The American History Search Engine
Back to Subject & Assignment Guides
Studying Texas? Try the Texas History Search Engine
This is a topical list of high-quality American History websites selected by the History Bibliographer. The focus is on primary source collections from government agencies, universities, museums, libraries, and historical organizations. (Not sure what primary sources are? Check out this guide to primary and secondary sources.)
Click the >>> symbol beside any website title to view that site. Please read our Disclaimers before following any links.
(Sites marked with * are NOT searched. Some sites also contain secondary content. May not search all content on all sites; visit a site to search in more depth.)
Click on a topic to jump to sites in that area:
Some sites are listed in several areas, but you should explore similar topics.
African American History
Civil Rights
Early America (through American Revolution)
Foreign Countries and America
Immigration
Medicine and Health
Military History (sub-divided further...)
Native American History
People
Politics, Government, and Law
Religious History
Slavery and Abolition
Twentieth Century America
Women's History
Miscellaneous Special Topics
General US History Resources
African American History
>>> African Activist Archive Project (African Studies Center, Michigan State University)
>>> African-American Experience in Ohio (Ohio Historical Society)
>>> African American Mosaic resource guide (Library of Congress)
>>> African American Women letters and memoirs (Duke University)
>>> African Americans and the Chesapeake Bay (Mariners' Museum)
>>> Africans in America (PBS)
>>> American Black Journal archive (Michigan State University)
>>> BlackPast.org (BlackPast.org; Quintard Taylor, Professor of American History)
>>> Frederick Douglass Papers (Library of Congress)
>>> In Motion: African-American Migration Experience (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)
>>> National Museum of African American History and Culture (Smithsonian Institute)
>>> Race and Place: An African-American Community in Jim Crow South (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Roll of Emigrants to Liberia, 1820-1843, and Liberian Census Data, 1843 (University of Wisconsin)
>>> The Rosa Parks Bus (The Henry Ford Museum)
>>> Virginia Emigrants to Liberia (Virginia Center for Digital History)
Civil Rights
>>> Booker T. Washington Papers (University of Illinois)
>>> Civil Rights Era Television News (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas
(University of Arkansas)
>>> The Rosa Parks Bus (The Henry Ford Museum)
>>> United States Commission on Civil Rights: Publications (Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law)
>>> Voices of Civil Rights (AARP, LCCR, and Library of Congress)
>>> Wednesdays in Mississippi and Civil Rights (Virginia Center for Digital History)
Early America (through American Revolution)
>>> 1492: An Ongoing Voyage (Library of Congress)
>>> American Revolution and its Era: Maps and Charts (Library of Congress)
>>> Cabeza de Vaca's La Relacion online (Southwest Texas State University)
>>> Charting North America: map collections(New York Public Library)
>>> Christopher Columbus image collection (Library of Congress)
>>> Connecticut's Colonial Records, 1636-1776 (University of Connecticut Libraries)
>>> Early Americas Digital Archive (1492~1820) (Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities)
>>> European Presence in North America, 1492-1690 (National Humanities Center)
>>> Exploration Through the Ages (Mariners’ Museum)
>>> Exploring the Early Americas (Library of Congress)
>>> Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration & Settlement, 1000-1800 (Wisconsin Historical Society)
>>> Goody Parsons Witchcraft Trial (Historic Northampton and University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
>>> Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive (University of Virginia)
>>> Salem Witchcraft Trials (Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law)
>>> Virtual Jamestown (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Visual Recreation of Salem in 1692 (University of Virginia)
>>> Witch Trials in New England: Depositions Against Eunice Cole of Hampton (Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, NH)
Foreign Countries and America
>>> America and the Netherlands (Library of Congress)
>>> European Presence in North America, 1492-1690 (National Humanities Center)
>>> France in America (Library of Congress)
>>> Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier (Library of Congress)
>>> United States and Brazil: Expanding Frontiers, Comparing Cultures (Library of Congress)
Immigration
>>> Ellis Island Photographs, 1902-1913 (New York Public Library)
>>> Immigration to the U.S.,1789-1930 (Harvard University Library)
>>> Immigration Statistics, ~1980-present (U.S. Department of Homeland Security)
Medicine and Health
>>> Civil War Medical Care: U.S. Sanitary Commission photos (New York Public Library)
>>> Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics (Harvard University Library)
>>> Medicine and Madison Avenue (health-related advertising) (Duke University Libraries)
>>> Medicine in the Americas, 1619-1914: A Digital Library (U.S. National Library of Medicine)
>>> Tobacco Documents Digital Library (University of California, San Francisco)
Military History
Civil War and Reconstruction
>>> Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide (Library of Congress)
>>> Abraham Lincoln Papers (Library of Congress)
>>> American Civil War (National Park Service)
>>> Civil War Center (Louisiana State University)
>>> Civil War Medical Care: U.S. Sanitary Commission photos (New York Public Library)
>>> Civil War Treasures (NY Historical Society & Library of Congress)
>>> Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (National Park Service)
>>> Civil War Women: Primary Sources on the Internet (Duke University Libraries)
>>> Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
>>> "His Soul Goes Marching On": The Life and Legacy of John Brown (West Virginia Division of Culture and History)
>>> John Brown and the Valley of the Shadow (University of Virginia)
>>> The Valley Project: Two Communities in the American Civil War (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> William Emerson Strong: Confederate Portrait Album (Duke University Libraries)
Vietnam
>>> Vietnam War Declassification Project (Ford Library Museum)
>>> Virtual Vietnam Archive (Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University)
World War I
>>> Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election (Library of Congress)
>>> World War I Photograph Albums and Postcards (New York Public Library)
>>> World War I Posters (University of North Texas)
World War II
>>> American Soldier Surveys (University of Virginia)
>>> Battle of the Atlantic: Allied Naval Intelligence in WWII (Mariners' Museum)
>>> Hiroshima: rare film footage after the atomic bombs (CNN)
>>> Historic Government Documents from World War II (U.S. GPO and Southern Methodist University)
>>> Holocaust Visual History Archive (SHOAH Foundation, University of Southern California)
>>> Ration Coupons on the Homefront, 1942-1945 (Duke University Libraries)
>>> World War II Posters (University of North Texas)
Other
>>> Birth of the Navy (Mariners' Museum)
>>> Spanish-American War online collection (Library of Congress)
>>> Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo online collection (Library of Congress)
>>> U.S. Army Center of Military History (U.S. Army Center for Military History)
>>> U.S.-Mexican War (Descendants of Mexican War Veterans)
>>> U.S.S. Monitor : History and Legacy (Mariners’ Museum)
>>> Veterans History Project (Library of Congress)
>>> Veterans Remember oral history project (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum)
Native American History
>>> After Columbus: 400 Years of Native American Portraiture (New York Public Library)
>>> Images of Native Americans (Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley)
>>> Camping with the Sioux: The Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher (Smithsonian Institute)
People
>>> Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide (Library of Congress)
>>> Abraham Lincoln Papers (Library of Congress)
>>> Booker T. Washington Papers (University of Illinois)
>>> Clara Barton Historic Site Homepage (National Park Service)
>>> Dolly Madison Project (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Eisenhower National Historic Site Homepage (National Park Service)
>>> Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project (George Washington University)
>>> Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (Marist College, NARA)
>>> Frederick Douglass Papers (Library of Congress)
>>> George Washington Papers (University of Virginia)
>>> Harry S. Truman documents and photos (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum)
>>> Jefferson Davis Papers (Rice University)
>>> John Brown: "His Soul Goes Marching On" (West Virginia Division of Culture and History)
>>> Lincoln/Net (Lincoln's Illinois years) (Northern Illinois University)
>>> Mark Twain Project Online (University of California)
>>> Margaret Sanger Papers Project (New York University)
>>> Public Papers of the Presidents of the U.S. (Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.; future, back to Hoover) (NARA/GPO)
>>> Susan B. Anthony: Celebrating "A Heroic Life" (University of Rochester)
>>> Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive (University of Virginia)
>>> Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers (Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin)
Politics, Government, and Law
>>> American Presidency Project (University of California, Santa Barbara)
>>> Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy (Yale Law School)
>>> Famous Trials in History (Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law)
>>> Governing America in the Global Era: syllabi/bibliographies on various topics (Miller Center of Public Affairs)
>>> HarpWeek.com: political prints and more (Harper's Weekly & Library of Congress)
>>> History and Politics Out Loud (Michigan State University, et. al.)
>>> Public Papers of the Presidents of the U.S. (Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.; future, back to Hoover) (NARA/GPO)
>>> THOMAS legislative information resource (Library of Congress)
>>> U.S. House of Representatives: House History (U.S. House of Representatives)
>>> U.S. House of Representatives: Interactive Timeline (U.S. House of Representatives)
>>> Women in Congress (U.S. House of Representatives)
Religious History
>>> Religion and the Founding of the American Republic (Library of Congress)
>>> * Religious Petitions, Early Virginia (Library of Congress & Library of Virginia)
Slavery and Abolition
>>> American Abolitionism Project (Indiana U.-Purdue U. at Indianapolis)
>>> Beyond Face Value: Depiction of Slavery in Confederate Currency (U.S. Civil War Center)
>>> Frederick Douglass Papers (Library of Congress)
>>> Geography of Slavery (Virginia runaways) (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Slave Trade & Slave Life in Americas: A Visual Record (University of Virginia)
>>> Slavery and Justice Exhibition at the John Carter Brown Library (Brown Library)
>>> Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas (Mariners' Museum)
>>> Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Twentieth Century America
>>> 20th Century America (The Henry Ford Museum)
>>> Ad*Access: US & Canadian advertisements, 1911-1955 (Duke University Libraries)
>>> America in Color, 1939-1943 (color photos of Depression) (Library of Congress)
>>> Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 (Duke University Libraries)
>>> The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI)
>>> Home Economics Archive, 19th-20th centuries (Cornell University)
>>> Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (University of California)
>>> Medicine and Madison Avenue (health-related advertising) (Duke University Libraries)
>>> New Deal Network (Frankling and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, FERI)
>>> Tobacco Documents Digital Library (University of California, San Francisco)
>>> Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers (Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin)
Women's History
>>> African American Women letters and memoirs (Duke University)
>>> American Women's History (Ken Middleton, MTSU Library)
>>> Civil War Women: Primary Sources on the Internet (Duke University Libraries)
>>> Clara Barton Historic Site Homepage (National Park Service)
>>> Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement (Duke University Libraries)
>>> Dolly Madison Project (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Emma Spaulding Bryant Letters, 1870s (Duke University Libraries)
>>> Home Economics Archive, 19th-20th centuries (Cornell University)
>>> Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia (Jewish Women's Archive)
>>> Margaret Sanger Papers Project (New York University)
>>> Susan B. Anthony: Celebrating "A Heroic Life" (University of Rochester)
>>> Votes for Women suffrage documents (National American Woman Suffrage Association)
>>> Votes for Women suffrage pictures, 1850-1920 (National American Woman Suffrage Association)
>>> Wednesdays in Mississippi and Civil Rights (Virginia Center for Digital History)
>>> Woman's Monday Club, Corpus Christi, 1897-1947 (Corpus Christi Public Libraries)
>>> Women and the Sea (Mariners' Museum)
>>> Women in Congress (U.S. House of Representatives)
Miscellaneous Special Topics
>>> Albert G. Spalding Collection of Early Baseball Photographs (New York Public Library)
>>> American Jewish Archives (AJA) (Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the AJA, Hebrew Union College)
>>> Archives of The West (PBS)
>>> Child Labor in America, 1908-1912: Photos of Lewis W. Hine (The History Place)
>>> Economic History data sets and databases (EH.net)
>>> Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 (Library of Congress)
>>> Historic Census Browser (University of Virginia Libraries)
>>> Lewis and Clark Journals (University of Nebraska)
>>> San Francisco 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire (Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco)
>>> San Francisco Gold Rush (Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco)
>>> Southwest Crossroads (School for Advanced Research on the Human Experience [SAR])
>>> Western Trails (Colorado Digitization Project, et. al.)
General US History Resources
>>> AmDocs: Documents for the Study of American History (WWW Virtual Library)
>>> American Centuries: View From New England (Memorial Hall Museum Online)
>>> American Folklife Center (Library of Congress)
>>> American History and Culture (Smithsonian Institute)
>>> American Memory (Library of Congress)
>>> Archive of History and Genealogy Programs (Online Programming for All Libraries [OPAL])
>>> Chronicling America: Historic American Newspaper Project (Library of Congress)
>>> Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents (University of Oklahoma College of Law)
>>> Digital History (University of Houston)
>>> Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
>>> Gilder Lehrman Collection (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)
>>> History Now (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)
>>> Humanities Magazine Archive (National Endowment for the Humanities)
>>> Library of Congress Main Reading Room (Library of Congress)
>>> Many Pasts: primary documents (George Mason University)
>>> National Archives Research Catalog (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
>>> New York Public Library Digital Collections (New York Public Library)
>>> NPS Historic Photograph Collection (National Park Service)
>>> NPS History & Culture Homepage (National Park Service)
>>> "Pageant of America" Photo Archive, 1860s-1920s (New York Public Library)
>>> Picturing America, 1497-1899 (New York Public Library)
>>> Picturing U.S. History: Teaching with Visual Evidence (American Social History Project, CUNY)
>>> Primary Resources in US History and Literature (National Humanities Center)
Disclaimers:
(1) The library is not responsible for the content of the selected sites.
(2)
No endorsement is given to additional sites which may be linked to by the selected sites.
(3)
It is a student's responsibility to accurately cite any online materials used in their research.
Begun Dec 2007. Sites last added 12 Nov 2009. Links checked monthly; last checked 12 Nov 2009.
Created/maintained by Erin Cassidy, Reference Librarian & Assistant Professor.