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Digital History Resources

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Primary Sources

  • 19th Century US Newspaper Archive - Provide access to 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century.
  • Accessible Archives - Full-text of 18th and 19th century newspapers.
  • African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century - Full-text of seven publications.
  • The American presidency project - 67,000 documents to date, covering all 43 presidencies and including public papers, executive orders, proclamations, addresses, and press conferences from many of the presidencies.
  • American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography - Full-text collection of autobiographies of former slaves in the United States.
  • American Women Through Time - The site includes about 550 links, and offers two approaches for the study of specific time periods in American women's history
  • An Era of Progress and Promise -  a comprehensive portrait of early African-American schools, colleges, and churches as well as biographies of African-American educators, ministers, and influential businessmen.
  • The Atlas of Early Printing - An open-access production of the University of Iowa Libraries, a teaching tool that offers a graphic depiction of the spread of printing up to the year 1500.
  • British History Online - digital library of sources for British history, county/local, London, and parliamentary history
  • Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887 - showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadslides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair owned by the Chicago Historical Society (CHS).
  • The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925 - These printed texts, selected specifically from the libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are primarily books with a few pamphlets and journal articles. The collection traces how Southern African Americans experienced disenfranchisement, segregation, and bigotry.
  • Civil Rights Battles, in Black and White - part of “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968,”
  • CQ Historic Documents - Published annually since 1972, the Historic Documents Series contains 32 volumes of primary sources covering the most significant political events of the year.
  • Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project -  preserved testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished.
  • Early American Newspapers - Hundreds of historic newspapers 1690-1876.
  • Elon History Timeline -  A History of Elon from 1889 when the school was chartered through current
  • The End of Tobacco Road - Scenes from Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company’s Final Days in Durham, North Carolina, 1999
  • EuroDocs: primary historical documents from Western Europe - Prehistoric & Ancient Europe, Medieval & Renaissance Europe, Europe as a Supranational Region
  • The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress - consists primarily of the papers that were in Douglass's library when he died in 1895. The first online release includes 2,000 items and 16,000 images, which show the wide range of his activities and interests.
  • The Guilford County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions - land transactions, wills, and criminal cases, but also slave manumissions, Loyalist land confiscations, and the daily workings of early Guilford County.
  • The Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online - fascinating digital project  consists primarily of summary transcripts of 705 interviews conducted with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War.
  • HeritageQuest - Research materials for tracing family history and American culture.
  • Historical Statistics of the United States - Presents the numerical history of the United States. Covers virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations.
  • History Matters: The U.S. Survey on the Web - this site serves as a gateway to Web resources and offers unique teaching materials, first-person primary documents and threaded discussions on teaching U.S. history.
  • The Holocaust Chronicle - the online version of the book "The Holocaust Chronicle", published by Publications International, Ltd in April 2000
  • The Holocaust History Project - The Holocaust History Project is a free archive of documents, photographs, recordings, and essays regarding the Holocaust, including direct refutation of Holocaust-denial.
  • Homeland Security Digital Library -  over 60,000 U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources from universities, organizations and local and state agencies.
  • Homicide in Chicago 1870 - 1930 - Interactive database, historical photographs, illustrations and newspaper clippings
  • Images of Empire - Images of Empire from the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum (British Colonial period)
  • In the first person - in-depth index of more than 3,350 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world.
  • The James Madison papers - digital images  from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress.
  • Jet Magazine - Black American History at its best. Copies of the magazine back to the 1950's.
  • Judaica Papers and Collection -  the papers and collections of  William A. Rosenthall, rabbi, scholar, and collector of Judaica.
  • Judaica Sound Archives - sound recordings from numerous format, sources, and genres.  Judaica recordings of music, liturgy, humor, and theater.
  • National Archives Online Public Access - searches all web pages on Archives.gov, and presents those pages in the search results along with any catalog records, biographies or histories from the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) and electronic records from Access to Archival Databases (AAD). 
  • National Humanities Center - A focus on teaching and teacher training on the secondary level. On the Toolbox Library tab, Primary Resources in US History and Literature (for classroom use)
  • National Security Archives - provide online access to critical declassified records on specific issues, including U.S. national security, foreign policy, military history, intelligence policy, and more.
  • NewsBank Retrospective - Full-text news articles from 1970-1999, including firsthand reports and varying regional perspectives.
  • NC MOSAIC - Managing, Organizing, and Strengthening Access to Institutional Collections 
  • North Carolina Maps - online collection of historic maps of the Tar Heel State
  • North American Women's Letters & Diaries - Over 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials depicting the personal experiences of hundreds of women. Colonial times to 1950.
  • Official Documents of the United Nations - ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Older UN documents are, however, added to the system on a daily basis. ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.
  • Linus Pauling research notebooks - 46 handwritten, bound notebooks covering 1922-94 containing research notes, calculation, data, theories , and conclusions in various scientific disciplines.
  • ProQuest Historical Newspapers - Full-text access to the complete archives of The New York Times (1851-2003), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1989), The Christian Science Monitor (1908-1993), The Washington Post (1877-1990), and other leading newspapers.
  • Religion Online - This site has thousands of full-text articles on Religious Studies, but its focuses are Christianity and Sociology
  • Sanborn Maps North Carolina - Historical maps of North Carolina.
  • Scripps Library - The American Presidency from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
  • The September 11 Digital Archive - uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the history of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania and the public responses to them.
  • Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection, 1903-1980 - The Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection of approximately 100,000 negatives documents the people and places of Utah and the surrounding states between 1903 and 1980. The Utah State Historical Photograph Collection
  • Sunday School Books: Shaping the Values of Youth in the Nineteenth Century - presents 163 Sunday school books published in America between 1815 and 1865, drawn from the collections of Michigan State University Libraries and the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University Libraries. They document the culture of religious instruction of youth in America during the Antebellum era.
  • Texas Slavery Project - takes a deep look at the expansion of slavery in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico in the years between 1837 and 1845.
  • The Times of London Digital Archive - Provides the full text of of the newspaper from 1785 to 1985.
  • Transforming the Tar Heel State: The Legacy of Public Libraries in North Carolina  - a statewide collaborative digital project that celebrates North Carolina public libraries by providing access to digital versions of historical photographs, postcards, reports, dedications, and other unique materials  
  • Travel WNC - The online digital exhibit includes images and commentary about 27 towns and communities in western North Carolina over five decades.  Photographs and documents can be accessed from a searchable database.
  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - unnecessary tragedy involving the death of many young working women in a New York City sweatshop at the beginning of the 20th century
  • U.S. Serial Set - The U.S. Serial Set is a collection of U.S. Government publications compiled under directive of the Congress. It contains comprehensive and often detailed information on an extremely wide range of subjects. Coverage 1789-1969.
  • Vanderbilt Television News-Archive - 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including ABC's Nightline since 1989.
  • The Vietnam Project - Texas Tech University, the Vietnam Center, The Virtual Vietnam Archive, The Oral History Project and the Vietnam Archive
  • Woman, Church, and State by Mathilda Joslyn Gage - This is the COMPLETE 1893 version of this much ignored and suppressed, very well received and important feminist statement. A historical account of the status of woman through the Christian Ages with Reminiscences of the Matriarchate
  • Women and the Holocaust - a cyberspace of their own
  • Women Working, 1800 - 1930 Harvard libraries - focuses on women's role in the United States economy
  • Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority - documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period

     

Historical Documents

  • The American presidency project - 67,000 documents to date, covering all 43 presidencies and including public papers, executive orders, proclamations, addresses, and press conferences from many of the presidencies.
  • Colonial and State Records of North Carolina - a twenty-six volume set of transcribed and published historical documents, with a four-volume master index.
  • The Emma Goldman Papers - an advocate of free speech, birth control, women's equality and independence, unionization, pacifism, and socialism.
  • The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress - consists primarily of the papers that were in Douglass's library when he died in 1895. The first online release includes 2,000 items and 16,000 images, which show the wide range of his activities and interests.
  • The James Madison papers - digital images  from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress.
  • North Carolina Family Records Online - Bible records contain family history information dating from the 1700s or earlier and span over 150 years.  fully searchable.
  • Official Documents of the United Nations - ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Older UN documents are, however, added to the system on a daily basis. ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.
  • Linus Pauling research notebooks - 46 handwritten, bound notebooks covering 1922-94 containing research notes, calculation, data, theories , and conclusions in various scientific disciplines.

Digital/History

 State Histories

  • AlabamaMosaic - a repository of digital materials on Alabama's history, culture, places, and people.
  • Dictionary of Wisconsin History - explains more than 8000 terms (people, places, things and events) in writings about the history of Wisconsin
  • Digital Library of Georgia - provides access to the history and cultural heritage as found in manuscripts, photographs, books, newspapers, maps, and audio/video resources
  • The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture - about the rich history, geography, and culture.
  • Encyclopedia of Chicago - Historical sources, maps, special features
  • Florida Memory Project - Historical records, educational resources, and archival collections
  • Illinois Harvest -  organized and thematic access to digitized and born-digital resources about Illinois
  • NCpedia - Entries highlight famous North Carolinians, including all past governors. You can also read about events in the state's history or view a timeline that covers events related to different cultural themes
  • Nebraska Memories - Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials
  • The New York State Digital Collections - you can access photographs, textual materials, artifacts, government documents, manuscripts, and other materials.
  • The Northwest Digital Archives - provides information about archival collections at archives in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Montana
  • ONE: Online Nevada Encyclopedia - illustrates intellectual, cultural, and civic life in Nevada.
  • Oregon Encyclopedia - an authoritative source of information on Oregon history, culture, people, places, significant events, and institutions.
  • Seeing Red: Anti-Communism Efforts in Mississippi, 1944-1968 - this online exhibit highlight various aspects of the anti-communism efforts in Mississippi.