The Artstor Digital Library contains over 1.8 million digital images in the arts, architecture, the humanities and science from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, and photo archives.
British History Online is a digital library of printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800.
The British Library website contains an extensive amount of digital content including newspapers, manuscripts, theses, multimedia, festival books, etc.
-The British Museum: Collection Online
"There are currently 2,273,461 records available, which represent more than 3,500,000 objects. 949,863 records have one or more images."
"The World Factbook, produced for US policymakers and coordinated throughout the US Intelligence Community, marshals facts on every country, dependency, and geographic entity in the world. "
"The Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities."
Provides valuable historical documents for a myriad of topics
-George Mason University: World History Sources
"A website to help world history teachers and students locate, analyze, and learn from online primary sources and to further their understanding of the complex nature of world history, especially the issues of cultural contact and globalization."
-German History in Documents and Images
A comprehensive collection of original historical materials documenting German history from the beginning of the early modern period to the present.
-Granger Historical Picture Archive
A source for images from prehistoric times through the recent past. Granger's holdings have grown to encompass millions of engravings, photographs, lithographs, and many other forms of illustration. The Granger offers a wonderful collection of images related to imperialism.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its mission is to provide “permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.”
-The Library of Congress: World Digital Library
"The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world."
Comprised mainly of books and primary sources this collection contains international coverage of social, economic, history, law and women's studies from the late half of the nineteenth century.
-The National Archives, United Kingdom
The National Archives is committed to preserving government records of the United Kingdom. The collection is one of the largest in the world, containing over 11 million historical government and public records.
-The Royal Museum for Central Africa: Online Collection Database
The RMCA offers a number of collections relating to African history, some of which are available online.
"SAHO is committed to promoting history and critically engaging with our past through the building of a comprehensive online encyclopedia and popular history programs on South African and African history and culture."
This resource analyzes the history of the British empire. While this is not a purely academic site, it provides useful resources for students learning about Imperialism, the development of the British empire, and how Britain impacted world history.
-Cornell University Libraries: Southeast Asia Visions
"Southeast Asia Visions is a collection of European travel accounts of pre-modern Southeast Asia from Cornell University Library's John M. Echols Collection. The site provides online access to more than 350 books written in English and French."
-Digital Docs in a Box: Imperialism
Funded with a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program, Digital Docs in a Box was designed to help teachers and students find primary source materials. The website offers a section on Imperialism that includes documents, images, and audio.
-The Digital Public Library of America American Imperialism: The Spanish-American War
Provides access to sources for visitors to gain insight into the motivations for US engagement in the Spanish-American War.
Spanning five centuries, and charting the rise and fall of empires around the world, explore colonial history, politics, culture and society. From Columbus to debates on American Imperialism, Empire Online, is driven by a panel of consultant editors from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA and has been designed specifically to encourage the use of primary sources in teaching.
-Fordham University Internet Sourcebook: Imperialism
Provides valuable primary sources related to Imperialism.
-Formosa: Nineteenth Century Images
"This digital library gathers together a large body of primarily European and American images of the island of Taiwan -- called "Formosa" by foreign visitors in the nineteenth century -- and its various peoples, natural resources, wildlife, and built environment. "
The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives is a manuscript and photograph repository dedicated to furthering the study of Asian and Middle Eastern art and culture.
-The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs (1860-1960)
The Winterton Collection includes approximately 7,610 photographs. The photos are organized in 76 separate albums, scrapbooks or loose collections. As a whole, the collection documents the everyday life of East Africans between 1860 and 1960.
The National Library of Scotland collections documenting this history from the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 to the granting of independence for India and Pakistan in 1947.The sources include the papers of key East India Company representatives and colonial officials to records of daily life in Agra, Bombay, Lahore, and Madras. There are original Indian manuscripts containing histories and literary works, as well as accounts of wars, discussions of Indian Nationalism and papers of tea and coffee planters.
-The Library of Congress: Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870
"This collection of Liberia maps includes twenty examples from the American Colonization Society (ACS), organized in 1817 to resettle free black Americans in West Africa. These maps show early settlements in Liberia, indigenous political subdivisions, and some of the building lots that were assigned to settlers." Students can find photographs relating to the American Colonization Society here.
-The Library of Congress: The Spanish-American War in Moton Pictures
"This 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. These films were made by the Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and consist of actualities filmed in the U.S., Cuba, and the Philippines, showing troops, ships, notable figures, and parades, as well as reenactments of battles and other war-time events. "
-The Middle East Department of the University of Chicago Library
This collection offers users access to a number of images taken in the nineteenth century. These photographs provide vital information related to Middle Eastern architecture, art, clothing, religion, and daily life.
"Visualizing Cultures weds images and scholarly commentary in innovative ways to illuminate social and cultural history. Founded in 2002 by MIT Professors John Dower and Shigeru Miyagawa, Visualizing Cultures exploits the unique qualities of the Web as a publishing platform to enable scholars, teachers, and others to: (1) examine large bodies of previously inaccessible images; (2) compose original texts with unlimited numbers of full-color, high-resolution images; and (3) use new technology to explore unprecedented ways of analyzing and presenting images that open windows on modern history." Most of the units relate to Asia and its interactions with the West.
-The National Archives, United Kingdom: AfricaThrough a Lense
Offers photographs spanning over 100 years of African history, from the 1860s onwards, taken from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection.
-The National Archives, United Kingdom: The British Empire
This resource examines the rise and fall of the British Empire.
-The National Archives, United Kingdom: The Cabinet Papers, 1915-1988
This resource holds core records of the British Cabinet from 1915 to 1982 have been digitised, and their full text is searchable online from these web pages.
-National Museum of African Art: In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1860
This exhibit examines photographs taken in central Africa while the region was under the control of Belgium, France and Portugal (ca. 1885-1960). Many of the images were distributed as postcards and perpetuated African stereotypes throughout Europe.
"Unless otherwise noted, the photographs in this exhibition are from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives of the National Museum of African Art, which contains over 280,000 images from Africa."
This resource covers modern history and culture of the Gulf and wider region.
-Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Africana Age
Examines the history of Imperialism in Africa. The image gallery may be of particular interest to students looking for photographic evidence.
-State Library of New South Whales: Discover Collections
Explores the history of New South Whales, with a particular focus on European explores and colonizers.
A full image online archive of every page published by The Times (London) from 1785-1985, making this a valuable primary source database with a European viewpoint.
A digital archive that focuses on Western interactions with the Middle East, particularly travels to Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
-University of Chicago: Digital South Asia Library
"The Digital South Asia Library provides digital materials for reference and research on South Asia to scholars, public officials, business leaders, and other users."
-University of South Carolina: Exploring Africa
"This exhibit puts on display one of the hidden resources of Thomas Cooper Library's Special Collections, a selection from the many books of travel and exploration purchased for the original South Carolina College Library in the early and middle nineteenth century. The exhibition illustrates most of the major phases in the European exploration of Africa, from the late fifteenth century to the late nineteenth century."
-University of Texas: Historical Maps of Africa
Offers a number of historic maps of Africa.
-University of Wisconsin Libraries: Southeast Asian Images and Texts
"Southeast Asian Images & Texts brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary resources: research and teaching materials collected by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable items related to these fields held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. This collection contains digitized images, including photographs and slides, that librarians, scholars, and other subject specialists have deemed important to these fields of study will be added to the collection on an ongoing basis."
Contains approximately 88,000 documents and images related to the Victorian era. The Political History section will be of particular interest to researchers studying the British Empire.