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History: Primary Source Materials

  1. "I Do Solemnly Swear..." -

    Presidential Inaugurations from George Washington's in 1789 to Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 (from the Library of Congress).
  2. American Civil War Collection -

    Primary source material on the American Civil War, including letters, diaries, and newspapers. From the University of Virginia Library.
  3. American Civil War Home Page -

    Primary sources, photos, regimental histories, etc.
  4. American Experience -

    Watch over 250 films covering the American Experience from Dinosaur Wars to the Polio Crusade, to Amelia Earhart. Also included are teacher's guides, biographies, interactive maps, primary resources, timelines, and much much more. From PBS.
  5. American Experience: The Time of the Lincolns -

    From PBS - information about politics, slavery & freedom, americans at war, a woman's world, and more. Includes primary sources, videos and essays.
  6. American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank -

    Over 5000 full text, audio, and/or video versions of public speeches, sermons, lectures, debates.
  7. Archiving Early America -

    Primary source material from 18th Century America: documents, maps, music, firsts.
  8. Authentic History Center -

    Primary sources of radio programs, music, news, sounds from different periods of American history.
  9. Battle Lines: Letters from America's Wars -
  10. Chronicling America -

    From the Library of Congress - provides free access to millions of historic American newspaper pages.
  11. Civil War 150: A Commemoration by the Smithsonian -

    Includes museum exhibitions, online blogs, videos, and artifacts, and much more.
  12. Digital History - Online Textbook -

    Interactive timelines, primary sources, multimedia exhibits, obituaries, newspaper articles and more.
  13. Digital Vaults -

    Online interactive exhibit showing interconnecting primary source documents, photographs, and multimedia.
  14. Digitized Primary American History Sources -

    From University of Northern Iowa.
  15. Documenting the American South -

    Collection of primary resources related to southern history, literature, and culture.
  16. Documents / Archives / Photos -

    Links to the Documents/Archives/Photos within the History section of Recommended Websites.
  17. In The First Person -

    Letters, diaries, oral histories, and other personal narratives.
  18. Internet History Sourcebooks -

    Series of history primary sourcebooks covering ancient, medieval, and modern history. Subsidiary sourcebooks include African, East Asian, Global, Indian, Islamic, Jewish, Science, Women, and GLBT history.
  19. IWitness -

    Contains more than 1,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. From the University of Southern California.
  20. Library of Congress American Memory -

    Primary sources - history, photos, docs. Browse by topic, timeline, or location.
  21. Lincoln / Net -

    Primary sources about Abraham Lincoln's Illinois years from 1830-1861 - includes interpretive materials, primary materials, a biography of Lincoln, and discussion of eight major historical themes.
  22. Native American History -

    A research guide to primary and secondary sources for Native American history. From the University of Washington.
  23. Our Documents -

    100 milestone documents in U.S. history from 1776-1965. Provides background information on each document and images of the originals.
  24. Perseus Project -

    A Tufts University project, this site provides access to images, descriptions, and histories of objects from ancient Greece.
  25. Primary Documents in American History -

    From the Library of Congress; includes documents from 1763-1877.
  26. U.S. Army Women's Museum -
  27. Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive -

    Library of news coverage of 9/11/01 and the aftermath.
  28. Universal Newsreels -

    Newsreels from 1929-1967, from the National Archives.
  29. Using Primary Sources on the Web -

    Learn what a primary source is, how to find them online, evaluating the source, how to cite, etc.
  30. Voices of Civil Rights -

    Library of Congress online exhibit featuring individual accounts and oral histories during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
  31. World Digital Library -

    Primary source materials from countries and cultures around the world - available in multilingual format.