NCHS Institute
Westward Expansion and Converging
Culture in
Finding Freely-Accessible Primary
Sources on the Web
UCLA Library
Ellen Broidy
Librarian for
Identifying/Evaluating
Primary Sources on the Web
Using Primary
Sources on the Web
This brief
guide is designed to provide students and researchers with information to help
them evaluate the internet sources and the quality of primary materials that
can be found online.
Calisphere
is the
Another
site mounted by the Library of Congress American Memory Project. Draws resources from UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. Many of the resources also available via Calisphere.
Online Archive of California - OAC
Facilitates
and provides access to materials such as manuscripts, photographs, and works of
art held in libraries, museums, archives, and other institutions across
The UCLA
Oral History Program conducts audiotaped interviews,
sometimes supplemented by video segments, of persons selected for their ability
to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics,
principally related to the
General
U.S. History
This
exhibit marks the publication of The African-American mosaic: a Library of
Congress resource guide for the study of Black history and culture, the first
Library-wide resource guide to the institution's African-American collections.
The exhibit covers four areas, Colonization, Abolition, Migrations, and the
WPA, of the black experience in the Western hemisphere.
American West: Development and
History
Website accompanying PBS documentary developed by the National Asian
American Telecommunications Association. Includes links to an Asian
American timeline, classroom guides for educators, and links to Asian American
history website.
Abraham Lincoln Papers
at the Library of Congress
Access to Archival Databases (National Archives)
Access to a selection of nearly 50 million historic electronic records
created by more than 20 federal agencies on a wide range of topics. AAD allows you to search for and
retrieve specific records from selected series and data files.
African American
Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection (Library of Congress, American
Memory)
The Daniel
A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of
African-American history and culture, spanning almost one hundred years from
the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, with the bulk of
the material published between 1875 and 1900.
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American
History
Gathers together in one place hypertext links to the most useful
identified electronic files about the American Civil War. Contains timelines, overviews,
graphic images, letters, accounts, diaries and other documentary records,
modern histories, FAQs, bibliographies, state
studies, specific battles, rosters of combatants, miscellaneous military
information, and links to other information sites.
A
collection of primary source documents “which were
most relevant to the colonists' lives in
American
Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken
words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music
that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American
history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of
Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places,
and ideas that continue to shape
American Slave
Narratives: An Online Anthology
From 1936
to 1938 over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were
interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress
Administration. This web site provides an opportunity to read a sample of these
narratives, and to see some of the photographs taken at the time of the
interviews, and to hear sound files of some interviews.
Avalon Project: Documents
in Law, History and Diplomacy
California Mission Studies Association
(CMSA)
Dedicated to the Study and Preservation of the
Civil
War Women: Primary Sources on the Internet
Site
includes digitized manuscripts from the
Evolution of the
Conservation Movement, 1850-1920.
Part of the
American Memory Project, the site documents the historical formation and
cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural
heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints,
photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the
Library of Congress.
First American
West: the Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
Part of the
Library of Congress American Memory Project, site features 15,000 pages of
original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and
transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the
early nineteenth century. The collection documents the travels
of the first Europeans to enter the trans-Appalachian West, the maps
tracing their explorations, their relations with Native
Americans, and their theories about the region's mounds
and other ancient
earthworks. Books and letters document the new settlers' migration
and acquisition of land,
navigation
down the Ohio River, planting
of crops, and trade
in tobacco,
horses,
and whiskey.
Documents also reveal the lives of trans-Appalachian African Americans, nearly
all of them slaves;
the position of women;
and the roles of churches,
schools,
and other institutions.
Geostat Center,
University of Virginia. Historical Census Browser
Historical Demographic, Economic and Social Data of U.S. states and
counties from 1790 to 1960. The original source of the each decade's data is the
decennial census conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Images of African
Americans from the 19th Century
Searchable
images from the New York Public Library Digital Library Collections: Digital Schomburg.
Another
excellent site from the Library of Congress containing links to primary sources
from LC’s digital collections as well as a Learning
Page with sample lesson plans.
Making of America – Cornell
University
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. The collection is
particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American
history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection
currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with
19th century imprints."
National American Woman
Suffrage Collection
The NAWSA
Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the
suffrage campaign. They are a subset of the Library's larger collection donated
by Carrie Chapman Catt,
longtime president of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, in November of 1938. The collection
includes works from the libraries of other members and officers of the
organization including: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone,
Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Mary A.
Livermore.
Historical
maps focusing on the period of expansion (1783-1898), slavery through 1860, and
the legal status of slavery through 1860. Most maps are interactive and require
Shockwave plug-in.
Treaties between
the United States and Native Americans
Part of the Avalon Project at
Brief discussion/overview, full text of the treaty, and maps. Prepared by the
Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress.
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities
in the American Civil War
"The
Valley of the Shadow is an electronic archive of two communities in the
American Civil War--Augusta County, Va. and Franklin Co.,
A treasure trove of links to web resources covering
Image
Collections
California Heritage Digital Image Access
Project
http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/515
Illustrating Traveler: Adventure and
Illustration in North America and the Caribbean, 1760-1859
Several of
the collections listed above contain images. Amongst the most noteworthy are:
Calisphere
American
Memory
Civil
War Women
Valley
of the Shadow