Research Guides: Primary Sources in American History: Diaries, oral histories, etc.

Diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, letters, interviews, oral histories, speeches, etc.

Books and other materials in library catalogs

Suggested very broad keyword searches:
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (diaries OR diary OR correspondence OR letters OR interviews OR "personal narratives" OR "personal narrative" OR "oral histories" OR "oral history" OR autobiograph* OR memoir* OR sermon* OR speeches OR speech OR addresses OR address)

[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND ("documentary histories" OR "documentary history" OR archives OR sources)

For a more specific search, search Compass, MaineCat, or WorldCat (a national database of library catalog records):

for a name, class of persons, or ethnic group and the word "diaries", e.g.
Cocteau AND diaries
soldiers AND diaries
"Canadian Americans" AND diaries
to broaden the search: "Canadian Americans" AND (diaries OR diary)
for the name of the writer or addressee, class of persons, or ethnic group and the word "correspondence", e.g.
"Scholl, Hans" AND correspondence
"college students" AND correspondence
naturalists AND correspondence
for a name, class of persons, or ethnic group and the word "interviews", e.g.
Mitchell AND interviews
businesswomen AND interviews
on a name of event or war and the quoted phrase "personal narratives" to retrieve eyewitness or autobiographical accounts, e.g.
"Hurricane Katrina" AND "personal narratives"
"Korean War" AND "personal narratives"
on the name of the individual using a subject search to retrieve autobiographies or memoirs, e.g.
"Twain, Mark"
subject search in Compass, WorldCat, HathiTrust, or Historical Abstracts for travelogues on the name of your country and the word "travel", e.g.
china AND travel
similarly search on:
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (sermons OR sermon)
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (addresses OR address)
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (speeches OR speech)

To narrow your search even more, you can search the following terms/phrases in subject headings:
addresses, correspondence, diaries, interviews, letters, personal narratives, sermons, speeches, archives, sources.

Databases

NCCO: Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature
The Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature archive includes a myriad of maps representing the nineteenth century.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada. With more than 100,000 pages of personal narratives, including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories, the collection provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. Much of the material is previously unpublished. Several thousand pages of Ellis Island Oral History interviews, indexed and searchable for the first time, are included, along with thousands of political cartoons.