative effort to distribute and encourage the sharing of free digital imagery for the study of the ancient world.

Provides high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication. These images of archaeological sites, buildings and art, cover the areas of the former Roman empire which later came under Islamic rule, such as Syro-Palestine/the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, as well as some bordering regions, such as Georgia and Armenia. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e., from about 300 BC) through the Islamic period.

From the University of Oxford.

This collection contains the largest number are Greek documentary papyri, including census and tax registers, military lists, land conveyances, business records, petitions, private letters, and other sources of historical and paleographic interest from Ptolemaic (332-30 B.C.), Roman (30 B.C.-300 A.D.), and Byzantine Egypt (300-650 A.D.)

The largest, most diverse set of ancient texts in English on the web, indexed to offer the primary sources for almost any ancient place or personality a highly detailed archaeological site map for Greece.

Sixty-eight early Greek, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian, Arabic, and Latin manuscripts ranging in date from the 5th to the 19th centuries.

Digital Scriptorium is a growing consortium of American libraries and museums committed to free online access to their collections of pre-modern manuscripts.

The Digitized Manuscripts site contains many different kinds of manuscripts, archives and documents. Includes Greek and Medieval manuscripts.

The Ancient World Image Bank is a collaborative effort to distribute and encourage the sharing of free digital imagery for the study of the ancient world.

Pleiades is a community-built gazetteer and graph of ancient places. It publishes authoritative information about ancient places and spaces, providing unique services for finding, displaying, and reusing that information under open license. It publishes not just for individual human users, but also for search engines and for the widening array of computational research and visualization tools that support humanities teaching and research.

Images selected from the extensive files of The New York Public Library's Picture Collection specifically to enrich and supplement the study of ancient cultures. Arranged alphabetically by subject to present a cross-section of customs from different ancient cultures.

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents on one site, in a variety of ways. Content on the WDL includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films. Browse by place, time, topic, type of item, language, and contributing institution.

This documentary sources database provides access to 200 volumes of documents from the Medici Granducal Archive (Archivio Mediceo del Principato). Documents include letters and biographical records of the Medici Family from 1537-1743.

The Ancient World Image Bank is a collaborative effort to distribute and encourage the sharing of free digital imagery for the study of the ancient world.

The Digital Vatican Library provides free access to the Vatican Library’s digitized collections: manuscripts, incunabula, archival materials and inventories as well as graphic materials, coins and medals, printed materials

This resource features eight databases created to provide access to the artworks and historical collections of Florentine galleries.

Provides high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication. These images of archaeological sites, buildings and art, cover the areas of the former Roman empire which later came under Islamic rule, such as Syro-Palestine/the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, as well as some bordering regions, such as Georgia and Armenia. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e., from about 300 BC) through the Islamic period.

more...

Pleiades is a community-built gazetteer and graph of ancient places. It publishes authoritative information about ancient places and spaces, providing unique services for finding, displaying, and reusing that information under open license. It publishes not just for individual human users, but also for search engines and for the widening array of computational research and visualization tools that support humanities teaching and research.

The International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts enables global centralized digital access to the complete corpus of existing Hebrew manuscripts.

The Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine project seeks to collect and make freely accessible all of the previously published inscriptions (and their English translations) of Israel/Palestine from the Persian period through the Islamic conquest

View infrared photos from the 1950s archive and examine the latest high-definition spectral images, which enhance the texts' visibility and readability. Browse the fragments by Site, Language, or Content or use the "free search" option and let your imagination be your guide.

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents on one site, in a variety of ways. Content on the WDL includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films. Browse by place, time, topic, type of item, language, and contributing institution.

The Ancient World Image Bank is a collaborative effort to distribute and encourage the sharing of free digital imagery for the study of the ancient world.

Provides high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication. These images of archaeological sites, buildings and art, cover the areas of the former Roman empire which later came under Islamic rule, such as Syro-Palestine/the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, as well as some bordering regions, such as Georgia and Armenia. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e., from about 300 BC) through the Islamic period.

more...

Explore a wide array of digital resources from the National Library of Israel.