LibGuides: HISTORY 324: History of the Pacific Northwest: Primary Sources

Digital Collections

Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History
The history of Seattle's civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies.
WSU Vancouver Digital Collections
Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive, Clark Co. (WA) historic collections, and WSU Vancouver Historic Photographs and Documents.
Clark County (WA) Electronic Resources
Includes historical newspapers, photographs, maps, and local NAACP Digital Collection.
Early Washington Maps
Spanning three hundred years, Early Washington Maps: A Digital Collection includes maps of both sea and land faring explorers.
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest
"An extensive digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures... from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
The American West
Includes letters and diaries on Westward Expansion.
Washington State Agricultural Bibliography
Three major sections: Farming, Forestry, and Fishing.
Western Waters Digital Project
Resources on water in the Western United States: classic water literature, legal transcripts, maps, reports, personal papers, water project records, photographs, audio recordings, videos, and other material.
Women's History Consortium Collections (Washington State Historical Society)
Sources of information about Washington women’s history from partners across the state. Includes rich primary sources in "Oral History Projects," "Milestones in Women's History," "Elected Washington Women," and other links.
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (Washington State University Libraries)
A portal to digitized collections of photographs, maps, regional history, oral history, Native American history, and more.

Primary Source Books

Search the WSU Libraries' catalog, Search It, for primary source books about the Pacific Northwest by using keywords denoting a primary source: diaries, memoirs, correspondence, sources, letters, wills, sermons, autobiographies, etc.

A primary source search might look like this:

Newspaper Databases

Seattle Times (1896-1984) (Readex)
This database provides full text coverage of the Seattle Times, a major Northwest newspaper, from 1896 to 1984. Currently contains material back to 1900, including articles and advertisements.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers. New York Times
Full page and article images with searchable full text, 1851-2013

Historic Oregon Newspapers
Beginning in 1846, digitized newspapers from Oregon municipalities.
Washington Digital Newspapers
Titles from the Historic Washington Newspapers Online collection of Washington State Library