Subject Guides: History: American History

American History Primary Sources

Library of Congress' Digital Collections
Digital library covering many topics of American History.

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If you require primary sources for a American, Canadian or world history class or assignment this collection of primary source databases is worth checking out! Click on the Collections link to search themed collections.
Coverage and Currency: 1500 - 2003
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.

American History to 1865

American Revolution and its Era
Maps and charts of North America and West Indies 1750-1789. From the Library of Congress.
Archive of Early American Images
A database of graphic representations of the colonial Americas from Hudson Bay to Tierra del Fuego, drawn entirely from primary sources created between 1492 and ca. 1825. From John Carter Brown Library, Brown University.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 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 (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). From the Library of Congress.
Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives
Books and articles that document the lives of African American slaves. From University Library North Carolina.
Founders Online
Correspondence and other writings of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Over 119,000 fully annotated searchable documents. From National Archives.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery collection
Over 10,000 pamphlets and leaflets collected by May, an educational reformer, which document the anti-slavery struggle. From Cornell University Library.

American History Since 1865

Ad Access
Advertisements printed in American and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. From Duke University Libraries.
Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition
The digitized items in the Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition Collection are from the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, as well as from various collections in the Brown University Library — broadsides, sheet music, pamphlets and government publications.
American Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
Primary, and interpretive materials related to the history of the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic in the United States. From University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and MPublishing, University of Michigan Library.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Includes selected historic newspapers from 1836-1922. From the Library of Congress.
CIA Electronic Reading Room
Declassified pages from the Central Intelligence Agency.
Civil Rights Digital Library
Includes unedited news film, photographs and other primary documents on various topics including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington. From various libraries.
Cold War
Documents in law, history and diplomacy. From Yale Law School.
Cold War history
From the Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History Declassified.
Discovering American Women's History Online
Digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to interviews with women engineers from the 1970s. From Tennessee State University, Walker Library.
Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South (DocSouth) includes sixteen thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture. From University of North Carolina Library.
FBI Records: Vault
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's electronic reading room. Includes documents on Watergate, Kent State and Roswell.
FRANKLIN
Digital copies of significant documents and photographs from the archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.
The Great Depression Series
This 7-part series originally debuted on PBS stations in 1993. 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. From Washington University Digital Gateway.
Historic Government Publications from World War II
From Southern Methodist University.
Hoover Institution Library & Archives Digital Collections
Digitized posters, photographs, manuscripts, moving images, sound recordings, and other historical materials from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives
From the Univeristy of California.
Mexican Revolution: Topics in Chronicling America
This guide provides access to material related to the "Mexican Revolution" in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers. From the Library of Congress.
National Security Archive
Declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Sponsored by George Washington University. Includes information on Tiananmen Square, Bay of Pigs Operation and the Berlin Wall.
New Deal
Provides a list of articles, books and websites on the New Deal. From the National New Deal Preservation Association and the Institute for Public Accuracy.
Papers of Woodrow Wilson
The collection contains personal, family, and official correspondence, White House executive office files, drafts and proofs of books, articles, speeches, academic lectures, scrapbooks, shorthand notes, and memorabilia dating from 1786 to 1957 with the bulk of material falling in the period between 1876 and 1924.Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
Ration Coupons on the Home Front: 1942-1945
Digital collection from the Duke University Libraries of materials issued by the Office of Price Administration from 1942-1945.
Triangle Shirt Waist Fire
This site includes original sources on the fire held at the ILR School's Kheel Center, an archive of historical material on labor and industrial relations. From Cornell University.
U.S. v. Liddy
Records related to the Watergate break-in case. From the National Archives.
U.S. West: Photographs, Manuscripts and Imprints
Digital collection of primary sources about the American West. From Southern Methodist University.
Vietnam War Declassification Project
Selected documents on the Vietnam war. From Gerald A. Ford Presidential Library
Votes for Women
Selections from the National American Suffrage Association Collection, 1841-1921. From The Library of Congress.
Watergate Files
Presented by the Gerald R. Ford Library & Museum.
Women's Liberation Movement Print Culture
Manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. From Duke Universities Libraries.
Women Working 1800-1930
Focuses on the role of women in the United States economy. From Harvard University Library.
World War II documents
This collection contains United States and Illinois government documents on subjects relating to World War II, including: rationing and conservation, women's work, civil defense, the Japanese interment, the development of the United Nations, and more. From Illinois State Library.
World War I web guide
The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material related to World War I, including photographs, documents, newspapers, films, sheet music, and sound recordings. This guide compiles links to World War I resources throughout the Library of Congress Web site. From the Library of Congress

History

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American History Primary Sources

American History to 1865

American History Since 1865