Research Guides: Historiography: Primary Sources from Government Documents

Government Resources

Government documents are considered primary documents and are any materials published by a government--village, city, county, state, and federal. They can include books, brochures, reports, videos, DVDs, journals, news releases, and a host of online content.

The library is a federal government depository and receives many United States government publications each month, and catalog links are provided to some of them on this page. Most of the links are to online government documents.

United States Census Information

United States Census--Online
Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000
Data tables are at the bottom of the working paper.
Foreign Born Population Data
You can find tables, data tools, and data sets on the foreign born population here.
Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990, Working paper
Note: links to tables are broken.
Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920
This census book is a government document. Lewis has many more censuses in the reference section going back to 1850, earlier online. Students doing social history need census information for their work.

Historical Statistics of the United States

Historical Statistics of the United States--Online
Historical Statistics of the United States is in two versions--the Lewis University 1975 online PDF edition and the Online database version.The online database version was originally a government document, but is now a privately published database compiled from United States census and other government statistical data.
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NOTE: Users Must be on campus to access the online Database version.

NOTE:

You can only access the historical statistics database ⇑ above ⇑ while on campus.

If you are off campus, use the link ⇓ below ⇓ instead. If you select the last option that reads parts I & II it is a bit easier to search.

Historical statistics of the United States: colonial times to 1970.

Slave Narratives

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.
Voices from the Days of Slavery, Audio Interviews
The almost seven hours of recorded interviews presented here took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings.
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All known recordings of former slaves in the American Folklife Center are included in this presentation. Some are being made publicly available for the first time and several others already available now include complete transcriptions. Unfortunately, not all the recordings are clearly audible. Although the original tapes and discs are generally in good physical condition, background noise and poorly positioned microphones make it extremely difficult to follow many of the interviews.

Library of Congress: Votes for Women

National American Woman Sufferage Association Records
The NAWSA Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. They are a subset of the Library's larger collection donated by Carrie Chapman Catt, longtime president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in November of 1938. The collection includes works from the libraries of other members and officers of the organization including: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Mary A. Livermore.

Public Papers of the United States Presidents Online

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States online
The official publication of United States Presidents' public writings, addresses, and remarks is published by the Federal Register. The Public Papers of the Presidents are available online for the following--Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama.

Vietnam War - Government Information

Vietnam War--Government Documents
This Vietnam War Research Guide site provides online government documents relating to the Vietnam War on solder memories, statistics, national records, historical narratives, and Marine and Army histories of the war.

Primary Documents in American History

Primary Documents in American History
Primary Documents in American History provides links to materials digitized from the collections of the Library of Congress that supplement and enhance the study of these crucial documents.

The links provided highlight eras of American History. Each of these sections link to a list of important documents from that era. For each item on these lists there is a page with background information about the document.