Online Primary Sources in History

Archives, libraries, and museums are increasingly sharing primary source material via the world wide web. The sites below are outstanding examples of quality collections of online primary source documents.

American Memory: Historical Collections of the Library of Congress

AMDOCS Documents for the Study of American History, 1400-Present

Avalon Project Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy

Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive Documents the struggle for Civil Rights in the Deep South

Digital Library of Georgia Primary sources which document the history of Georgia

Documenting the American South Primary source materials relating to the southern United States

EuroDocs Western European Primary Historical Documents.

From Revolution to Reconstruction and What Happened Afterwards Collection of documents in American history, 1400-Present

Gallica Digital Library of the National Library of France

Historical Census Browser Handy tool which contains state and county census data

Historical Directories of English Towns Find late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century English town directories on this site. Search by locale with a clickable map, keyword, or decade.

Historical Maps of the British Isles An archive of historical maps, mainly of England. Choose a place of interest or search by place name, co-ordinate, or address.

Historical Election Results The National Archives provides results of the American Presidential Elections, 1789-Present

Making of America 19th c. books and magazines

New Deal Network Contains primary documents relating to Great Depression and New Deal

New York Public Library Digital Collections New York specific, as well as national, digital sources

The Papers of Jefferson Davis Project to document the life of Jefferson Davis

Project Whistlestop Digitized sources from the Truman Presidential Museum and Library

Smithsonian Institution National resources on a variety of topics

Author Reagan L. Grimsley -- December 2004
HTML Conversion EHK -- August 2005