Internet Resources for American History
Primary Sources
- American Memory: Historical Collection for the National Digital Library
- Search the Library of Congress digital collection of oral histories, pamphlets, photos, films, and political cartoons. Over 41 collections cover diverse topics of American History including baseball, woman suffrage, memorabilia of Houdini, popular music and theatre and much more.
- Making of America
- Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Topics include education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Browse or search over 1,600 books and 50,000 journal articles published in the eighteen hundreds. Excellent collection of primary source material.
- National Archives and Records Administration
- The NARA is an independent federal agency that helps preserve our nation's history by overseeing the management of all federal records. Search the wealth of primary source material available in the Digital Classroom, special exhibits presenting documentation of the Amistad Case, the Civil War, JFK Assassination and much more. The Federal Register, the record of all federal proceedings is also available.
- Images from the History of Medicine
- This site provides access to the nearly 60,000 images in the prints and photograph collection of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). The collection includes portraits, pictures of institutions, caricatures, genre scenes, and graphic art in a variety of media, illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine.
General Sites
- This Day In History
- Find out what happened on this day in history including video clips, celebrity birthdays, and popular music. Search any day and find out about that day's events.
- History Net
- Courtesy of the National Historical Society, this site offers over 500 articles on topics including: the Civil War, Wild West, World War II, British history, aviation, military and women's history, Vietnam and others as well as articles and a searchable database.
Colonial
- Archiving Early America
- This site contains primary source material from 18th century America. It includes maps, portraits, documents, and George Washington's journal of his travels in the Ohio Valley.
Civil War
- The American Civil War Homepage
- This is a collection of the most useful Internet sites about the Civil War. Resources include primary sources, timelines, maps, pictures, bibliographies, diaries, letters, information about causes, major battles, regimental histories and more.
- The United States Civil War Center (Louisiana State University)
- This site has indexed over 2100 Civil War related links. The mission is "To locate, index, and / or make available all appropriate private and public data regarding the Civil War."
- Civil War: United States Colored Troops.
- Nearly 200,000 men are thought to have served the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War, and this site is devoted to finding information on them.
- Civil War Women: Primary Sources on the Internet
- Duke Universityâs Special Collections Library has digitized many of its holdings documenting womenâs experience during the Civil War and has made them available via the Internet.
- Poetry and Music of the War Between the States
- If you want to understand the thoughts and emotions of the individuals involved in the Civil War, examine the music and the poetry of this era.
Immigration
- The Tenement Museum
- Take a virtual tour of the Tenement Museum in New York City. This building was discovered in 1987 exactly as it had been when boarded up in 1935. This museum offers a rare picture of the life of America's emigrant poor.
- Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
- Historical and current information on Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island provided by the National Park Service. Listen to the voices of immigrants awaiting entry to the United States for the first time.
- Angel Island
- Angel Island, located in San Francisco Bay, was the U.S. immigration portal for the Pacific between 1910-1940. This site describes why Japanese and Chinese immigrants left their homeland for the U.S. and how they attempted to pass Angel Island interrogation and medical exams to be admitted.
- Immigration in American Memory
- Primary documents, images as well as textual information are found in this site that covers U.S. immigration from the 1780s to the present.
Notable Americans
- POTUS: Presidents of the United States
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Developed by the Internet Public Library; includes biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, speeches and writings, cabinet members, election results, odd facts and highlights of America's presidents.
Twentieth Century
- New Deal Network
- At the core of NDN is a database of photographs, political cartoons, and texts (speeches, letters, and other historic documents) from the New Deal period. Currently there are over 3,000 items in this database.
Vietnam
- Battlefield: Vietnam
- This site describes the Vietnam conflictâs battle history from 1954 to 1975. It presents information through an historical synopsis and detailed timeline of events, and then focuses on unique issues such as guerilla tactics.
- Vietnam: A Television History
- This site presents biographies on key figures involved in Vietnam and features a clickable timeline that provides further details of events.
- Vietnam: Echoes of War
- CNN’s In-Depth 25th anniversary special on the Vietnam War explains how the war has affected the U.S., Vietnam, and its surrounding countries today. The site explores Vietnamâs current communist government and society, and how these influence the United Statesâ relations with Southeast Asia.
- The Wars for Vietnam: 1945-1975
- This site presents an historical overview of the war along with electronic text of primary documents pertaining to the war.