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University of Denver

University Libraries

Research Guides

Colorado History - Research for Primary Sources

Strategies for Finding Primary Source Materials

The library catalog is a good place to start when searching for primary source materials such as correspondence, diaries, memoires, records, and other types of documents, either held in the library's Special Collections and Archives division, reprinted as books, or microform or digital surragates of the original.

Monographs written at the time of the event can make useful primary source material.

The terms, diaries, personal narratives, correspondence, interviews, sources, archives, manuscripts, and document* can be added to a keyword search, to locate primary sources in the library catalog, Prospector, and WorldCat. For example, if looking for primary source materials regarding Che Guevara, you can do a keyword search as follows:

        pioneers--colorado--diaries

        soldiers--colorado--correspondence

 

All but the last of the above terms are subheadings that appear frequently in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

  • Diaries and personal narratives apply to published memoirs
  • Correspondence and interviews refer to collections of sources
    • None of these terms necessarily means that the source was published specifically as a primary source, though they all can be used as such.
  • Sources, applies to collections of materials, of whatever nature, that have been compiled specifically as anthologies of primary source materials.
    • These could include collections of correspondence, articles, excerpts from longer publications, or anything else that might be useful for study of the subject.
  • Archives and manuscripts are often used to designate collections of materials held in original manuscript format by the library.
  • Document*, truncated here to search for any word beginning with “document,” does not necessarily appear in LCSH. It is useful as a keyword, however, since compilations of primary source material, published as such, often have titles that include the terms “documents” or “documentary.”

Examples of LC Subject Headings with terms indicating primary source material underlined:

      • Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company – Archives
      • Domińguez-Escalante Expedition (1776)-- Personal narratives
      • Pioneers--Colorado--Diaries
      • Cheyenne Indian--History--19th Century -- Sources
      • Teachers--Colorado -- Correspondence

 


Read the introduction and/or preface, or look at the bibliographic citations for the individual transcriptions to discover where the documents consulted are kept.


A search in ArchiveGrid and limited to location:colorado will retrieve records for physical archives in Colorado institutions. 

 


For additional sources to find archival materials, consult other boxes in this section.

When searching in databases for surrogate primary sources, determine what vocabulary was used to describe the event and search using those terms.

 

Sources to Locate Archives

The following a highly selective list sources for finding archival materials.

Images and Videos

Primary Source Databases

For additional primary source digital collections, see the databases listed in the Also Useful categories in the history section of Databases by Subject.