Primary Sources - Resource Guide

The American Indian Film Gallery (AIFG) is an online collection of more than 450 historic films by and about Native peoples of the Americas, compiled and digitized by historian J. Fred MacDonald over many years.

C-SPAN covers LIVE gavel-to-gavel floor proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives.
C-SPAN2 covers LIVE gavel-to-gavel floor proceedings of the U.S. Senate.
C-SPAN3 covers public affairs events, congressional hearings and history programming.

Includes primary source materials from libraries, museums, public broadcasters and other organizations.

The 8,000 videos in the collection cover many topics but share important qualities: they were created outside of corporate contexts; they teach us about the world and our common humanity; and they demonstrate artistry, skill, and creativity. Our full collection is available for free at mediaburn.org.
1969 to present

The PEN America Digital Archive captures more than 50 years of cultural programming at the intersection of literature and freedom of expression advocacy. With generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the digital archive makes available long-inaccessible but valuable public and private programming featuring the world’s foremost writers, intellectuals, and artists in candid and often heated discourse about the most relevant cultural and political issues of our times.

The Visual History Archive is an online portal from USC Shoah Foundation that allows users to search through and view 55,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides that have been catalogued and indexed at the Institute. These testimonies were conducted in 65 countries and in 43 languages.

First person conversations of survivors of the Holocaust.

PBS NewsHour is one of the most trusted news programs in television and online.

Aviator Amelia Earhart discusses the impact of science and innovation in the lives of women.

On April 11, 1951, President Harry Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command due to their disagreement over the handling of the Korean War. On April 19, 1951, after 52 years of military service, Gen. Douglas MacArthur delivers a farewell address to Congress, setting off a controversy among congressional members over whether or not the Joint Chiefs of Staff had approved the MacArthur plan for operations.

In a May 8, 1945, radio broadcast, President Harry Truman announces the unconditional surrender of Germany, but reminds Americans that the war wages on in the Far East.

Audio recordings

This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news

These newsreels offer a fascinating and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture and were a primary source of visual news reporting.