This site showcases a collection of 100 “milestone” documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, which shaped American history between the years 1776 to 1965.
The Americas collection represents the complex history of the “Americas,” which includes Canada, the Caribbean, the United States, and Latin America.
-American Centuries: Views from New England
American Centuries features a digital collection of approximately 2,000 objects and transcribed document pages from Memorial Hall Museum and Library. The collection focuses on New England history and spans from the 1680s through the 1920s.
American Founders Online provides access to the personal papers and publications of the founders of the American Republic who served between 1765 and 1815.
American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration by Europeans and Americans from AD 1000 through 1844.
-The American Revolution: Sources in U.S. History Online
The Digital History site contains approximately 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, primary source materials relating to slavery, Mexican American, Asian American, and Native American history, U.S. political, social, and legal history. The site also includes a number of valuable reference sources and short essays on historical topics.
-The First World War Primary Source Collection
-The Gilder Lehrman Collection
The Gilder Lehrman Collection consists of more than 60,000 letters, diaries, maps, pamphlets, printed books, newspapers, photographs, and ephemera that document the political, social, and economic history of the United States. The Collection is owned by Gilder Lehrman of American History and ranges from 1493 through the twentieth century. It is particularly rich with sources relating to the Revolutionary, early national, antebellum, and Civil War periods. While not all of the collection is available in electronic form, it still provides valuable information relating to early American history.
-The Hoover Institution: North American Collection
The North American collections focus on American and Canadian involvement in world conflicts, international trade, foreign relations, political movements, education, etc. A selection of the collections are available online
-The Hagley Museum and Library: Digital Archives
The Hagley Museum and Library collects materials related to business and technology in America. Its Digital Archives provides online access to selected items from the Hagley Museum and Library's collection. The digitized collection includes images, documents, and publications related to the history of business, technology, and society.
-Illinois State Library: Lincolniana
The Ilinois State Library has digitized a portion of its Lincolniana collection for public access.
-Indiana Historical Society: Lincoln Collection
"In January 2003, IHS acquired three nationally significant Lincoln collections – the Jack Smith Lincoln Graphics Collection, the Daniel R. Weinberg Lincoln Conspirators Collection, and the Glass-Plate Negative of Alexander Gardner Abraham Lincoln Portrait." These collections are now avaliable for viewing online.
-The Library of Congress Celebrates Songs of America
The Songs of America collection provides access to materials relating to American composers, poets, scholars, and performers. The digital collection consists of 80,000 online items. Users can listen to digitized recordings, view sheet music, manuscripts, and historic copyright submissions online.
A record of U.S. History and culture from 1936-1972.
-Michigan State University: MSU Vietnam Group Archive
The MSU Group Archive includes roughly 80,000 pages of digitized documents, maps, and images. Most of these materials date from 1955-1962, when Michigan State University led a range of US-funded technical assistance programs in South Vietnam for the purpose of producing a stable non-Communist ally in Southeast Asia."
-The National Archives and Records Administration Catalog
The National Archives Catalog is the main portal to search NARA’s collections. The catalog currently contains archival descriptions for 85% of the holdings of the National Archives, authority files, and over 2 million digitized records.
-The National Archives and Records Administration: Founders Online
"Read and search through thousands of records from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and see firsthand the growth of democracy and the birth of the Republic."
-The National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of American Collection Search includes a sampling of NMAI’s objects and historical photograph collections.
-The Presidential Libraries and Museums
The Presidential Library system consists of thirteen Presidential Libraries. These institutions are overseen by the Office of Presidential Libraries and the National Archives and Records. These repositories are mandated to preserve the papers, records, and other historical materials of U.S. Presidents Administration and make them accessible to the American people. Each presidential library offers a wealth of electronic content on their websites.
-Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
Digitized documents, maps, and images. Courtesy of the University of Virginia.
-Texas Tech University: The Vietnam Center and Archive
"The Vietnam Center and Archive collects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War, and supports and encourages research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam Experience." The Archive currently has over 550,000 items available online for viewing. The types of materials include documents and manuscripts, photographs, moving images, audio recordings, oral histories, maps, and artifacts.
-The United States Memorial Holocaust Museum
The United States Memorial Holocaust Museum was established by an act of Congress that mandated the creation of a “permanent living memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.” The Museum’s digital collections offers over 200,000 documents, image, moving images, music, and oral histories relating to the Holocaust and its dark legacy.
-The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 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."
-The University of Oklahoma: A Chronology of US Historical Documents
Lists important United States Documents from the Precolonial era until the present.
"The Atlantic Canada Portal maintains the Atlantic Canada Virtual Archives (ACVA), a virtual archive of primary source material relating to the Atlantic Provinces. Each collection features digitized documents and images, accompanied by learning activities and commentary, of interest to a wide range of readers."
-CBC Radio-Canada Digital Archives
"The CBC Archives team has been a unique collaboration of creative teams in Toronto working together with archivists and educational writers across Canada."
-The First World War Primary Source Collection
-The Hoover Institution: North American Collection
The North American collections focus on American and Canadian involvement in world conflicts, international trade, foreign relations, political movements, education, etc. A selection of the collections are available online.
The National Archives of Canada collects materials from across Canada and around the world that are of interest to Canadians.
-The Archivo General de la Nación
The Archivo General de la Nación (General Archive of the Nation) is charged to preserve materials relating to Mexican history. Users should be aware that the Archive’s website is in Spanish.
-Biblioteca Digital Mexicana (Mexican Digital Library)
A small digital collection of historical documents, dating from 500 to 1949. Users should be aware that the Library's website is in Spanish.