Guides: Primary Sources: U.S.

General Sites

Library of Congress Digital Collections
"Access online collections (including American Memory): view maps & photographs; read letters, diaries & newspapers; hear personal accounts of events; listen to sound recordings & watch historic films."

Milestone Documents This link opens in a new window
The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965.
Virtual Library: AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History This link opens in a new window
Documents for the study of American history.
Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents This link opens in a new window
American Studies Texts This link opens in a new window
Works by notable American authors, politicians, and reformers.
Authentic History Center This link opens in a new window
Artifacts and sounds from American popular culture. Created to teach that the everyday objects in society have historical value and reflect the social consciousness of the era in which they were produced.

American Colonist's Library This link opens in a new window
A massive collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the colonists' lives in America.
Salem Witch Trials Archive This link opens in a new window
Primary sources (including court records) relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692.
Colonial Connecticut Records This link opens in a new window
Court records, colony laws, 17th century journals, memoirs, probate inventories, wills, town plans, maps, biographical profiles.
Virtual Jamestown This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary sources on the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.
Spy Letters of the American Revolution This link opens in a new window
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft online books This link opens in a new window
Publications of nineteenh century American geographer Henry Schoolcraft, many of which document his encounters with Native Americans in the United States.

19th Century Schoolbooks This link opens in a new window
Searchable set of 140+ titles, representing grammar, spelling, reading, arithmetic, geography, history, civics, physiology, penmanship, and letter-writing.

Making of America This link opens in a new window
Primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Includes the areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences, and Manuscripts of New York Soldiers and Nurses This link opens in a new window
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War This link opens in a new window
Letters, diaries, newspaper articles, speeches and chruch records from two communities: Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
Letters Home from an Iowa Soldier in the American Civil War This link opens in a new window
Civil War Women This link opens in a new window
Diaries, letters, other documents, prints and photographs.
SCETI: Civil War This link opens in a new window
This collection reviews the cause, conduct and consequences of the Civil War and is comprised of pamphlets, books, broadsides, cartoons, clippings, paintings, maps, and other print memorabilia about America from circa 1830 to 1880.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online - ECCO (CRKN - Gale) This link opens in a new window
Contains digitized texts of over 183,000 titles published during the 18th Century.

Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
Texts, images, & audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Includes 10 thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews & songs.
North American Slave Narratives This link opens in a new window
Documents the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Includes narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books to 1920.

Race and Place: An African American Community This link opens in a new window
Photos, letters, regional censuses, oral histories, and town map for Charlottesville, Virginia.

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
From the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, focuses on the writers who founded the African American women's literary tradition.

Jack London Online Collection This link opens in a new window
Digitized versions of many of his works, images, letters, and other documents.
Dreiser WebSource This link opens in a new window
Primary sources available include correspondence and photographs from the papers of Theodore Dreiser, American novelist.