Research Seminar on Canada in the 20th Century
Course Number: HI480
Subject: History
Primary sources exist in either a physical or digital format. This page provides select links to both freely available and Library subscription-based digitized collections relevant to 20th century Canadian history. Keep in mind not all sources are digitized, or even digitized well.
See the full list of the Library's subscription-based primary source databases. Databases of interest for this course are highlighted in the following categories.
University Collections
Freely available
- Laurier Archives and Special Collections
- McGill University Digital Collectons
- Open Collections (UBC)
- Peel's Prairie Provinces
- SFU Digital Collections
- University of Toronto Local Digital Special Collections
- University of Victoria Digital Collections
Many University collections have also been loaded onto the Internet Archive - Canadian Libraries
Library subscriptions
- First World War
- Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters
- Indigenous Peoples of North America
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
The Library is a member of the Centre for Research Libraries, an organization which collects microfilm collections and sends reels upon request.
Government Collections
- Library and Archives Canada
- Canada's national collection of books, historical documents, government records, photos, films, maps, music, etc.
- Canada Census
- University of Toronto descriptor page
- Canada Gazette
- The official newspaper of the Government of Canada, 1841-1997
- Canada Year Book Historical Collection
- Official Canadian statistical annual from 1867 -1967
- Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
- Parliamentary publications from 1867-1996
Newspaper Collections
Consult the Library's News Articles page
Book Collections
Use WorldCat and/or Omni to identify and confirm bibliographic information of publications. Remember that primary sources can also exist in a republished format, as in this example.
- Before E-Commerce: A History of Canadian Mail Order Catalogues
- Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides (UofT)
- Canadiana - Monographs
- Champlain Society Digital Collection
- Early Canadiana Online
- HathiTrust Digital Library
- Internet Archive
Theses and Disserations
- Dissertations & Theses: Full Text (ProQuest) 1861 to present
Journal and Magazines
Use WorldCat and/or Omni to identify and confirm bibliographic information of publications.
- Canadiana - Serials
- Canadian Trade Journals (Internet Archive)
- Internet Archive
- JSTOR (potential as primary and secondary sources)
- Macleans (1905-2005)
- Periodicals Archive Online