Primary Sources

Spanning more than 120 thematic collections, this resource for primary source material includes several million pages of full-text documents, maps, diaries, posters, ephemera, photographs, and other textual and visual material spanning the 15th through 20th centuries.

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• Subject area(s):
• General Topics
• History
• Language & Literature
• Political Science
• Art
• Business
• Communication & Theater
• Music

Access over 5000 full text, audio, and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events.

• Subject area(s):
• Communication & Theater
• History
• Political Science

The DPLA brings together digitized works from America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes these materials freely available. Use the DPLA to find written works (including articles, books, and plays), photographs, videos, sound recordings, and data sets.

• Subject area(s):
• History
• Language & Literature

FRED Economic Data offers a wealth of economic data and information to promote economic education and enhance economic research. FRED is updated regularly and allows 24/7 access to regional and national financial and economic data. FRED is a service of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

• Subject area(s):
• Business

The Gateway is an online repository of Oklahoma history which makes it easy to browse through hundreds of thousands of historic newspaper pages dating from the 1840s to the 1920s.

• Subject area(s):
• History

This collection provides more than 1.8 million pages of original historical documents pertaining to Native American history and life from the 18th through the 20th century. The collection includes treaties, agreements, and correspondence indexed by date, place, and tribe.

• Subject area(s):
• History
• Political Science

The Oklahoma Folklore Collection is the result of an effort by the Metropolitan Library System in the late 1940's and early 1950's to collect and preserve the stories, memories, and songs that make up Oklahoma's rich folk tradition. You'll find stories, songs, letters, interviews, poems, sheet music, brochures, and much more that bring to light Oklahoma's history as it was being created. Along with the transcribed documents you'll find images of the original documents.

• Subject area(s):
• History
• Language & Literature

Access early Oklahoma newspapers, thousands of historic public records, photos, oral histories, and highlights from the video archives of television stations WKY, KTVY, and KFOR.

• Subject area(s):
• History

A multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October, 1955. Oyez also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality tour of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some justices.

• Subject area(s):
• History
• Political Science

Google Patents indexes patents and patent applications from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA), Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), and China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

• Subject area(s):
• Technology
• Biology
• Business
• Chemistry
• Computer Science

Poetry and Short Story Reference Center contains selected works of major and minor American and English poets, along with a wide range of international poetry. Works include plays and speeches, short stories and classic books, biographies, critical analyses, contextual essays and explications for important works, essays on poetic forms, literary terms, techniques and movements, multimedia (audio and video) of poets reading their works, and interviews from reputable sources.

• Subject area(s):
• Language & Literature
• Communication & Theater

The Orderly Books collection contains handwritten volumes documenting military orders, movements and engagements by brigade, regiment, company, and other specific military units between 1748 and 1817. The content provides detailed accounts of troops’ daily lives, documenting everything from court martial cases to the price of necessities charged by locals. Given the dearth of soldiers’ diaries, Orderly Books provides historically valuable information about soldiers’ lives.

• Subject area(s):
• History

Search and browse these Salem History titles and series:

• The 50 States
• The Decades series
• Defining Documents in American History
• Encyclopedia of American Immigration
• Great Events from History
• Great Lives from History
• The Innovators series
• and more …

• Subject area(s):
• History
• Political Science