Research Guides: HIS-299 Thomas Jefferson's America: Home

Your assignment

Your professor's research requirements for this assignment:

TOPIC AND PROSPECTUS
You should begin by choosing a primary source from Thomas Jefferson’s era (roughly 1740-1830). Your primary source does not have to be directly associated with Jefferson himself. You will use this primary source as a way to study a specific aspect of Jefferson’s era. Possible types of primary sources include:

Letters
Diaries, Journals, and Memoirs
Pamphlets
Contemporary Newspapers and Periodicals
Records of the Continental Congress
Presidential Papers and Other Government Documents
Contemporary Artwork and Music
Contemporary Literature

Once you have selected a primary source for your topic, email your selection to me for approval. Topics will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis. Two students may not work on the exact same topic. When choosing a topic, be sure to select a subject that interests you and a subject that has secondary sources readily available for you to consult for your research.

SOURCES
You must use both primary and secondary sources in your research paper. You must use at least five (5) secondary sources in addition to your primary source. Your secondary sources must be scholarly books and journal articles.

Online sources are acceptable for your primary source, but you may only use sources available on websites maintained by the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the United States armed forces, colleges and universities, research libraries, museums, and historical societies. Sources on any other type of website require my approval.

Primary Sources for this Assignment

Founders Online, hosted by the National Archives, includes the annotated correspondence and papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.

The American Presidency Project includes presidential public documents, which can be searched by name (Case Sensitive) and date in the advanced search.

Digital Public Library of America includes thousands of primary resources from the era 1740-1830. A preloaded search for all of the materials 1760-1830 returns hundreds of thousands of results. You can add words to the search by entering them in the search box at the top of the page.

The library subscribes to many newspapers from the era your class is studying, including:

Historical New York Times 1851-present
America's Historical Newspapers
Providence Journal 1829-present

Digitized presidential papers from the Library of Congress:

You can find Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs in the library's book catalog. Try adding the name of a person of interest in a catalog search using one of the types of resources Dr. Leeman recommends, such as:

The Journals of the Continental Congress are hosted by the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress' digitized images include photos, prints and drawings from 1700-1799 and 1800-1899. You can further limit by decade in the options on the left of the page.

The National Galleries have guides to Early American Painting and "Ten Artworks to Understand Early United States History"

The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts digitized versions of its collections and allows a search for early American artworks from 1600-1800 and 1800-1900.

Open the below padlet in a new window if you'd like.