Primary Sources
A primary source is a document or artifact created during the time period you are studying. It provides firsthand evidence, allowing you to analyze historical events, ideas, or experiences without outside interpretation.
Types of Primary Sources:
- Personal Accounts: Diaries, letters, memos/emails, autobiographies, interviews
- Speeches & Writings: Speech texts and recordings, manuscripts
- Legal & Government Documents: Laws, legislation, court rulings, patents, official records from governments, agencies, and organizations
- News & Media: Newspaper and magazine articles reporting events as they happened, news footage
- Research & Data: Journal articles presenting original research or experiments, raw data
- Artifacts & Material Culture: Buildings, clothing, jewelry, toys, fossils
- Creative Works: Poetry, novels, drama, music, art, photography, movies, scripts, performances
To get started with primary source research, visit our list of recommended databases.
Use Search@UW to find Books for Primary Sources!
Recommended Databases
-
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include history, First Nations studies, cultural studies, and environmental studies. Find primary sources; both published and unpublished accounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.
-
North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950 (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include history and related fields. Find primary sources: letters and diaries that describe the immediate experiences of 107 women.
-
North American Immigrants Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include history and related fields. Find primary sources: North American immigrant letters, diaries, and oral histories from the United States and Canada.
-
North American Indian Thought and CultureSubjects covered include First Nations Studies, history, biography, and cultural studies. Find autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.
-
Artstor on JSTORLibrarian recommended!
Subjects covered include art, design, architecture, fashion, maps, photography, and more. Find images from museums, archives, and other institutions. -
FedFlixLibrarian recommended!
Find films produced by the United States government. All films are in the public domain and are available for reuse without any restrictions. -
National JukeboxFind historical sound recordings. All recordings are in the public domain and are available for reuse without any restrictions.
-
North American Indian Thought and CultureSubjects covered include First Nations Studies, history, biography, and cultural studies. Find autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.
-
Project Gutenberg This link opens in a new windowProject Gutenberg is an on-going project to produce and distribute free electronic editions of books in the public domain. Most are works of literature such as novels, poetry, and drama.
-
Twentieth Century Advice Literature (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include gender roles and relations, American consumerism, views of democratic citizenship, character development for children, and more. Find primary sources.
-
Black Drama: 1850-present (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include theatre & drama, multicultural & ethnic studies, literature, and history. Find plays written from the 1850's to the present, playbills, and photographs.
-
Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowLibrarian recommended!
Subjects covered include history, news, and a wide range of topics. Find primary sources: the full text and full image articles from the New York Times dating back to the 19th century. -
Historical Newspapers: Wisconsin CollectionSubjects covered include history, news, and a wide range of topics. Find primary sources: the full text and full image articles from several Wisconsin newspapers, some dating back to the 19th century
-
U.S. Newsstream
Subjects covered include news and current events. Find current and archival to 1980 U.S. news.
-
Early American Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include historic local, regional, & national news. Find news and primary sources.
-
Lily (Accessible Archives)The Lily is the first newspaper for women and was issued from 1849 until 1853 under the editorship of Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894).
-
African American Newspapers (1827-1998) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies, news, and more. Find primary sources and news.
-
African American Periodicals (1825-1995) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies, news and more. Find news, commentary, advertisements, literature, drawings and photographs, and primary source material.
-
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowA wide range of subjects covered. Find citations to primary sources: popular, general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890 to 1982.
-
Newspapers.com Library Edition - World CollectionHistorical newspapers archive from the 1700s - 2000s containing thousands of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.
-
Times Digital Archive (Gale)
The Times (London, England) Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times, one of the most highly regarded resources for the 19th – 20th Century history detailing every complete page of every issue from 1785-2009.
-
Ancestry Library This link opens in a new windowAncestry Library is a genealogical database that includes records regarding the U.S. Federal Census, vital life events, military service, and immigration.
-
HeritageQuest Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive treasury of American genealogical sources—rich in unique primary sources, local and family histories, and finding aids. It delivers an essential collection of genealogical and historical sources—with coverage dating back to the 1700s.
-
Border and Migration StudiesFind videos, images, and text on more than thirty key worldwide border areas.
-
History Vault: Civil RightsLibrarian recommended!
Subjects covered include cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies, news, and more. Find primary sources, federal records, organization records, and more. -
Gilded Age (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowLibrarian recommended!
Subjects covered include race, labor, immigration, commerce, western expansion, and women’s suffrage. Find photographs, songs, and other primary source materials as well as scholarly essays. -
U.S. History In ContextSubjects covered include United States history, including events, biographies, social movements, and politics. Find academic, trade, popular, and primary sources.
-
Gale Primary Sources (Gale)Find primary sources on a range of topics. Includes newspapers, historical & archival documents, and other academic material.
-
Women and Social Movements US 1600-2000: Basic Edition (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include women and gender studies, social movements, social justice, sociology, politics, activism, history, and related fields. Find projects addressing aspects of women and social movements in the United States; each project contains primary documents and contextual materials collected to answer a specific question.
-
Gerritsen Collection--Women's History Online, 1543-1945 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include history, women's history, women& gender studies, and social sciences. Find primary sources: mainly documents from early feminists movements.
-
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale)Subjects covered include history of the 19th century: revolution, reform, nation building, culture, education, more. Find primary source collections.
Primary Source Websites for US History
-
National Archives Milestone DocumentsThe primary source documents on this page highlight pivotal moments in the course of American history or government. They are some of the most-viewed and sought-out documents in the holdings of the National Archives
-
Digital Public Library of AmericaThe 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. The copyright status of items in the DPLA varies. Many items are in the public domain. For individual rights information about an item, please check the Rights field in the metadata or follow the link to the digital object on the content provider’s website for more information.
-
LIFE Photo ArchiveSearch millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
-
New York Public Library Digital CollectionsSpans a wide range of historical eras, search for your topic on the main page.
-
CalisphereCalisphere is a gateway to digital collections from California's great libraries, archives, and museums. Discover over 1,975,000 images, texts, and recordings—and counting.
-
Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersSearch America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
-
UW-Madison Digital CollectionsFind primary sources on US and WI history!
Websites For Primary Source Themes
-
Library of Congress: American Cartoon PrintsThis assemblage of more than 500 prints made in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries encompasses several forms of political art. Most of the prints are from the division's PC/US series, which consists of individually cataloged political cartoons and caricatures.
-
DPLA: Patronage and Populism: The Politics of the Gilded AgeIn the Gilded Age, corruption and graft permeated every level of American politics. Campaigns promised patronage and civil service positions in order to win elections and access to infrastructure benefitted corporations over small-scale farmers. Find and overview and primary sources.
-
Library of Congress: Spanish-American War in Motion PicturesThis presentation features 68 motion pictures, produced between 1898 and 1901, of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine Revolution. The Spanish-American War was the first U.S. war in which the motion picture camera played a role.
-
Spanish-American War PhotographsThis collection of original photographs includes images from shortly before the war, during the war, and during the American occupation of Cuba. It includes photographs that were sold commercially as cabinet cards, as well as personal photographs taken by Americans on the scene.
-
DPLA: Reservations, Resistance, and the Indian Reorganization Act, 1900-1940By 1900, the policy of the federal government was that American Indian people needed to assimilate into white society, giving up their traditional ways to become like Euro-Americans in their living arrangements, dress, pastimes, religious expression, and work. Find and overview and primary sources.
-
DPLA: The Wounded Knee MassacreBy the end of the nineteenth century, the US government had permanently transformed Native American life across the United States through broken treaties, bison hunting to near-extinction, and reservation containment. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
DPLA: American Indian Boarding SchoolsThis collection of photos and documents shows what life was like for the many children enrolled in American Indian boarding schools. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Hoover Institution: HaitiThese collections contain significant materials on politics and Haiti's relationship with the United States. Several collections focus on the US presence in Haiti, including the 1915 military intervention that led to a prolonged occupation by US troops. Other collections relate to politics, education, and human rights in Haiti during the dictatorships of François Duvalier and his successor, Jean-Claude Duvalier.
-
Ellis Island Oral History ProjectThe project is one of the world’s largest and most diverse chronicles of the immigrant experience. It includes nearly 2,000 interviews from passengers, families, immigration officials, military personnel, detainees, and former island employees. The recordings are filled with tales of joy, sorrow, and hope, and cumulatively, they paint an expansive and complex picture of our ancestry and culture.
-
Minnesota Historical Society: Minnesota Immigrant Oral HistoriesImmigrant Oral Histories presents a collection of over 360 oral history interviews conducted between 1967 and 2012 with recent immigrants to Minnesota and their American-born children, including both streaming audio and written transcripts accessible online in digital formats.
-
DPLA: Immigration through Angel IslandAngel Island Immigration Station was the entryway to America for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mainly from Asian countries, during its operation from 1910 to 1940. Chinese immigration to the United States had increased steadily since the mid-nineteenth century, and some Americans worried that Chinese employment as low-wage workers threatened American jobs. Find primary sources.
-
Harvard Library: Immigration to the United States 1789-1930Documenting voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.
-
Library of Congress: Immigration & Relocation in U.S. HistoryThe history of the United States has always been shaped by peoples and communities who came to its shores or moved within its borders. Some sought a better life, some fled oppression, and some were moved against their will. This presentation uses Library of Congress primary sources to explore moments and experiences from several of these communities.
-
Library of Congress: Chinese Exclusion Act: Primary SourcesThis page provides links to primary source materials related to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and Chinese immigration.
-
South Asian American Digital ArchiveSAADA creates a more inclusive society by giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their unique and diverse experiences.
-
Washington State Jewish ArchivesFind oral histories from longtime residents and newcomers to the Jewish community in Washington state as well as photographs from the mid- 1800’s to present day.
-
Bracero History ArchiveThe Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America.
-
DPLA: Immigration and Americanization, 1880-1930Between 1880 and 1930, approximately 28 million immigrants entered the United States. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
DPLA: Mexican Labor & WWII The Bracero ProgramBeginning in World War II, the Bracero Program brought Mexican laborers to the United States to remedy wartime production shortages. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
University of Washington Digital Collections: Labor ArchivesA selection of materials from the Labor Archives of Washington collections has been digitized and added to the University of Washington's Digital Collections, to which this portal provides access. This project has made hundreds of primary textual and visual resources relating to Pacific Northwest labor history more accessible to the public.
-
Library of Congress: American Federation of Labor RecordsThe records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
-
Georgia State University Library Digital Archives: Southern Labor ArchivesGeorgia State University's Southern Labor Archives, established in 1971, is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available the documentary heritage of Southern workers and their unions, as well as that of workers and unions having a historic relationship to the region. The largest accumulation of labor records in the Southeast, the Archives holdings include organizational records, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, personal papers of labor leaders, oral histories, collective bargaining agreements, constitutions and bylaws, and convention proceedings from 1888 to the present.
-
Bracero History ArchiveThe Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America.
-
Library of Congress: Voices from the Dust Bowl, 1940 to 1941Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection is an online presentation of selections from a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941.
-
The Real Rosie the Riveter ProjectThe 48 women represented here provide a complex portrait of Rosie the Riveter, taking the viewer beyond the iconic "We Can Do It" poster girl and deep into the experiences real Rosies from diverse backgrounds, challenging the popular perception of women in American History.
-
Harvard Library: Women Working, 1800-1930The collection is an exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues are among the issues documented.
-
DPLA: When Miners Strike: West Virginia Coal Mining and Labor HistoryFind primary sources.
-
DPLA: Mexican Labor & WWII The Bracero ProgramBeginning in World War II, the Bracero Program brought Mexican laborers to the United States to remedy wartime production shortages. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History ProjectThis multi-media web site brings the vital history of Seattle's civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies, more than 300 pages in all.
-
Library of Congress: Railroad Maps CollectionContains 623 maps chosen from more than 3,000 railroad maps and about 2,000 regional, state, and county maps, and other maps which show "internal improvements" of the past century. The Railroad maps represent an important historical record, illustrating the growth of travel and settlement as well as the development of industry and agriculture in the United States.
-
Center for Railroad Photography & ArtSince its founding in 1997, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art has been passionately committed to telling railroading’s stories through imagery: interpreting the past creatively, connecting it to the present while looking to the future. The center achieves its mission through exhibitions, conferences, and publications that spring from its core commitment to collect, preserve, and then make widely available imagery that portrays the nearly 200-year history of railroads. Click on the "collections" tab to view online collections.
-
Library of Congress: Pacific Railway Act Primary DocumentsFind documents related to the Pacific Railway Act which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862. This act provided Federal government support for the building of the first transcontinental railroad, which was completed on May 10, 1869.
-
DPLA: Electrifying AmericaOn November 4, 1879, Thomas Edison filed for a patent for an electric lamp using carbon filaments. Edison’s patent, which became the first commercially successful, long-lasting light bulb, changed the way people across the world live and work—with the flip of a switch. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation Digital CollectionsBegin to explore the artifacts at the core of The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation™ through our continually expanding digital collections. This broad array of artifacts will lead you to extraordinary stories.
Websites for Primary Source Events
-
Documenting the American SouthDocumenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
-
The Freedmen's Bureau: Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned LandsThe Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The bureau records were created or maintained by bureau headquarters, the assistant commissioners and the state superintendents of education and included personnel records and a variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs and conditions in the states.
-
Library of Congress: The Voice of the carpet bagger...The first issue of a publication designed to protest racial injustice in the South and to defend southern loyalists, northern businessmen, soldiers, etc. (i.e. "carpet baggers") who invested in the South immediately after the Civil War but who in many cases were ruined financially and defamed by southerners. Also contains accounts of atrocities against blacks and whites by southern mobs between 1865 and 1900.
-
DPLA: Civil War & Reconstruction Primary Source SetsPrimary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture.
-
Digital Civil War Collection from the University of Tennessee Knoxville LibrariesUT Libraries’ Digital Civil War Collection provides a selection of digitized journals and correspondence. These materials provide unique insight into the era’s military and regional culture by capturing the perspectives and personal experiences of soldiers as well as civilians affected by the war through personal relationships or geographic location. In addition, these materials record political opinions and regional attitudes about topical issues such as slavery and poverty.
-
DPLA: Women and the Temperance MovementFind sources related to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
-
DPLA: Settlement Houses in the Progressive EraBetween the 1880s and 1920s, hundreds of settlement houses were established in American cities in response to an influx of European immigrants as well as the urban poverty brought about by industrialization and exploitative labor practices. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Library of Congress: 18th Amendment Primary SourcesThe digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of primary source materials associated with the 18th Amendment and Prohibition, including manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, sheet music, and broadsides. Provided below is a link to the home page for each relevant digital collection along with selected highlights.
-
Brown University Library: Alcohol, Temperance & ProhibitionThe digitized items in the Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition Collection are from the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, as well as from various collections in the Brown University Library — broadsides, sheet music, pamphlets and government publications.
-
Hagley Digital Archives: Association Against the Prohibition Amendment postcards and stationeryThis collection comprises postcards and folded cards (stationery) issued by the organization. Each item is headed with the saying "Prohibition-Probes," which is followed by an anti-prohibition slogan or quotation
-
Library of Congress: Women's Suffrage Digital CollectionsFind digital collections related to the Women's Suffrage movement.
-
DPLA: Eugenics Movement in the United States.In the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century United States, eugenics programs received widespread public support. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Library of Congress: World War I Digital CollectionsThe digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material related to World War I, including manuscripts, posters, newspapers, films, sheet music, and sound recordings.
-
National Archives: Commemorating the Great WarAs the largest repository of American World War I records, the National Archives invites you to browse the wealth of records and information documenting the U.S. experience in this conflict, including photographs, documents, audiovisual recordings, educational resources, articles, blog posts, lectures, and events.
-
UW-Madison Digital Collections: WWI CollectionUW-Madison's World War I collection focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on European aspects of the war. It is particularly strong in documenting rescue and relief efforts, and in propaganda materials, but all aspects of the war are included.
-
DPLA: WWI America Heads to WarFind primary sources.
-
DPLA: African American Soldiers in World War IAfrican American soldiers are often rendered invisible in the traditional historical narrative of United States involvement in World War I. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
North Caroline Digital Collections: World War IThis collection includes World War I materials from the collections of the State Library and State Archives of North Carolina. Items include posters, letters, photographs, maps, and papers.
-
First World War Poetry Digital Archive from the University of OxfordThe heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and Edward Thomas. This is supplemented by a comprehensive range of multimedia artefacts from the Imperial War Museum, a separate archive of over 6,500 items contributed by the general public, and a set of specially developed educational resources.
-
Veterans History ProjectThe Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
-
Library of Congress: American Life Histories, Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience.
-
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White NegativesThe photographs in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944.
-
DPLA: The New DealThis source set allows you to explore the crisis of the Great Depression, as well as the dramatic developments of the New Deal, through photographs, speeches, letters, and oral histories. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Civil Works Administration PhotographsPhotographs depicting CWA projects in the state of Washington include road construction and improvements, bridge construction and maintenance, waterway improvements, playfield and park improvements, water and sewage pipeline repairs, school maintenance projects, hospital and nursing activities, and airport improvements.
-
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) Photographs of King County, 1933-1935The following collection documents FERA projects established in King County. These include street construction, bridge building and sewer laying projects; park grounds and playfield improvements; school and public building construction and repair; land clearing, landscaping, wood cutting and land slide prevention; ditching, dredging, flood control and waterway improvement projects; establishment of FERA offices and stores; creation of recreation projects for children; organization of furniture, stove and tool repair, sewing, clothing distribution, boot and shoe repair, toy-making shops.
-
Library of Congress: Voices from the Dust Bowl, 1940 to 1941Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection is an online presentation of selections from a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941.
-
California Odyssey Project & Dust Bowl Migration ArchivesFind photographs, articles, interviews, and more.
-
After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl HarborAfter the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. From the Library of Congress.
-
Veterans History ProjectThe Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
-
Library of Congress: The National Screening RoomSeveral films from the WWII era. For example, take a look at "All-American News," the first newsreels produced for a black audience. Made in the 1940s and 1950s, they were originally intended to encourage black Americans to participate in, and support the war effort, and to reflect an African-American perspective on world and national events.
-
Ball State University Digital Collections: WWII FIlmsThe World War II Films digital collection consists of short films and news clips, primarily in black and white, documenting Allied operations and activities during WWII. In addition to footage of campaigns in Europe and in the Pacific, the films document activities on the homefront, including the efforts of African American colleges and farmers, the relocation and internment of Japanese civilians, and the victory garden program sponsored by the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense.
-
Illinois Digital Archives: WWII DocumentsThis collection contains United States and Illinois government documents on subjects relating to World War II, including: rationing and conservation, women's work, civil defense, the Japanese interment, the development of the United Nations, and more.
-
Internet Archive: WWI HomefrontFind images, video, and more.
-
The Real Rosie the Riveter ProjectThe 48 women represented here provide a complex portrait of Rosie the Riveter, taking the viewer beyond the iconic "We Can Do It" poster girl and deep into the experiences real Rosies from diverse backgrounds, challenging the popular perception of women in American History.
-
DPA: WWII Women on the HomefrontThrough this set, readers will learn about the opportunities and experiences of women laborers on the home front during the war. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
DPLA: Mexican Labor & WWII The Bracero ProgramBeginning in World War II, the Bracero Program brought Mexican laborers to the United States to remedy wartime production shortages. Find an overview and primary sources.
-
Rosie the Riveter World War II American Home FrontIn collaboration with the National Park Service and the City of Richmond, the Oral History Center conducted over 250 interviews focusing on the World War II Home Front experience. From the University of California Berkeley Library.
-
Duke University Libraries Repository Collections & Archives: Behind the VeilA selection of recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s.
-
DPLA: Black Women's SuffrageThe Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960.
-
Civil Rights Digital LibraryThe Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.
-
Library of Congress: Civil Rights History ProjectOn May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directed the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a national survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record and make widely accessible new interviews with people who participated in the struggle.
-
Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History ProjectThis award winning, multi-faceted project went beyond the collection and transcription of interviews on African American history and civil rights by providing thousands of Kentuckians with multiple platforms for connecting to the stories shared in more than 175 interviews.
-
University of Southern Mississippi Digital Collections: Civil Rights Oral History ProjectFind oral histories from the Civil Rights Movement.
-
Civil Rights GreensboroCivil Rights Greensboro provides access to archival resources documenting the modern civil rights era in Greensboro, North Carolina, from the 1940s to the early 1980s. During this formative period, Greensboro was an epicenter of activity, continuing a tradition that traces its roots back to the 19th century when members of the area's large Quaker population provided stops on the Underground Railroad.
-
Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History ProjectThis multi-media web site brings the vital history of Seattle's civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies, more than 300 pages in all.
-
Wilson Center Digital Archive: Cold War HistorySince its establishment in August 1991, the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) has amassed a tremendous collection of archival documents on the Cold War era from the once secret archives of former communist countries. CWIHP has become internationally recognized as the world’s preeminent resource on the Cold War.
-
NSA: Cuban Missile CrisisFind declassified documents from the Cuban Missile Crisis.
-
NSA: Documentation on Early Cold War U.S. Propaganda Activities in the Middle EastFind primary source documents.
-
FOIA: Reagan Collection.This collection of declassified documents and other material highlights what the CIA provided President Reagan and other top members of his national security team on key issues affecting US-Soviet relations. The collection--made up of intelligence assessments, National Intelligence Estimates, high-level memos, and DCI talking points--consists of over 200 documents, some 60 of which are either being made available to the public for the first time or are being re-released with new material. To help put this material in perspective, we are also including non-CIA documents from the archives of the Reagan Library to fill out the collection on the policy end.
-
Making History of 1989: Primary SourcesThese primary sources are drawn from the emergence of resistance movements in the 1980s, the events of 1989, and the immediate aftermath in Eastern Europe.
-
Hoover Institution: CommunismThe collections contain extensive resources on communist states and communist parties, as well as materials compiled by anticommunist organizations and individuals. Among the most significant are microfilm copies of Soviet Communist Party records and a number of collections relating to Trotskyist organizations in the United States and other countries.
-
JFK Presidential Library & Museum: Papers of JFK national Security FilesA subfile of the Presidential Papers of John F. Kennedy constituting the working files of McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. It is the primary foreign policy file of the Kennedy White House and consists of the following series: Countries, Regional Security Files, Trips and Conferences, Departments and Agencies, Subjects, Meetings and Memorandums, and staff files of Chester V. Clifton, Carl Kaysen, William H. Brubeck, Ralph Dungan, McGeorge Bundy, Robert W. Komer, Henry Kissinger, Charles Johnson, and Bromley K. Smith.
-
Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum: McCarthyism, The "Red Scare" DocumentsFind documents related to Senator McCarthy's Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee.