Electronic resources for American history
Resources listed by period and geography
Early America
Datenbanken der Universität zu Köln: Fachgebiet Anglistik und Amerikanistik
America: History and Life
Bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present (Kostenpflichtig!)
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest
Digital collection which integrates over 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text relating to the American Indians in two cultural areas of the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Coast and Plateau
American Journeys
More than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD 1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years laterckies 800 years later
The Avalon Project
Documents in law, history and diplomacy. Charters and documents for all the colonies
Feeding America
Online collection of some of the most important and influential American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century
Fold 3
Contains primary source documents from the holdings of the United States National Archives relating to all aspects of American history
The History Makers
online database of thousands of African Americans
Liberty Fund Online Library
Collection of electronic books from 18th century thinkers and politicians, including Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and others. The focus is largely limited to well-known political theorists, economists, and politicians. Free sign-up is necessary.
Milestone Documents
Hundreds of primary sources from American and world history, including constitutions, laws, speeches, court cases, treaties, manifestos, and more
A new nation votes: American election returns, 1787-1825
NewspaperArchive
A historical newspaper database online, contains millions of newspaper pages from 1753 to the present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword, location, title, or date
The Salem witchcraft papers
Verbatim transcription of the court records
U.S. congressional documents and debate, 1774-1875
Linked set of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875
19th century America
Primary source databases and collections:
Datenbanken der Universität zu Köln: Fachgebiet Anglistik und Amerikanistik
American Journeys
Eyewitness accounts of North American exploration
American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
Anti-Slavery Collection
Digital archive of materials from the Cornell University Library
The Atlantic slave trade and slave life in the Americas: a visual record
Avalon Project
Documents on law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government, from pre-18th century to the 20th century
Emergence of advertising in America, 1850-1920
Early American Marxism
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
Making of America
Sources in American social history from Antebellum through Reconstruction
Milestone Documents
Primary sources from American and world history. Free sign-up necessary.
A new nation votes: American election returns, 1787-1825
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
Slavery and the slave trade in the Atlantic world
Collection of the New-York Historical Society
Study of slavery, resistance, and abolution
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
U.S. congressional documents and debates, 1774-1875
Virginia Report Collection online
African American newspapers, series 1
African American newspapers, series 2
America: History and Life
Bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.(Kostenpflichtig!)
Chronicling America
America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922
The Nation Archive
1865 to 2012
NewspaperArchive
1753 to the present
New York Times
since 1851
20th century America
Primary source databases and collections:
Datenbanken der Universität zu Köln: Fachgebiet Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Ad Access
Images of over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955
Ad Views
Digital archive of thousands of vintage television commercials dating from the 1950s to the 1980s
America's Bandstand
1957-1964
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting
American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
Focuses on immigration to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950 and is composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950
American Panorama
Historical atlas of the United States
Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
Documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government, from pre-18th century to the 20th century
Click! The ongoing feminist revolution
Cold War History Project
A guide to online resources for the study of the Cold War
The Elkus Indian Papers
Collection of over 2,000 documents related to Indian affairs over the period 1922-1963. It includes an online database of the papers, maps of the Southwest and more.
Emergence of Advertising in America
1850-1920
Find DVDs (Previously Hermes)
Database: Details for over 30,000 audio-visual programmes, and their distributors, available in the UK. With a comprehensive listing of the paper materials held in the BUFVC library.
Fold 3
Contains primary source documents from the holdings of the United States National Archives relating to all aspects of American history
Franklin
Research room and digital repository to digitized collections of the Roosevelt Library
The Gerritsen Collection
Large source for women's history
"Great 78 Project"
Das „Great 78 Project“ digitalisiert historische Schallplatten aus den Jahren 1890 bis 1950 und macht die Ergebnisse online verfügbar.
Internet Archive
A large digital archive, with an especially strong section devoted to moving images
Living Room Candidate
Collection of Presidential Election television commercials from 1952-to 2016
Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965
Media History Digital Library
A free online resource, featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound. Led by Eric Hoyt at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Milestone Documents
Historic texts and expert analysis from primary sources from American and world history, including constitutions, laws, speeches, court cases, treaties, manifestos, and more
Million Dollar Hoods
Digital project about how mass incarceration impacts communities in the Los Angeles region
Photogrammar
Web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI)
(Post)kolonialismus und Globalgeschichte
Project Thomas
Access to current bills under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate
Public opinion poll
Polling data from around the world
Public Papers of the Presidents
The Secret White House Tapes
1940-1973
USA aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 18/2017
Wilson Center Digital Archive
Resource for once-secret documents from governments and organizations all over the world
Magazines and newspapers:
African American newspapers, series 1
African American newspapers, series 2
Chronicling America
Digital library project run by the Library of Congress, contains selected newspapers between 1880-1922
Financial Times Historical Archive
1888-2006
Harper's magazine
The oldest general interest monthly in America. Accessible through the University Library of Cologne's network 1850 to 2018
Jet magazine
1951-2005
Life magazine
1936-1972
Media History Digital Library
Access to over 200,000 digitized pages of public domain media industry trade papers and fan magazines
The Nation Archive
1865-2010
New York Review of Books
1963-present
NewspaperArchive
A historical newspaper database online, contains millions of newspaper pages from 1753 to the present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword, location, title, or date
New York Times
since 1851
Periodicals Index Online
Bibliographic search in about 4,800 periodicals from the humanities and social sciences from 1665 to 2005
Public interest
1965-2005
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Including The Guardian (1821-1900), The Observer (1791-1900), The New York Times (1851-1922), Boston Globe (1872-1922), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1922), Washington Post (1877-1922), Chicago Tribune (1849-1922), Los Angeles Times (1881-1922)
TLS Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive
1902-2013
Washington monthly
1969-2018
Weekly standard
1995-today
Great Britain and Ireland
Datenbanken der Universität zu Köln: Fachgebiet Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Archives direct
Archives Direct is a suite of collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew, the official archive of the United Kingdom. Containing diplomatic correspondence, letters, reports, surveys, material from newspapers, statistical analyses, published pamphlets, ephemera, military papers, profiles of prominent individuals, maps and many other types of document, it consists of the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the British state’s point of view.
British Documents on the End of Empire
A series of volumes containing an annotated selection of official documents charting British withdrawal from its colonial territories.
Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
Database of Court Officers 1660-1837
Career histories of every remunerated officer and servant of the English royal household from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837
Eighteenth Century Journals : A Portal to Newspapers and Periodicals, 1685-1815. Sign-up necessary.
Empire Online
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology
English Short Title Catalogue
List of over 480,000 items published between 1473 and 1800
Historical population reports
Access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937, supported by ancillary documents. Full text of documents may be searched, also searchable by date and location.
History Data Service (HDS)
Collects, preserves, and promotes the use of digital resources, which result from or support historical research, learning and teaching
History of Scotland: Primary documents
History of the United Kingdom: Primary documents
Institute of Historical Research
Resources for historians, including a major open-access library, digital projects, seminars and lectures, conferences, books and journals, podcasts, MA/Phd study and research training
Internet Library of Early Journals
Contains the following British magazines: Notes and Queries (1849-1869), Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1843-1863), The Builder (1843-1852), Gentleman's Magazine (1731-1750), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1757-1777), Annual Register (1758-1778)
Irish History Online
Irish History from earliest times to the present
Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers
Contains full runs of 48 newspapers selected by the British Library to represent nineteenth century Britain. It includes national and regional newspapers and special attention was paid to newspapers that helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule. The penny papers aimed at the working and clerical classes are also present in the collection.
Northern Ireland: A Divided Community, 1921 - 1972
Die Datenbank enthält digitalisierte Kabinettsprotokolle und weitere Akten der britischen Regionalregierung in Nordirland von 1921 - 1972
Research Resources of Contemporary British History
Social Science Bibliography of Northern Ireland, 1945-1983
Epoch-spanning resources
Primary source databases and collections:
Datenbanken der Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln
Library of Anglo-American culture and history / Universität Göttingen
Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Calisphere: primary sources and more about the history of California
Contagion: Historical Views on Diseases and Epidemics
Digital collections of the Library of Congress
Digital collections of the New York Public Library
Documenting the American South
History matters - Roy Rosenzweig Center
History of business, technology, and society: Hagley Museum and Library, Digital Collections
A History of the American People
Subject research guide by Rutgers University
USA - Geschichte, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft - Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung
World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.
Zeitschriften und Zeitungen:
Elephind - search the world's historical newspaper archives
Resources listed by subject
Black History
Primary source databases and collections:
The 1619 Project
An ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery
African American Data Links (U.S. Census Bureau)
American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
Animated Atlas of African History 1879-2002
Anti-Slavery Collection
Digital archive of materials from the Cornell University Library
The Atlantic slave trade and slave life in the Americas: a visual record
Behind the veil: Documenting African American life in the Jim Crow South
Black America (Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 12/2018)
BlackPast.org: Remebered and reclaimed
The Civil Rights History Project
Oral-history interviews with participants in the Civil Rights Movement
Digital Library on American slavery
Documenting the American South
Frederick Douglass Papers
Goin' North
Stories from the first Great Migration to Philadelphia
The Green Book
Travel guide for Black travelers
The Hiphop Archive
Harvard University
Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights - Publications by Date
The History Makers
online database of thousands of African Americans
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience: Maps
Last seen: finding family after slavery
Making of America
Sources in American social history from Antebellum through Reconstruction
Malcolm X: A Research Site
Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers
The Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights Projects
Rap (Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 9/2018)
Selected online works by Civil War era African American women
Slavery and the slave trade in the Atlantic world
Collection of the New-York Historical Society
SNCC Digital Gateway
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Legacy Project
Study of slavery, resistance, and abolution
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Umbra Search African American History
Who speaks for the negro?
Digital archive of materials related to the book of the same name published by Robert Penn Warren in 1965
Newspapers and journals:
African American newspapers, series 1
African American newspapers, series 2
Black World / Negro Digest
1961-1976
Digitizied Newspapers from the Library of Congress
1789-1924
Ebony Magazine
1959-2008
Jet magazine
1951-2005
Childhood and Youth
Media
Ad Access
Images of over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955
Ad Views
Digital archive of thousands of vintage television commercials dating from the 1950s to the 1980s
America's Bandstand
1957-1964
American Radio History – The Online Radio & TV Library
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Emergence of Advertising in America
1850-1920
Find DVDs (Previously Hermes)
Database: Details for over 30,000 audio-visual programmes, and their distributors, available in the UK. With a comprehensive listing of the paper materials held in the BUFVC library.
"Great 78 Project"
Das „Great 78 Project“ digitalisiert historische Schallplatten aus den Jahren 1890 bis 1950 und macht die Ergebnisse online verfügbar.
The Hiphop Archive
Harvard University
Internet Archive
A large digital archive, with an especially strong section devoted to moving images
J. Walter Thompson: Advertising America
Library of Congress, Moving Image Research Center
Living Room Candidate
Collection of Presidential Election television commercials from 1952-to 2016
Media History Digital Library
A free online resource, featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound. Led by Eric Hoyt at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Museum of Broadcast Communications
Paley Center for Media Archive
Photogrammar
Web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI)
Rap (Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 9/2018)
Springfield! Springfield! – TV Show Episode Transcripts
Television Academy, Oral History Interviews
TV Guide Cover Archive (1953-today)
Understanding 9/11 – A Television News Archive (The Internet Archive)
Postcolonial Studies and Global History
(Post)Kolonialismus und Globalgeschichte
British Documents on the End of Empire
A series of volumes containing an annotated selection of official documents charting British withdrawal from its colonial territories.
Travel and Tourism
Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management – Hospitality Industry Archives
Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute at the University of Florida
Guide to Collections Related to Pan American World Airways (Pan Am)
Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture: The History of Tourism
National Travel and Tourism Office
Pacific Asia Travel Association
PanAm.org. The Pan Am Historical Foundation
Women's History
Click! The ongoing feminist revolution
The Gerritsen Collection
Large source for women's history
The Salem witchcraft papers
Verbatim transcription of the court records