Walker Library: *History: United States: Topical Digital Collections

Gateways to Digital Collections

Digital Public Library of America
Gateway to digital content from selected states and regions.
HathiTrust Digital Library

ProQuest One History
Extensive collection of primary sources, featuring early modern books, archival and manuscript collections, historical newspapers and periodicals, letters and diaries, and multimedia content.

Digital Collections

American Civil Liberties Union Papers, 1912-1990
Records cover free speech, citizenship, race, discrimination, immigration, labor, radicalism, and related topics. Includes papers of the Southern Regional Office of the ACLU, primarily in the period 1945 to 1990.
American Civil War Periodicals, 1855-1868

Periodicals that chronicle the Civil War from various perspectives. Full text digital images.
American Civil War: Letters & Diaries
More than 100,000 pages of letters and diaries from over 2000 authors.

This release contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Particular care has been taken to index this material so it can be searched more thoroughly than ever. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. Includes 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland Planter William Claytor.
American West, The

Original manuscripts, ephemeral material (trade cards, wanted posters, photos, claim certificates, news-sheets etc), maps, and rare printed works of 19th and early 20th century Western Americana.
Artstor

Digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and science. Please note this warning for users who have a photosensitive seizure disorder.

Warning:
Content that flashes at certain frequencies can trigger seizures in individuals who have photosensitive seizure disorders. A small number of videos on Artstor display flashing at higher than recommended frequencies for viewers with such disorders. Artstor is currently exploring remediation. To avoid seizure, users with photosensitivity should contact Artstor support for more information prior to viewing videos.

The ARTstor Digital Library is a nonprofit resource that provides over 2.5 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research.
Black Thought and Culture

Searchable texts of non-fiction work by prominent African Americans, 1700 to present.

Contains 1,297 sources with 1,098 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
Civil War Collection (Accessible Archives)

Digital collection of newspapers, memoirs, pamphlets, and regimental histories from the Civil War period. Collection is divided into seven parts that can be searched separately or together.

Collection Description
Contents List
Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970
Detailed maps of over 100 Tennessee towns and cities, 19th and 20th centuries. Also see the Library of Congress digital collection of Sanborn maps.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 with AAS and LCP Supplements
Digital collection of books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in America, 1639-1800. Includes Series I: Supplement from American Antiquarian Society, 1652-1800 and Series I: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800

More about Evans, the AAS Supplement, and the Library Company of Philadelphia supplement.
Early Encounters in North America
1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters (1492 to 1830s).
Everyday Life & Women in America, c. 1800-1920
Fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature.

Thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
Fold3 Library Edition by Ancestry
Historical US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.

Fold 3 Title List (Excel file download)
Product Overview (PDF)
Coverage includes:
• Revolutionary War
• Civil War
• War of 1812
• Mexican American and Early Indian Wars
• World Wars I and II
• Korean and Vietnam Conflicts
• Recent Wars
• International Records
Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online

Books and periodicals on women's issues in the U.S. and Europe.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange
Manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history.

Commodities covered include chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, silver and gold
spices, sugar, tea, timber, and wine and spirits. See Nature and Scope for more details on this collection.
HeritageQuest Online
U.S. Federal Census images (1790-1930), family and local history books, the PERSI index to genealogy and local history articles, and more.

Need help getting started? Consult these Research Aids
Jewish Life in America

Collection of primary sources that trace Jewish involvement in American society, 1654-1954.
LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Parts I&II

Primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues affecting LGBTQ communities around the world. Includes Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance Archives, ca. 1972-1994

Includes over 50 separate collections.
Medical Services and Warfare

Primary source documents about the history of illness, treatment and disease on international front lines from 1850 to 1927.

More about the collection
NAACP Papers
Digitized documents from the NAACP's major campaigns and important local NAACP branches, 1909-1972. Full-text and searchable. Part of the Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle collection, which also includes Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century modules.

Digital copies of nearly two million pages of NAACP internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. Click on a module below for a content description.

Modules:
Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files
Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files
Special Files
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Legal Department Files
The NAACP's Major Campaigns - Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses
Nixon Years, The
This collection from the National Archives, Kew, documents the Nixon administration (1969-1974) from a British, European and Commonwealth perspective.
North American Indian Thought and Culture
Primary source texts and images related to Native American history.
North American Women's Letters & Diaries
Search 150,000 pages of primary materials from the 1600s to 1950. The advanced search offers over 20 possible fields (e.g., age when writing, marital status, religion, occupation, etc.).
Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest
Historical documents covering popular culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975.

Key issues and events covered include:

Changing Lifestyles, 1950-1975
Youth Culture
Student Protests across Europe and the US
Mai ‘68
Popular Culture; TV; Music; Movies
Book, Magazine and Film Censorship
Civil Rights; Women’s Liberation; Minority Groups
The Space Race
Consumerism; Credit Cards; Computers
The Vietnam conflict
Nuclear Disarmament

The collection includes:

A wide range of Printed and Manuscript material - pamphlets, letters, government files, and eye witness accounts covering key events of the period
The renowned Social Protest Collection from University of California, Berkeley
A wide range of Underground magazines including OZ and IT; as well as an impressive collection of American fanzines and alternative press titles from Bowling Green State University
Striking visual material - thousands of indexed photographs depicting the people and events of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s
Ephemera and Memorabilia - posters, pins and artefacts
Video - a collection of carefully selected video footage that brings the sights and sounds of the period to life!
Sixties, The: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974
150,000 pages of primary documents related to 1960s America. It contains diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.

See product brochure (pdf)
Download bibliography (Excel file)
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
Documents chronicling the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
Legal materials on slavery in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.

Includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, all reported state and federal cases on slavery, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on the subject.
Victorian Popular Culture

Resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Four sections:
* Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema
* Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment
* Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks
* Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic
See Nature and Scope for more information.

Vital Speeches of the Day
Full-text speeches from 1934 to present.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
More than 100 "document projects" organize primary sources around specific questions (e.g., "How Did Lucretia Mott Combine Her Commitments to Antislavery and Women's Rights, 1840-1860?").

See About Women and Social Movements in the United States for more information.

Microtext Collections

Local Archives

Archival Directories

ArchiveGrid
Searches historical documents held in archives across the world.

ArchiveGrid connects you with primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world. You will find historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. ArchiveGrid also helps researchers contact archives to request information, arrange a visit, and order copies.