American History

A collection of American newspapers, magazines, and other primary source materials, mostly from the 19th century, but with some 18th century items. Newspapers and magazines include the Virginia Gazette, Pennsylvania Gazette, The Liberator, Godey's Lady's Book, and a selection of African American newspapers. Books include a large collection of county histories, Civil War memoirs and regimental histories, and more.

Searchable monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and ephemera enable researchers to explore America's distant and not so distant past. Available here: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American Imprints, Series I: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800; Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; Early American Imprints, Series II: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1801-1819.

This unique collection of primary source material documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. Sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, Module I covers "Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859" and Module II "Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945."

Digital images of historically significant American periodicals from 1740 to 1900, including literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and popular magazines. All typography, drawings, graphic elements, and article layouts appear exactly as originally published. Allows searching by article type (e.g., letter, obituary, poetry, recipe, ad, editorial cartoon, review).

This digital edition of the American Antiquarian Society’s extraordinary holdings of slavery and abolition materials delivers more than 3,500 works published over the course of more than 100 years. Long awaited in fully searchable form, The American Slavery Collection addresses every facet of American slavery—one of the most important and controversial topics in U.S. history. These diverse materials, all filmed in full-resolution color, include books, pamphlets, graphic materials, and ephemera; among them are a large number of invaluable Southern imprints.

The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender.

We have access to the following Archives:

International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part I

LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II

Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.

Border and Migration Studies brings together resources that explore significant border areas around the world, and related themes such as transnational migration, human trafficking, and border enforcement. The collection includes a mixture of previously published and original material, including monographs, archival documents, and videos.

China, America and the Pacific offers an extensive range of archival material connected to the trading and cultural relationships that emerged between China, America and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Manuscript sources, rare printed texts, visual images, objects and maps document this fascinating history.

This collection represents thousands of papers that were presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade between 1574-1757, and that relate to the governance of, and activities in, the American, Canadian and West Indian colonies of England. Colonial State Papers also includes the Calendar of State Papers Colonial – an advanced bibliographic search tool providing over 40,000 records of bibliographic description for documents from many collections, including those of CO 1. Calendar of State Papers Colonial consists of bibliographic entries along with transcriptions, extracts and abstracts, in fully keyed XML.

Provides access to post- World War II papers from the CIA, the FBI and many other agencies, which have been gathered from presidential libraries. Major domestic and international events of the post-World War II world are covered, including the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, and the civil rights movement. Documents display in a digital facsimile format or ASCII text.

This resource may contain content still classified by the United States Government. Individuals holding security clearances use at their own risk.
A full-text database of over 50 core collections of primary documents acquired by the George Washington University based National Security Archive. The collection has been acquired through extensive use of FOIA. Each core collection is focused on one topic, e.g. Iran-Contra, Terrorism and U.S. Policy. Each topical collection includes diverse policy documents supplemented by contextual and reference material on chronology, glossary and bibliography.

Digital reproductions of every page of significant English- and foreign-language titles printed in Great Britain during the 18th century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas and elsewhere. Searches the full text of books, pamphlets, essays, and other non-periodical materials including the complete works of major 18th-century writers.

This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. Collections include: Section I: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969. Section II: Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire. Section III: The Visible Empire. Section IV: Religion & Empire. Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, 1607-2007.

Includes full-text translations of foreign radio and television broadcasts as well as selected foreign news, periodical articles and government statements. Search by geographic region, article type or publication title. Browse "Events" to see chronological coverage of topics of interest. Coverage is continued by the World News Connection database.

Provides electronic access to all issues of Harper's Weekly (including all illustrations and advertisements) published between 1857 (first issue) and 1912, with the capacity to browse or search by date, by literary genre, and by a person's occupation. Provides four topical indexes: subject, illustrations, literature & publishing, and advertising.

Over 400 underground and alternative newspapers spanning the 1960s to 1980s. Includes campus zines, armed forces newsletters, feminist periodicals, and small press literary magazines.

The Internet Archive offers permanent access for researchers, historians and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. It includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages. Includes Project Gutenberg.

Primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction, including approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with images. Strengths are education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Complements the Making of America (Cornell) site.

This database includes over 21,000 legal treatises from the 19th and early 20th centuries on American and British law.

Collection of digital facsimile images of 61,000 works of literature on economics and business published from 1450 through 1945. Covers commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
Includes:
Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850
Part II, 1851-1914

A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century, NCCO is comprised of numerous collections, including a variety of material types--monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more--in one cross-searchable location. Collections now available are:

Asia and the West
British Politics and Society
British Theatre, Music and Literature: High & Popular Culture
Children's Literature and Childhood
Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture
European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790-1840
Maps and Travel Literature
Photography
Religion, Reform, and Society
Science, Technology, and Medicine, Parts I & II
Women and Transnational Networks

The Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957 consists of the complete, fully searchable facsimile archive of The Picture Post, the iconic newspaper published in Britain from 1938-1957 that defined the style of photojournalism in the 20th century. The Picture Post Historical Archive provides humorous and light-hearted snapshots of daily life to the serious and history defining moments of domestic and international affairs.

This resource consists of personal papers of African Americans and records of civil rights organizations. Among the collections in this module are selections from the Papers of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), Mary McLeod Bethune Papers, Records of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC), Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Bayard Rustin Papers, Claude A. Barnett Papers (which includes papers from the Associated Negro Press), Papers of A. Philip Randolph, Records of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Papers of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.

This collection includes Immigration and Naturalization Service records covering Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930, and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS’s regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.

Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery includes documents from the United States and Europe, as well as other parts of the world. In addition to newspaper collections and books published in the antebellum era, Slavery and Anti-Slavery contains documents from several archives originally available only on microfilm. Includes:
Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition
Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World
Part III: The Institution of Slavery
Part IV: Age of Emancipation

Brings together primary documents, books, images, scholarly essays, book reviews, website reviews and teaching tools, all documenting the multiplicity of women's activism in public life.

A collection of primary source materials drawn from more than 300 repositories. The collection includes conference proceedings, reports of international women's organizations, publications of women's non-governmental organizations, and letters, diaries, and memoirs of international women activists dating as far back as the middle nineteenth century. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Letters, diaries, and other writings providing a feminist perspective on the Ottoman Empire, French colonial Africa, U.S. administration of the Philippines and Panama Canal Zone, and other modern imperial movements. Can be cross-searched with Women and Social Movements International.

ProQuest Congressional is the primary source for electronic government documents such as hearings, committee prints, CRS reports, legislative histories, the Congressional Record, federal regulations, and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Many documents are in full text and cover the years 1789 to the present; others are citations that are available in full text in print or microform in the library.

This comprehensive news collection is ideal for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national and international level. Its diverse source types include print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, journals, broadcast transcripts and videos. Use it to explore a specific event or to compare a wide variety of viewpoints on topics such as politics, business, health, sports, cultural activities and people. Content is easily searched and sorted through an intuitive, map-based interface. Paid ads are excluded.

Provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection features papers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.

Full-text database of 200 selected newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press.

Selected digitized issues of the Washington Evening Star, 1852-1981.

The Businessweek Archive contains indexing, abstracting, and full text for the complete archive of Businessweek. Continued by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2009.

More than 140 newspapers from 22 islands, including Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Bartholomew, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, and the Virgin Islands.

Includes a newspaper title directory (1690 - present) and searchable digitized images of selected local and regional newspapers (1880- 1922).

Fulltext collection of selected, Civil War era articles from the Charleston Mercury, the New York Herald, and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.

Offers more than 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1876. Focusing largely on the 18th century, Series 1 is based on Clarence S. Brigham's "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820" and other authoritative bibliographies.

Full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press.

Fully searchable complete facsimile edition of The Economist from 1843 to 2006. Includes full-color images, multiple search indexes, topic and area supplements and surveys, a gallery of front covers and a selection of exportable financial tables.

The Financial Times Historical Archive (1888-2016) is the complete searchable facsimile run of the world's most authoritative daily business newspaper. Every article and advertisement ever printed in the paper, since it was first published in 1888, can be searched and browsed individually and page by page. This is an essential, comprehensive and unbiased research tool for everyone studying public affairs, and economic and financial history of the last 120 years.

The Forbes Archive contains indexing, abstracting, and full text for the complete archive of Forbes, beginning with its first issue in 1917 and ending in December 2000.

Includes full-text translations of foreign radio and television broadcasts as well as selected foreign news, periodical articles and government statements. Search by geographic region, article type or publication title. Browse "Events" to see chronological coverage of topics of interest. Coverage is continued by the World News Connection database.

Krokodil (1922 -2008) was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union and Russia which lampooned religion, alcoholism, foreign political figures and events. During the height of the Cold War, cartoons criticizing Uncle Sam, Pentagon, Western colonialism and German militarism were common in its pages. Each issue is browsable in full-page views, and full-text searchable tags identify individuals and organizations within the artwork. Users can search for people and organizations wherever they are represented in caricatures and drawings as well as text.

Latin American Newspapers Series 1 offers unprecedented coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped this vital region between 1805 and 1922. Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, matrimony notices and obituaries, this unique collection chronicles the evolution of Latin American culture and daily life over two centuries. Expanded and enhanced by Complements: Latin American Newspapers, Series 2 (search separately)

Searches opinion pieces and editorials from across the political spectrum. Full text available for America's Quarterly and Commentary only.

Contains nearly 2,000 slavery, anti-slavery, and Civil War pamphlets and the complete runs of eight regional newspapers covering 1840-1865. Cross-searchable with other historical newspapers and the American Periodicals Series.

Full text of the following historical African American newspapers: Chicago Defender, The Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, Atlanta Daily World, The Norfolk Journal and Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, and Cleveland Call and Post. Click the "more" link below for direct links.

Complete historical coverage of The Atlanta Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, South China Morning Post, The Times of India, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Click the "more" link below for direct links.