Rounding Out Your Impression: Primary Sources

Glamour: 1865 (from Peterson's Magazine, January)

One benefit of reenacting 150(+) years in the past, is that the books, magazine, pamphlets, and newspapers of the time are in the public domain.  Yes, you can actually read the same papers that your ancestors got their news, humor, and fashion advice from.  Why not pick up a copy of Harper's and find some truly dreadful Victorian jokes to share around the next campfire?  Or regale your comrades with Mr. Foster's hit new song?

Here are some of the resources I've found useful for tracking down written primary sources from the 1850s-1860s.

The Library of Congress: It's not always the easiest to navigate when looking for a particular title, but they have tons of resources which are fun to browse.

Google Books (Advanced Search): One of the easiest ways to search for a particular topic is using this advanced search.  Enter your subject or title in the "all the words" bar ("leather work", "etiquette", "Godey's", "agriculture", "housework", etc.), check "full view only" (to get things you can read for free on-line) and set the year range (say 1855-1870).  Advanced tips: the "more editions" button can get you from the 1861 set of a magazine, to all the available years; compound words are sometimes spelled differently in the period: ie, "sunbonnet", "sun-bonnet", "sun bonnet"--if one search yields no hits, try varying the spelling.

Internet Archive: Less useful for subject-browsing that Google or LOC, Internet Archive can track down specific titles which the others may not have.  It's particularly nice for finding a whole year's worth of a magazine or newspaper (many period periodicals were published in bound volumes after the initial run of issues, and these are often what have survived in libraries and ended up posted on-line).

Project Gutenberg: If you know the title or author of a period book, you can search here: e-books, all public domain, and all free.  Unfortunately, I've never found a 'sort/exclude by date' option, so it's not easy to browse for specifically 1860s titles.

Harper's Weekly (and here): Probably the most famous of the national newspapers in the 1860s. Don't have time to read it all?  Check out the Cartoon of the Day.

And some of my specific favorites:

Links to Etiquette, Advice, and Household Books

Links to Literature and Sheet Music including the excellent Levy Sheet Music Collection from Johns Hopkins (allows you to search by title, subject, or instrumentation, and to limit the year range).

Links to Textbooks

Added 8/4/15: The British Library has an extensive collection of historic images from the 17th-19th centuries on their flicker account.  And they're all public domain!

Luminous-Lint has historic photographs (and information on the history of photography).