Founding Documents

Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy
Excerpts from original documents serving as an introduction to the U.S. system of government.

Charters of Freedom
Contains copies of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy
List of pages dedicated to important documents in American history in addition to those listed above.

Governmental History

ARC (Archival Research Catalog) - National Archives and Records Administration
Searchable database that contains holdings from the National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieve digital copies of selected textual documents, photographs, maps, and sound recordings.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
Includes: House Journal, Senate Journal, Senate Executive Journal, Annals of Congress, and Maclay's Journal.

EPA History
Contains a variety of historical documents published by United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Federal Register
Provides access to the official text of federal laws, presidential documents, and administrative regulations and notices.

United States Congressional Serial Set
Numbered Senate and House Documents and Reports bound by session of Congress. The Library of Congress (LOC) has digitized selected records beginning with the 23rd (1833-1835) through the 64th (1915-1917) Congress. LOC has also digitized the American State Papers which contain legislative and executive documents from 1789 to 1838. GPO Access provides more current online editions of the Serial Set from the 100th (1987-1988) Congress forward with about a two year publication lag. LexisNexis Congressional also provides access to the Serial Set.

African-American History

The African-American Mosaic
Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Black history and culture.

African-American Perspectives
Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection (1818-1907) from authors such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, and Emanuel Love.

We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement
National Register of Historic Places travel itinerary that tells the story of how and where the centuries-long struggle of African Americans to achieve freedom and equality culminated in the mid-20th century in the modern civil rights movement.

Women's History

Votes for Women
Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921.

Votes for Women: Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920
Pictorial partner for the text documents in Votes for Women.

Presidential History

• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (Office of the Federal Register)
  Contains the published papers of George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush.
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• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (University of Michigan Digital Library)
  Contains the papers of Presidents Hoover through Clinton with plans to digitize subsequent volumes. Users may search the entire collection with a single keyword search.
• Presidential Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
  Contains online access to the papers of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The Manuscript Division also houses in paper form the papers of 23 American Presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge.

John F. Kennedy Executive Orders (a project of the University of Michigan School of Information)
Searchable by date, keyword, number, and title.

Time Line of Presidents and First Ladies
Lists each president and first lady chronologically according to the president's term(s) in office. Includes photographs.

Military History

Army Heritage Collection Online
Contains manuscripts, photographs, artifact images, and military/defense agency publications such as orders, regulations, doctrinal guides, and technical information. Includes resource guides and finding aids.

Medal of Honor Citations
Over 3,400 full-text citations are indexed by war. Includes statistics, history, and a bibliography.

Papers of the War Department, 1784 to 1800
Fully searchable database of papers thought to be lost forever because of a fire in 1800 that destroyed the War Department. The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University spent 10 years retrieving and digitizing papers scattered in archives throughout the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, and France. The collection is significant because during this time period the War Department was also responsible for Indian Affairs, veteran affairs, and naval affairs.

Historical Maps

Federal Newsmaps
World War II thematic maps that include topics from home and the frontlines from the beginning of the war through occupation. Includes week-by-week breakdown of U.S. participation and practical postwar information such as details about the GI Bill and descriptions of post-war countries.

Map Collections, 1597-1988
Focuses on Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress not covered by copyright protection.

Panoramic Maps of Cities in the United States, 1847-1929
Nonphotographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Panoramic maps were popular during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Railroad Maps, 1828-1900
Includes progress report surveys for individual lines, official government surveys, promotional maps, maps showing land grants and rights-of-way, and route guides published by commercial firms.

Miscellaneous

American Memory
Contains a variety of digital historical collections including films, manuscripts, photographs, and sound recordings that tell the story of American history. Examples of currently available collections are:

• Portraits by Carl Van Vechten (1932-1964)
• Baseball Cards (1887-1914)
• The Leonard Bernstein Collection (ca. 1920-1989)
• Historic American Buildings Survey (1933-Present)
• Pioneering the Upper Midwest (ca. 1820-1910)

One good way to search the American Memory site is through the page dedicated to particular historical eras.

Historical Statistics of the United States

The Library of Congress Archival Finding Aids
Archival finding aids are detailed guides to primary source material which provide fuller information than that normally contained within cataloging records. This page provides links to all the archival finding aids at the Library of Congress which have been encoded in SGML using Encoded Archival Description.

National Portrait Gallery
Provides access to online portraits of individuals who have made significant contributions to American life and culture.

National Register of Historic Places
Official list of U.S. cultural resources worthy of preservation.

Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)
Declassified Nazi and Japanese war criminal records and additional resources such as Web links, finding aids, research papers, and names, terms and Holocaust timelines.

Smithsonian Museums
Provides links to view the treasures covering a wide range of interests housed at the many different Smithsonian museums. For those unable to visit exhibits at the museums in Washington, D.C.,  online exhibits such as those organized by the American Art Museum are available.

Smithsonian Anthropological Resources:

• National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives
  Collects and preserves historical and contemporary anthropological materials representing the fields of ethnology, linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology. Among numerous other items the agency houses the research reports and records of the American Bureau of Ethnology. Digital versions of the Bureau's annual reports are available from Gallica, the National Library of France.


• Smithsonian Anthropology Outreach Office
  Provides leaflets, bibliographies, and teacher's packets free of charge on a variety of anthropological topics. Publishes AnthroNotes, natural history information for educators, and Anthropolog, the Department of Anthropology's newsletter, (see Anthropology Outreach Office link for the latest version).

State Department, Historian's Office

• Foreign Relations of the United States
  Includes the administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon-Ford. Search the Foreign Relations volumes. Access the main page for more information about the series.