Tag: Women's History Resources

Where to Find Primary Sources for Women’s History

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Hey there, friend! Today we’re talking about where to find primary sources for researching and teaching women’s history! 

Sometimes it can be hard to find primary sources that blatantly talk about women and women’s history. As historians and researchers, we are taught to look for certain voices in unique places and sources. This article will give you several ideas of places to look to find women’s voices. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it can be used as a starting point for your next project! Remember, representation matters in your research and curriculum so make sure to include multiple points of view and experiences! 

Here are several places to look for women’s voices in the primary sources!

Letters

Letters are a great place to look for women in the historical record. Many women corresponded with their family which can give an insight in to family histories. 

Diaries

Diaries are personal and intimate records of the writer and should be treated with respect. Women often kept detailed records of their day, family, and towns. Diaries are such a good source! 

Newspapers

Newspapers often tell stories of the prominent women in a city or town. It also important to remember newspaper stories can be sensationalized and should be read in the context of the time. 

Church Records

Churches and preachers often kept detailed records of their congregations and members. Some women also acted as missionaries and kept their own detailed concerning their daily activities and the people they were working with. 

Court Records

Court records sometimes contain records for women. It really depends on the time period you’re studying for this source, but I definitely recommend checking them out if possible!

School Records

School records are so valuable for researching women! Women were often teachers and they kept the school records. You can also look for records at the district or county levels to find more information. 

Books

The inside cover of books or old family Bibles sometimes have names or important dates written inside the covers! So always make sure to look inside the old books you find in the archive or when going through old things!

Photos

Old photo albums and records are a treasure trove for researching women. Sometimes women are the focal point of the photo, but other times they are in the background and that can help give the researcher a clue as to what women were doing at the time. 

Bonus Tip: Some photos even have words written along the bottom or on the back of the image. These hints are invaluable when researching a person or family. 

Physical Objects & Artifacts

Physical objects and artifacts allow you to tell a person’s story visually. These objects are great for presentations, museum exhibits, and classroom demonstrations. 

Magazines & Advice Literature

Magazines and advice literature for women help you see what was considered “proper” for a woman in the time period that you are studying. This kind of literature was extremely popular in the nineteenth century. 

Autobiographies

Autobiographies are awesome because they were often written by the person you are studying or by someone close to them. This source allows you to understand how this person wanted to be remembered and what parts of their life that they considered important. 

Interviews

Interviews are a great primary source because you have words spoken by the person you are studying. How cool is that! You have to be careful with this type of source though. Make sure that you do adequate background research on the events the person is talking about. 

Speeches

Again, speeches are great because they are words that were actually spoken by the person you are researching. Women’s speeches are much more rare, especially depending on the time period that you are looking at. 

Bonus Tip: Modern speeches have often been photographed or recorded as well so make sure to look for a visual to match the audio or text that you found! 

Concluding Thoughts

The primary sources above are just a few of the places you can look to find women’s voices. Many of these sources can be scaled to the appropriate age for your classroom or project. I hope this list is helpful and that you add more women to the dialogue. 

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂 

Where to Find Public Domain Images for Your Next Project

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Hey there friend! Have you ever needed a picture for your project, but not known where to find non-copyrighted images? Today, I am going to give you a list of places to find non-copyrighted images that are perfect for any project. I have personally used the websites in this post for my own projects and assignments. 

1). Smithsonian Open Access 

The Smithsonian has released millions of their images into the Public Domain. This collection includes images and objects from across their museum holdings. The home page for this website is linked here. (https://www.si.edu/openaccess) 

2). Library of Congress 

This applies to some of their collections and images. Make sure to click on the image you want to use and double check that is says CC0 or Public Domain. 

The Library of Congress has curated several sets of free to use images. They can be found here. (https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/)

3). Flickr

Flickr is another cool platform to search for non copyrighted images. This website contains more stock photos than the previous two. 

There are several more websites out there that offer stock photos, but I haven’t used them so I don’t want to talk about them.

Bonus Tips & Ideas

Many archives will let you use their photos if you email them and ask for permission. You will want to email their contact person – make sure to be extra nice! Some archives will ask for citations, while other may ask you to pay a fee to use their image. Either way, make sure that you comply with their rules! 

Another good option is to take your own photos for your project! Many smart phones today have amazon cameras and you can capture lots of good footage. Make sure that you film in the orientation that is best for your project: portrait or landscape. You can then import the images into an app or download them to your computer to edit them! 

You can also create handwritten, drawn, or digital abstract designs for your project! There are a lot of apps out there so check them out and get creative! 

Concluding Thoughts

*It is important to note that CC0 and Public Domain images are the ones being discussed in this article. There are more copyright laws that get kind of messy, but I will let you look into that route!

Here is a list of places to find primary sources that you can check out next! I hope this helps for your next project!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂 

The Best Places to Find Digitized Primary Sources

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Hello – welcome back to my blog! Today I am going to tell you about my favorite places to find digitized primary sources. This article will be helpful for professional researchers, historians, and students needing to find evidence for their projects. 

Finding primary sources can be hard to begin with, but now that most archives are either closed or restricted it has become even more difficult… I know this firsthand. I finished and defended my Master’s Thesis in Summer 2020 and couldn’t go anywhere. So these are some of the resources that I used and some that I have found working as a research assistant.

Feel free to email me with other sources that you use and I will add them to this list! 

*Disclaimer: There are no paid ads in this article. I am only talking about the sources I have personally used and/or paid to use myself. 

1. archive.org 

This website is free and has saved my life on multiple occasions. They have digitized hundreds of thousands of primary source documents that you can look at. All you have to do is sign up for a free account. Then you are able to look at documents or “check them out” for two weeks much like a public library. They have also digitized thousands of secondary sources that are great for literature reviews and historiographical essays.

2. JSTOR

JSTOR has a free version of their website – all you have to do is make an account. Then there’s a workspace where you can save articles in folders for different projects. Unfortunately, you can’t access JSTOR’s entire collection, but you can access a ton of stuff. Students or faculty at colleges/universities will have access to more articles than people with only the free account.

BONUS TIP: If you are a student or faculty member at a university and can’t find the article you need, email your library on campus. They will often have an interlibrary loan or request section where they can purchase the article for you and send it your way. Save yourself time and money by using the library resources! 

3. Research Library Databases

Library databases are so helpful. Many libraries have or are working on digitizing their primary sources which makes their special collections more readily available for research. If the collection itself hasn’t been digitized many libraries have at least made their Finding Aids available online. 

For example, the Newberry Library has digitized thousands of documents! (https://www.newberry.org)

4. Digital Archives

Digital archives were huge for me while I was finishing my thesis. Many state historical societies in the US have digitized their holdings or at least made the Finding Aids available online. 

Many state archives might be wiling to scan the pieces of the collection you need for a small fee. Check out their website to see the rate or email the archivist to ask! I’ve communicated with many kind archivists and they are so helpful! ALWAYS BE NICE to the archivist!!!

5. Museum Collections

Digital museum collections are another great place to find primary sources. You can look at the items in their collections or you can check out their online exhibits. Most museums only have enough space to display 10% of their physical collection so digital catalogs allow them to display more items!

Many museums have digitized more and more of their collections due to the pandemic. This has made museum exhibits more widely available to larger audiences which means more people can view and love the collections. How cool is that!

6. Public Library Databases

Public libraries are another great place to find primary sources. Public libraries often have subscriptions to online databases which allow you to do primary source research. You can also do interlibrary loans through the public library – this is where they order books from other library systems for you. 

ALWAYS BE KIND to the librarians you communicate with online or over the phone. They might find extra materials and send them your way. I remember one librarian doing this for me and it made a huge difference in my research paper. Thank your librarian today!

7. SCRIBD

SCRIBD is a paid subscription service that I personally use for my research. They have digitized several primary source documents that you can view after paying a monthly fee. SCRIBD also has digitized secondary sources as well. Some are PDFS, some are digitized books, and others are audiobooks. Listening to secondary sources while running or doing chores has saved me so much time 🙂

8. ancestry.com or other genealogical sites

Personally, I use ancestry.com for my research. This is another source that you have to pay to access, but they have different prices depending on what kind of sources you need. I always find cool things when I look on Ancestry. For example, there are census records, military records, pictures, draft cards, directories, yearbooks and more! Check it out!

9. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

This database is run by the Library of Congress (another awesome database) and provides free access to newspaper across the United States. There are local, regional, and national newspapers in this databases. You can clip articles or see whole pages as PDFs. 

10. newspapers.com

This is another newspaper database, but it is a paid subscription. Personally, I think this is the easiest newspaper database to navigate. So it use this one the most! Most of my newspaper clippings on my instagram posts come from this website. 

Concluding Thoughts

This list will be updated as I find new databases! So I hope this becomes a resource that is really helpful for you! Thanks for reading!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂