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HIST 3301 (Dr. Stuntz): Historical Methods

Finding Primary Sources

The other boxes on this page offer a few suggestions and possibilities for primary source research but are only the beginning.

To discover primary sources generally, try these approaches:

  • Scour the bibliographies and notes of relevant secondary sources such as articles, books, and dissertations on your topic. They are necessarily drawing on relevant primary sources. We may or may not have access then to those primary sources.
  • Search in our catalog or in WorldCat and include these subject terms: Personal narratives, Facsimiles, Diaries, Correspondence, Sources. Alternately, try including document? [in our catalog] or document* [in WorldCat] as a key word for mentions of "documents" or "documentary" in the title or description.

Digital Collections

Newspaper collections

We have microfilm and digital newspaper collections of many different titles & eras. For detail, please see the Newspapers page of our general primary sources guide.

Notable Print Items Here

  • The La Salle expedition to Texas : the journal of Henri Joutel, 1684-1687
  • Diary of the Alarcón expedition into Texas, 1718-1719 / by Fray Francisco Céliz ; translated by Fritz Leo Hoffmann.
  • Mary Austin Holley : the Texas diary, 1835-1838
  • Letters of hard times in Texas, 1840-1890 / compiled by David Holman ; with an introduction by Joe B. Frantz.
  • Documents of Texas History is a one-volume collection of over 120 primary source documents. Copies of the older edition are on both the Loan Shelves and Reference Shelves. The newer edition is on the Reference Shelves.
  • The personal correspondence of Sam Houston.
  • The news from Brownsville : Helen Chapman's letters from the Texas military frontier, 1848-1852
  • The Civil War in west Texas and New Mexico : the lost letterbook of Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley

For location and availability information, search in our catalog.

Microform collections

These collections are primarily located on the 2nd floor, in cabinets near the back staircase, and are arranged there alphabetically by collection title.

Texas as a Province and Republic 1795-1845
An excellent collection of valuable primary source material relating to the early growth of Texas, including its time as Spanish province, its colonization by Americans, its revolution, and its annexation by the United States.
A detailed bibliography is on a bookcase near the Periodicals service desk.
Microfilm
National Archives : Records of the Work Projects Administration
1. Central Correspondence 1935-1944, State Series Texas
2. Selected Documents Relating to Road Construction in Texas
Microfilm. Two rolls altogether.
County Tax Rolls
Potter County tax rolls from 1879-1921 and Randall County tax rolls from 1881-1921.
Microfilm. 16 reels. (Most also include other counties.)

Statistics

More on Primary Sources

For more on primary sources from Cornette Library, please see our detailed guide.