Oxford LibGuides: History, American: Online Resources

Free online resources

C-SPAN video library
Access to the archives of C-SPAN, televising proceedings in the House, Senate, and committees, dating back to 1987. Not all content is free to stream online. Searchable from 2003.
Commission on Presidential Debates: Debate History
Information on presidential and vice-presidential debates from 1858 to the present. Includes transcripts and video footage of debates from 1960-2008.
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.
Presidential Recordings Program (Miller Center for Public Affairs)
Transcripts and MP3 audio clips of recorded meetings or telephone conversations of six US Presidents: Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon. Transcripts are regularly added to the site.
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Note: Bodleian readers have access to the full text searchable archive. Access to MP3s and some transcripts is available for free.
Television news of the Civil Rights Era, 1950-1970
Aims to collect, digitize, and present in streaming video format over the World Wide Web television news footage from the period. The current archive contains films from the nightly news from two local television stations in Virginia--WDBJ (CBS) Roanoke and WSLS (NBC) Roanoke.
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008
More than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952.

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.
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.
Independent Voices: an Open Access Collection of an Alternative Press
Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Magazines on Google Books
Browsable access to a range of magazines digitised as part of the Google Books project.
See this blog post for guidance on searching and navigating the site.
NewspaperCat
Online catalogue of digitised historical newspapers from the United States and Caribbean, hosted by the University of Florida. It currently links through to over 1000 titles and is expanding.

American Archives
Selection of digitised collection by Peter Force of pamphlets, booklets, and newspaper articles pertaining to the "Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America" from the Revolutionary Era in order to preserve them for future generations. Topics include the conflict with Britain, the process of state creation, political philosophies, the state of the economy, military engagements, clashes between patriots and loyalists, to the lives of ordinary farmers, artisans, slaves, and women. Only 2 of 5 series were ever published.
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Full collection available physically in the VHL (see Physical and microfilm collections)
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.
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.
Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in 19th century social history. Includes approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
A web-based collection of selected historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression. Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, the 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.
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.
Digital Resources (National Archives)
Lists digital archive collections for each state, alongside general digital collections of interest.
State Digital Resources (Library of Congress)

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

ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid (formerly Archival Resources) is an important resource for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories found in archives around the world. Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid.
Connecting Presidential Collections
Centralized site for searching across presidential collections in a variety of libraries and archives across the United States.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
NARA is an independent Federal Agency which oversees the management of all federal documents in the United States. Their website has an archival search catalogue, as well as information about where in the US various archives and documents are held.

ALFRED
ALFRED, ArchivaL Federal Reserve Economic Data, is a collection of vintage versions of U.S. economic data. In general, economic data for past observation periods are revised as more accurate estimates become available. As a result, previous vintages of data can be superseded and may no longer be available from various data sources. ALFRED makes it possible to gather data as reported by a source on past dates in history.
Data.gov
Economic History Association Datasets
Includes historic datasets related to economic history created by researchers. Includes data on the population of the United States, labor statistics and public debt.
FedStats
Links to data and statistical publications from Federal Agencies. Historic coverage varies.
FRED
Short for Federal Reserve Economic Data, FRED is an online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources.
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
A searchable collection of election returns from the earliest years of American democracy, which will include all 25 states and territories that existed between 1787 and 1825. The data is very diverse and involves all offices from Federal to local levels. The bulk of the election data came from contemporary sources such as newspapers and original election ballots. Other sources include County histories that were published in the 19th century. The data was compiled by Philip Lampi.
US Census Bureau
U.S. Population Series
Annual statistics for the population of the United States from 1790-2006, created by the Economic History Association.

American Presidency Project
Online resource that has consolidated, coded and organized the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Washington-Taft), Public Papers of the Presidents (Hoover-Bush) and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (Clinton-Obama), as well as other documents relating to the presidency and presidential elections (such as national party platforms)
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation (Library of Congress)
Congressional documents and debates, 1774-1875.
Confederate States of America Records
Digital Resources (National Archives)
Includes digital archive collections for each state, which often hold local government records.
Every CRS Report
Website making available every Congressional Research Service report that is on the Congressional intranet. Over 8,000 reports are currently available.
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
Print VHL: JX 233 .A3
Series presenting the official documentary historical record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Documents are from Presidential libraries, Departments of State and Defense, National Security Council, CIA, Agency for International Development and other foreign affairs agencies as well as the private papers of individuals involved. The documents have been declassified and edited for publication.
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.
Presidential papers at the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress holds the private papers of most US presidents prior to 1929. Some have been digitised and are available online.

Library of Congress

Library of Congress Digital Collections

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, the main research arm of the U.S. Congress, and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. The LOC continues to digitise material, especially materials considered of national importance. Key political and social figures may have their papers digitised by the Library of Congress, alongside some papers from executive branches and organisations, and archived webpages of government websites.

History, American: Online Resources

Online Resources

Free online resources

Library of Congress

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