LibGuides: Primary Sources: United States History

U.S. History Digital Collections

Accessible Archives
Find full-text primary source material in American history including several 19th-century newspaper collections with images as well as American county histories and other historical collections.
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection (Gale)
This collection brings the Series 1-5 previously distributed by EBSCO more firmly into the 20th century with titles running up to 1923. Going beyond the short date range in the earlier series, it includes the entirety of publishing history in the Colonies and subsequent United States. It extends or fills gaps in issues for approximately 45 titles previously digitized in Series 1-5 and adds more than 150 new periodical titles recently acquired by the AAS.
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection (EBSCO)
Find full-text content from American periodicals and news sources (published 1684-1912) chronicling life from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Subjects include culture and the arts and literature, music, religion, women's studies, history, science, and more.
American History in Video
The largest and richest collection of streaming video available online for the study of American history.

American Panorama: an Atlas of United States History
"American Panorama is an historical atlas of the United States for the twenty-first century. It combines cutting-edge research with innovative interactive mapping techniques, designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in American history or a love of maps"
Chronicling America. Historic American Newspapers. 1789-1949
Digital access to historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963. You can also access information about where to locate American newspapers published between 1690-present
Digital Public Library of America
The DPLA offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Users can browse and search the DPLA’s collections by timeline, map, format, and topic; save items to customized lists; and share their lists with others. Users can also explore digital exhibitions curated by the DPLA’s content partners and staff.
FBI Records: The Vault
The Vault contains about 6,700 documents that have been declassified because of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The database is keyword searchable, and there are over a dozen subject areas, including public corruption, civil rights, and organized crime.
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series
"The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity." You can search within the volumes, or browse volume titles by administration.

Gale Primary Sources
Search across multiple digitized, text-searchable primary source collections. Tools for finding term frequency and term clusters are also available in the database.
HeinOnline
Find articles from law and law-related journals, as well as information on famous trials, legal classics, treaties, and more.

History Matters
Created by the American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University), this site includes "primary documents in text, image, and audio about the experiences of ordinary Americans throughout U.S. history. All of the documents have been screened by professional historians and are accompanied by annotations that address their larger historical significance and context."
Library of Congress. Digital Collections

Military & Government Collection
Find full-text, indexing and abstracted journals and periodicals pertaining to all branches of the military and government.

National Archives
The National Archives preserve legally or historically important documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government. Especially interesting is the Digital Vaults section.
The National Security Archive
"The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)." This website provides access to a sample of its declassified records.

Historic Documents

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875
"Beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774, America's national legislative bodies have kept records of their proceedings. The records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress make up a rich documentary history of the construction of the nation and the development of the federal government and its role in the national life. These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government."
Milestone Documents in American History
Over 130 full text primary source documents with expert analysis and commentary.

International Resources including U.S. History Primary Sources

HathiTrust
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. It is a good place to search web sites that no longer exist. The sources available from this site include web pages, books, audio, and moving images.
Google Books
Google scanned books project from major research libraries in the United States. Users can search the full text of scanned books and can use the advanced search feature to find primary sources.