Primary Sources - Books, Databases & Websites - HSS 300 - World War II

Primary Source e-Books

World War II, A Primary Source History: In Their Own Words. by Colin Hynson
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2006
The Taste of War. Bourque-White, Margaret. by Margaret Bourque-White
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1985
Historic Documents of World War II. by Walter Consuelo Langsam
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1958
Page One: The Front Page Story of World War II as presented in The New York Times. by New York Times
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1996
My dear Mr. Stalin : the complete correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin. by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2005
Taps for a Jim Crow army : letters from black soldiers in World War II. by Phillips McGuire
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1993

Primary Sources on the web--WWII

World War II Video from AP archive
WWII Operational Documents
Operations orders, after action reports, intelligence analyses, logistics appraisals, and similar documents. Primary focus is on documenting operations at the tactical and operational levels of warfare. (Combined Arms Research Library, CARL)
WWII Field Manuals
Archival copies of WWII field manuals in PDF format.
Women Airforce Service Pilots Digital Archive
Digital collection of materials from the official Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) archive at TWU in Denton, TX. (Texas Women's Univ.)
Women's Bureau Photographs
(National Archives, via Flickr)
War Comes to America Video (Army's Office of the Chief Signal Officer)
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Video Footage (Various), From Pearl Harbor to D-Day
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Veterans History Project
The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. (Library of Congress)
Redstone Arsenal Historical Information
Includes images, oral histories, and other historical materials related to missilery history, women's military history, WWII, Cold War, Desert Storm, aviation, automobiles, and the army in space. Also includes an archive of the Redstone Rocket "unofficial authorized" newspaper, 1950s and 1960s. (Redstone Arsenal, AL, U.S. Army)
The Real Rosie the Riveter Project
Oral Histories of Women Laborers during WWII
(New York Univ.)
Ration Coupons on the Homefront, 1942-1945
(Duke Univ. Libraries)
The Public Health Film Goes to War
Eighteen rare public health films from the WWII era, covering topics such as personal cleanliness, sexually transmitted diseases, tropical diseases, and the stress of war. All films include searchable transcripts and commentaries. All films are in the public domain and may thus be used without concerns for copyright infringement. (National Library of Medicine)
Prisoners of War: German Prison Camp Stalag Luft I
Comprehensive record of what life was like at the German prison camp. Includes POW's stories, photos, poetry, art, roommates, newspaper, accounts of the evacuation, as well as links on the guards and interrogators. Also provides the six extant issues of the POW newspaper POW WOW, Prisoners of War - Waiting on Winning, which was intended to be destroyed after reading.
Oral History Collection
Men and women participating in all theaters of operations. Experiences recounted include German and Japanese POW camps, Japanese-American relocation centers, Pearl Harbor attack, Bataan Death March, and more. (Univ. of Florida)
Nuremberg Trials Project
Project (still in progress) to digitize Harvard Law School's extensive collection of trial transcripts, briefs, document books, evidence files, and other papers related to the trial of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) and to the twelve trials of other accused war criminals before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT). (Harvard Law School)
Military Situation Maps, 1944-45
(Library of Congress)
Latest Films of the War in Italy, 1943 Video
(Office of War Information)
(National Archives and Records Administration)
International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property
Links researchers to archival materials consisting of descriptions and often images of records related to cultural property that was stolen, looted, seized, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost during the Nazi era. Covers a broad range of cultural property from artworks to books and libraries, religious objects, antiquities, archival documents, carvings, silver and more. (U.S. National Archives and various international organizations)
Homefront Photos
(National Archives, via Flickr)
Hawaii War Records Depository Photos
Photos of life in Hawaii during World War II. (Univ. of Hawaii)
Historical Documents
Historical military photos, news accounts, case files about war crimes, accounts of air battles, and more.
FBI WWII Files
FBI documents on WWII topics, including Tokyo Rose, General MacArthur, Wernher VonBraun, detention, and more. (Note: Dates in the list of topics/files indicate when documents were put online, not when the content was originally created.) (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
The Civilian Public Service Story: Living Peace in a Time of War
The Civilian Public Service was an alternative service option for conscientious objectors during WWII. This website's database provides details on all 12,000 men who served in CPS and info on more than 150 CPS camps in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Secondary-source essays provide background to rosters, photographs, etc. Site also provides many recommendations for further reading. (Mennonite Central Committee and the Center on Conscience and War)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The National WWII Museum
American Catholics and Nazi Anti-Semitism
Primary documents and audio related to U.S. Catholic responses to the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany. (Catholic Univ. of America)

Primary Sources in Databases

ALWAYS use the date range feature when searching for primary source newspaper articles. An article is only a primary source if it was published at the time in which an event took place.

All Primary Source Databases
Databases A-Z filtered to only show primary source databases

Newspapers:

America’s Historical Newspapers Series: 1690-1922 This link opens in a new window
This database contains American newspaper articles from the late 17th century through 1922.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search and read full text articles from 28 historical newspapers listed below [click "more..." to view list"]:

• The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984)
• Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003)
• The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988)
• The Baltimore Sun (1837-1987)
• The Boston Globe (1872-1984)
• Chicago Defender (1909-1975)
• Chicago Tribune (1849-1992)
• The Christian Science Monitor (1908-2003)
• Cleveland Call and Post (1934-1991)
• Detroit Free Press (1831-1922)
• The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003)
• Hartford Courant (1764-1990)
• Indianapolis Star (1903-1922)
• The Irish Times and The Weekly Irish Times (1859-2015)
• Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005)
• Los Angeles Times (1881-1989)
• New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
• New York Times (1851-2014)
• New York Tribune (1841-1922)
• Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003)
• Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001)
• Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
• San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922)
• The Scotsman (1817-1950)
• The St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)
• The Times of India (1838-2007)
• The Wall Street Journal (1889-1999)
• The Washington Post (1877-1999)

Documents:

Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
This is a primary source-centric database that covers American history from the 19th century through the early 20th century. Search for newspapers, eyewitness accounts, and more for events such as the Civil War, women's suffrage, and the abolitionist movement. It also contains a collection of African American newspapers from 1827-1909.
Britannica Original Sources This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to more than 2,000 primary sources plus 700 multimedia elements from all aspects of American history from 1493-2009.
It includes speeches, memoirs, poems, historical accounts, and more.
Gale Primary Sources: Archives Unbound - Introduction to U.S. History: The American Revolution This link opens in a new window
This digital archive of primary sources documents the revolution and war that created the United States of America, from the earliest protests in 1765 through the peace treaty of 1783.

Images & Objects:

ARTSTOR This link opens in a new window
A digital library of over two million images from some of the world's leading museums, archives, scholars, and artists.

Websites to find 1940's primary sources

1940 census
The 1940 census records were released by the US National Archives April 2, 2012, and brought online through a partnership with Archives.com. This website allows you full access to the 1940 census images, in addition to 1940 census maps and descriptions.
Statistical Abstract of the United States from the GPO (1878-2012)
Statistical Abstract data present here ranges from our most recent edition to the historical abstracts compiled throughout the decades. Some of the data were scanned as an effort to make historical abstract information available to the public. The display of data will continue as historical records become available.

Websites by General Topic

FDR Presidential Library & Museum
Primary sources from President FDR, including Speech Following the Pearl Harbor Attack
Revisions of President FDR's Pearl Harbor Speech Before Delivery
Pearl Harbor Through the Eyes of a LIFE Photographer
Indiana University Administrative War Council records, 1942-1945
Documents one university's response to the attack by implementing new policies, for example, military credit for students recruited mid-semester and mandatory nursing training for all female students. (Indiana Univ.)

World War Poster Collection
Propaganda Posters (Washington State University)
Loose Lips Sink Ships: A Look at WWII Propaganda Posters
Fold3 has an archive of WWII propaganda posters found in our Boston Public Library collection. Here you will find a few of those propaganda posters and a little about the artists that created them.

Densho Archives
The Densho Archives contain primary sources that document the Japanese American experience from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s, with a strong focus on the World War II mass incarceration.
FDR and Japanese American Internment
Materials from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, intended to reflect many sides of the issue.
The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive
The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS) was a research project initiated in 1942 at the University of California, Berkeley. It aimed to document and examine the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites. The Study also documented the resettlement phase in the city of Chicago. The collection is comprised of daily journals, field reports, life histories, and secondary research materials collected and compiled by the research staff. There is also extensive correspondence between staff, evacuees, and others. These records were deposited in the University Library in August 1948 by sociologist and Director of JERS, Dorothy Swaine Thomas.
Online Archive of the Japanese American Relocation during World War II
The digital archive is a searchable database of letters, papers, brochure, newspaper articles and other examples of primary source materials. Most prominent are the Letters and Papers of Remsen Bird. The correspondence offers a rich resource for learning more about the issues of higher education, civil liberties and actions of individuals during the forced evacuation of the Japanese Americans during World War II.
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA)
he Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA) contains thousands of primary sources documenting Japanese American internment
The War Relocation Authority & the Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II
This collection focuses on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The collection includes 62 documents totaling 911 pages covering the years 1942 through 1962. Supporting materials include oral history transcripts and photographs courtesy of the National Archives. (Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum)
National Archive
The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper. We save documents and other materials created in the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government that are judged to have continuing value.

Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb - Online Documents from the Truman Library & Museum (Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum)
This collection focuses on the decision to drop the atomic bomb. It includes 76 documents totaling 632 pages covering the years 1945 through 1964.
Atomic Bomb Decision: Documents on the Decision to use
Atomic Energy & Nuclear History Learning Curriculum
Digital exhibit with selected archive materials on The Manhattan Project, Civil Defense, Nuclear Engineering, and other topics. (Oregon State Univ.)
Atomic Heritage Foundation: Educational Research Center Documents the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age. Several links on this page point to the Directory of Documents, Directory of Photographs, etc.
Dedicated to supporting the Manhattan Project National Historical Park and capturing the memories of the people who harnessed the energy of the atom.
Hiroshima: Rare Film Footage After the Atomic Bombs (CNN)
The Nuclear Vault: Resources from the Nuclear Documentation Project
De-classified documents, photos, info, related reading lists, and links related to nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon policies, nuclear crises, and nuclear proliferation (in the U.S. and around the world) from the 1940s through the present. (George Washington Univ.)

HSS 300 - World War II: Primary Sources - Books, Databases & Websites

Finding and Identifying Primary Sources

Primary Source e-Books

Primary Sources on the web--WWII

Primary Sources in Databases

Websites to find 1940's primary sources

Websites by General Topic