Primary Sources - Latin America - History - Research Guides at Temple University

Primary Sources: Library Databases & Free Online Sources for Latin American History

Looking for primary sources on Latin America? Try this database first:

World Scholar: Latin America and The Caribbean
World Scholar: Latin America & the Caribbean collection of primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean and includes academic journals and news feeds covering the region as well as reference articles and commentary, maps and statistics, audio and video; and more.

Primary source databases including newspapers, manuscripts, polls, and other content related to Latin America.

Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 is a collection of newspapers on Caribbean and Atlantic history, culture and daily life. Featuring publications from islands, Caribbean Newspapers provide complete facsimiles of issues. These newspapers were published in the English language, but a number of Spanish-French and Danish-language titles are also provided.

Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library
"CNDL provides access to digitized newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials from the Caribbean and Latin America. Includes significant content from Aruba, Bahamas, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, and many Caribbean countries" (Center for Research Libraries, ICON).
Digital Library of the Caribbean
Hosted by the University of Florida, the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) "provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections."

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1941-1996
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1941-1996 are translated transcripts of foreign radio and television broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements. The reports contain political, military, economic, environmental, and sociological news and information.
Ethnic Newswatch
Concurrent user limit: 12
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
Gerritsen Collection - Women's History Online, 1543-1945
Gerritsen Collection - Women's History Online, 1543-1945 was founded in the late 1800s, by Dutch physician Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen. It contains monographs and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and women's rights.
Global Commodities
Global Commodities contains manuscript materials, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, ephemera, objects and rare books so that the student can explore the origins of the commodity, their first uses, the trade that developed and the ways in which these items were marketed and consumed.
Global Press Archive: Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers
The Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers contains over 1,000 titles from Mexico’s pre-independence, independence and revolutionary periods (1807-1929). The newspapers in this collection include coverage of Mexican partisan politics, yellow press, political and social satire, as well as local, regional, national and international news.
Global Press Archive: El Caribe Digital Archive
El Caribe (“The Caribbean”) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper published in Santo Domingo and is one of the Dominican Republic’s most influential and longest-running newspapers. This resource offers coverage from 1956 to present.

Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press (The University of Arizona)
"The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s." Available newspaper include a mix of English- and Spanish-language titles.

Latin American Historical Newspapers, Series 1
Latin American Historical Newspapers, Series 1 is a collection of historical Latin American newspapers, 1805-1922, covering people, issues and events that shaped this region during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Latin American Historical Newspapers, Series 2
Latin American Historical Newspapers, Series 2 is a collection of historical Latin American newspapers, 1805-1922, covering people, issues and events that shaped this region during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Polling the Nations
Note: New platform and URL as of December 2020. Please clear browser history and update any bookmarks.
Polling the Nations compiles surveys conducted by polling organizations in the United States as well as other countries from 1986 to the present. Each record reports a question asked and the responses given. Also included in each record is the polling organization responsible for the work, the date the information was released, the sample size, and universe. All the surveys reported here were conducted using scientifically selected random samples.

Historical Maps of Latin America

David Rumsey Map Collection
The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America maps and other cartographic materials.
dLOC Caribbean Map Collection
University of Florida Digital Collections
The Mapas Project
"The Mapas Project has as its focus the digitization and study of colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts" (University of Oregon).
Perry-Castañeda Map Collection
One of the finest digital map collections, including historical maps of Latin America, University of Texas at Austin Libraries

Brazilian Newspaper Database: Open Access Resource

The recently-established open access Hemeroteca Digital Brasileira (HDB) has made the entire Biblioteca Nacional (National Library)’s periodical record, including their vast newspaper collections, available digitally. This is a tremendous resource for scholars studying Brazil.

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