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Gale Primary Sources brings the thoughts, words, and actions of past centuries into the present for a comprehensive research experience. With authoritative content and powerful search technologies, this platform has been thoughtfully designed to help students and researchers examine literary, political, and social culture of the last 500 years and develop a more meaningful understanding of how history continues to impact the world today. All of the collections on the Gale Primary Sources platform are meticulously indexed to improve discovery, analysis, and workflow for every user who is looking to push past the traditional boundaries of research. Learn more about our curation practices >>

Through short video clips, discover how the Gale Primary Sources platform unveils new research opportunities and enables unprecedented outcomes.

 

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New Gale Primary Sources Collections:

  • American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society, Part VII

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    This unique slice of the American experience, supplied in partnership with the American Antiquarian Society provides a history of the American people and a testament to the growth of the nation from the colonial period to the twentieth century. The periodicals in this release focus on American concerns and include rare, oversized periodicals not previously scanned simply due to their large format. A recent Society acquisition of a substantial corpus of illustrated periodicals is also included. Rounding out the new collection are titles from the society’s own significant periodical holdings.

    Key Facts

    Date range: 1812–1976
    Document type: Periodicals
    Source: American Antiquarian Society

  • Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2021

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    Initially focused on the financial and economic issues that were to become the predominant forces of the twentieth century, the Financial Times (FT) now rates as our preeminent international business daily, tirelessly reporting the foundational economic and financial events that have shaped the world for the past 130 years. FT’s unmatched reputation makes it an ideal companion to classroom instruction in a range of multidisciplinary subject areas. Every London edition issue, price and stock index, currency table, supplementary magazine, and special report are collected in this comprehensive folio of peerless business reportage—now with a new update spanning 2017 through December 2021, available for existing customers of the archive.

    Key Facts
    Date range: 1888-2021
    Document types: Newspapers, special reports 
    Source: Financial Times

  • State Papers Online Colonial: Asia, Part I: Far East, Hong Kong, and Wei-Hai-Wei

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    This wide-ranging collection forms the first part of State Papers Online Colonial, a digitization of the British Colonial Office’s files (CO series) of documents now housed in The National Archives in the United Kingdom. These documents record Britain’s administration and governance of Asian countries, their international relations across the period, and the changing demographics and daily life of their inhabitants. Colonial history continues to influence these now-independent countries today through chosen strategic alliances, institutional structures, and how they deal with the repercussions of their colonial legacy. These documents, mined with the help of cutting-edge handwritten text recognition (HTR) technology, explores that legacy through a vital new lens.

    Key Facts
    Date range: 1570–1967
    Document types: Original correspondence, entry books of incoming and outgoing letters, confidential print, maps
    Sources: The National Archives, United Kingdom

  • British Library Newspapers, Part VI: Ireland, 1783–1950

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    Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, this collection includes the most comprehensive range of national, regional, and local newspapers printed in Great Britain during this time that has ever been available in a digital program. Ideal for a historical review that supplies a telling counterpoint to purely Anglo-British narratives found in British national dailies, the issues compiled here provide irreplaceable firsthand voices to political, social, and cultural events throughout Ireland from the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. This collection is comprised of 108 unique titles of various sizes and aimed at supporting the growing number of North American university programs in Irish studies.

    Key Facts
    Date range: 1783–1950
    Document type: Newspapers
    Source: The British Library

  • Times Educational Supplement Historical Archive, 1910–2000

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    Since its first publication in 1910, Times Educational Supplement (TES) has proven to be one of the world’s most trusted and best-known education newspapers. More than a leading publication on primary and secondary education, it serves as a trove of important opinions, reviews, findings, and reportage on matters both related to and often beyond pedagogy, educational reform, and social policy. To complement Gale’s holdings with the Times family of newspapers, the new historical archive will collect the full run of TES through the twentieth century.

    Key Facts
    Date range: 1910–2000
    Document type: Newspapers
    Source: Times Educational Supplement

  • Decolonization: Politics and Independence in Former Colonial and Commonwealth Territories

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    This completely new standalone archive presents political ephemera and organizational material produced in over 70 countries around the world in an effort to demystify decolonization as a historical process. The documents herein help researchers target specifically the changing or adapting of systems from an imposed imperial or colonial structure after 1945 and up to the present day. They also shed light on the politics and processes of national political developments that followed decolonization, as well as the individuals who rose to power in the new systems, through which the former colonies negotiated their own agency and their own futures.

    Key Facts
    Date range: 1898–2017  
    Document types: Pamphlets and ephemera, including political campaign material such as manifestos, press releases, conference documents, reports, letters, and speech transcripts
    Sources: Senate House, United Kingdom; Trade Union Congress Library, London Metropolitan University (subject files); and Nuffield College, University of Oxford

  • Political Extremism and Radicalism, Part III: Global Communist and Socialist Movements

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    The third entry into this award-winning series exhaustively delivers rare, firsthand narratives chronicling communist, socialist, and Far Left groups and figures across the world’s capitalist nations. Explore political ideologies such as Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, Trotskyism, and anarchism across different countries, as well as the world’s response to the Russian Revolution,  the rise of the Soviet Union, and the Red Scare.

    Key Facts
    Date range: 1766–2004
    Document types: Correspondence, periodicals, manuscripts, books, personal papers, organizational records, letters and newsletters, pamphlets, and ephemera 
    Sources: University of California, Davis; Senate House Library, University of London; Yale University; Harvard Law School Library; New York University; The British Library; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and independent labor publications

Public Health Archives: Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970

Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970 provides scholars with materials that explore the fight for a national health care plan from the end of the Depression well into the 1960s. Content covers medical economics and sociology, medical care, legislation, and the role of key organizations and individuals. The collection’s documentation of the evolution of public health legislation, policies, and campaigns at local and federal levels supports the examination of our past while considering outcomes for our future.

Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II

Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II chronicles the plight of refugees and displaced persons across Europe, North Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1950 through correspondence, reports, studies, organizational and administrative files, and much more. It is the first multi-sourced digital collection to consider the global scope of the refugee crisis leading up to, through, and after World War II.

Religions of America

Religions of America presents scholars and researchers with more than 660,000 pages of content that follow the development of religions and religious movements born in the U.S. from 1820 to 1990. Derived from numerous collections, most notably the American Religions Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Religions of America traces the history and unique characteristics of movements through manuscripts, pamphlets, newsletters, ephemera, and visuals.

Platform Features & Tools

Term Frequency

Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, places, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.

Topic Finder

By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.

Cross-Search Capability

Search across the content of complementary primary source products, including books, in one united, intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.

Learn more about the Gale Primary Sources Platform »