Guides: Disability Studies: Find Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases

History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century
This collection demonstrates how society has presented and treated individuals with disabilities historically. Materials in this collection include personal memoirs, records of treatments, methods of education, forms of remediation, and reports, proceedings, and policies of organizations and institutions that sought to help or heal those with disabilities.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)
A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century, NCCO is comprised of numerous collections, including a variety of material types--monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more--in one cross-searchable location. Collections now available are:

Asia and the West
British Politics and Society
British Theatre, Music and Literature: High & Popular Culture
Children's Literature and Childhood
Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture
European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790-1840
Maps and Travel Literature
Photography
Religion, Reform, and Society
Science, Technology, and Medicine, Parts I & II
Women and Transnational Networks

Disability History Museum
Hosts a library of virtual artifacts, education curricula, and museum exhibits, designed to foster research and study about the historical experiences of people with disabilities and their communities.
Nineteenth-Century Disability Cultures & Contexts
An interdisciplinary collection of primary texts and images about physical and cognitive disability in the long nineteenth century.
Research the Americans with Disabilities Act
National Archives records that relate to American citizens with disabilities. From personal letters to historic legislation, these records provide insight into efforts over the past century to establish programs and to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
Rooted in Rights
Rooted in Rights tells authentic, accessible stories to challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health and chronic illness.