Digitized Primary American History Sources



Adams Family Papers



AMDOCS



Also known as Documents for the Study of American History, AMDOCS indexes and links to hundreds of primary sources in U.S. history from the 15th century to the 21st, most of which reside on the University of Kansas server.

American Historical Association



Archives Wiki is sponsored by the American Historical Association. It is intended to be a clearinghouse of information about archival resources throughout the world. While it is primarily designed to be useful to historians and others doing historical research, we hope that researchers in many disciplines will find it useful.

American History



American History: A Documentary Record, 1492 - 1973 is a searchable collection of charters, constitutions, declarations, treaties and other documents relating to the topic from Yale Law School's Avalon Project. Primary sources.

American Presidency Project State of the Union Data



“The American Presidency Project is the only online resource that has consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database:

•The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913)

•The Public Papers of the Presidents:

Hoover to Bush (1929-1993)

•The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:

Clinton - G.W. Bush (1993-2007)”

Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Documents



A searchable collection of declarations, papers, treaties and other documents relating to the topic from the Yale Law School Avalon Project. Documents range from 700+ BC to the 15th century. Primary sources.

Archive for the History of Economic Thought



". . . an attempt to gather all material for the study of the history of economics at one site. This includes both primary texts, studies of those texts and of their authors."

Asian American History Resources on the World Wide Web



Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938



“Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress and includes more than 200 photographs from the Prints and Photographs Division that are now made available to the public for the first time.”





Provides a broad range of primary and secondary texts, art works, study guides, an e-book library, a history time-line, information on ceremonies and rituals, and a global directory of Buddhist organizations.

Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair 1886-1887



Cold War



The Cold War is a collection of documents relating to airplane incidents, the Cuban Missile Crisis, treaties, etc. from Yale Law School's Avalon Project. Primary sources

Cold War International History Project



Copyright & Fair Use



Categories of links include: Primary Materials, Current Legislation, Cases and Issues, Resources on the Internet, and Overview of Copyright Law .

Daguerreotype Collection



“The Library's daguerreotype collection consists of more than 725 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Portrait daguerreotypes produced by the Mathew Brady studio make up the major portion of the collection. The collection also includes early architectural views by John Plumbe, several Philadelphia street scenes, early portraits by pioneering daguerreotypist Robert Cornelius, studio portraits by black photographers James P. Ball and Francis Grice, and copies of painted portraits.”

Digital History: Using new technologies to enhance teaching and research



Digitized Primary American History Sources



This is an extensive bibliography of primary sources.

Early Virginia Religious Petitions



“Early Virginia Religious Petitions presents images of 423 petitions submitted to the Virginia legislature between 1774 and 1802 from more than eighty counties and cities. Drawn from the Library of Virginia's Legislative Petitions collection, the petitions concern such topics as the historic debate over the separation of church and state championed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the rights of dissenters such as Quakers and Baptists, the sale and division of property in the established church, and the dissolution of unpopular vestries. The collection provides searchable access to the petitions' places of origin and a brief summary of each petition's contents, as well as summaries of an additional seventy-four petitions that are no longer extant.”

Electronic Reading Room



Foreign Relations of the United States



“The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian and printed volumes are available from the Government Printing Office.”

Foreign Relations of the United States 1964-1968, Volume XXVII

Mainland Southeast Asia; Regional Affairs



Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library



Free Ebook Library



“About these titles: over 2,100 publicly-available e-books including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, the Bible, Shakespeare, American history, African-American documents, and much more.”

Freedom of Information (FOI)



Freedom of Information Act Program



The Friend of Man at Cornell University Library



Friend of Man is one of the most significant and little studied newspapers documenting early anti-slavery and other reform movements. The periodical is of special significance because with the exception of religion, scholars know little about the resources of social movements in rural areas such as Central New York, where Friend of Man was published.

Cornell is truly fortunate to have a close to complete set of Friend of Man , 281 issues, published from 1836 - 1842.

From Slavery to Freedom



From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909 is a catalog in 5 parts to a collection of 397 pamphlets dealing with slavery, abolition, and civil rights.

Government Views of Iraq



"The War with Iraq is front-burner news. Here are some online primary resources to help fill in the background. This site concentrates on Government documents and information about Iraq. While the bulk of the resources are from the United States, there are resources from Britain, other members of the "Coalition of the Willing" and the United Nations as well.

Resources include U.S. Congressional Hearings and Resolutions, Federal Agency reports, transcripts of press conferences and the CENTCOM briefings, USAID Fact Sheets, Legislation, Presidential Communications, United Nations Security Council Resolutions, etc. Topics covered include general background information, the Sanctions imposed upon Iraq in 1990, as well as the subsequent Oil-for-Food Programme agreed to by the United Nations Secretariat and Iraq, the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, Agriculture & Forestry, Captured Iraqi Documents, Gulf War 1990-1991, Halabja, Health, History, Human Shields, Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988, No-Fly Zones, Marine & Maritime, People, POWs & MIAs, Refugees & Displaced Persons, Energy Resources, Human Rights, Legal Resources, Religious Freedom, Reconstruction, Women and examples of the Leaflets dropped over Iraq by Coalition aircraft.

History at the Department of Labor



Indochina - Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos



A collection of declarations, papers, treaties and other documents relating to the topic; 1950-1964. From Yale Law School's Avalon Project. Primary sources.

International Military Tribunal

The Nuremberg Trials Collection

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook



The table of contents links to hundreds of ancient historical documents and commentary both on Fordham University's server and elsewhere.

Internet Medieval History Sourcebook



Includes an index to hundreds of medieval historical documents and commentary both on Fordham University's server and elsewhere.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook



Links to hundreds of modern historical documents and commentary both on Fordham University's server and elsewhere.

Liberty Library



The Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics is a list of over 100 classic documents in the public domain relating to political theory which are stored, or planned to be stored, on the Constitution Society server.

Internet Women's History Sourcebook



Introduction to the American Slave Narratives



Learn About Westward Expansion



Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web:



Making of America (Cornell)



A searchable collection of over 250 monographs and 100,000 articles from 1814-1926; particularly strong in the sciences and social sciences. Viewable as images, pdf, or text. Some are primary sources.

Making of America (Michigan)



"Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints."

Manuscript Reading Room

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

“A collection of twenty-five thousand manuscripts which had accumulated throughout the nineteenth century, chiefly through the purchase in 1867 of Peter Force's collection of Americana, the gift in 1882 of Joseph M. Toner's collection relating to George Washington and American medical history, and several small transfers from the Smithsonian Institution. In 1903, by an act of Congress and an executive order, the State Department began transferring historical papers, including several presidential collections, which had been acquired by the federal government.”

Middle East Historical and Peace Process Documents



"MidEast Web was started by people active in Middle East dialog and peace education efforts. Our goal is to weave a world-wide web of Arabs, Jews and others who want to build a new Middle East based on coexistence and neighborly relations."

Documents are accompanied by explanatory notes. Includes primary source

Miller Center of Public Affairs



Between 1940 and 1973, six American presidents from both political parties secretly recorded just under 5,000 hours of their meetings and telephone conversations.

Through a combination of historical research and annotated transcripts the Miller Center's Presidential Recordings Program aims to make these remarkable historical sources more accessible to scholars, teachers, students, and the public.

National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection 1842-1921



The NAWSA Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. They are a subset of the Library's larger collection donated by Carrie Chapman Catt, longtime president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in November of 1938. The collection includes works from the libraries of other members and officers of the organization including: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Mary A. Livermore.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections:



North American Slave Narratives



Narratives and biographies of fugitive and former slaves published in broadsides, pamphlets, or books up to 1920 collected by the libraries of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and hosted by . Primary sources.

Office of the Secretary of Defense/ Joint Staff FOIA Requester Service Center



Online Videos



Oral History Index



Primary Documents in American History



“The initial release of this Web site contains documents from the years 1763 to 1877. Updates will be made on a regular basis, including the addition of documents from the 20th Century.”

Probing the Past



Probate records provide valuable information about the lifestyles of people during the colonial and early national periods. Such listings of possessions, from a time when household goods were not widely mass-produced, illuminate a family’s routines, rituals, and social relations, as well as a region’s economy and connection to larger markets. They also shed light on attitudes and policies toward slavery. For famous people, these records enrich our knowledge and understanding of their daily lives and values. For ordinary people, they offer a rare glimpse into their lived experience. These records also provide an opportunity to engage in comparative studies with other eras and to analyze how culture changes over time.

Public Record Office of the National Archives



Repositories of Primary Sources:



Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery and Civil War Collections



The Cornell University Library owns one of the richest collections of anti-slavery and Civil War materials in the world, thanks in large part to Cornell's first President, Andrew Dickson White, who developed an early interest in both fostering, and documenting the abolitionist movement and the Civil War.

Anti-Slavery Resources

•

Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

"I Will be Heard!" Abolitionism in America

•

Library of Congress - American Memory: The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship

•

Library of Congress - Born in Slavery Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938 American Memory

•

The Frederick Douglas Papers - American Memory Library of Congress

•

National Archives of Canada - The Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada

•

National Geographic - The Underground Railroad

•

Spartacus Educational - The Anti-Slavery Society

•

The Vermont Historical Society - The Underground Railroad Project

Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image



"SCETI, a fully integrated digital library, was created in 1996 to publish virtual facsimiles of rare books and manuscripts in the Penn Library's collections. Its ongoing mission is to make accessible to the global community of scholars and researchers primary source materials that would otherwise be difficult to access. The site is free and open to all in the interests of knowledge and learning."

Virtual copies of rare books and manuscripts from the 9th through the 20th centuries in the Library's collections.

Secession Era Editorials Project



“Most of the documents found in the FDR Library Digital Archives come from the collection known as the President's Secretary's File, or PSF. The PSF is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or subject, and is divided into five series: The Safe Files, The Confidential Files, The Diplomatic Files, The Departmental Files, and The Subject Files.”

Special Collections Virtual Reading Room



“This site offers patrons an exciting variety of historical resources ranging from fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts to current Mississippiana, primary source materials from the Civil War to Civil Rights, and one of the leading children's literature collections in the United States, the de Grummond Collection. Archival collections include papers from such significant Mississippians as Theodore G. Bilbo, William M. Colmer, and Paul B. Johnson.”

State Department Collections-Declassified State Department & Other Agency Documents



The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

“The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) provides access through group or item records to more than 50% of the Division's holdings, as well as to some images found in other units of the Library of Congress. Many of the catalog records are accompanied by digital images--about one million digital images in all.”

The Rosenberg Trials



The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War



Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869



“incorporates 49 diaries, in 59 volumes, of pioneers trekking westward across America to Utah, Montana, and the Pacific between 1847 and the meeting of the rails in 1869. In addition to the diaries, the collection includes 43 maps, 82 photographs and illustrations, and 7 published guides for immigrants. Stories of persistence and pain, birth and death, God and gold, trail dust and debris, learning, love, and laughter, and even trail tedium can be found in these original "on the trail" accounts. The collection tells the stories of Mormon pioneer families and others who were part of the national westering movement, sharing trail experiences common to hundreds of thousands of westward migrants. The source materials are drawn from the collections of Brigham Young University, members of the Utah Academic Libraries Consortium, and other archival institutions in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho.”

Vietnam War Bibliography



A bibliography of primary and secondary sources on the Vietnam War in paper and online. Organized into eighteen sub-groups: Online Resources; Overviews and Reference; Airpower & Navy; Army & Marines; China and USSR; Ethics, Legality; Fiction, Poetry; Films, Music, Popular Culture; Home Front, Public Opinion, Peace Movements; North Vietnam, VietCong, Cambodia, Laos; Origins, Personal Accounts, Reporting; Reference and Historiography; Soldiers, Medical Nursing, POWs & Veterans; South Vietnam, Pacification; US Alies; Washington Perspective: Pentagon; Washington Perspective: White House, State Department, Diplomacy.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000



“52 document projects that interpret and present documents, most of which are not otherwise available online. Each document project poses an interpretive question and provides a collection of documents that address the question. Altogether these document projects provide more than 1,250 documents, 450 images, and 500 links to other websites”

Women in American History



Articles on hundreds of American women from 1600 to modern times. Some primary sources.

Also included are documents, audio clips, and a study guide.

Copyright 1999 Encyclodia Britannica, Inc.

World War I Document Archive



"The archive is international in focus and intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War." From the Great War Primary Document Archive, a non-profit corporation. Primary sources.

World War II Documents



A searchable collection of declarations, papers, treaties and other primary sources relating to the topic from Yale Law School's Avalon Project.

WTO Seattle Collection



Online Collections of historical primary documents are available on the Internet. Examples include:

• AMDOCS:

• American Civil War Homepage:

• American Experience (PBS):

(Archives):

• American Studies Web: Historical and Archival Resources:

• America's Story:

• Archives Online, Singapore:

• Civil War Primary Documents:

• EuroDocs:

• Grolier’s WWII Commemoration:

• History Matters:

• HistoryNet:

• History On-line:

• History Place:

• Historical New York Times Project:

• Historical Text Archive:

• Internet History Sourcebooks Project:

• IPL Presidents of the U.S. (Includes Primary Sources):

• Making of America:

• National Endowment for the Humanities: EDSITEment:

• National Security Archive:

• NYPL Digital Library:

• Primary Documents relating to WW II:

• Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture:

• SunSITE Digital Collections (Berkeley):

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives:

• U.S. National Archives:

• Virtualology Primary Resources:

•

• War Page:

• World War I Document Archive:

• World War II Primary Resources:

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In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

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