Oxford LibGuides: History, American: 1861-1945

US Studies Resources at Oxford blog

This blog is designed to help students and researchers using the US Studies collections held at the Vere Harmsworth Library, as well as to highlight the variety of resources that are available both in Oxford and more widely. Posts cover tips on using specific resources as well as guidance on resources available for specific subject areas.

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Primary Sources - Books

See also: Microfilm and Physical Collections.

American Notes: Travels in America, 1750 to 1920
Comprises 253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920. Also included is the thirty-two-volume set of manuscript sources entitled Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, published between 1904 and 1907 after diligent compilation by the distinguished historian and secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society Reuben Gold Thwaites.
Documenting the American South
A digital library of ten thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture.
Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in 19th century social history.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law (HeinOnline)
This HeinOnline collection brings together, for the first time, all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery, as well as thousands of pamphlets, books, legal commentaries, journal articles, and modern histories of slavery.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century
Made up of more than five thousand rare and unique books covering sex, sexuality, and gender issues across the sciences and humanities and throughout history. Two of the collections come from US Libraries - the New York Academy of Medicine Library and the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century looks at gender and sexuality in the centuries leading up to, and inclusive of, the period covered in Archives of Sexuality and Gender Parts I and II, providing context to the materials in those collections. It examines topics such as patterns of fertility and sexual practice; prostitution; religion and sexuality; the medical and legal construction of sexualities; and the rise of sexology. It not only offers a reflection of the cultural and social attitudes of the past, but also a window into how sexuality and gender roles were viewed and changed over time.
Three unique collections make up the archive:
- The Private Case from the British Library, comprised of printed books segregated from the main library from the 1850s to 1990 on grounds of obscenity. It is an interesting study in social mores as the definition of obscenity has seen many changes since the mid-nineteenth-century.
- Special Subject Units from Sex Research: Early Literature from Statistics to Erotica, a collection from the Alfred C. Kinsey Institute for Sex Research dating from 1700 to 1860. This is a portion of Dr. Kinsey's original library which he used to study human sexual behavior from a variety of academic and literary viewpoints.
- A collection of rare and unique books from the New York Academy of Medicine, consisting of more than 1,400 monographs covering a variety of topics in sex, sexuality, and gender studies. From sex education to erotica, manners to medicine, the Academy collection offers a rich combination of materials from the humanities to the hard sciences.
The archive presents content in fourteen different languages, with a predominance in French, English, and German and including Old French, Old English, and Old High German.
Black authors 1556-1922
Created from the renowned holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Black Authors, 1556-1922, offers more than 550 fully catalogued and searchable works by black authors from the Americas, Europe and Africa, expertly compiled by the curators of Afro-Americana Imprints collection, the largest existing collection of its kind. Genres include: personal narratives, autobiographies, histories, expedition reports, military reports, novels, essays, poems and musical compositions.
Early encounters in North America (Alexander Street Press)
The collection has been compiled by consulting a number of bibliographies, including:
* A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772-1924 by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. Parins
* Sources for the ethnography of northeastern North America to 1611, by David B. Quinn.
* The French image of America: a chronological and subject bibliography of French books printed before 1816 relating to the British North American colonies and the United States by Durand Echeverria and Everett C. Wilkie, Jr.
* Wagner & Camp's The Plains and the Rockies, a critical bibliography of exploration, adventure and travel in the American West, 1800-1865
* Robert Rogers Hubach's Early Midwestern Travel Narratives, An Annotated Bibliography, 1634-1850.
* Candiana.org, (www.canadiana.org), a full-text online collection that contains documents about CanadaÆs history from the first European contact to the nineteenth century.
* Bibliography of Native North Americans, Human Relations Area Files, 1976
When complete it will include more than 1,000 published and unpublished items from a variety of sources, including online resources and microform. Subscribers to the collection are encouraged to participate in the maintenance of this bibliography by calling our attention to omissions, suggesting additions, and notifying us of newly discovered materials.
History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century
Database includes historical books and pamphlets from the New York Academy of Medicine Library on the topic of disabilities, diagnosis, treatment, memoirs, reports, policy documents, advertisements and more. Also includes the McMurtrie "Cripples" collection. Put together by the director of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men around the time of the First World War, the collection includes approximately 3,500 separate books, pamphlets, reports, and articles mostly dating from the 1910s-20s. The collection is focused on disability, the disabled and rehabilitation (particularly focused on children.)
Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century presents monographs (books), manuscripts, and ephemera that provide a historical view of disabilities from the seventeenth to twentieth century.
Making of the Modern World
Alternative name: MOME

"The Making of the Modern World: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850" provides digital facsimile images on every page of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850. Full-text searching on more than 12 million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.

For digitized versions of library books from North America, try the following:

HathiTrust
Google Books
Internet Archive A huge collection of digital materials including not only books and papers but also audio, broadcasts and other moving images, software and archived web pages.
Digital Public Library of America
DPLA is an all-digital library that aggregates metadata from libraries, museums and institutions around the country. It provides an easy to use search interface. Individuals can create search guides or "Primary Source Collections" which are useful for researching topics.
Smithsonian Libraries - Online Books
Public domain materials held by the Smithsonian Libraries.

See also, the VHL's guide to its microfilm holdings (also in print in the library)

Travels in the Old South, Travels in the New South, Travels in the West and Southwest (microfilm)
A vast collection of books, journals and other publications on microfiche.
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Travels in the Old South and New South are catalogued on SOLO, and can also be browsed via the microfilm subject guide (also in print in the library).
For uncatalogued material from the West & Southwest, see the lists available on Worldcat: https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/vhllib/lists

Primary Sources - Documents and Papers

AmDocs: Documents for the study of American history
Provides access to primary source documents which are relevant to the study of the history of the United States. A few of the texts are hosted locally, but most of the items in the list are links to other websites. Documents date from 1492 to the present, presented in chronological order and are divided into broad sections.

American West: Sources from the Everett D. Graff Collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago
Sources from the Everett D Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library, Chicago. Contains manuscripts, maps, ephemera and rare printed sources covering all aspects of Western history up to the 1930s.

Donald Benham Civil War Collection
The Donald Benham Civil War Collection consists of 300 items (576 images) in one container, and spans the years 1806 to 1916, with the bulk dating from 1850 to 1870. The collection consists of correspondence, financial and legal records, military orders and records, speeches, and miscellaneous items comprising Civil War material amassed by collector Donald Benham.

Black Abolitionist Papers (1830-1865)
This collection covers a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. The content includes letters, speeches, editorials, newspaper articles, sermons, and essays from libraries and archives in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the United States. Over 15,000 items written by nearly 300 Black men and women are available for searching.
Black Thought and Culture
Black Thought and Culture -a collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.

Civil War Maps - Library of Congress
Brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman's Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts all available for the first time in one place.
Documenting the American South
A digital library of ten thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945 (Archives Unbound)
This new series contains a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement-concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination. FDR's record on civil rights has been the subject of much controversy. This new collection from FDR's Official File provides insight into his political style and presents an instructive example of how he balanced moral preference with political realities. This collection includes essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement. From the collections of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the documents range from 1933-1945.
Global Missions and Theology (Archives Unbound)
This collection documents the broad range of Nineteenth Century religious missionary activities, practices and thought in the United States by reproducing pivotal personal narratives, organizational records, and biographies of the essential leaders, simple missionaries, and churches. This collection includes materials on missionary activities among Native Americans and African Americans, both slaves and freedmen. In addition, it highlights activities in far-flung regions and countries, such as Africa, Fiji and Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Hawaii. From the collections of the Lost Cause Press.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
Alternative name: US Immigration

A web-based collection of selected historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the US from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression. Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, this resource includes approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets as well as 6,000 photographs, 200 maps, and 13,000 pages from manuscript and archival collections. By incorporating diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.
Jewish Life in America
Based on a rich variety of original manuscript collections from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, this indispensable resource offers captivating insights into the everyday lives of the American Jewish population over three centuries. Charting the Jewish Diaspora from the earliest settlements through to the mass European influx of the early twentieth century, Jewish Life in America will appeal to researchers of all aspects of this diverse and extensive cultural heritage.
The collection is based on a rich variety of original manuscript documents ranging from a peddler’s certificate signed by Benjamin Franklin, to records of organisations such as the Baron de Hirsch fund, which supported Jewish entrepreneurship all across America from 1819 to the 1980s.

Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in 19th century social history.

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
Alternative name: North American Immigrant Letters

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada. Included are more than 100,000 pages of personal narratives including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories. Much of the material is previously unpublished. Several thousand pages of Ellis Island Oral History interviews, indexed and searchable for the first time, are included.
The materials begin around 1840 and extend to the present, focusing heavily on the period from 1920 to 1980. People from many countries are represented, including more recent waves of immigrants from Latin America and Asia. In selected cases, users can to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants or view images of their scrapbooks.
No other single resource presents such a broad, detailed, and immediate record of the experience of immigration, supporting research in history, sociology, ethnic and diversity studies, womenÆs studies, labour studies, and literature. Labour historians will benefit from details describing work in restaurants, meat packing plants, mines, railroads, and factories. Sociologists will find lengthy passages describing immigrant schooling, social life, domestic life, and community rituals. Students of literature will find descriptions of the events that inspired Upton Sinclair and Theodore Dreiser.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories provides perspectives both on North America and on the immigrantsÆ countries of origin. Users will find vivid descriptions of life under the Czar and the various revolutionary governments in Russia; tales of famine and poverty in Ireland; accounts of anti-Jewish pogroms in Eastern Europe; stories of persecution and fascism; and detailed descriptions of life in rural communities and towns as well as in major cities such as London, Berlin, and Moscow. Descriptions of initial encounters with soda pop, chewing gum, and bananas a
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Colonial times to 1950.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries is the largest collection of women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled. Spanning more than 300 years, brings the personal experiences of some 1,325 women to researchers, students, and general readers.
The collection includes some 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, including more than 6,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 600 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, much of the material is in copyright. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous. It includes some 300 biographies to enhance the use of the database.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Alternative name: AASC

The Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture.
The Oxford African American Studies Center provides students, scholars and librarians with more than 10,000 articles by top scholars in the field. The core content includes:
- Africana
- Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895
- Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present
- Black Women in America, Second Edition
- African American National Biography
- Dictionary of African Biography
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought

Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936–1938
During the Great Depression, the Federal Writers' Project, which was part of the Works Progress Administration, sent out-of-work writers to seventeen states to conduct interviews with former enslaved people. The writers collected over 2,000 narratives, and the result was the Slave Narrative Collection. Seventy years after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, these narratives allow a glimpse into freedpeople's memories of slavery. They offer a first-hand account of enslaved people experiences with the institution of slavery.

Despite the wealth of information these narratives provide, researchers should approach them cautiously. First, these interviews were held more than seventy years after the legal end to slavery. Most of the former enslaved people interviewed would have experienced slavery as young children, and memory is not infallible. In addition, interviewers received instructions to reproduce the dialects of the interviewees. Unfortunately, in an attempt to allow the former enslaved peoples' voices to tell their own stories, the writers, immersed in racial stereotypes, often exaggerated broken English. Finally, during the Federal Writers' Project, former enslaved people responded differently to white interviewers than they did to African American interviewers. Many of the former enslaved people who were interviewed believed that if they portrayed slavery negatively, they would upset the white interviewers and would not receive the government financial aid they needed during the Great Depression. All of these problematic issues of memory and race should remind readers that the Slave Narrative Collection is a historic document that reflects the 1930s as much as it does the 1850s and 1860s. The narratives provide researchers wonderful information about the institution of slavery, but researchers must also be conscious of the setting in which the interviews took place.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law (HeinOnline)
This HeinOnline collection brings together, for the first time, all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery, as well as thousands of pamphlets, books, legal commentaries, journal articles, and modern histories of slavery.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
In particular:
A nearly complete run of Equal Rights, the official publication of the National Woman's Party, published from February 1923 to November 1954.
Publications from the League of Women Voters.
Records of the National Consumers League (1904-34)
Conference minutes of the WCTU
Writings by Black Women Suffragists (1831-1965)
Major contemporary works on women's activism from the Civil War to the mid-1950s.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 is a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. women’s history generally and at the same time make those insights accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools. The collection currently includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools, as well as providing access to the online version of Notable American Women and the database on Commissions on the Status of Women.
America in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1635-1928
This collection is part of the archives of the United Society Partners in Gospel (USPG) or Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). This part of the collection includes supplementary materials to compiled by the North American branch. The collection includes correspondence and journals from missionaries throughout American history (including letters documenting life during the American Revolution). Thematic topics include the growth of Christianity in North America, involvement in social movements such as abolition, the exploration and settlement of North America, and relations between the Anglican church and Hawaii pre-annexation.
The United Society Partners in Gospel (USPG) is a UK-based Anglican missionary organisation that operates around the world. During the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, the USPG went by the name of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).
This collection was curated in association with the Bodleian Library and contains letters and supplementary material compiled by its North American branch during the period 1635–1928. The papers therefore provide students and historians with a unique insight into the evolution of Christianity in the American colonies, the United States, and Canada but additionally includes activities in the Gold Coast and Australia. This collection is accompanied by an online guide written by Isobel Pridmore, formerly the archivist at the USPG, whose archives are now held in the Bodleian Libraries Special Collections.

For Presidential Papers, check the Political and Government sources.

The Jane Addams Digital Edition
The Jane Addams Digital Edition will publish Jane Addams' correspondence and writings for the period 1901-1935. Currently, the project is up to 1919.
Guide to the William H. Anderson and the Anti-Saloon League Papers 1903-1928
Some materials digitised.
Contains correspondence, press releases, speeches, and reports. Material documents Anderson's work with the Anti-Saloon League and the League's relations with John D. Rockefeller and the Black Belt Farms Company. Correspondents include Charles S. Whitman, two-time governor of New York.
Susan B. Anthony Papers
The papers of reformer and suffragist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) span the period 1846-1934 with the bulk of the material dating from 1846 to 1906. The collection, consisting of approximately 500 items (6,265 images) on seven recently digitized microfilm reels, includes correspondence, diaries, a daybook, scrapbooks, speeches, and miscellaneous items.

Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement (Archives Unbound)
This collection of Amiri Baraka materials was made available by Dr. Komozi Woodard. Dr. Woodard collected these documents during his career as an activist in Newark, New Jersey. The collection consists of rare works of poetry, organizational records, print publications, over one hundred articles, poems, plays, and speeches by Baraka, a small amount of personal correspondence, and oral histories. The collection has been arranged into eighteen series. These series are: (1) Black Arts Movement; (2) Black Nationalism; (3) Correspondence; (4) Newark (New Jersey); (5) Congress of African People; (6) National Black Conferences and National Black Assembly; (7) Black Women's United Front; (8) Student Organization for Black Unity; (9) African Liberation Support Committee; (10) Revolutionary Communist League; (11) African Socialism; (12) Black Marxists; (13) National Black United Front; (14) Miscellaneous Materials, 1978-1988; (15) Serial Publications; (16) Oral Histories; (17) Woodard's Office Files.
The collection consists of materials from the years 1913 through 1998 that document African American author and activist Amiri Baraka and were gathered by Dr. Komozi Woodard in the course of his research. The extensive documentation includes poetry, organizational records, print publications, articles, plays, speeches, personal correspondence, oral histories, as well as some personal records. The materials cover Baraka's involvement in the politics in Newark, N.J. and in Black Power movement organizations such as the Congress of African People, the National Black Conference movement, the Black Women's United Front. Later materials document Baraka's increasing involvement in Marxism.

Clara Barton Papers - Library of Congress
The papers of nurse, educator, philanthropist, and lecturer Clara Barton (1821-1912) consist of 62,000 items (81,608 images), most of which were digitized from 123 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1805-1958, with the bulk dating from 1861 to 1912, the collection contains correspondence, diaries and journals, reports, addresses, legal and financial papers, organizational records, lectures, writings, scrapbooks, biographical material, printed matter, memorabilia, and other papers. They relate primarily to Barton's work providing relief services during the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War in Europe, her founding in 1881 and subsequent leadership of the American National Red Cross, and her establishment in 1905 of the National First Aid Association of America. In addition to her roles as "Angel of the Battlefield" and Red Cross founder, the papers also reflect to a lesser degree Barton's work as a teacher in Massachusetts and later at one of the first public schools in New Jersey, as a government clerk and one of the first female federal employees, as the director of a woman's prison, and as an advocate for women's suffrage and other progressive causes.
Mary Ann Bickerdyke Papers
The papers of Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke (1817-1901), a Civil War nurse and agent for the United States Sanitary Commission who was known as "Mother Bickerdyke" to Union soldiers, consist of 1,800 items in five containers spanning the years 1847-1905. A large portion of the papers consists of correspondence grouped into family, general, and special correspondence files.
Carrie Chapman Catt Papers - Library of Congress
The papers of suffragist, political strategist, and pacifist Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) span the years 1848-1950, with the bulk of the material dating from 1890 to 1920. The collection consists of approximately 9,500 items (11,851 images), most of which were digitized from 18 microfilm reels. Included are diaries, correspondence, speeches and articles, subject files, and miscellaneous items, including photographs and printed matter. The collection reflects Catt's steadfast dedication to two major ideals--the rights of women, particularly the right to vote, and world peace.
The Salmon P. Chase Papers (1808-1873) [Microfilm VHL Micr. USA 331]
American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio, as US Treasury Secretary under Abraham Lincoln, and Chief Justice of the United States. He articulated the 'slave power conspiracy' thesis well before Lincoln did, and he coined the slogan 'Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men'.
Guide: VHL Micr. E 415.6 .C48 1987
J.F.H. Claiborne Papers, 1818-1885
This collection consists of the correspondence, plantation records, writings, and diary of John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne, a lawyer, Democratic newspaper editor, U.S. representative, plantation owner, and historian. Claiborne opposed secession, yet as a planter argued that slavery was morally just and that states had the right to secede, even if he opposed such action. His records include slave transactions and other matters of business on the plantation. In addition, since Claiborne was a historian of Mississippi and Louisiana, his papers also present researchers with an inside, yet often academic, view of slavery and the slave trade.
Charles Loomis Dana Papers, 1876-1932
This collection documents Dr. Charles Loomis Dana's (1852-1935) medical career and professional life. His professional papers include published articles and reprints, manuscripts for speeches and books, handwritten notes, and research materials. Topics documented include: handwriting, telepathy, insanity, psychiatry, alcohol, medical history, early physicians, and printing. These records include reproductions of anatomical illustrations, frontispieces, etc., many taken from sources such as bookseller's catalogs, as well as photographs. There are also preservation photocopies of some materials; these copies were made before the collection was acquired by the Academy and the original documents are not present.

The case records and correspondence document Dr. Dana's medical practice from 1918-1929. They include patient histories, along with correspondence and other records related to his patients. Some of the more common conditions found in Dana's cases include depression, anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, dementia praecox, migraines, neurasthenia, psychasthenia, epilepsy, lateral sclerosis, tinnitus, encephalitis, and encephalitis lethargica.
Frederick Douglass papers (Library of Congress)
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American abolitionist who escaped from slavery to become an anti-slavery writer, lecturer and publisher. His papers include correspondence, speeches and articles, a draft of his autobiography, financial and legal papers, and scrapbooks. The correspondences reveal his connections to other civil rights reformers and political leaders.
W. E. B. DuBois Papers (bulk 1877-1963)
Scholar, writer, editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century.

Includes over 100,000 items of correspondence (more than three quarters of the papers), speeches, articles, newspaper columns, nonfiction books, research materials, book reviews, pamphlets and leaflets, petitions, novels, essays, forewords, student papers, manuscripts of pageants, plays, short stories and fables, poetry, photographs, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, videotapes, audiotapes, and miscellaneous materials.
Robert E. Lee Papers
Collection from the Washington and Lee University, which documents aspects of Lee's life and career as a soldier, educator, friend, and father.
Alexander E. Macdonald Papers and Photographs, 1865-1906
Alexander E. Macdonald (1845-1906), LL.B., M.D., was a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and a prominent New York psychiatrist. Upon graduation from medical school, Dr. Macdonald was appointed assistant physician (and, later, resident physician) at the Hospital for Epileptics and Paralytics, Blackwell's Island, in 1870. The next year he became chief of staff of the Charity and Allied Hospitals, Blackwell's Island. In 1874, Dr. Macdonald began his long tenure at the New York City Asylum for the Insane, Ward's Island (later renamed the Manhattan State Hospital East), first as resident physician and then, from 1875 to 1904, as medical superintendent. In 1886, Dr. Macdonald became general superintendent of the New York City Asylums. This position brought with it responsibility for the administration not only of the New York City Asylum, Ward's Island (with its branches on Randall's Island and in Central Islip, Long Island), but also of the Reception Pavilion of the Insane, Bellevue and the New York City Lunatic Asylum, Blackwell's Island (with branches on Ward's and Hart's Island). Dr. Macdonald's career include his frequent consultation as an expert witness in important trials including the Guiteau, Rhinelander and Stokes cases as well as his work in the care of the tubercular insane, and the introduction of tent life for their treatment. He published widely and was a member of a number of medical organizations.
George Brinton McClellan Papers
The papers of U.S. Army officer and governor of New Jersey George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885) consist of 33,000 items (59,477 images), most of which were digitized from 82 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1783-1898, with the bulk dating from 1850 to 1885, the collection contains correspondence, telegrams, memoranda, diaries, writings, notes, military papers, McClellan family papers, scrapbooks, printed copies of speeches, articles and books, and other papers relating primarily to General George B. McClellan's Civil War service, particularly in the 1862 Peninsular Campaign in Virginia and battle of Antietam in Maryland.
George S. Patton Papers: Diaries, 1910 to 1945
The diaries of U.S. army officer George S. Patton cover 1910-1945 and illustrate Patton's activities during the Mexican Punitive Expedition, World War I, and World War II.
Edmund Ruffin diaries, 1856-1865
Edmund Ruffin's diaries describe the views of a plantation owner, pro-slavery advocate, and a member of the Virginia state legislature. This collection provides a vision of life on Virginia plantations in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. Through Ruffin's diaries, researchers are able to reconstruct a plantation owner's perspectives on plantation life and aspects of the institution of slavery.
Edwin McMasters Stanton Papers, 1818 to 1921
The papers of lawyer and Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton (1814-1869) span the years 1818-1921, with the bulk of the material originating between 1862 and 1870. They consist of approximately 7,650 items, most digitally scanned from 14 microfilm reels. The papers focus chiefly on Stanton's tenure as secretary of war under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and stress his role in the Union victory over the Confederacy and the first phase of Reconstruction.
The Papers of William H. Seward, ca. 1776-1910 [microfilm VHL Micr. USA 346]
The Papers consist of the public, private, and family correspondence of William Henry Seward and his immediate family; files from Seward's term as Governor and as United States Secretary of State; personal financial and legal records; speeches, proclamations, diaries and secondary printed material relating to his life and career.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers
The papers of suffragist, reformer, and feminist theorist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) cover the years 1814 to 1946, with most of the material concentrated between 1840 and 1902. Consisting of approximately 1,000 items (4,164 images), reproduced on five reels of recently digitized microfilm, the collection contains correspondence, speeches, articles, drafts of books, scrapbooks, and printed matter relating to Stanton and the woman's rights movement.
Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861 to 1865
This collection represents three manuscript volumes that document daily life in Washington, D.C., through the eyes of U.S. Patent Office examiner Horatio Nelson Taft (1806-1888), including Taft's connection with Abraham Lincoln and his family. Of special interest is Taft's description of Lincoln's assassination, based on the accounts of his friends and his son, who was one of the attending physicians at Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot, on April 14, 1865.
The Thaddeus Stevens Papers (1792-1868) [microfilm VHL Micr. USA 353]
The collection contains significant correspondence, legal arguments, and major speeches of this US Congressman and Radical Republican leader on a range of historical topics.
Mary Church Terrell Papers - Library of Congress
The papers of educator, lecturer, suffragist, and civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) consist of approximately 13,000 documents, comprising 25,323 images, all of which were digitized from 34 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1851 to 1962, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1886-1954, the collection contains diaries, correspondence, printed matter, clippings, and speeches and writings, primarily focusing on Terrell's career as an advocate of women's rights and equal treatment of African Americans.
Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress
This selection of Wilbur and Orville Wright’s papers at the Library of Congress comprises about 10,121 items (approximately 49,084 digital images) documenting the lives of the Wright brothers and their pioneering work leading to the world's first powered, controlled and sustained flight. Included in the collection are diaries and notebooks, correspondence, scrapbooks, drawings, printed matter, and other documents, largely from 1900 to 1940, as well as the Wrights' collection of 303 glass-plate photographic negatives.
Gideon Welles Papers
The papers of Gideon Welles (1802-1878), newspaper editor and U.S. secretary of the navy under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, consist of 15,070 items (26,302 images), most of which were digitized from 36 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1777-1911, with the bulk dating from 1820 to 1878, the collection includes correspondence, diaries, writings, naval records, scrapbooks, and other papers relating to Welles's work as editor of the Hartford Times; his activities as a member of the Democratic Party, later the Republican Party, in Connecticut state and national politics; his service as U.S. secretary of the navy; and his literary pursuits. Subjects include slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, role of the U.S. Navy in the war, Lincoln and Johnson presidential administrations, and the limits and uses of federal and state powers.

American Federation of Labor Records - Library of Congress
The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
American Home Missionary Society Papers, 1816-1894 [microfilm: VHL Micr. USA 351]
Guide: VHL Micr. xCD 3065 .C6 2005
This society was formed in 1826, with a purpose to assist congregations in the United States and its territories primarily until they could become financially self-supporting. The papers include correspondence, administrative materials and annual reports.
Records of the American Colonization Society, 1792-1964 [microfilm VHL Micr. USA 328]
The American Colonization Society, organised in 1817 to resettle African Americans in West Africa, presented its records to the Library of Congress in 1913, 1964 and 1965. While spanning the period 1792 to 1964, the majority of the society's correspondence, reports, and financial and business papers date from the years 1823 to 1912.
Papers of the (British) Anti-Slavery Society [BOD]
More information
This society, founded in 1835, had as its aim the abolition of slavery throughout the world in general and in the United States in particular. After 1840 the society's transatlantic prestige declined but it continued to concern itself with American problems and correspond with American abolitionists up to the Civil War.
The American material is also available on microfilm at the VHL: Micr. USA 187, 188
Freedmen's Aid Society Records, 1866-1932 [microfilm]
Guide: VHL Micr. BX 8235 .F74 2000
Originally founded as the Fugitives' Aid Society with the aim to assist Fugitive slaves and to lobby and protest against slavery in the United States. The organisation sent money and volunteer aid to the US South after the defeat of the Confederacy. The Society had a strong education initiative and was responsible for the establishment of many historically Black colleges and universities.

Global Missions and Theology (Archives Unbound)
This collection documents the broad range of Nineteenth Century religious missionary activities, practices and thought in the United States by reproducing pivotal personal narratives, organizational records, and biographies of the essential leaders, simple missionaries, and churches. This collection includes materials on missionary activities among Native Americans and African Americans, both slaves and freedmen. In addition, it highlights activities in far-flung regions and countries, such as Africa, Fiji and Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Hawaii. From the collections of the Lost Cause Press.
Historical Annual Reports
This database contains annual reports for over 800 US companies (1844-current), which are available through searchable pdf images. The collection includes digital reproductions of over 1.3 million pages found in more than 43,000 reports. Key data (financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor, and related companies) are indexed in the citation and can be searched. Reports can be browsed by company name, industry or date.

National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection
Formed in 1890, NAWSA was the result of a merger between two rival factions--the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe. These opposing groups were organized in the late 1860s, partly as the result of a disagreement over strategy. NWSA favored women's enfranchisement through a federal constitutional amendment, while AWSA believed success could be more easily achieved through state-by-state campaigns. NAWSA combined both of these techniques, securing the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 through a series of well-orchestrated state campaigns under the dynamic direction of Carrie Chapman Catt. With NAWSA's primary goal of women's enfranchisement now a reality, the organization was transformed into the League of Women Voters.
Papers of the NAACP [selections; microfilm]
VHL Micr. USA 386
Guide: VHL Micr. E 185.61 .N33
This selection of papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People includes records of annual conferences, major speeches and special reports, the personal correspondence of selected NAACP officials, information relating to campaigns, selected branch files etc.
The VHL has parts 1, 2, 11, 12B-D, 26B-D, 28A-B and 29A-D, covering 1909-1972.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records, 1918-1974
This collection includes documents from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, dating from its founding in the early part of the twentieth century to 1974. Today, Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest provider of reproductive health-care services.

Meeting minutes, articles, speeches, and other media reflect the early history of the birth-control movement in the United States with files from the archives of several of Planned Parenthood's forerunners, including the American Birth Control League and the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. Also included here are the PPFA's correspondence, mailings and subject files.
Collected Records of the Woman's Peace Party: 1914–1920
In January 1915, suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt and settlement founder Jane Addams formed the Woman's Peace Party (WPP) to oppose World War I. The WPP advocated continuous mediation to end the war, as well as women's suffrage. This collection includes files from 1914 to 1920, more than half of which consist of WPP correspondence. The remaining materials are administrative and historical records from the national office and several state branches of the organization. These include board meeting minutes, speeches, membership lists, resolutions, financial information, Congressional hearing reports, committee reports, form letters, press releases, study course and reference materials, clippings, pictures, and periodicals.
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom: United States Section, 1919-1959
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is an international organization founded in 1919. The US Section of WILPF began as the Woman's Peace Party, founded in 1915 by Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt. Addams also served as first president of WILPF's international organization. Both Addams and Emily Greene Balch, WILPF's first international secretary-treasurer, received Nobel Peace Prizes for their work. At its peak in 1940, WILPF's US Section had more than one hundred branches and thirteen thousand members.

Insight into the organizational history and mission-related work of the US Section of WILPF can be found in the historical records, correspondence, and serials of this collection. Historical records make up more than one-third of the materials here and include complete sets from 1920 to 1959 of handbooks, annual meeting information, national board minutes and resolutions, and anniversary celebration documents. Committee and fieldwork files treat topics related to the issues of the time, such as US imperialism and disarmament in the 1920s and 1930s; neutrality in the upcoming war in the late 1930s; support for conscientious objectors and European refugees during World War II; and postwar reconstruction activities and United Nations monitoring. Literature files include both public-facing materials, such as pamphlets and speeches, and materials for members, such as form letters
Records of the Women's Peace Union: 1921–1940
The Women's Peace Union (WPU), founded in 1921, consisted of suffrage leaders and pacifists who advocated for the total elimination of war. The materials in this collection consist of administrative records and correspondence dating from the organization's founding through its gradual dissolution around 1940.
Women's Trade Union League and Its Leaders
The Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) was founded in 1903 and disbanded in 1950. Its goals were to organize working women into unions, advocate for legislation protecting working women, and educate both workers and middle–class people about the benefits of unionization. This collection includes materials from the national WTUL, records of local branches, and papers of five women active in the organization.
Yudin Collection of Russian-American Company Records, 1783 to 1946
The records of the Russian-American Company include correspondence of Gregorii Shelikhov, Natalia Shelikhova, and other company officials, ships’ logs, expedition records, company reports, and lists of the goods the company traded. They document the operations of the company and its predecessors in Siberia and Alaska, the lives of company personnel and the native people they encountered in Alaska and Siberia, Russian colonization and missionary efforts in Alaska and the Pacific coast of North America, including California, and trade and diplomatic relations between Russia and Japan. The records are mostly in Russian, with some in English, German, and French. The manuscript of a brief autobiography by Yudin is also included here.

The below collections are more broadly focused on international history or culture, and may include useful resources related to the United States.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century looks at gender and sexuality in the centuries leading up to, and inclusive of, the period covered in Archives of Sexuality and Gender Parts I and II, providing context to the materials in those collections. It examines topics such as patterns of fertility and sexual practice; prostitution; religion and sexuality; the medical and legal construction of sexualities; and the rise of sexology. It not only offers a reflection of the cultural and social attitudes of the past, but also a window into how sexuality and gender roles were viewed and changed over time.
Three unique collections make up the archive:
- The Private Case from the British Library, comprised of printed books segregated from the main library from the 1850s to 1990 on grounds of obscenity. It is an interesting study in social mores as the definition of obscenity has seen many changes since the mid-nineteenth-century.
- Special Subject Units from Sex Research: Early Literature from Statistics to Erotica, a collection from the Alfred C. Kinsey Institute for Sex Research dating from 1700 to 1860. This is a portion of Dr. Kinsey's original library which he used to study human sexual behavior from a variety of academic and literary viewpoints.
- A collection of rare and unique books from the New York Academy of Medicine, consisting of more than 1,400 monographs covering a variety of topics in sex, sexuality, and gender studies. From sex education to erotica, manners to medicine, the Academy collection offers a rich combination of materials from the humanities to the hard sciences.
The archive presents content in fourteen different languages, with a predominance in French, English, and German and including Old French, Old English, and Old High German.

ARTstor
ARTstor provides access to thousands of digitised images from various collections and libraries, including many relevant to US history.
For more information and a taste of the American studies collections in ARTstor, see the ARTstor blog
Avalon Project: documents in law, history and diplomacy (Yale Law School)
Provides access to digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government from the 17th-21st centuries.

Early encounters in North America (Alexander Street Press)
The collection has been compiled by consulting a number of bibliographies, including:
* A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772-1924 by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. Parins
* Sources for the ethnography of northeastern North America to 1611, by David B. Quinn.
* The French image of America: a chronological and subject bibliography of French books printed before 1816 relating to the British North American colonies and the United States by Durand Echeverria and Everett C. Wilkie, Jr.
* Wagner & Camp's The Plains and the Rockies, a critical bibliography of exploration, adventure and travel in the American West, 1800-1865
* Robert Rogers Hubach's Early Midwestern Travel Narratives, An Annotated Bibliography, 1634-1850.
* Candiana.org, (www.canadiana.org), a full-text online collection that contains documents about CanadaÆs history from the first European contact to the nineteenth century.
* Bibliography of Native North Americans, Human Relations Area Files, 1976
When complete it will include more than 1,000 published and unpublished items from a variety of sources, including online resources and microform. Subscribers to the collection are encouraged to participate in the maintenance of this bibliography by calling our attention to omissions, suggesting additions, and notifying us of newly discovered materials.

Empire Online
Empire Online allows users to explore colonial history, politics, culture and society around the world, approximately 60,000 pages of original manuscript and printed documents from libraries and archives around the world. Includes documents related to North America and the colonies.
more...less...
NB still in progress.
Fold3.com [Subscription required for some content]
Searchable original historical documents from the US National Archives and other content providers. Most content is only available with a subscription (some free, some paid), but some content is freely available. The site is now focusing on US military records, but still contains a huge number of non-military documents such as city directories, newspapers, census records and other documents.
Google News Archive
Browsable directory of newspaper pages digitised by Google. Period and location covered varies, but the bulk are 19th and 20th centuries and North American.

History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century
Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century presents monographs (books), manuscripts, and ephemera that provide a historical view of disabilities from the seventeenth to twentieth century.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Digitised versions of material from the Library of Congress and other institutions relating to American history. Includes amongst others, collections on: African American history (slave narratives, Frederick Douglass papers), Government & law (Hannah Arendt papers, US Congress etc), and Presidential papers.
Meeting of Frontiers - Library of Congress
Meeting of Frontiers is a project, originally funded by the United States Congress, devoted to the theme of the exploration and settlement of the American West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Migration to New Worlds. Module I, The Century of Immigration
Migration to New Worlds documents the emigration of peoples to the United States, Canada and Australasia during the period 1800 to 1924, although there are documents from the eighteenth century and also later material included.
Mainly focusing on European emigration, the resource includes material on English, Scandinavian, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish and Scottish experiences along with a wealth of material covering Chinese and Japanese movement to the United States.
The majority of the collection comprises unique manuscript correspondence, diaries and travel journals, providing eye-witness accounts and experiences of emigrants across the World. It is also rich in visual content.
Topics covered include: motives for emigration; assisted migration schemes; social conditions and organisation in ports of emigration; ships and shipping lines involved in emigration; government legislation for emigration and immigration; settlement, naturalisation and choice of location; maintaining identities.
This collection of primary sources provides an important and multi-faceted resource for students, teachers and researchers from a diverse range of academic disciplines, including migration studies, history, sociology, law, economics and postcolonial studies.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks
Alterative name: Women: Transnational Networks

Including a wide array of primary source documents—serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals—Women: Transnational Networks focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late-eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early-twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective. Source libraries include the Library of Congress, the London School of Economics and Political Science Library, and the Library of the Society of Friends.
Political Extremism & Radicalism in the Twentieth Century
Political Extremism & Radicalism in the Twentieth Century: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in the U.S., Europe, and Australia combines content on far-right and fascist movements, alongside significant coverage of radical left groups, allowing researchers to access material from both sides, and providing points for comparison. By providing primary source material from both sides in one comprehensive, meticulously indexed resource, Gale makes it possible for researchers to make connections not previously discoverable. Researchers in contemporary topics will also find value in the content, allowing them to explore the origins and development of present-day issues, including the resurgence of right-wing politics, evolution of various civil rights movements and the nature of extreme or radical political thought.

Records relating to the slave trade at the Liverpool Record Office (British records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900)
These primary sources preserved at the Liverpool Record Office constitute one of the best collections in British archives of private merchants' papers relating to the transatlantic slave trade. Liverpool was the leading slave trading port in the world in the eighteenth century when these documents were compiled. Each individual item has a particular focus, but all illuminate the human and financial aspects of the slave trade.

Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice
Alternative name: Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice

Bringing together primary source documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world, this resource allows students and researchers to explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition and social justice.
In addition to the primary source documents there is a wealth of useful secondary sources for research and teaching; including an interactive map, scholarly essays, tutorials, a visual sources gallery, chronology and bibliography.
Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History
This resource brings together hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Students and researchers will find sources covering a variety of topics including architecture, art, the British Empire, climate, customs, exploration, family life, housing, industry, language, monuments, mountains, natural history, politics and diplomacy, race, religion, science, shopping and war.
Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War
Published by every type of military and support service unit, from every involved nation, trench journals were a means of expression through which men and women engaged in all aspects of World War I could share their thoughts and experiences.
Over 1,500 periodicals, drawn from the holdings of major libraries and research collections, including the Imperial War Museums and the British Library, make this resource the most comprehensive collection of trench journals available to scholars anywhere in one place.
This resource brings together complete runs of journals from disparate sources. Functionality allows both browsing and precision searching for editorials, advertisements, poetry, cartoons and illustrations, photographs, and obituaries, opening up opportunities for research in multiple fields: literature, history, war studies, cultural studies, and gender studies.

Purchase of this resources was partly funded by the Drue Heinz Fund.
Women and Social Movements, International
Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life. This digital archive includes 150,000 pages of conference proceedings, reports of international women's organizations, publications and web pages of women's non-governmental organizations, and letters, diaries, and memoirs of women active internationally since the mid-nineteenth century. It also includes photographs and videos of major events and activists in the history of women’s international social movements. Additionally, there are 30 essays from leading contemporary scholars exploring themes illuminated by the primary documents in the archive.
Women's Studies Archive: Issues and Identities
Resources include papers of women's political peace movements and trade unions, records of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, investigations of activities of "vice" in New York during the progressive era and manuscript collections of the lives and activities of women involved in politics, missionary work and pioneer travel.
This collection traces the path of women’s issues in the 19th and 20th centuries, drawing on primary sources from manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and more. It captures the foundation of women’s movements, struggles and triumphs, and provides researchers with valuable insights. It focusses on the social, political, and professional achievements of women, the pioneers of women’s movements, and is useful to understand the issues that have affected women and the many contributions they have made to society.
Topics covered include the History of Feminist Theory and Activism; domestic culture; lay and ordained church women; women in industry; women's sexuality and gender expression; women’s education; women’s movement; women’s health and mental health; women and law; women and the control of their bodies; and women’s roles and interactions within society.
The sources comes from the New York Public Library, The National Women’s History Project, the London School of Economics Women's Library, and many more.

Collections of primary sources in print or microfiche format, which can be accessed at the Vere Harmsworth (unless otherwise stated).

See also the VHL's guide to its microfilm holdings (also in print in the library)

Newspapers

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Alternative name: 19th Century U.S. Newspapers

19th Century U.S. Newspapers provides access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life among other subjects.
Date coverage: 1800-1900
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection
Alternative name: AAS

The collection provides digital access to the full text of thousands of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912, digitised from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Titles cover a broad range of subjects and interests related to every aspect of American life and culture, from politics to religion, science, law, literature and the arts.
American Periodicals (1740-1940)
Alternative names: American Periodicals ; APS Online

Over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
The Chicago Defender (1905-1975) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
The New York Times (1851-2004) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
The Washington Post (1877-1991) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

Chronicling America
Provides access to thousands of digitised pages of a wide range of newspapers from 1860-1922, as well as bibliographic information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present, including listings of libraries in the States that have copies.

Atlantic Magazine Archive, The (1957-2014)
The Atlantic Magazine Archive, 1857-2014, covers events and political issues through literary and cultural commentary. It includes more than 1,800 issues providing a broad view of 19th, 20th and early 21st-Century American thought. Originally created with a focus on publishing leading writers' commentary on abolition, education and other major issues in contemporary political affairs at the time, it has featured articles over its publication history in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, science and more.
Economist Historical Archive (1843-2020)
The Economist Historical Archive 1843-2020 ('EHA') is a fully searchable complete facsimile edition of The Economist. The database covers 8,000 issues and more than 600,0000 pages, offering full-colour images, multiple search indexes, topic and area supplements and surveys, together with a gallery of front covers (via the browse by date option). Maps, images and financial tables can be searched separately. Selected financial tables published after May 1983 can be exported using links in the blue box to left of the page image.

Harper's Magazine
Formerly Harper's Monthly Magazine, Harper's New Monthly Magazine.
Harper’s Magazine (or simply Harper’s) is a monthly general-interest magazine covering literature, politics, culture, and the arts. The second oldest continuously-published monthly magazine in the United States, Harper’s was launched in June 1850. Its early issues included material that had already been published in England, but the publication soon began to print the work of American artists and writers.

Nation, The (1865- )
The Nation Digital Archive is a fully searchable electronic version of the American magazine's complete backfile, offering a 145-year archive of reporting opinion and criticism. The archive contains thousands of historic articles, editorials, letters, reviews, poems, and puzzles dating back to 1865.
New Republic, The (1914-2020 )
Alternative name: TNR

The New Republic Digital Archive provides access to the complete archive of the American magazine from 1914 to the present.

New York Journal and Related Titles, 1896 to 1899 - Library of Congress
The New York Journal Collection consists of The Journal (1896-01-01 to 1896-07-18) and subsequent titles, New York Journal (1896-07-16 to 1897-04-01) and New York Journal and Advertiser (1897-04-02 to 1899-12-31) . In 1895, William Randolph Hearst purchased the paper to compete with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The New York Journal is an example of "Yellow Journalism," where the newspapers competed for readers through bold headlines, illustrations, and activist journalism. The paper infamously reported on and influenced events like the Spanish-American War.

New York Times (1851-2020)
Alternative names: NYT ; The New York Times with Index

This archive of The New York Times in ProQuest Historical Newspapers offers full page and article images with searchable full text, from the first issue up to 2018.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Readers’ Guide Retrospective provides access to the archive of the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature from 1890-1982, indexing articles in the popular American press by subject, as well as to over three million articles from approximately 375 periodicals, many in full text.
San Francisco Chronicle (1869-1984)
Though it was Northern California’s “newspaper of record,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s influence was so far-reaching that it was known as the Voice of the West. With colorful reporting and commentary on news ranging from the aftermath of the Gold Rush to the effects of World War II to the counterculture boom of the 1960s, the San Francisco Chronicle offers an unparalleled glimpse into the issues and events that shaped the West Coast for over a century.
Time Magazine Archive (1923-2000)
The Time Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the prominent weekly news magazine dating back to its first issue in March 1923 through December 2000. Focused on conveying to a broad audience both domestic and international news and analysis on a spectrum of subjects, the Time Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-Century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.
Vogue Archive, The
High-res images of American Vogue, Issue 1 (1892) – present. Every page, including advertisements, covers and fold-outs. You can search by (for example) garment type, designer and brand names.
Washington Post (1877-2004)
The Washington Post (1877-2004) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

African American Newspapers series I (1827-1998)
Chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience, African American Newspapers, Series 1, features 280 newspapers from 35 states, including many rare and historically significant 19th-century titles.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995
African American Periodicals allows users to search more than 170 African American Periodicals published between 1825 and 1995. Created by Readex through a partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society, African American Periodicals enables researchers to explore African American culture, thought and opinion ranging over more than 150 years of African American life.

Black Journals
[VHL Micr. USA 397-422; catalogued separately on SOLO.]
The collections provide a historical record of black Americans and their culture over the first part of the 20th century. Includes some 17 titles including Colored American Magazine, Harlem Quarterly, Race relations, Southern Frontier, etc.

Chicago Defender (1910-1975)
By the outbreak of the First World War, the Chicago Defender had become the most widely-read Black newspaper in the country, with more than two thirds of its readership based outside Chicago. The newspaper was instrumental in the Great Migration of the early twentieth century, in publicizing lynchings in Southern states, and in its use of political cartoons to highlight race issues.
The Chicago Defender (1905-1975) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971
Alternative name: Ethnic American Newspapers, 1799-1971
Access to over 130 digitised newspapers published by and for ethnic groups in the United States, particularly those of Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak and Welsh descent.

Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers, 1942 to 1946
Produced by the Japanese-Americans interned at assembly centers and relocation centers around the country during World War II, these newspapers provide a unique look into the daily lives of the people who were held in these camps. They include articles written in English and Japanese, typed, handwritten and drawn. They advertise community events, provide logistical information about the camps and relocation, report on news from the community, and include editorials.

New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
One of the leading black newspapers of the 20th century, which reached its peak in the 1940s. The New York Amsterdam News captured the vibrancy and cultural richness of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, advocated for the desegregation of the U.S. military during World War II, and fought against discriminatory employment practices and other civil rights abuses in the 1960s. This resource provides full coverage of seventy years worth of the newspaper's archive.
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
The Pittsburgh Courier was once the most widely circulated black newspaper in the United States during the early 20th century. This resource provides access to more than ninety years of the newspaper's archive, including columns and reports from writers such as W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston.

Associated Press News Dispatches, 1915 to 1930
The collection of news dispatches of the Washington, D.C., Bureau of the Associated Press spans the period 1915-1930 and consists of 375 volumes (387,082 images), housed in 254 boxes, the contents of which provide an unbroken chronology of world and national events as reported by the news agency.
Chronicling America
Provides access to thousands of digitised pages of a wide range of newspapers from 1860-1922, as well as bibliographic information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present, including listings of libraries in the States that have copies.

Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama (Archives Unbound)
This collection is a mixture of issues and papers from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama ranging from 1861-1865. These newspapers "recorded the real and true history of public opinion during the war. In their columns is to be found the only really correct and indicative 'map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast concerns' in the South, during her days of darkness and of trial." From the collections of Western Reserve Historical Society.

Google News Archive
Browsable directory of newspaper pages digitised by Google. Period and location covered varies, but the bulk are 19th and 20th centuries and North American.

Women's Periodicals: Social and Political Issues (Archives Unbound)
Alternative name: International Women's Periodicals, 1786-1933

This resource provides online access to 57 women’s magazine and journal publications covering the late eighteenth century to the 1930s. The material allows researchers to explore the role of women in society and the development of the public lives of women as the push for women's rights (woman suffrage, fair pay, better working conditions, etc.) grew in the United States and England. Some of the titles in this collection were conceived and published by men, for women; others, conceived and published by male editors with strong input from female assistant editors or managers; others were conceived and published by women, for women. It is therefore also useful for the study of the history of women’s publishing. The strongest suffrage and anti-suffrage writing was done by women for women's periodicals. Suffrage and anti-suffrage writing, domesticity columns, and literary genres from poetry to serialized novels are included in these periodicals. Thus this resource provides a wide array of views for study. The collection contains overwhelmingly English and US publications, with 4 German, 1 French periodical and 1 Icelandic periodical.

List of online newspaper archives (United States) - Wikipedia
A comprehensive list, with links, to US newspaper archives on the web, both free and paid.
Newspapers on fold3.com (Formerly footnote.com)
Approximately 4 million pages of digitised newspapers available via the fold3.com website. Not all content is available to view freely or without signing up.

Periodicals Archive Online
Alternative names: PAO ; was part of Periodicals Contents Index Fulltext (ProQuest) PCI

An online archive of digitized, full-image journal articles, Periodicals Archive Online (formerly PCI Full Text) offers unprecedented access to international, scholarly literature in the humanities and social sciences disciplines from 1802 to 2000. Many journals are non-English. Oxford has access to Collections 0–9, Jisc Collection and Jisc Collection 2. Contents includes The Spectator from 1828 to 2000.
Note that Periodicals Archive Online is separate from other ProQuest databases such as British Periodicals.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Readers’ Guide Retrospective provides access to the archive of the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature from 1890-1982, indexing articles in the popular American press by subject, as well as to over three million articles from approximately 375 periodicals, many in full text.

Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918 to 1919
This online collection includes the complete seventy-one-week run of The Stars and Stripes World War I edition. The Stars and Stripes was published in France by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) of the United States Army from February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919.

Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War
Published by every type of military and support service unit, from every involved nation, trench journals were a means of expression through which men and women engaged in all aspects of World War I could share their thoughts and experiences.
Over 1,500 periodicals, drawn from the holdings of major libraries and research collections, including the Imperial War Museums and the British Library, make this resource the most comprehensive collection of trench journals available to scholars anywhere in one place.
This resource brings together complete runs of journals from disparate sources. Functionality allows both browsing and precision searching for editorials, advertisements, poetry, cartoons and illustrations, photographs, and obituaries, opening up opportunities for research in multiple fields: literature, history, war studies, cultural studies, and gender studies.

Purchase of this resources was partly funded by the Drue Heinz Fund.

World War History: Newspaper Clippings, 1914 to 1926
This vast online collection of World War I era newspaper clippings is from a single unique source: the 400-volume, 80,000-page set, World War History: Daily Records and Comments as Appeared in American and Foreign Newspapers, 1914-1926. Beginning with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 and extending to the November 11, 1918 armistice and years after, the clippings yield significant information about the political, social, cultural, and economic impact of the war as it is taking place and its aftermath. The clippings cover far beyond the valuable contemporary news reports and contain war-related editorials, features, cartoons, photos, maps, and more. Front pages and full-page features of New York City newspapers are frequently presented, while many newspapers from around the country and some foreign ones are represented through clipped individual articles and cartoons.

Black Journals
[VHL Micr. USA 397-422; catalogued separately on SOLO.]
The collections provide a historical record of black Americans and their culture over the first part of the 20th century. Includes some 17 titles including Colored American Magazine, Harlem Quarterly, Race relations, Southern Frontier, etc.
Harper's Magazine
Formerly Harper's Monthly Magazine, Harper's New Monthly Magazine
[BOD 1880- (European edition pre-1917)]
[EFL 1880-1903, 1908-1909]
Online via Making of America 1850-1899
Online via Hathi Trust (various 19th century volumes)
Harper's Weekly
[VHL Stack 1861-1865]
Noted for its Civil War coverage
The New Yorker
Held off-site by the Bodleian.1925-46 are in microfilm format. Print copies are held 1946 onwards.
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1900/03-1968/69)
A physical index and guide to articles published in periodical magazines and journals. Includes some on more social, cultural and popular aspects of life in the US.
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Some volumes are available online via HathiTrust. Search SOLO for more information.

Political/Government Sources

US Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 [in progress] (with American State Papers, 1789-1838)
Alternative name: U.S. Congressional Serial Set

The US Serial Set is a rich collection of primary source material detailing all aspects of American history. This resource is invaluable to the research of US political, social, cultural, military, and ethnic history, as well as international relations, explorations, genealogy, commerce, industrial development, and more. Its contents come not only from the US Congress, but also include key Executive Department publications. Beginning with volume 1 in the first session of the 15th Congress (1817), the Readex US Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 contains all publications from the 15th through to the 103rd Congresses. The Serial Set 1994- continues on the GPO Access website.

Congressional Hearings 1824-1979 [via ProQuest Congressional]
Includes the full text of published committee hearings from the US Congress from 1824-1979.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States (House Journal), 1789-1875
Describes the proceedings of the House in its day to day business.
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America (Senate Journal), 1789-1875
Describes the proceedings of the Senate in its day to day business.
Govtrack.us
Website offering a wide range of legislative information and data. As well as tracking bills back to 1973 (and selected earlier information), Govtrack.us includes voting records all the way back to the 1st congress.

The Congressional Record and predecessors

Use ProQuest Congressional to search across Congressional Publications, including:

Congressional Globe, 1833-1873
Congressional Record, 1873-

Also in print VHL Stack and online from the Library of Congress
Note: go to advanced search screen and limit by date to search Congressional Globe only.

ProQuest Congressional
Alternative names: Congressional records ; Annals of Congress ; Register of Debates ; Congressional Globe ; Congressional Record (and predecessors) ; Congressional Hearings, 1824-1979

Access to the full archive of the Congressional Record and its predecessors (Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, Congressional Globe) from 1789-1999, providing full text coverage of the official record of the proceedings, debates, and activities of Congress, as well as published Congressional Hearings from 1824-1979.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Biographies of every member of Congress from 1789 to present, including bibliographies and information about archival collections.

Individual papers of the presidents and key figures in the American government may be held physically in the VHL - search via SOLO to check.

Messages and Papers of the Presidents/Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of each President. Available physically in the VHL, or on HeinOnline.
Messages and Papers - 1776-1920 (Washington-Cleveland)
Public Papers - 1920- (Taft-Obama)
Presidential Papers at the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress holds the papers of 23 presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, all of which have been digitized and are now available online.
Connecting Presidential Collections
Centralized site for searching across presidential collections in a variety of libraries and archives across the United States.

Electing the President: Proceedings of the Democratic National Conventions, 1832-1988 (Archives Unbound)
This collection includes the proceedings of the 1832-1988 Democratic National Conventions, providing gavel to gavel coverage, including speeches, debates, votes, and party platforms. Also included are lists of names of convention delegates and alternates. Records of the earliest proceedings are based in part on contemporary newspaper accounts.
Electing the President: Proceedings of the Republican National Conventions, 1856-1988 (Archives Unbound)
The collection includes the proceedings for 1856-1988 of the Republican National Conventions, providing gavel to gavel coverage of the conventions, including speeches, debates, votes, and party platforms. Also included are lists of names of convention delegates and alternates. Records of the earliest proceedings are based in part on contemporary newspaper accounts.

Franklin
FRANKLIN is a virtual research room and digital repository that provides free and open access to the digitized collections of the Roosevelt Library—to everyone, anywhere in the world. FRANKLIN allows for keyword searches for archival documents and photographs and to search, browse, and view whole files. Now available online are some of the most important documents of the twentieth century—primary source documentation of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s experiences leading the nation through the Great Depression and World War II.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945 (Archives Unbound)
This new series contains a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement-concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination. FDR's record on civil rights has been the subject of much controversy. This new collection from FDR's Official File provides insight into his political style and presents an instructive example of how he balanced moral preference with political realities. This collection includes essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement. From the collections of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the documents range from 1933-1945.

Theodore Roosevelt Center
Selected digitised papers of Theodore Roosevelt, from the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University.

FBI Records: The Vault
The Vault is the FBI's new FOIA Library, containing 6,700 documents and other media that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office.

Included here are many new FBI files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; files from our previous FOIA Library, and new, previously unreleased files.

Highlights include files on key figures or movements in American History (e.g. Martin Luther King).
Federal Register
1936- online via govinfo
1936- online via HeinOnline [Oxford users only; log in via SOLO for remote access]
1979-1991 and 1936-1948 VHL Micr. USA 207
1949-1977 VHL 300.431 s.2
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Official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other Presidential documents.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945 (Archives Unbound)
This new series contains a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement-concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination. FDR's record on civil rights has been the subject of much controversy. This new collection from FDR's Official File provides insight into his political style and presents an instructive example of how he balanced moral preference with political realities. This collection includes essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement. From the collections of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the documents range from 1933-1945.

George Brinton McClellan Papers
The papers of U.S. Army officer and governor of New Jersey George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885) consist of 33,000 items (59,477 images), most of which were digitized from 82 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1783-1898, with the bulk dating from 1850 to 1885, the collection contains correspondence, telegrams, memoranda, diaries, writings, notes, military papers, McClellan family papers, scrapbooks, printed copies of speeches, articles and books, and other papers relating primarily to General George B. McClellan's Civil War service, particularly in the 1862 Peninsular Campaign in Virginia and battle of Antietam in Maryland.
Indian Treaties, 1789 - 1869
Digitisation of handwritten treaties with Native American tribes.
William T. Sherman Papers
The papers of General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) span the years 1810-1897, with the bulk of the material originating between 1848 and 1891. They consist of approximately 18,000 items, most digitally scanned from 51 microfilm reels, although some correspondence and other materials in the Addition series which had never been microfilmed were digitized from the originals. The collection consists of correspondence, a volume of recollections during and after the Mexican War, military documents, printed matter, memorabilia, and manuscripts of Sherman’s Memoirs. The manuscript of the Memoirs and a long narrative of wartime experiences supplement the correspondence for the Civil War period. Other documents pertain to Sherman’s early military career, his activities as a civilian in banking, law, business, and education, and his life after retiring from the United States Army
Edwin McMasters Stanton Papers, 1818 to 1921
The papers of lawyer and Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton (1814-1869) span the years 1818-1921, with the bulk of the material originating between 1862 and 1870. They consist of approximately 7,650 items, most digitally scanned from 14 microfilm reels. The papers focus chiefly on Stanton's tenure as secretary of war under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and stress his role in the Union victory over the Confederacy and the first phase of Reconstruction.
Gideon Welles Papers
The papers of Gideon Welles (1802-1878), newspaper editor and U.S. secretary of the navy under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, consist of 15,070 items (26,302 images), most of which were digitized from 36 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1777-1911, with the bulk dating from 1820 to 1878, the collection includes correspondence, diaries, writings, naval records, scrapbooks, and other papers relating to Welles's work as editor of the Hartford Times; his activities as a member of the Democratic Party, later the Republican Party, in Connecticut state and national politics; his service as U.S. secretary of the navy; and his literary pursuits. Subjects include slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, role of the U.S. Navy in the war, Lincoln and Johnson presidential administrations, and the limits and uses of federal and state powers.
World War II Rumor Project
The World War II Rumor Project collection contains manuscript materials compiled by the Office of War Information (OWI). The OWI was established by an Executive order on June 13, 1942, for the purpose of achieving a coordinated governmental war information program. The information program was designed to promote an informed and intelligent understanding of the status and progress of the war effort, war policies, activities, and aims of the United States government. All functions of the Office of Facts and Figures and of the Office of Government Reports, and parts of the functions and related records of two other agencies were transferred to the OWI.

Foreign Relations of the United States
Alternative name: FRUS

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 and now comprises more than 350 individual volumes. The volumes published over the last two decades increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies.
Foreign Relations volumes contain documents from Presidential libraries, Departments of State and Defense, National Security Council, Central Intelligence Agency, Agency for International Development, and other foreign affairs agencies as well as the private papers of individuals involved in formulating U.S. foreign policy. In general, the editors choose documentation that illuminates policy formulation and major aspects and repercussions of its execution. Volumes published over the past few years have expanded the scope of the series in two important ways: first by including documents from a wider range of government agencies, particularly those involved with intelligence activity and covert actions, and second by including transcripts prepared from Presidential tape recordings.

Frontline Diplomacy: the Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (Library of Congress)
Transcripts of interviews with US diplomatic personnel capture their experiences, motivations, critiques, personal analyses and private thoughts. The interviews in the collection are mostly with Foreign Service Officers, but there are also some with political appointees and other officials. Whilst some 1920s, 1930s and WWII era diplomacy is covered, most of the interviews involve post-WWII diplomacy from the late 1940s to the 1990s.
State Department Central Files
Includes digitised copies of the Central Files and the Major-Minor Files.
For most research topics, the central files are the largest and most important category of Department of State records. There is generally at least some documentation in the Department’s central files on almost all topics relating to U.S. foreign policy and relations with other countries. Perhaps most importantly, the central files are the most inclusive and authoritative repository of reporting by American diplomatic and consular posts overseas. In addition, the files include Department of State communications with foreign diplomatic and consular offices in the United States, correspondence with other U.S. Government agencies and the public, and internal memorandums and reports.
The United States and its Territories: 1870-1925 The age of imperialism
The United States and its Territories, drawn from the University of Michigan Library's Southeast Asia collection, comprises the full text of monographs and government documents published in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines between 1870 and 1925. The primary focus of the material is the Spanish-American war and subsequent American governance (approximately 1898-1910). The text collection is complemented by digitized images from key photograph collections drawn from the Special Collections Research Center.
Papers of Sir James Bryce [BOD]
Bryce was British Ambassador to the United States from 1907-13.
Guide to the archive
Sir John Crampton Papers [BOD Modern Political Papers]
Sir John Crampton was British Ambassador to the United States from 1852-1856, and his papers include his correspondence, both private and official, during his service in Washington.
Guide to the collection
More information on the American papers in the collection (1844-1856)
Robert Lansing Papers
The entire collection spans the years 1831-1935, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1914-1920, when Lansing served as counsellor for the Department of State (1914-1915) and as secretary of state (1915-1920), with a focus on World War I and Lansing's participation in the American commission to negotiate peace.
John J. Pershing Papers - Library of Congress
The diaries, notebooks, and address books of John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948), U.S. army officer and commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, are part of a larger collection of Pershing papers. The typed diaries, organized into two sets, describe Pershing's command of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I and his postwar service as army chief of staff until 1925.The notebooks mainly document Pershing's army career prior to 1917, with a few that overlap the World War I diaries.

Confederate States of America Records
LLMC
LLMC is a non-profit cooperative of libraries dedicated to the twin goals of, preserving legal titles and government documents, while making copies inexpensively available digitally through its on-line service LLMC-Digital. Collections are reguarly being added to, and include US Federal and US State documents.

HeinOnline
Alternative names: Hein Online ; HOL

HeinOnline includes five major collections:
The Law Journal Library includes over 500 U.S., U.K., Australian and International Law Journals. For most journals the date coverage starts very early (in many cases at the first issue). However the most recent editions (within the last calendar year) are sometime unavailable due to licensing restrictions. HeinOnline makes these journals available on a rolling yearly basis.
The Treaties and Agreements Library includes all U.S. treaties and agreements including those in force, expired or yet to be published.
The U.S. Supreme Court Library includes all U.S. Supreme Court opinions as published in the U.S. Reports
The Federal Register 1936-1995, and indexes to the register.
Legal Classics Library. Full text of over 100 legal texts including Blackstone's Commentaries (1803), Cardozo's Growth of the Law (1924), and Story's first edition of Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833). Provincial Statutes of Canada includes Provincial Statutes for ten of the Canadian provinces. Contains public and private acts passed by Canadian provincial governments. Current, revised, and historical content is now available for Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Historical and revised content only is available for Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
All content consists of scanned images of the original printed editions. This allows you to view the content as it originally appeared in print complete with page numbers and pictures.
To save or print articles from HeinOnline choose PRINT OPTIONS followed by DOWNLOAD AS PDF. You will then be able to print out and/or save articles using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
ProQuest Congressional
Alternative names: Congressional records ; Annals of Congress ; Register of Debates ; Congressional Globe ; Congressional Record (and predecessors) ; Congressional Hearings, 1824-1979

Access to the full archive of the Congressional Record and its predecessors (Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, Congressional Globe) from 1789-1999, providing full text coverage of the official record of the proceedings, debates, and activities of Congress, as well as published Congressional Hearings from 1824-1979.

Official records, papers of presidents and key individuals in government, and other resources of interest may be held in the VHL. Search SOLO to find these items. Key titles of interest are:

List of US Government reports and stastistical publications held in the VHL
Despatches from United States Ministers to Great Britain, 1791-1906 (Microfilm) [VHL Micr. USA 395]
Diplomatic Instructions of the Department of State, 1801-1906 (Microfilm) [VHL Micr. USA 396]
Diplomatic records: a select catalog of National Archives microfilm publications
VHL: Ref. JX 231 .N37 1986
A useful guide to NARA records dealing specifically with the internal affairs of other countries and with the personnel and operations of the US Foreign Service.
Note that the VHL only has a small selection of the collections in microfilm.
The Salmon P. Chase Papers (1808-1873) [Microfilm VHL Micr. USA 331]
American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio, as US Treasury Secretary under Abraham Lincoln, and Chief Justice of the United States. He articulated the 'slave power conspiracy' thesis well before Lincoln did, and he coined the slogan 'Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men'.
Guide: VHL Micr. E 415.6 .C48 1987
Sir John Crampton Papers [BOD Modern Political Papers]
Sir John Crampton was British Ambassador to the United States from 1852-1856, and his papers include his correspondence, both private and official, during his service in Washington.
Guide to the collection
More information on the American papers in the collection (1844-1856)
The Papers of William H. Seward, ca. 1776-1910 [microfilm VHL Micr. USA 346]
The Papers consist of the public, private, and family correspondence of William Henry Seward and his immediate family; files from Seward's term as Governor and as United States Secretary of State; personal financial and legal records; speeches, proclamations, diaries and secondary printed material relating to his life and career.
The Thaddeus Stevens Papers (1792-1868) [microfilm VHL Micr. USA 353]
The collection contains significant correspondence, legal arguments, and major speeches of this US Congressman and Radical Republican leader on a range of historical topics.
American papers of Sir Charles Vaughan (1774-1849) [Microfilm: Codrington Library, All Souls College]
Vaughan was the sixth or seventh British minister to the US. This collection gives an insight into British-American diplomacy during the period 1824-31. The papers contain a large amount of material on slavery.
More information

Biographical Sources

American National Biography (ANB)
Also print VHL Ref. CT 213 .A68 1999
Offers scholarly biographical portraits of more than 17,400 men and women - from all eras and walks of life - whose lives have shaped the nation.
American Biographical Archive (World Biographical Information System)
Cumulation of almost 400 English-language biographical reference works on the United States and Canada originally published between the 17th and early 20th centuries. Very useful for finding information about relatively unknown or obscure people, or those who were important for particular professions or regions.
Biographical directory of the United States Congress, 1774-
Searchable online directory of Congressmen (Representatives, Senators, Delegates, Vice Presidents, Presidents, Speaker of the House etc). Can also be searched by state or party. Includes information about access to further research sources/papers.
Who's Who in America/Who Was Who in America
Includes a historical volume for 1607-1896 (NB, the online version of this only covers those who died between 1985 and 1993)
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Latest ed. VHL Ref. E 176 .W642

Audiovisual Sources

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894 to 1915 - Library of Congress
Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
Civil War - Library of Congress
Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings. The Prints & Photographs Division holds thousands of images relating to the Civil War, found in many different collections. This category allows research across those collections.
Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
The twenty-eight films of this collection are actuality motion pictures from the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress. They include footage of President William McKinley at his second inauguration; of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; of President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition; and of President McKinley's funeral. The films were produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company from March to November 1901.
The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898 to 1906- Library of Congress
This collection contains forty-five films of New York dating from 1898 to 1906 from the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress. Of these, twenty-five were made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, while the remaining twenty are Edison Company productions.
National Jukebox - Library of Congress
More than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Most recordings are musical but there are also a significant number of spoken word recordings and speeches.

Statistics and censuses

Early censuses are included in the US Congressional Serial Set (see under Government Publications)

Historical statistics of the United States (millennial edition)
Online
Print VHL Ref. HA 202 .H57 2006
Statistical abstract of the United States
1878-2012 online via the Census Bureau
1878-2000, 2008 in print VHL HA 202 .S8
1903, 1921, 1931-32, 1935- in print SSL HA175.CEN.STA
Census of population and housing: decennial censuses
1790-2010 online via the Census Bureau
Also available in print at the VHL:
1840-1940 VHL Stack
Catalog of United States Census Publications, 1790-1945
VHL: Ref. HA 214 .C66 1950
Some volumes are on HathiTrust. Search Solo to find records.
Indian Census Rolls [microfilm]
VHL Micr. USA 203
Winnebago 1886-90, 1925-36
Ponca 1891-96
Osage 1887-88, 1890-96
Fort Berthold 1889-93, 1895-1902
Crow 1891-95, 1897-98
iPoll (Public Opinion Research)
iPOLL is the most comprehensive, up-to-date source for US nationwide public opinion available today. A full-text retrieval system, the iPOLL online database is organized at the question-level, providing the tools to sift through nearly a half million questions asked on national public opinion surveys since 1935 and updated daily.
List of US Government reports and stastistical publications held in the VHL
SocialExplorer: Demographic Maps and Reports of the United States, 1790-
Interactive demographic maps of census data from 1790 to present
Gallup Analytics
A searchable resource of unique public opinion data and analysis compiled by Gallup, Inc., this database includes answers to more than 125,000 questions and responses from more than 3.5 million people interviewed in the United States since 1935. Note: use Gallup Brain (bottom right of the webpage) to view data by date period.
The Population of the United States, 1790-2006
Annual estimates of the population of the United States from 1790-2006, provided by the Economic History Association's eh.net.

Free web resources

These are the latest sites saved by the VHL on our Diigo page.

Visit www.diigo.com/user/vhllib or click on 'view website' for more.