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Primary Sources for History: World History

World History

Afghanistan Digital Library  The immediate objective of the Afghanistan Digital Library is to retrieve and restore the first sixty years of Afghanistan’s published cultural heritage. The project is collecting, cataloging, digitizing, and making available over the Internet as many Afghan publications from the period 1871–1930 as it is possible to identify and locate.

Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet  Provides links to primary texts and reference materials on Byzantine culture and history.

Chinese Pamphlets from the Early Revolutionary Period  Includes mass education materials published in Hong Kong and in Mainland China, particularly Shanghai, in the years 1947-1954. These cartoon books, pamphlets, postcards and magazines, on topics such as foreign threats to Chinese security, Chinese relations with the Soviet Union, industrial and agricultural production, and marriage reform, were produced by both Kuomintang (Nationalist) and Gongchantang (Communist) supporters.

Cold War International History Project  The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War, and seeks to accelerate the process of integrating new sources, materials and perspectives from the former "Communist bloc" with the historiography of the Cold War.

Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III  Presents 38 tablets with accompanying notes; the collection includes schoolwork, accounting records, and commemorative inscriptions.

Duke Papyrus Archive  Provides electronic access to texts about and images of 1,375 papyri from ancient Egypt. The target audience includes: papyrologists, ancient historians, archaeologists, biblical scholars, classicists, Coptologists, Egyptologists, students of literature and religion and all others interested in ancient Egypt.  Users can search for papyri by language, document type, geographical names, or broad topics. Offers links to other papyri collections in the APIS project and around the world.

Early Canadiana Online  Provides the full text of more than 3000 books and pamphlets originally published between the 16th and early 20th centuries. The search interface is in either English or French; the majority of the texts are in French and are fully searchable.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History   Primary and Secondary sources from every European Country dating back to A.D.

Exploring the French Revolution  Browse or search images, maps, documents, and essays from the French Revolution. 

Finding World History Website reviews describe online primary–source archives, evaluate resources, and provide classroom suggestions. 

Fordham University - Internet History Sourcebooks Project  The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. 

French Political Pamphlets  "The collection of French Political Pamphlets in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University features more than 2,100 pamphlets published between 1547 and 1626."

German History in Documents and Images  Comprehensive collection documenting German political, social, and cultural history from 1500 to present.

Global Medieval Sourcebook: A Digital Repository of Medieval Texts Collection of open source Medieval texts in their original languages with an English translation.

Internet Archive  Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. (Contains most of the Hakluyt Society works).

Internet Medieval Sourcebook  Edited by Paul Halsell; provides primary sources such as church and diplomatic documents; Saints' lives; historical chronicles in original languages and in English translation, as well as teaching and reference aids. A member of ORB.

Medieval Manuscripts Blog  Updates on digitization programs from the British Library.

NYPL Map Warper  Over 20,000 maps from around the world that can be browsed, searched, and downloaded.

Operation War Diaries  The story of the British Army on the Western Front during the First World War is waiting to be discovered in 1.5 million pages of unit war diaries. We need your help to reveal the stories of those who fought in the global conflict that shaped the world we live in today.