American History
General Resources
United States Historical Census Data Browser
University of Virginia
The data presented on this website describe the people and the economy of the United States for each state and county from 1790 to 1960.
An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
American Memory, Library of Congress
The Printed Ephemera Collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. In total, the Collection comprises 28,000 primary source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. This release of the digitized Printed Ephemera Collection presents more than 7,000 items from the fifty American states, the District of Columbia, and London, England. Among them is a variety of posters, notices, advertisements, proclamations, leaflets, propaganda, manifestos, and business cards. They capture the experience of the American Revolution, slavery, the western land rush, the American Civil War, woman suffrage, and the Industrial Revolution from the viewpoint of those who lived through those events.
Seventeenth Century
The Plymouth Colony Archive Project at the University of Virginia
This Plymouth Colony Archive presents a collection of searchable texts, including court records, Colony laws, 17th century texts, research and seminar analysis of various topics, biographical profiles of selected colonists, probate inventories, wills, maps, town and fort plans, architectural and material culture studies.
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
This site introduces the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and is designed to provide accurate general information about these events, as well as information on other aspects of the history of Danvers (formerly Salem Village), Massachusetts.
Eighteenth Century
Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
Film Study Center, Harvard University
The diary of Maine midwife Martha Ballard constituted the primary evidence and focus of historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's award-winning book, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812 (1990). This site teaches its visitors historical methodology as well.
Nineteenth Century
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
University of Virginia
This website explores the textures of American life as reflected in Tocqueville's classic account.
Exploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea, Connecticut
This site explores the Amistad Revolt of 1839-1842 and how historians have interpreted the relevant evidence.
American Civil War Collections, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
Collections contain letters, diaries, and newspapers.
The Nineteenth Century In Print: The Making of America in Books and Periodicals
American Memory, Library of Congress
This collection comprises books and periodicals published in the United States during the nineteenth century, primarily during the second half of the century. Most of the materials were digitized through the Making of America project, a collaboration of Cornell University and the University of Michigan to preserve textual materials on deteriorating paper and make them accessible electronically. The materials selected illuminate the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Also included are volumes of American poetry.
Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887
American Memory, Library of Congress
This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants.
Twentieth Century
The Triangle Factory Fire, March 25, 1911
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University
This website offers the story of the Triangle Factory Fire through primary and secondary sources.
The World War I Document Archive
Compiled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List
This virtual archive is international in focus and intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War. The collection contains conventions, treaties and official papers, memorials and personal reminiscences, images, a biographical dictionary and links to other resources.
Twenty-First Century
After Sept. 11: Perspectives from the Social Sciences
Social Science Research Council
A set of essays and links on the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and since.