Primary Source Databases
Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. It may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies. May also include photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts. For more information see Primary & Secondary Sources on the libraries website.
- African blue books, 1821-1953Digitized copies of some of the standardized annual Blue Books submitted by British colonial administrators in Africa to the British Colonial Office. Contains statistics relating to African countries prior to independence.
- Annual Departmental Reports Relating to Southern Rhodesia 1895-1980Part of the British Online Archives, these annual reports illustrate the dramatic historical development of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) from corporate colonization, through imperial colonization, to independence. Reports include administration, Auditor General, Accounting Estimates, Miscellaneous Financial Records, Judicial and Police, Natural Resources, Social Services, Transport and Public Works, Communications and Post Office Savings, Commerce, Corporations and Boards, Meteorology, Public Relations and Tourism.
- Annual Departmental Reports Relating to Uganda 1903-1961art of the British Online Archives, the database contains annual reports of British colonial administrators in the Protectorate of Uganda. These reports provide valuable and detailed information as to the development of the Protectorate Government's administrative, professional and technical services. Excellent source for primary source materials on education, medical care, judiciary, housing and treatment of the native population.
Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980Apartheid South Africa is a primary source database containing British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980. Content includes diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events. The files explore the relationship of the international community with South Africa and chart increasing civil unrest against a backdrop of waning colonialism in Africa and mounting world condemnation. The database is in three sections: 1948-1966, 1967-1975 and 1976-1980.- Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966An important resource for researching modern Africa and its recent history. It provides access to a wealth of primary sources regarding the United Kingdom’s Colonial, Dominion and Foreign Offices’ confidential correspondence relating to Africa between 1834 and 1966. Materials includes reports, dispatches, correspondence, descriptions of leading personalities, economic analyses etc., also features 300 color maps.
- Empire OnlineContains original manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' (with emphasis on the British empire), and its theories, practices and consequences. Includes scholarly interpretive essays. The materials span across the last five centuries.
- South African Archives of the USPGThis collection from the Archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel contains materials on the Society’s work dating from their earliest connection with South Africa. Materials include letters written to the SPG, by the bishop, missionaries, and by other persons such as administrators; Annual Reports written by missionaries about the area and their work.
Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
Ohio University Libraries is a member of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. CRL has in its collections many African newspapers, journals, documents, doctoral dissertations, archives, and other traditional and digital resources. CRL also houses the Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP) collections. CAMP preserves publications and archives concerning the nearly fifty nations of Sub-Saharan Africa and makes them available on microform. These collections are available to members through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. You can search the CRL catalog for titles we do not own and request it through interlibrary loan.