Research Guide for New York State Primary Sources

Primary Sources are works generated at the time of the event. Primary sources include:

1. Documents produced by the events themselves:
government documents, treaties, reports of official bodies, letters, and speeches.

2. Documents produced to record events at the time of the event:
chronicles, diaries, journalists' reports, interviews, drawings, photographs, tape recordings and video tapes.

3. Primary sources also include oral histories or recollections of a participant to an event.
The easiest way to find primary sources on your topic is to find a good scholarly book on the topic and consult the list of references at the end of the book.

Written Primary Sources

E263 .N6053 1970 Documents and Letters Intended to Illustrate the Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County
E601 .D38 1998 Dear Sister: the Civil War Letters of the Brothers Gould
E621 .H76 1994 A Surgeon's Civil War: the Letters and Diary of Daniel M. Holt, M.D.
Ref. F122 .D63 Documentary History of the State of New York
Ref. F122 .D66 Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York
F122 .J3 Historic Chronicles of New Amsterdam
F127 .L8 P3 Up-lot Reveries: an Oral History of the North Fork
F128.44 .S8325 1988 Diary of George Templeton Strong
F129 .B6 B88
Documents of the Town of Brookhaven
F129 .O98 C66 Diary of Mary Cooper: Life on a Long Island Farm
G545 .B879 1993 She Went A-Whaling: the Journal of Martha Smith Brewer Brown
KF223.H8 H67 1971 New York Conspiracy
SH383.2 .B76 1988 In the Wake of Whales: The Whaling Journals of Capt. Edwin Peter Brown

Titles Which Refer to Primary Sources

F122 .K3 Newcastle's New York
F122 .S66 U6 The Loyal Whig: William Smith of New York and Quebec
F127 .F5 F47 1974 Fishers Island, N.Y. 1614-1925
F128.3 .W48 1987 New York: a Physical History
F128.37 .R6 2001 Cityscapes: a History of New York in Images
F128.4 .D265 1985 A Rumor of Revolt: the "Great Negro Plot" in Colonial New York
F128.44 .B47 1990 New York City Draft Riots
F128.64 .L6 B5713 1985 Statue of Liberty: the First Hundred Years
F128.65 .T5 2006 On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square.
F128.9 .I8 E83 1985 Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side
F128.9 J5 L69 1988 Frankfurt on the Hudson: the German-Jewish Community of Washington Heights
NA6233 .N5 W6742 2003 City in the Sky: the Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center
T785 .B1 G45 1939, the Lost World of the Fair
TF302 .N7 S35 2001 Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York
TF847 .N5 H66 2004 722 Miles: the Building of the Subways and how they Transformed New York.
TG25 .C328 R44 1990 Bridges of Central Park
VM299.6 .W45 1993 An Island's Trade: Nineteenth-Century Shipbuilding on Long Island

Titles Containing Pictures as Primary Sources

F127 .N2 M37 1999 Nassau County at 100
F127 .Q3 S48 1982 Queens: a Pictorial History
F127 .S9 V3 Suffolk, a Pictorial History
Ref. F128.3 .H65 2005 Historical Atlas of New York City
F128.3 .L8 Manhattan Moves Uptown: an Illustrated History
F128.37 .S55 Lost New York
Ref. F128.67 .F4 B8 Fifth Avenue Old and New, 1824-1924
F129.B7 O42 Old Brooklyn in Early Photographs, 1865-1929
HE2791 .L8482 M77 2003 Long Island Rail Road Stations
NA735 .N5 H78 Classic New York
PS509 .N5 G6 New York, New York: the City as Seen by Masters of Art and Literature

For additional print resources, search the St. Joseph's College Libraries Online Catalog

Sources for New York History Articles

The following databases may be useful for this subject area. To use the following databases on campus, click on the Journal Articles / Database link.

ACLS Humanities ebook Project New York Times Historical (Proquest) Original Sources

New York History Related Websites

Love Canal Collection
Collection of documents, timelines, and photographs on Love Canal
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/lovecanal/
Making of America Digital library of primary sources in American history. There are a number of online books dealing with New York history.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moagrp
New York City Documents Research guide and links on the History of New York City compiled by Columbia University
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/dsc/nyc.html
New York City Subways Section on sidebar that links to the history of the subway system.
http://www.nycsubway.org/
New York State Archives
http://www.archives.nysed.gov/aindex.shtml
New York State Bridges History of various New York State Bridges.
http://www.nysba.state.ny.us/Index%20Page/bridge_histories.htm
New York State Library
Gateway to newspapers and documents in New York State
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/
New York State History
Gateway to New York State historical sites on the web
http://www.nyhistory.com/
One Hundred Years
A New York Times special feature; 100 years of New York City history
http://www.nytimes.com/specials/nyc100

Check Selected Websites for additional subject specific websites.

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