History

A collection of websites that offer insight into the American Civil War highlighting a diverse collection of free websites of primary sources for the study of the war including digitized newspaper archives for both the Union and Confederate sides of the struggle, collections of letters and diaries, digitized photographs, maps, and official records and dispatches from the battlefields.

The American Presidency Project has consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database: Trump's Tweets (2017-2020), The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913), The Public Papers of the Presidents: Hoover to Bush (1929-1993), and much more.

A portal site to important European archival collections--an essential finding tool for the archival study of the documents of European history. "The Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent."

A fine digital resource source for the study specifically of all aspects of British history. "Connected Histories brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single federated search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates, as well as the ability to save, connect and share resources within a personal workspace."

Multi-subject, multi-disciplinary collection of primary and source materials from the massive collections of the ten University of California campuses and other California libraries and archives.

A general historical site in four categories: Treasures of the Library: A Special Collections sub-site, drawing together, "books, manuscripts and other items from across our collections that are especially significant. Many of them have been displayed in Library exhibitions in the past now they can be accessed at any time, from anywhere in the world, and browsed cover to cover." The antiquarian coverage is outstanding. Newton Papers: "Cambridge University Library holds the largest and most important collection of the scientific works of Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton was closely associated with Cambridge. He came to the University as a student in 1661, graduating in 1665, and from 1669 to 1701 he held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. Under the regulations for this Chair, Newton was required to deposit copies of his lectures in the University Library." Islamic Manuscripts: "Cambridge University Library's collection of Islamic manuscripts dates from the origins of Arabic scholarship in Cambridge in the 1630s when the University founded a Professorship in Arabic and William Bedwell donated a Qur'an to the Library. Since that time the collection has grown in size and diversity to over 5,000 works, including the collections of Thomas Erpenius, J.L. Burckhardt, E.H.Palmer and E.G. Browne. These manuscripts shed light on many aspects of the Islamic world, its beliefs and learning." Cairo Genizah Collection: "The Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library is the world's largest and most important single collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts."

"The Civil Rights Digital Library Initiative represents one of the most ambitious and comprehensive efforts to date to deliver educational content on the Civil Rights Movement via the Web. ... The initiative promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement through its three principal components: 1) a digital video archive of historical news film allowing learners to be nearly eyewitnesses to key events of the Civil Rights Movement, 2) a civil rights portal providing a seamless virtual library on the Movement by connecting related digital collections on a national scale, and 3) a learning objects component delivering secondary Web-based resources - such as contextual stories, encyclopedia articles, lesson plans, and activities--to facilitate the use of the video content in the learning process. The CRDL advances cross-disciplinary approaches, promoting a seamless infrastructure for learning, emphasizing context and structure for digital information, and recruiting and educating new leaders for a learning society. The Civil Rights Digital Library initiative achieves its desired outcomes through a partnership among digital library and information technology professionals, archivists, humanities scholars, educators, university graduate and undergraduate researchers, academic publishers, and public broadcasters." The initiative receives support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

"To provide American citizens direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society, a core group of current and historical Government publications is being made available for free, permanent, public access via GPO Access. These titles contain information which is vital to the democratic process and critical to an informed electorate. They support the public's right to know about the essential activities of their Government."

Harvard Library's digital primary source collections. Includes a number of exhibits about topics from the United States and abroad. Notable examples include the "Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom" exhibit, the "Women Working, 1800-1930" exhibit, and the "Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930" exhibit."

"European History Primary Sources (EHPS) is a joint initiative of the Library and the Department of History and Civilisation of the European University Institute. It is also part of the WWW Virtual Library History Central Catalogue that is hosted at the EUI. The purpose of EHPS is to provide historians with an easily searchable index of scholarly websites that offer online access to digitised primary sources, invented archives and born digital sources relating to the history of Europe. As the number of digital archives and collections on the internet continues to grow, maintaining an overview becomes increasingly difficult. EHPS strives to fill that gap by listing the most important collections of digital primary sources for the history of Europe, either as a whole or for individual countries. EHPS is updated continuously and we invite all users to send us their suggestions for websites to include."

The French Revolution Digital Archive (FRDA) is a multi-year collaboration of the Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) to produce a digital version of the key research sources of the French Revolution and make them available to the international scholarly community. The archive is based around two main resources, the Archives parlementaires and a vast corpus of images first brought together in 1989 and known as the Images de la Revolution française.

Useful interviews about the Great Depression, 1929-1941, as described on the site's home page: "From the stock market crash of 1929 to the beginnings of World War II, The Great Depression tells the dramatic and diverse stories of struggle and survival during the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. Originally debuting on PBS stations in 1993, the 7-part series was met with critical acclaim, winning an Emmy for writing and a duPont-Columbia Award. These interviews are part of the Henry Hampton Collection housed at the Film & Media Archive at Washington University Libraries. Each video and transcript represents the entire interview conducted by Blackside, Inc., including portions that did not appear in the final program. For more information, please contact the Film & Media Archive." Given their source, some measure of caution should be taken in the consideration of these interviews as true 'primary materials.'

The Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists is a compact but highly complex, multi-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images. Some of its components, including copies of records of the Montgomery Improvements Association (MIA) and many hours of oral history of the renowned civil liberties lawyer Clifford Durr, complement major holdings in other American archives. Other components of the Rabin Collection are unique. These include an updated filmed interview of Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) in Montgomery; 450 black-and-white photographs created by the Subversive Unit of the Investigative and Identification Division of the Alabama Department of Public Safety in the course of sit-ins, demonstrations, and marches in several Alabama cities during the early to mid-1960s; and surveillance tapes preserving speeches made variously at an anniversary meeting of the MIA in 1963, at the conclusion of the Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965, and in Bessemer and Birmingham, Alabama, in the course of the Poor People's Campaign of 1968. Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy are among many leading lights of the civil rights movement heard on these tapes.

The digital collections of the largest library in the world. Includes historical and archival materials from all periods of US history.

The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) through its involvement with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is collaborating with cultural organizations throughout the state to capture and expose the myriad stories of the citizens who make up this great state and call Minnesota home.
Minnesota has a long tradition of immigration to the state. The Ojibwe and Dakota people, the largest American Indian tribes living in Minnesota in the early and mid-nineteenth century, were joined by an influx of European émigrés settling in Minnesota in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Immigration continues today, more recently with the Hmong, Somali, Korean and Latino entrants to the state. In sharing these immigrant stories, told through their own voices, the MDL and the DPLA seek to share with the world a broader view of what it means to be Minnesotan.
This initiative has gathered and digitized oral histories from organizations across the state. These existing materials have been coupled with newly created stories that best document the rich tradition of immigration to this state. This project weaves together these audio and video histories into a single space where these stories can be gathered, saved, and shared in an openly and freely accessible manner.

Minnesota Reflections is a database of digitized original materials shared by cultural heritage organizations located across our state. These materials include images, text, audio, film, and more, with new items added on a regular basis. The resources found on this site support research for scholars, educators, students, and the public. Minnesota Reflections is the premier project of the Minnesota Digital Library.

About five percent of this enormous collection, one of the largest and most important archives on earth, has been digitized and posted at this point. "The National Archives is a government department and an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. We incorporate the Office of Public Sector Information and Her Majesty's Stationery Office. We also perform the Historical Manuscripts Commission's functions in relation to private records. As the government's national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, we hold over 1,000 years of the nation's records for everyone to discover and use.The National Archive's own modest description of itself."

"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever. Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching a historical topic that interests you."

"Railroads and the Making of Modern America collects and makes available a wide array of materials documenting the social effects of the railroad and the transformation of the United States to modern ideas, institutions, and practices in the nineteenth century. The project utilizes the digital medium to investigate, represent, and analyze this social change and document episodes of the railroad's social consequences. Here you will find interpretive visualizations exploring and representing the ways railroads changed understandings of space and time, the development of slavery around railroad growth in the South, the migration and settlement of railroad lands, and the political opposition to railroads around rates. Railroads is meant to act as a research and teaching platform to test hypotheses, to create visualizations of complex processes, and to inspire scholarship."

"Slavery and Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s is a digital collection of books and pamphlets that demonstrate the varying ideas and beliefs about slavery in the United States as expressed by Americans throughout the nineteenth century. The works in this collection reflect arguments on both sides of the slavery debate and include first person narratives, legal proceedings and decisions, anti-slavery tracts, religious sermons, and early secondary works."

"The Collections Search Center provides easy "one-stop searching" of more than 6.4 million of the Smithsonian's museum, archives, library and research holdings and collections. The access to more Smithsonian collections via this Search Center is increasing over time." The ABOUT page lists the many separate collection, archives, museums, and research holdings featured on this distinctive page. Films and photographs are among the formats featured, art, folk life, culture, zoology, forest science, etc. among the many specific subjects. An excellent site for general and historical research.

A primary-source site created in 2009 by an act of the U.S. Congress. "The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war." The conflicts included are duly listed: World War, 1914-1918, World War, 1939-1945, Cold War, Korean War, 1950-1953, Vietnam War, 1961-1975, Grenada--History--American Invasion, 1983, Panama-- History--American Invasion, 1989, Operation Restore Hope, 1992-1993 Persian Gulf War, 1991, United Nations Operation in Somalia, Haiti--History--American intervention, 1994-1995, Operation Allied Force, 1999, Peacekeeping forces--Bosnia and Hercegovina, Operation Joint Guardian, 1999-War on Terrorism, 2001-2009, Afghan War, 2001- , Iraq War, 2003-2011. Also noted: "In addition, those U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories."

"The C-SPAN Archives records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses. Every C-SPAN program aired since 1987, now totaling over 160,000 hours, is contained in the C-SPAN Archives and immediately accessible through the database and electronic archival systems developed and maintained by the C-SPAN Archives. The Archives records all three C-SPAN networks seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Programs are extensively indexed making the database of C-SPAN programming an unparalleled chronological resource. Programs are indexed by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, sponsors, committees, categories, formats, policy groups, keywords, and location. The congressional sessions and committee hearings are indexed by person with full-text. The video collection can be searched through the online Video Library. All C-SPAN programs since 1987 are digital and can be viewed online for free. Duplicate copies of programs that have aired since 1987 can be obtained and used for education, research, review or home viewing purposes. Proceeds from the sale of these programs help support the operation of the Archives. Some programs are not copyright cleared for sale. The Archives began within the Purdue University School of Liberal Arts in 1987. In July 1998, C-SPAN assumed responsibility for the archival operations." A site ideally suited for the study of history, politics, and political science.

Part of the vast Internet Archive, a Public Domain resource, this extraordinary site presents films produced by the U.S. Government on a large range of topics. More than 3,300 films are currently featured without copyright restriction. All of the features material is down-loadable. A very useful source in many academic disciplines.

Over 4,000 recordings available online. "The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library is a collection of over 100,000 hours of spoken word recordings, dating back to 1888. The collection includes the voices of over 500,000 persons from all walks of life. Political and cultural leaders and minor players in the human drama are captured and cataloged to serve the research needs of a local, national and international user base. Clients include students and faculty of Michigan State University, other scholars and researchers, broadcasting networks, news agencies and film, video, and Web production companies."

Pacifica Radio Archives is considered by historians and scholars to be one of the oldest and most important audio collections in the world. Chronicling the political, cultural and artistic movements of the second half of the 20th century, Pacifica radio programs include documentaries, performances, discussions, debates, drama, poetry readings, commentaries and radio arts. The Pacifica Radio Archives appraise, collect, organize, describe, preserve the creative work generated by, or produced in association with, Pacifica Radio, and make it available for research and reference use. They focus on materials that reflect the memory, traditions and evolution of Pacifica Radio. The intellectual content of the collection emphasizes a common thread of social justice covering cultural, health, historical, political, psychological, racial, religious, philosophical and social aspects of society over a variety of subjects.

The work of eight faculty and staff at the Miller Center for Public Affairs, University of Virginia, this is a collection of the largely secret White House recordings (as opposed to commercial and broadcast recordings) made by six United States presidents, from Roosevelt to Nixon. "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."