Research Guides: *Social Sciences: U.S. and regional resources

ArchiveGrid

ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
ArchiveGrid includes over four million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.

Primary sources for US History

Documenting the American South
Documenting 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.
Making of America I
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. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. The project represents a major collaborative endeavor in preservation and electronic access to historical texts.
Nineteenth Century in Print
This collection presents twenty-three popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress. They include literary and political magazines, as well as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, and Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry. The longest run is for The North American Review, 1815-1900.
American Memory Project
Browse the American Memory Project from the Library of Congress by topic, time period, material or location.
Valley of the Shadow
"The Valley Project details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of Reconstruction. In this digital archive you may explore thousands of original letters and diaries, newspapers and speeches, census and church records, left by men and women in Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA."

Archives Unbound: Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 - Gale This link opens in a new window
A collection of FBI files on prominent African American individuals and organizations provided by Gale Cengage. Files include documents on Thurgood Marshall, Malcom X, Jesse Jackson, W.E.B. Du Bois, NAACP and others. Date range: 1920-1984.
Archives Unbound: The Minutemen, 1961-1969: evolution of the Militia Movement in America Part I - Gale This link opens in a new window
A collection of documents from the FBI Library (1960-1969) on an anti-communist organization, the Minutemen.
Slavery & Anti-slavery Archives Parts 1-4 - Gale This link opens in a new window
Part 1: Debates; Part 2: Slave Trade; Part 3: Institution; Part 4: Emancipation
19th Century U.S. Newspapers - Gale This link opens in a new window
Access to primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of regions throughout the U.S.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Search 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, 19th Century British Newspapers and the Illustrated London News in one simple search.
Archives West This link opens in a new window
Archives West provides access to descriptions of primary sources in the western United States, including correspondence, diaries or photographs. Digital reproductions of the materials are available in some cases.