History
Historical Documents
American Documents

• Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress -- collection of 20,000 documents including speeches, correspondence, and digitized images from the Library of Congress.
• Access to Archival Databases -- U.S. National Archives and Records administration now has online access to electronic records from more than 30 archival series of electronic records, which include over 350 data files totaling well over 50 million unique records. The series selected for AAD identify specific persons, geographic areas, organizations, or dates. Some of these series serve as indexes to accessioned archival records in non-electronic formats. The AAD system does not, however, support quantitative or statistical analysis of data.
• African American Texts Online
• After 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 from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II." These are audio files.
• the American Colonists' Library: Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History
• American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printer Ephemera -- from the Library of Congress, this database contains over 28,000 primary source items of American history dating from the 17th century to the present.
• Archiving Early America-- historical documents from 18th century America
• Bills before Congress
• Born into Slavery--Slave narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938.
• a Century of Lawmaking: US Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
• Christie Brothers' Civil War Letters -- letters written by three brothers from Minnesota during the Civil War in digitized format, from the Minnesota Historical Society.
• Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents -- from the University of Oklahoma, this site has primary source documents organized by time period, including speeches, treaties, charters, and personal papers.
• Civil Rights Oral History Interviews
• Civil War Primary Documents, Personal Diaries, Journals, Letters, Cartoons, Art, Images, Poetry, Literature, & Music
• Cold War International History Project
• Constitution of the US: Analysis and Interpretation: Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States
• Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents
• Concordance of Images -- from the Library of Congress, not full text, but images contained in historical documents. very neat.
• Core Historical Literature of Agriculture -- full-text books from the early 19th and middle 20th centuries covering all aspects of rural life in the United States.
• Department of State Electronic Reading Room
• Digital Images from the Radicalism Collection--original documents of such movements as the American Indian Movement, the Women's Liberation Movement, Sacco-Vanzetti protests, SDS, Students United for Life
• Dred Scott Case--The records displayed in this exhibit document the Scotts' early struggle to gain their freedom through litigation and are the only extant records of this significant case as it was heard in the St. Louis Circuit Court.
• Early Americas Digital Archive -- a collection of electronic texts written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820
• Electronic Classroom -- Information includes web-based primary resources and syllabi of scholars. This information is organized by topic (e.g. Civil Rights, The Great Society).
• Eyewitness to History -- Each entry frames the eyewitness account with a brief description of the event and of the person recounting it and includes a bibliography and related links. Browse by time period. There's also a small audio archive of Voices of the 20th Century.
• Free Speech Movement  -- University of California Berkeley provides here quite extensive primary documents of the Free Speech Movement circa 1964, of legal defense documents, oral histories, letters from administrators and faculty members and leaflets passed out by members of the movement. Includes a detailed bibliography to material dealing with the movement and a chronology of key events within its early history.
• Freedom of Information Act -- FBI documents requested under the FOIA have been scanned in, complete with sections blacked out by the FBI. Subjects include POWs in southeast Asia, cattle mutilations, the Black Panther Party, Amelia Earhart, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and more.
• Foreign Relations of the United States--Full-text documents from 1900-1901 and 1903-1918. Nice full page images, searchable, browsable. --Full-text documents from 1900-1901 and 1903-1918. Nice full page images, searchable, browsable.
• Historic Publications of the Agricultural Experiment Station--documents from 1888 to 1965. They provide lots of information about farm life at that time.
• Immigration to the United States 1789-1930 -- " web-based collection of selected historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the US from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression. Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, includes approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets as well as 6,000 photographs, 200 maps, and 13,000 pages from manuscript and archival collections. By incorporating diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants."
• Thomas Jefferson Collection -- The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents. This is the largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world. Document types in the collection as a whole include correspondence, commonplace books, financial account books, and manuscript volumes.
• Letters From an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War -- letters from Newton Scott, 1862-1865
• Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA -- a Documentary history, over 800 scanned documents, photographs, audio clips and video excerpts.
• the Making of America--"a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction... The collection contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journals; with 19th century imprints."
• Memory of the World -- sponsored by UNESCO, this website offers access to digitized collections from around the world, including slave narratives, America from the Depression to WWII, Hawaii war records, and other American historical documents. Click on Virtual Exhibitions.
• National Archives and Records Administration Exhibits--original documents in digital image and with a little historical context thrown in. An excellent site for what the documents actually look like.
• Library of Congress Photographs -- high resolution stored on flickr
• North American Slave Narratives -- browseable.
• Office of the Historian of the US Dept. of State--includes a timeline of diplomatic history, an FAQ file, and some full text volumes from their series Foreign Relations of the United States.
• Primary Source Materials and Document-Based Questions
• Primary Source Texts from the Colonial Times, The American Revolution, and the Founding of America. Look at the Menu on the right for the different periods.
• Scripps Library at the Miller Center of Public Affairs -- "In the digital library section of our site you will find hundreds of hours of secret White House recordings from Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (with Truman, Eisenhower and Nixon recordings on the way); a growing collection of some of the most important presidential speeches of the past 70 years (in full audio); audio recordings and transcripts of the Jimmy Carter Oral History project conducted at the Miller Center; and recordings of public forums from numerous officials ranging from John Ehrlichman to William Fulbright. We currently have over 100 gigabytes of material available on our website." from the University of Virginia.
• September 11th Documentary Project -- Library Of Congress archive, includes narratives, photos, drawings, etc.
• Slavery Era Insurance Registry --  documents of insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves, issued by a predecessor insurance firm. These documents provide the first evidence of ill-gotten profits from slavery, which profits in part capitalized insurers whose successors remain in existence today. .pdf format.
• Supreme Court on the Web--full texts of important decisions, 1793-1966, and ALL decisions 1966-1996
• Supreme Court Decisions, 1937-1975
• The "Taguba Report" on Treatment of Abu Ghraib Prisoners in Iraq
• Unesco Archives Portal -- access to national, municipal, university archives and much more.
• U.S. Historical Documents Archive
• Valley of the Shadow -- Civil war archive and multimedia presentation. A good example of what the web can do.
• Voices from the Days of Slavery -- another amazing presentation from the Library of Congress Memory project. Audio files of interviews with former slaves in America. You can hear the oppression.
• White House Tapes -- recordings made of Presidents in the White House, the most famous being Nixon's, but this site includes many others as well! Courtesy of the University of Virginia. Listen with either FLAC or Windows Media as well as read transcripts.
• Words and Deeds in American History
• World War II: A digital library -- Rapidly decaying historic documents made available by Southern Methodist University. A Treasure trove of home front sources, including 6,000 pages from pamphlets, posters, booklets and photos.
• Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799 -- from the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center.  Includes 37 volumes of writings, searchable by keyword.