Research Guides: Women in U.S. History: HIST/GSWS 3225: Find Primary Sources

Historical Newspapers

The following databases include major US newspapers. Use Advanced Search to limit your search results by date.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Major United States newspapers, Black American newspapers, and a couple of international publications. Coverage from 1800-2000 (varies by titles)
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
America's Historical Newspapers provides searchable, scanned newspaper pages. The collection contains Early American Newspapers, Series 1-5 (1690-1922), Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876), African American Newspapers, Series 1 (1827-1998), and The Civil War (1840-1877).
New York Times Full-Text / Full-Image (1851-2021) [via ProQuest Historical Newspapers] This link opens in a new window
Incorporates the New York Times Index
Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001) [via ProQuest Historical Newspapers] This link opens in a new window
The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1860-2001. When digitization is complete, the complete run will include 1829-2009.

Primary Source Collections

Unless you have a very specific search topic (a person's name, organization, etc.) these collections are often easier to browse than search. Browse the collections to find materials on a particular theme in the history of women in the US.

Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
Access guaranteed through May 2027
Women's Studies Archive provides materials on women's political activism, such as suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, and socialism, and on women's voices, from female-authored literature to women's periodicals.
Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new window
Gender: Identity and Social Change covers gender history, women’s suffrage, the feminist movement and the men’s movement, and includes pamphlets, speeches, newsletters, newspaper clippings and more.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
North American Women's Letters and Diaries Includes the personal experiences of women writing from Colonial times to 1950; represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Proquest Congressional provides congressional working papers, legislation, and the full text of the Congressional record.
Search on terms related to women's issues, e.g. "suffrage", "birth control", "single mothers", "equal pay."
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (Scholar's Edition) This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements in the United States brings together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting women's reform activities and examines perspectives on women's social movements from 1600-2000. Also includes access to the publications of the federal, state, and local Commissions on the Status of Women.

Historical Magazines

Women's Magazine Archive
An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. Issues are scanned in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005

Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
The Herstory Collection (select collections > Herstory) comprises full texts of journals, newspapers, and newsletters tracing the evolution of women's rights movements in the United States and abroad from 1956 to 1974.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Independent Voices is a growing digital collection of the magazines, journals, and newspapers of the alternative and small press archives of participating libraries.
American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new window
American Periodicals Series Online (APS Online) provides full text articles from American magazines and journals that began publication between 1741 and 1900.

Free online primary source collections

American Women: A Guide to Women's History Resources at the Library of Congress
This research guide gathers together a collection of topical guides and essays with links to available primary sources that tell the stories of women in America.
Women Working 1800-1930
An exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. From Harvard University

Temple University

University Libraries

See all library locations

Need help? Email us at asktulibrary@temple.edu