Selected Internet Resources in U.S. History

A selection of free resources pertaining to the history of the United States, including general reference and subject specific resources, links to digital exhibitions and libraries, timelines, maps, and historical texts. This list will be updated from time time. If you have any suggestions for web sites that you think might be useful, please email the Milstein Division at histref@nypl.org.

General Resources

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
A collection of oral histories from the WPA’s Folklore Project that brings together over 2,000 personal narratives and case studies from the late 1930s. The histories describe the quotidian and the unusual life stories of Americans from over 20 states.

American Memory
A gateway site to primary source materials and images relating to the history and culture of the United States.

American Social History Project - Center for Media and Learning
A gateway site to this organization's resources for teachers and students of American history, including print, visual and multimedia materials.

American Women's History: A Research Guide
This guide provides citations to print and Internet reference sources, as well as to selected large primary source collections.

Biography of America
This site features 26 topics in United States history, each including maps, key events, and links to sites with primary and secondary source materials.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
This site allows you to search and read pages from selected newspaper from 1900-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Part of an ongoing project.

Cornell University Collection of Political Americana
A digital collection of politcal campaign memorabilia from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

Digital History
This site includes a wealth of resources including annotated primary sources on United States, Mexican American and Native American history, and slavery.

Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South provides access to texts, images, and audio files related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.

Famous Trials
This site is dedicated to the history and study of famous trials, most of which occured in the United States.

From Revolution to Reconstruction...and What Happened Afterwards
Documents, essays, biographies, and links to other Internet sites form the core of this hypertext site on American history.

Historical United States Census Browser
This University of Virginia site provides searchable data, taken from the federal census, about the people and the economy of the United States for each state and county from 1790 to 1960.

History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web
A gateway site to U.S. History material on the web.

How much is that? (EH.Net)
Have you ever wondered what the value of a dollar was in 1895? Here is a place where you can ask questions of comparative value covering purchasing power, exchange rates, and other variables between the past and today.

Making of America (Cornell University)
Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

Making of America (University of Michigan)
Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction.

National Park Service - Links to the Past
Information from the National Parks Service on historically significant cultural resources such as buildings, landscapes and other sites.

National Security Archive
This site from George Washington University includes declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

NYPL Manuscript and Archives Collections
The Division holds about 30,000 linear feet of archival material in over 3,000 collections. The strengths of the Division are the papers and records of individuals, families, and organizations, primarily from the New York region. These collections, dating from the 18th through the 20th centuries, support research in the political, economic, social, and cultural history of New York and the United States.

Peopling North America
This site provides an historical overview of migratory movements to and within the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Populism
Articles, essays, cartoons, and historical texts concerning late nineteenth century Populism.

Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
This site explores the role religion played in the shaping of America from the 1600s to the 1800s.

Voice of the Shuttle - U.S. History Resources
A gateway site to United States history sites arranged by general subject headings.

Women Working, 1870-1930
This collection explores women's roles in the US economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression by providing access to historical manuscipts, images and other primary sources.

Colonial Period

American Archives: Documents of the American Revolutuion, 1774-1776
A digitzed collection of pamphlets, correspondence, and proceedings relating to the "Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America"

American Colonists's Library
A gateway site to primary source materials that were relevant to life in Colonial America. The websites linked to from this site cover an immense amount of literature and documents that influenced or were written by early Americans.

Classics of American Colonial History
A collection of historical documents, scholarly books and articles on American Colonial history.

Nineteenth Century

Brady-Handy Collection
The collection consists chiefly of portraits of presidents, members of Congress, military officers, justices of the Supreme Court, artists, and other notables.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
This collection contains about four hundred pamphlets by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery.

Secession Era Editorials Project
A collection of newspaper editorials covering major events in the years preceding the Civil War.

Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion 1820-1890
A selection of archival materials, including primary source materials, related to the settlement of California, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest.

Civil War

American Civil War Homepage
This extensive web page gathers together in one place hypertext links to the most useful identified electronic files about the American Civil War.

Civil War Home Page
The Civil War Home Page contains thousands of pages of Civil War material including images, documents, statistics, and official records.

Civil War Maps, 1861-1865
This Library of Congress site contains approximately 2,240 Civil War maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks.

Civil War Photographs
A Library of Congress collection of 1,118 Civil War photographs which can be searched by keyword, browsed by subject, or viewed by year.

Civil War Treasures from the New York Historical Society Collection
This site includes ephemera from the Civil War period, photgraphic images, and writings and drawings from soldiers on both sides of the war.

National Park Service: The American Civil War Homepage
This government site contains timelines, battlefield information, and other items related to the Civil War

The Crisis of the Union: An Electronic Archive of Documents about the Causes, Conduct, and Consequences of the US Civil War
A collection of pamphlets, books, broadsides, cartoons, clippings, paintings, maps, and other print memorabilia about America from circa 1830 to 1880.

Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
This digital archive presents a hypermedia archive of primary sources providing a social history of a northern and a southern community from 1859 through the Reconstruction period.

Twentieth Century

America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
A collection of over 160,000 images from rural America during the Great Depression, as well as the war mobilization effort.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
This site allows you to search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

National Security Archive
This site from George Washington University includes declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

New Deal Network
This site features 20,000 items, including photographs, speeches, letters, documents, and exercises from the New Deal era.

Shipler Commercial Photograph Collection
Thousands of digitized images documenting the people, places, and events of Utah and the surrounding states from 1903 through 1980.

 

The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century
This site provides access to documents, photographs, recordings and digitized collections from the presidential libraries of last century's presidents.

Thurgood Marshall Law Library - United States Commission on Civil Rights Collection
A searchable full-text collection of the publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

African-American

"I Will Be Heard" - Abolitionism in America
This site from Cornell University contains a wide range of authoritative information on Abolition.

African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts
This website features 117 primary sources materials from the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society that offer a window into the lives of African Americans in Massachusetts from the late 17th century through the 1780s

African-American History Timeline
This site provides a chronology of historical events from the 1600s through 1969, a chronology about African-Americans in the western United States, and a list of sources.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
This site has a collection of primary source material on slavery as well as a substantial collection of photographs and slave narratives.

Civil Rights Documentation Project 
A collection of oral histories of civil rights activities, as well as a list of repositories of such collections. A timeline of the civil rights era is also included.

Freedom's Journal
The "first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States." This site provides access to all 103 issues of this newspaper published in New York City between 1827 and 1829.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
This collection contains about four hundred pamphlets by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery.

Historical African American Newspapers Available Online

This guide provides a list of historical African American Newspapers available online as part of digitization projects at libraries and historical societies as well as digitization projects done by Google.  The content is available for free, though it is at the discretion of the institution providing the content. The newspapers contained within guide are those that have ceased to operate or are currently running papers with archives available.  It does not include papers that are currently running and only offer access to the most recent articles.

In Motion - The African-American Migration Experience
This extensive site documents over 400 years of African-American migration through images, texts, maps and timelines.

Secret Routes to Freedom: The Underground Railroad Experience
An online exhibit on the Underground Railroad, the history of slavery in the United States, and slavery today.

Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860
This searchable collection contains over a hundred items documenting legal cases concerning slaves in the United States.

Digital Collections

America from the Great Depression to Work War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
A collection of over 160,000 images from rural America during the Great Depression, as well as the war mobilization effort.

American Journeys
"American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later."

American Memory
A gateway site to primary source materials and images relating to the history and culture of the United States.

Brady-Handy Collection
The collection consists chiefly of portraits of presidents, members of Congress, military officers, justices of the Supreme Court, artists, and other notables.

Civil War Photographs
A Library of Congress collection of 1,118 Civil War photographs which can be searched by keyword, browsed by subject, or viewed by year.

Discovering American Women's History Online
"This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to Katrina Thomas's photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century."

History of the American West, 1860-1920
This browseable site provides access to over 30,000 photographs of life in the west from 1860 to 1920.

Immigration to the United States
A digitized collection of books, pamphlets, maps, photographs and historical manuscripts and archives that illustrate the lives of immigrants to the United States as well as the culture they adopted.

Internet Archive
A digital collection of archived websites, moving images, audio, and texts. This site also provides access to the Prelinger Archive of ephemeral films shot between 1927 and 1983.

NYPL Digital Gallery
Digital Gallery provides access to images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library.

Shipler Commercial Photograph Collection
This collection contains approximately 100,000 images and documents about the people and places of the Intermountain West from 1903 to 1980.

Women Working, 1790-1930
This collection explores women's roles in the US economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression by providing access to historical manuscipts, images and other primary sources.

Government

Charters of Freedom
This site from the National Archives contains facsimiles, transcripts, and background information on the founding documents of the United States.

Founders' Constitution
Online version of "The Founders' Constitution," an anthology of documents from the 17th century through the 1830s about popular government in the United States.

Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Costs
Selected figures and tables for population and housing statistics from 1790 to 1990.

National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you.

National Security Archive
This site from George Washington University includes declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Signers of the Declaration
This series of essays covers topics related to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, including historic sites and buildings associated with the signing, and biographical sketches of the signers of the Declaration.

ThisNation.com - American Government & Politics Online
A searchable guide with information about the foundations of government, its institutions, and processes, both past and present.

Thurgood Marshall Law Library - United States Commission on Civil Rights Collection
A searchable full-text collection of the publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Elections

Richmond County Board of Elections
1 Edgewater Plaza 
Staten Island, NY 10305 
Phone: 718-876-0079

You may call or write for voter registration forms, absentee ballots, or other information. Voter registration forms and other informational materials are also available in neighborhood Branch libraries.

270 to Win
An interactive website of electoral college votes of elections from 1789 to the present day

A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825
A New Nation Votes features a searchable collection of election returns from the earliest years of American democracy.

David Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
a website of maps and tables showing Presidential votes since 1860, state electoral votes, show major and independent presidential and vice presidential candidates. County election data is also available.

Office of the Clerk - Election Statistics
Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories, which are now available on this site.

Presidents

"I Do Solemnly Swear ... ": Presidential Inaugurations
This collection provides access to over 400 items relating to the inauguration of every president since Washington.

American President
A resource on the history of the presidency and the modern presidency, as well as the nature of policy making related to the office.

POTUS: Presidents of the United States
The Internet Public Library's guide includes background information, election results, notable events, and other points of interest on each of the presidents.

The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century
This site provides access to documents, photographs, recordings and digitized collections from the presidential libraries of last century's presidents.

Historical Texts

AmDocs: Documents for the Study of American History
A directory of primary source documents, grouped by time period, beginning with 1492 and continuing through the present.

American Archives: Documents of the American Revolutuion, 1774-1776
A digitzed collection of pamphlets, correspondence, and proceedings relating to the "Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America"

American Journeys
"American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later."

Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
A collection of hypertexted primary documents relevant to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government.

Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
This site provides access to the records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
This site allows you to search and read pages from selected newspaper from 1900-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Part of an ongoing project.

Classics of American Colonial History
A collection of historical documents as well as scholarly books and articles on American Colonial history.

Foreign Relations in the United States
The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication.

From Revolution to Reconstruction...and What Happened Afterwards
Documents, essays, biographies, and links to other Internet sites form the core of this hypertext site on American history.

Making of America (Cornell University)
Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

Making of America (University of Michigan)
Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

Secession Era Editorials Project
A collection of newspaper editorials covering major events in the years preceding the Civil War.

Thurgood Marshall Law Library - United States Commission on Civil Rights Collection
A searchable full-text collection of the publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Maps

American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850
More than 2,000 original historical maps ranging from New York to Virginia, document a pivotal area in the early development of the American colonies and the United States.

Civil War Maps: Civil War Maps, 1861-1865
This Library of Congress site contains approximately 2,240 Civil War maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
This collection provides access to over 11,000 maps online, focusing on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America maps and other cartographic materials.

Map Division's collections on the NYPL Digital Gallery
 

Maps of the United States
From the University of Texas's Perry-Cataneda Map Collection. Includes links to other city, outline, state, and U. S. map web sites.

Timelines

African American History Timeline
This site provides a chronology of historical events from the 1600s through 1969, a chronology about African-Americans in the western United States, and a list of sources.

American Memory Timeline
Primary sources for seven time periods of United States history are provided at this site covering 1783-1968. Each period is subdivided into various topics and contains an overview.

The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century
This site provides access to documents, photographs, recordings and digitized collections from the presidential libraries of last century's presidents.

Wars

Summons to Comradeship: World War I and World War II Posters
This collection inlcudes images of a wide range of topics related to the military, civil defense, anti-war movements and more.

U.S. Army Center of Military History
This site includes articles, statistics, artwork, lineage and honors programs, and other topics about U.S. Army history.

Veterans' History Project
This project by the Library of Congress provides access to a collection of oral histories, and documentary materials of America's war veterans and those who served in support of them.

Vietnam Project
This searchable site features oral histories, documents (such as official military records) and photographs.