History Resources: History Websites

This page provides curriculum, materials, and information resources related to United States History.

History Websites by Subject - Click Tabs Below for Each Subject Area - *Denotes a Primary-Source Database

Documenting the American South - North American Slave Narratives

"North American Slave Narratives" collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of fugitive and former slaves and some significant fictionalized slave narratives published in English before 1920. (Description from the website)

Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) Slavery Narratives

The American slave narratives from the collection enslavement of the African peoples, the transatlantic slave trade, and the plantation system that followed initiated the largest sustained commercial trading of human beings in history. Some scholars estimate that more than 20 million Africans were transported to the New World.
The few slave narratives that are presented in this exhibit reflect only a fraction of the millions upon millions of stories that could have been told by people who had the misfortune to toil under the yoke of slavery.
Although each of their stories is as unique and individual as a fingerprint, describing as they do, a different heartbreak and a different survival strategy. The brief glimpse provided in this exhibit will give you an introduction to the ways in which lives were affected. (From the MOAD website)

Slavery in America

Features a summary, videos, and links from the History Channel.

Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

This site provides access to four databases (Voyages, Estimates, Images, and African Names) with "information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between 1514 and 1866.

The Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

A narrative exhibition with Primary Source documents, from the Digital Public Library of America.

*Caribbean Histories Revealed
“The history of the British Caribbean is explored in this exhibition through government documents, photographs and maps dating from the 17th century to the 1920s and discovered during a cataloguing project at The National Archives of the United Kingdom.” – from website

*Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.

Elements of Caribbean History
From the Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship.

*ACT UP and the AIDS Crisis
An exhibition and Primary Source documents, from the Digital Public Library of America

American Women’s History Online
Excellent guide to researching women’s history in the United States with multiple links separated by subject; as well as guides to finding primary sources. From the Middle Tennessee State University's Walker Library.

*The Civil Rights Digital Library - University System of Georgia
The initiative promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement through its three principal components: 1) a digital video archive of historical news film allowing learners to be nearly eyewitnesses to key events of the Civil Rights Movement, 2) a civil rights portal providing a seamless virtual library on the Movement by connecting related digital collections on a national scale, and 3) a learning objects component delivering secondary Web-based resources - such as contextual stories, encyclopedia articles, lesson plans, and activities--to facilitate the use of the video content in the learning process. (From the website)

*Civil Rights Documentation Resources - UVA/Miller Center
Includes links to original documents from Brown v. Board of Ed and the Martin Luther King Papers Project.

*Explore the Civil Rights Movement - PBS Black Culture Connection
Features units on school desegregation and the Freedom Riders; with film clips of James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

*Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching Activism (DPLA)
A narrative exhibition with Primary Source documents, from the Digital Public Library of America.

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) Digital Gateway (Duke University Libraries)
SNCC focused on voter registration and on mounting a systemic challenge to the white supremacy that governed the country’s entrenched political, economic and social structures.

*Black Soldiers in the Civil War
A lesson plan with resources from the National Archives.

Civil War and Reconstruction Resources from PBS - The American Experience: Death and the Civil War

American Battlefield Trust - Fighting for Freedom: The Role of Black Soldiers in America's First Century

A selection of primary source documents, including: official records; addresses and speeches; acts, bills and orders; military correspondence and documents; personal correspondence and narratives; prints and photos; and maps.

*Women in the Civil War
A narrative exhibition with Primary Source documents, from the Digital Public Library of America.

CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence -

Books and Monographs (Unclassified publications by the CIA - for example: CIA Briefings of Presidential Candidates1952-1992
Studies in Intelligence (Unclassified extracts from Studies in Intelligence)

Includes the World Factbook and CIA Museum

*Crime In New York 1850-1950
Transcripts of historic trials in New York City, from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY.

*Dying Speeches and Bloody Murders - Crime Broadsides from the Harvard Law School Library
Just as programs are sold at sporting events today, broadsides -- styled at the time as "Last Dying Speeches" or "Bloody Murders" -- were sold to the audiences that gathered to witness public executions in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. The examples digitized here span the years 1707 to 1891 and include accounts of executions for such crimes as arson, assault, counterfeiting, horse stealing, murder, rape, robbery, and treason.

*FBI Records (the Vault)
The FBI has converted many FOIA documents to an electronic format (PDF), and they may be viewed on this website. In the case of voluminous pages, only summaries or excerpts from the documents are online.

*NYPD Photographs: 1915-1940s
New York Police Department Photographs, 1915-1940s. WARNING: THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF HOMICIDE VICTIMS. In addition to crime-scene and law-enforcement photographs, this collection includes photographs from the departmental operations and emergency services units, dating from 1928 to 1941.

*Oyez - From the Illinois Institute of Technology Kent School of Law
A selection of Supreme Court cases from as far back as 1789, each with Facts of the Case, relevant dates, and links to a syllabus and transcripts for each case included in the database.

Ellis Island

Virtual Tour
*Primary Source Interviews (audio)

*Immigration and Americanization
A narrative exhibition with Primary Source documents from the Digital Public Library of America.

*Immigration: Challenges for New Americans
Primary source documents from the Library of Congress.

Mystic Seaport
Notes and links to other source documents relating to the Amistad trial.

*Puerto Rican Migration to the United States
A narrative exhibition with Primary Source documents from the Digital Public Library of America.

*University of Minnesota Immigration History Research Center
Audio files of immigrant stories and digitized letters.

*The New-York Historical Society
"The New-York Historical Society, one of America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research, presenting history and art exhibitions, and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, New-York Historical has a mission to explore the richly layered political, cultural and social history of New York City and State and the nation, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.” – from website

*New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery
Welcome to the New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery of over 900,000 images. Selected from the world-class historical collections of the Archives, most of these unique photographs, maps, motion picture and audio recordings are being made accessible for the first time.

*New York State Historic Newpapers
The NYS Historic Newspapers project provides free online access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's unique history.

New York State Unit History Project (New York State Military Museum)
The New York State Unit History Project is an attempt to make New York State Military history available to the public. Eventually, all of the conflicts will be represented on our site. However, currently we are focusing on the Civil War because this is where the the New York State Military Museum's strength lies. (Statement from the website.)

*New York State Historical Literature Collection (Cornell University)
The Cornell University Library New York State Historical Literature is a collection of selected monographs, pamphlets and other materials with expired copyrights chosen from the Cornell Library's extensive collection of New York State Literature.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1924 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

The Pulitzer Prizes
A Website that includes an archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning works from past years including photos, editorial cartoons, music clips, and the full text of all articles.

Many more historic newspapers and other journalism sources may

American President: A Reference Resource
Presents concise summaries of all 44 presidencies of the United States, including information on Cabinet members, speeches, and more.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Searchable comprehensive database of Congressional biographies from 1774 to the present.

United States House of Representatives History
Discover the rich heritage of “the People’s House” and its central role in U.S. history since 1789.

Books & Monographs - CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence

A repository of unclassified intelligence articles, publications, and scholarship.

Ad Access from Duke University
Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.

*American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research.

*American Memory from the Library of Congress
Items from the Library of Congress that are of cultural importance to the United States. See also this List of Collections by Subject.

*Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more.

Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) (1945 forward)
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.

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

*Road to Revolution: 1773 to 1776
A narrative exhibition with Primary Source documents, from the Digital Public Library of America

Smithsonian American Art Museum Photograph Archives
The Smithsonian American Art Museum offers unparalleled resources for the study of American art. Its extensive Photograph Archives contain nearly a half million negatives, photographs, and slides. The images document American art from the colonial period to the present. Among the special collections are the following holdings.

WORLD WAR I

BBC iWonder World War I Timeline and Articles
A former BBC website - no longer updated, but full of great info.
British Library World War I Website
Explore over 500 historical sources from across Europe, together with new insights by World War One experts.
CNN World War I Fast Facts
A useful page full of quick facts and figures on the first World War.
CREDO Reference World War I Topic Page
1914–18, also known as the Great War, conflict, chiefly in Europe, among most of the great Western powers. It was the largest war the world had yet seen.
History Channel - World War I
A good, basic introduction to the causes and background issues contributing to World War I.
Holocaust Encyclopedia on World War I
A history reference resource from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Khan Academy World War I - Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points
A video and timeline detailing Woodrow Wilson's attempt to build a more peaceful world after the horrors of World War I.
The Immigrant Army : Immigrant Service Members in World War I
A website from the Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As the American military mobilized to enter World War I in 1917, its ranks filled with a diverse cross-section of American society, including immigrants from around the world.
Library of Congress World War I Website
Available resources include many primary documents, including posters, recordings, newspapers, sheet music, photographs, and veterans’ stories as well as publications, exhibitions, educational tools, and research guides related to World War I.
National World War I Museum and Memorial Interactive Timeline of World War I
A comprehensive resource from the National WWI Museum and Memorial.
Smithsonian Magazine World War I 100 Years Later
A special report on the centennial of the conflict.
U.S. National Archives: Diversity in World War I
A presentation from the US National Archives. America’s diverse population of recent European immigrants, women, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans volunteered with civilian organizations on the home front, while others wore military uniforms and served overseas.
U.S. National Archives Primary Source Documents of WWI
These primary source documents from the National Archives include copies of draft registration cards, letters to and from soldiers, and official war documents of state.

WORLD WAR II

CNN Fast Facts World War II
A useful page of basic facts and figures about World War II.
The Holocaust Encyclopedia on World War II in Europe
The Holocaust occurred in the broader context of World War II. World War II was the largest and most destructive conflict in history. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime envisioned a vast, new empire of "living space" (Lebensraum) for Germans in eastern Europe by the removal of existing populations. The Nazi goal to strengthen the German “master race” resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews and many others. -- From the web page
U.S. National Archives Power of Persuasion
Poster art, audio, and video files from the World War II era in the United States.
National World War II Museum
U.S. National Archives World War II Records
Harvard University World War and Society in the Twentieth Century: World War II Open Learning Course
The course World War and Society in the Twentieth Century: World War II is a thematic exploration of the war and its time through feature films, primary sources, and scholarly interpretations.
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A free series of video lectures from the Harvard Extension School's Opening Learning Initiative.
University of Houston College of Education Digital History of World War II
The materials on this Web site include a U.S. history textbook; over 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, supplemented by primary sources on slavery, Mexican American, Asian American, and Native American history, and U.S. political, social, and legal history; succinct essays on the history of film, ethnicity, private life, and technology; multmedia exhibitions; and reference resources that include a database of annotated links, classroom handouts, chronologies, glossaries, an audio archive including speeches and book talks by historians, and a visual archive with hundreds of historical maps and images.

Selected Primary-Source History Websites (Listed Alphabetically)

Africana Age

Africana Age
"African and African Diasporan transformations in the 20th Century" - from the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

American Historical Association

American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research.

Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Searchable comprehensive database of Congressional biographies from 1774 to the present.

ProQuest Black Freedom Struggle in the United States

ProQuest Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
(No Login Required)
This website presents primary source documents from several time periods in American History... [with a focus on] the fierce, often violent opposition that Black people have faced on the road to freedom.
This website contains
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over 3,000 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom:

Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860)
The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877)
Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932)
The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945)
The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975)
The Contemporary Era (1976-2000)

Digital Collections in American History - Library of Congress

Digital Collections in American History from the Library of Congress
Items from the Library of Congress that are of historical importance to the United States.

Includes:

Discovering American Women's History Online

Discovering American Women’s History Online
Excellent guide to researching women’s history in the United States with multiple links separated by subject; as well as guides to finding primary sources.

Caribbean Histories Revealed

Caribbean Histories Revealed
“The history of the British Caribbean is explored in this exhibition through government documents, photographs and maps dating from the 17th century to the 1920s and discovered during a cataloguing project at The National Archives of the United Kingdom.” – from the website

Castle Garden Immigration Center

Castle Garden Immigration Center (Redirect)
From 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden was America's first official immigration center. The castlegarden.org website has been shut down, but the same US immigration records can be searched for Free at:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1849782

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1924 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

Digital Library of the Caribbean

Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean.
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dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
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Digital Schomburg

Digital Schomburg
Visitors can locate online articles, digital exhibitions, photographs, audio and video streams, historical projects, and external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.
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Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation, and scholarship on the global Black experience through online materials at the Schomburg Center created and curated by our staff and librarians.
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Historical Documents in Foreign Relations

Historical Documents in Foreign Relations (1945 forward)
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.

New-York Historical Society

The New-York Historical Society
"The New-York Historical Society, one of America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research, presenting history and art exhibitions, and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, New-York Historical has a mission to explore the richly layered political, cultural and social history of New York City and State and the nation, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.” – from the website

New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery

New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery
Welcome to the New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery of over 900,000 images. Selected from the world-class historical collections of the Archives, most of these unique photographs, maps, motion picture and audio recordings are being made accessible for the first time. - From the website

New York State Historical Literature Collection

New York State Historical Literature Collection (Cornell University)
Cornell University Library's New York State Historical Literature Collection consists of selected monographs, pamphlets and other public-domain materials with expired copyrights.

New York State Historic Newspapers

New York State Historic Newspapers
The NYS Historic Newspapers project provides free online access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's unique history.

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center
New York and New Yorkers have answered the call for all of our nation's conflicts. The New York State Unit History Project is an attempt to make this history available to the public. Eventually, all of the conflicts will be represented on our site. - Website Description
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Research sources include:
Adjutant General Reports
New York National Guardsman: issues 1924-1940
Veteran's Oral History Project
Charts Showing Lineage of New York Units
New York State Awards, Decorations, and Medals
Medal of Honor Recipients Affiliated with New York
Digitized Archival Films

Thumbnail image of unidentified Black soldier in Civil War uniform catalogued as follows:
Photo Number: PA.2000.0564
Conflict United States--
History--Civil War, 1861-1865

NYPD & CRIMINAL PROSECUTION

NYPD Photographs: 1915-1940s
New York Police Department Photographs, 1915-1940s. WARNING: THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF HOMICIDE VICTIMS.
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In addition to crime-scene and law-enforcement photographs, this collection includes photographs from the departmental operations and emergency services units, dating from 1928 to 1941.

Primary Source Sets from the Digital Public Library of America

Primary Source Sets from the Digital Public Library of America
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more.
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Thumbnail image from Exodusters: African American Migration to the Great Plains available here: https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/exodusters-african-american-migration-to-the-great-plains

The Pulitzer Prizes

The Pulitzer Prizes
A Website that includes an archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning works from past years including photos, editorial cartoons, music clips, and the full text of all articles.

Slavery in America

Slavery in America
Features a summary, videos, and links from the History Channel.

Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (Rice University with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
This site provides access to four databases (Voyages, Estimates, Images, and African Names) with "information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between 1514 and 1866.