Primary Source Research in International Relations (SAIS)
Primary Collections Books & Online
Catalyst and WorldCat can be used to search for archival material which has been published in books, which are more easily accessible than going to a physical archive.
Pair a subject heading(s) with subject keywords such as "sources", "diaries", "interviews", "pamphlets, "correspondence", "personal narratives", "archival resources". Some examples:
- south africa and history and personal narratives
- united states and relations and cuba and sources
- cold war and correspondence
- soviet union and revolution and pamphlets
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JHU Digital Primary SourcesList of JHU subscription databases which provide digitized primary materials.
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Access to Archival Databases (AAD)Full-text resources from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
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Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowSearches multiple primary document databases at one time, including Gale's historical newspaper collections.
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AM Explorer This link opens in a new windowA quick and convenient way to search all Adam Matthew digital archive collections at one time. Documents are generally sourced are from the National Archives, UK.
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History Vault This link opens in a new windowContains a wealth of archival materials covering politics, military and the U.S. civil rights struggle.
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Archives Unbound This link opens in a new windowMultiple document collections covering a broad range of topics, including World War II and 20th century political history.
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Archives Direct This link opens in a new windowA suite of collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew - the UK government's official archive.
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Library of Congress Digital CollectionsIncludes digitized documents, photographs, historical newspapers, and audiovisual collections.
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Founders Early Access This link opens in a new windowWhen complete, this database will include papers of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.
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Georgian Papers OnlineDigitized material dating from the reigns of George III to William IV.
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Ba'ath Party RecordsCollection held by Stanford's Hoover Institution and viewable in a DC location.
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Mitrokhin ArchiveConsists of summarized notes taken by Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin, a former KGB archivist who defected to the United Kingdom after the fall of the Soviet Union.
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Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800The War Department was responsible for internal security, governance, and diplomacy as well as military affairs in the newly established United States of America.
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Trove - National Library of AustraliaAustralian online resources
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Wilson Center Digital Archives International History DeclassifiedCollections contain selected sets of historical documents related to a specific topic, region, or event.
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League of Nations Archives (LONTAD)Project to digitize the entire League of Nations Archives, estimated to contain some 15 million pages of content.
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NATO e-LibraryIncludes official & basic texts, NATO Archives, NATO multimedia library, and more.
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Israel State ArchivesDigitized documents in Hebrew and some in English
- Last Updated: May 16, 2025 9:23 AM
- URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/primary_IR
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