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American History 110: Skill Unit 5

Resources for Mrs. Fordham's History course
Skill Unit 5 is designed to explain the use of primary sources in researching history. Using the example of President Kennedy's Assassination, this video produced by Geisel Productions Web Services at UCSD provides an excellent summary of summary and primary sources for history research.  Your assignment is for you to use the Letter from Mary Todd Lincoln to her husband the president.  Do the best you can to interpret the document and write the assigned essay.

Websites for Primary and Secondary Sources

The Library of Congress American Memory Project
AMP is a rich, searchable database of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still
and moving images, prints, maps, and 
sheet music that document the American experience.

The Historical Text Archive
HTA is a well-designed, searchable database with three sections: full-text articles
(also includes essays and photographs), ebooks, and links to other digitized primary resources.

Digital Collections: Michigan State U. Libraries and Digital & Multimedia Center
DC is a collaborative, ongoing project to digitize selected materials from MSU Libraries’
Special Collections. Browsable collections include Africana, American Radicalism, Applied and
Life Sciences, and History and Social Sciences.

Repositories of Primary Sources
A directory of over 5,000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books,
historical photographs, and other primary sources for the advanced research scholar. Includes links to libraries and other
institutions with digitized primary resources.

Using Primary Sources on the Web
A brief guide to evaluating primary internet resources with excellent examples of specific documents
and image files.

By Susan Thomas, Evening and Weekend Librarian (sthomas@bmcc.cuny.edu )

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