U.S. History and American Studies 

If you want to find primary sources quickly, go to Orbis and do a keyword search while adding the term "sources" to your search string.  For instance, go to Orbis and try a keyword search for "slavery" and "sources".  That will bring up primary sources on slavery.  This is hardly a comprehensive look at Yale collections in this area, but it will give you results quickly, which is sometimes what students want.  An even quicker way to find primary sources is to use some of the databases on the main page of this guide.  Taking just one example, the Lexis Nexis Congressional database contains government publications dating to the first Congress in 1789.

For a more thorough search for primary sources, especially those found in the many archival repositories in the Yale University Library system, consult this website.

Some of the tools one can use to find these sorts of collections include:

• Orbis is the main tool for finding primary source collections; use the "more limits" feature to find primary sources.



• Yale Finding Aid Database is another tool for finding archival collections at Yale. 
  

• Worldcat is the most complete source for finding collections around the world.

• Archive Grid is also a great tool for finding collections, both at Yale and beyond, though it's not as complete as Worldcat.

• Archive Finder is another tool for finding manuscript collections.  The best use of Archive Finder is the repository search, which you can use to find archives in specific geographic locations.