History, United States - General

Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.

Primary sources devoted specifically to African American family history, including U.S Federal Census (African Americans only), Freedman's Bank Records, World War I Draft Cards, African American family history books, U.S. Colored Troops Records, vital records, church records, legal records, and more.

Online collection of academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations' bulletins, annual reports and other diverse periodicals.

Rare manuscript and early printed material, highly illustrated maps and documents, diaries, and ships' logs that serve as primary sources for study of  key events in the history of European maritime exploration from c.1420-1920.

Search engine to Adam Matthew archival materals.

Digital collection of American periodicals published between 1691 and 1877.

266 newspapers published in 33 states covering both agricultural and local news.

American Antiquarian Society collection of 13,500 titles includes broadsides, lithographs, maps, monographs, pamphlets, photographs, political cartoons, and stereographs.

Includes more than 1,000 diaries, letters, and memoirs from both Northern and Southern politicians, generals, slaves, landowners, farmers, seaman, wives, and even spies.

120 newspapers of record from 35 states providing local facts and figures, official announcements, transaction records, legal decisions, and business notices, as well as covering general news.

Digital collection of newsreels from 1942-1964, plus television documentaries from the History Channel and elsewhere. Includes transcripts.

Wide variety of materials relating to American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico, from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer Collection. Covers pre-contact through the mid-20th century.

Authoritative bios of more than 19,000 prominent people who lived in what is now the United States from the Colonial Period to the present. Everyone included is deceased. Includes bibliographic data on publications by and about these individuals. Search by name orvarious characteristics including gender, ethnicity, occupation, dates.

Full-text and page images of several hundred American periodicals of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

401 newspapers from 33 states covering congregational news as well as general news and opinion.

Contains original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material and rare printed sources on the American West from the Newberry Library.

Digital collections of historical material on many topics. Includes manuscripts, printed books and periodicals, and government documents. Material comes from the U.S. National Archives, the U.K. National Archives, and many other libraries and archives.

Citations to books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and government documents.  Formerly entitled "Bibliography of Native North Americans".

The experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media.

Provides online access to several collections on the history of the Atlantic world, from British archives.

Digital edition of material from the British National Archives, CO1 and other collections, from 1574-1759, including images of many original manuscript documents. Also includes a digital edition of The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739.

Reproduces records relating to Canada, the Caribbean and the US from the British Foreign and Colonial Offices in the UK National Archives.

Brings together archives, video, and other primary sources for the study of history, media, the arts, political science, education, and other areas where the contributions of the disability community are typically overlooked.

Digital edition of the letters written from 1788-1836 by Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison, fourth president of the United States.

Primary sources detailing encounters between Europeans, Africans, and American Indians between 1500 and 1900.  Includes original accounts, letters, logbooks, journals and diaries.

Interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish), full-text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press.

Digital library of works published in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. Materials include fiction and non-fiction covering every aspect of American life in the period.

Complete collection of high-definition, full-color fire insurance maps from Sanborn and other publishers, real estate atlases, plat books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information.

Translation service of the U.S. Government, usually attributed to the Central Intelligence Agency. It covered political, military, economic, environmental and sociological news and commentary, as well as scientific and technical information.

Cross-searching tool for Gale primary source collections (including Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Indigenous Peoples: North America, and Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture). Also allows users to analyze content using frequency and term-relationship tools.

Major source for the study of women's history in the world, especially feminism and the movement for women's rights. The collection includes the full text of books, pamphlets and periodicals spanning four centuries and 15 languages.

Electronic access to Harper's Weekly: 1857-1912.

Extensive full-text collection of Spanish-language and bilingual newspapers printed across the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Statistical series on subjects ranging from population and land area to production figures for crops and manufactured products. Detailed documentation provides brief histories of the statistical series and source materials.

Oral history interviews with more than 2,600 historically significant African Americans in fields such as the arts, business, education, entertainment, the law, the military, politics, religion, and science.

Contains documents from the archives of J. Walter Thompson, one of the largest advertising firms in the United States.  They range from the 1890s to the late 1990s but most are from 1945 forward.  The collections included are the firm’s publications, account files for nine key clients, staff newsletters, writings and speeches, research files, and a selection of print advertisements. A huge number of brands, companies, and industries are covered from automobiles to cosmetics and cruises.

Wide-ranging resource focusing on the history and culture of Latinos in the United States. Includes ready-reference sources, full-text titles, photographs, primary sources, and links to important web sites.

Films, travel journals, periodicals, leaflets, corporate records, guidebooks, maps and images chronicling the rise of tourism in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Explores themes of leisure, race, technology, and culture.

Digital edition of the Goldsmiths'-Kress collections of books on that document economic and business activity in the West, from 1450 to 1945. Materials include books, pamphlets and ephemera and cover a broad range of topics in political science, history, sociology, and banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing.

Online version of March of Time newsreels. Coverage: 1935-1967

Digital archive of the papers, market research reports and supporting documents of Ernest Dichter, consumer analyst and founder of the Institute for Motivational Research. Covers many famous marketing campaigns for American brands and products. 

Showcases unique primary source material recounting the many and varied personal experiences of 350 years of migration. Includes Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolors, and oral histories supplemented by carefully selected secondary research aids.

Streaming audio collection of songs and vocal / instrumental music from the United States representing a diverse range of Americans, both past and present. Addresses a variety of topics and cultures, and covers a wide range of styles and genres, particularly from popular, folk, and ethnic music, including African and Native American, bluegrass, blues, country, gospel, and rock music, jazz, and songs of war, protest, politics, and social movements.

Library and archive of declassifed United States documents received through the Freedom of Information Act.

Combines various general, scientific, religious, psychological, and legal indexes covering the nineteenth century.

Digital archive of U.S. newspapers from the 19th century.

Personal narratives of immigrants to the U.S. and Canada. Covers a wide range of nationalities and ethnic groups.

Full text database of women's personal writings.

Access to the finest reference resources in African American studies. At its core, AASC includes the new Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895; the forthcoming companion set, the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; the second edition of Black Women in America; and the much-anticipated African American National Biography. Also includes the highly acclaimed Africana, a 5 volume history of the African and African American experience. In addition to these major reference works, AASC offers other key resources from Oxford's reference series, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature.

Digital edition of the papers of Alexander Hamilton.

Digitized version of  correspondence, legal papers, diplomatic papers, and speeches and formal writings from the nineteenth-century legislator and diplomat.

Digital edition of the Papers of George Washington, with supplementary material not included in the print edition.

Digital edition of the papers of John Marshall, fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Digitized, full-text searchable collection of almost every piece of correspondence, official or personal, sent or received by general and president Ulysses S. Grant.

Index to millions of articles published in 4,547 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences. Includes the collections, British Periodicals and Periodicals Archive Online I-V, which provide searchable full-text and page images of hundreds of periodicals, primarily from the 19th century.

Digitized transcriptions of tape recordings made of phone calls made to and from the Oval Office during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon.

Indexes publications of the U.S. Congress such as hearings 1824+ (including previously unpublished hearings:  Senate 1824-1992 and House 1833-1982), committee reports, documents and prints. Material is available in microfiche and/or electronic. Essential tool for doing legislative history research. Includes Congressional Research Reports from 1916+, Bills & Laws 1789+, U.S. Serial Set from 1789+, Annals of Congress from 1789-1824, Register of Debates from 1824-1837, Congressional Globe from 1833-1873, and Congressional Record from 1873+.  Also includes Executive Branch Documents 1789-1948 and Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations 1789+.

Includes various newspapers from Colorado (Fort Collins), Iowa (Des Moines, Iowa City), Minnesota (St. Cloud), Missouri (Springfield), Montana (Great Falls), and South Dakota (Sioux Falls) from the 19th century forward.

Includes various newspapers from Alabama (Montgomery), Louisiana (Alexandria, Lafayette, Monroe, Opelousas, Shreveport), Mississippi (Hattiesburg, Jackson), and New Mexico (Albuquerque) from the 19th century forward.

Includes various newspapers from California (Palm Springs, Salinas, San Francisco, Tulare, Visalia), Nevada (Reno), Oregon (Salem), Utah (Hurricane, St. George), and Washington (Spokane, Spokane Falls) from the 19th century forward.

Bibliographic records covering essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.

"The Rafu Shimpo" (羅府新報, L.A. Japanese Daily News) is the preeminent Japanese American newspaper in the United States. This digital archive contains content from 1914 on, with an additional year’s worth of content added on an annual basis.

Search engine to Readex products.

Collection of magazines, journals, and newspapers of the alternative press from the 1960s, including feminists, anti-war groups, African-Americans, Native-Americans and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

Digital edition of selected papers of John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States.

Digital library of works published in America in the early 19th century. Materials include fiction and non-fiction covering every aspect of American life in the period.

Collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.

Searches thousands of private writings and personal narratives ranging from the 1550’s to the 21st century. Includes material found in the collections North American Women's Letters and Diaries; British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries; North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories; The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries; Black Thought and Culture; Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society.  

A near-comprehensive, 2.1 million-word online annotated bibliography of historical work covering the entire span of U.S. foreign relations.

Collection of illustrated catalogs offering products for direct sale to consumer, from late 18th century to present day.   Useful for the study of popular culture, material culture, social norms and attitudes, as well as the history of marketing, business, and technology.  Includes capsule histories of important retail companies.

Comprises nearly 35,000 individual slaving expeditions between 1514 and 1866. Records of the voyages have been found in archives and libraries throughout the Atlantic world. They provide information about vessels, enslaved peoples, slave traders and owners, and trading routes. A variable (Source) cites the records for each voyage in the database. Other variables enable users to search for information about a particular voyage or group of voyages. The website provides full interactive capability to analyze the data and report results in the form of statistical tables, graphs, maps, or on a timeline.

Includes the  House of Commons Parliamentary Papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688 and the House of Lords Papers from 1715-1910. Includes searchable full text and subject indexing. The Parliamentary Papers are an essential primary source for Britain, its colonies, and the wider world. They are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy.

Digital access to Congressional Record (Bound and Daily), Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, Congressional Globe, American State Papers, Journals of the Continental Congress, and Territorial Papers of the United States. "Daily-to-Bound Locator" provides citation to Bound version from the Daily Congressional Record. Also includes smaller works including Journal of William Maclay, Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, James Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, Administrative Conferences of the United States, Legislation of Congress for the Government of the Organized Territories of the United States, B.F. Steven's Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773-1783.

Full text of Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories: A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles, and Books and full text legislative histories of important legislation.

Contains full-text documents from U.S. intelligence agencies covering the Middle East and North Africa from the end of WWII to 2009.   Includes CIA reports and briefings.  Note: Select ‘this collection only’ to limit search to this resource.

Full text of the U.S. Reports and several classic treaties on Supreme Court jurisprudence.

Provides access to articles about women's and gender history from more than hundred European, American and Indian historical and women's studies journals.

Documents from the United States military, Atomic Energy Commission, Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, White House, and other agencies detailing the development of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons for use by American forces, from 1942-present.

Collection of full-text primary and secondary sources.

Complete archives of the foremost titles of consumer magazines aimed at a female readership, including Good Housekeeping and Ladies’ Home Journal, which serve as canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores. In combination, the publications cover topics such as family life, home economics, health, careers, fashion, and culture.