Guides: HIST 213: World History, 600-2000: Finding primary sources

Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are original documents and objects created during the time being studied, such as diaries, newspaper accounts, letters, governmental records, or drawings. Any record that documents a past event can be considered a primary source.

Where can I find primary sources?

This guide will provide resources for you to find the types of primary sources needed for this assignment. Additionally, you can find primary sources in libraries, museums, and archives, online on these institutions' websites, and in databases subscribed to by the McGill Library.

Media Account

Source 1: A media account of the period

Newspapers

News & Newspapers (ProQuest)
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A single interface providing access to both current and historical newspaper databases and news sources.
Global Newsstream
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A comprehensive contemporary news collection that delivers access to current, full-text news sources including newspapers, newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, podcasts, and digital-only websites from around the world, including Canada and the U.S. In the "Advanced Search", filter date to 1989.
Canadian Newsstream
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Access to hundreds of Canadian newspapers, large and small, including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Montreal Gazette. In the "Advanced Search", filter date to 1989.
US Newsstream (ProQuest)
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Includes New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian and other national and regional titles. In the "Advanced Search", filter date to 1989.
International Newsstream (ProQuest)
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News content from outside of Canada and the US, including The Times (London), The Bangkok Post, El Norte, Financial Times, The Guardian, Jerusalem Post, South China Morning Post, The Daily Telegraph, Asian Wall Street Journal, and the BBC Monitoring series of publications. In the "Advanced Search", filter date to 1989.
Alt-PressWatch
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Unique, independent voices from over 200 respected and cited grassroots newspapers, magazines, and journals. In the "Advanced Search", filter date to 1989.

Magazines

News, Policy and Politics Magazine Archive
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Digital access to the archival runs of major 20th/21st-century consumer magazines including Newsweek, In These Times, Europe, New Internationalist and NATO Review. In the "Advanced Search", filter date to 1989.
Additional subjects: Current events, Diplomacy/ peacemaking,Ethics,Human rights, International relations,Media history and Military operations.

Broadcast News

American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Digital archive of American public television and radio programmes. Filter by date only after performing an initial basic or advanced search.

Films on Demand
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A collection of approximately 1,300 historical archival films and news videos browsable by subject and producer. After performing a search, try sorting oldest to newest to identify relevant content.

CBC Radio Transcripts
Transcripts are available for CBC Radio (Toronto) for some days in 1989. Navigate what is available by choosing "issues" to view based on dates, or by searching terms within the publication and then limiting by date.
CBC Archives
Unfortunately the CBC archives are very difficult to search systematically. You may have some success in locating footage or news stories from 1989 that have been uploaded in more recent years.
YouTube
Also try searching YouTube for an event or topic with the word "newsreel".
Example: berlin wall 1989 newsreel

Contemporary Views

Source 2: The writings, or recorded accounts, of a person who actively participated in these events

Library Catalogue

Find contemporary views in the library catalogue

Memoirs, diaries, correspondence, and other types of primary sources that express contemporary views are rarely published in the time of the events they concern. These views are sometimes published later and even translated into English, and can be found in the library catalogue.

Strategy: search for an event (with the exact phrase in quotations) AND a word indicating a firsthand or eyewitness account

autobiography
autoethnography
biography
correspondence
diary OR diaries
"first person"
interview
letters
memoir
narratives
"oral history"
perspective
photography
speech OR speeches

Example: "berlin wall" AND diary

This strategy also works for locating firsthand accounts by a known individual.

Example: "Ronald Reagan" AND diary

Other Sources

Oral History Online (Alexander Street Press)
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Indexing to collections of oral history interviews in English from around the world. Try searching for contemporary views with keywords or terms such as "Berlin wall" or "Tiananmen square".
Note: this database only indexes interviews; in some cases search results may not be accessible online.
Gale Primary Sources
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Resource that brings together Gale's digital archives in a single cross-search interface. Content includes monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, and maps. Try searching for events using keywords (such as "Tiananmen square") and browsing the results to see what may give a contemporary view.

Liaison Librarian

Kristen Howard

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Subjects: Classical studies, History, Indigenous studies, Religious studies