History of Early America

"Offers information on archives and research libraries that hold collections of early American materials, as well as links to online resources that specialize in the early Americas."

From the Northern Illinois University Libraries: "Peter Force, printer and document collector, intended to publish rare pamphlets, correspondence, and proceedings relating to the 'Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America' that covered the time period 1763-1789. After years of work, the final (but unfinished) result was 9 volumes of material covering the years 1774-1776."

"When complete, the project will make available to the world approximately 470,000 digitized pages of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th- and 18th-century North America."

A platform that provides access to digital collections of primary sources from libraries, archives, and museums from across the United States.

A collection of digitized primary source documents from the American South sponsored by the University Library of UNC-CH. It offers documents from a variety of university libraries covering the colonial era into the 20th century.

The Internet Archive is a non-profit website offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. The Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages.

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. It is the library of the U.S. Congress and home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Search their website for digital collections.

Online collections from the Library of Congress. Includes many of the American Memory collections.

Supported by the United Nations, this portal gathers digitized primary sources of every type from worldwide repositories, including many national museums and libraries.

Google has digitized thousands of books and magazines and made them searchable. Use this advanced search interface for precise searching. You may be able to access the full text of books that are out of copyright. If an item is only available in "snippet view" or "limited preview," you may be able to obtain that item from our own collection or via Interlibrary Loan.

From the Library of Congress: "Beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774, America's national legislative bodies have kept records of their proceedings. The records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress make up a rich documentary history of the construction of the nation and the development of the federal government and its role in the national life. These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government."

Historical documents in law, history, and diplomacy from Yale Law School. This collection includes various acts, agreements, petitions, and resolutions related to the American Revolution.

"While treaties between Indigenous peoples and the United States affect virtually every area in the USA, there is as yet no official list of all the treaties. The US National Archives holds 374 of the treaties, where they are known as the Ratified Indian Treaties. Here you can view them for the first time with key historic works that provide context to the agreements made and the histories of our shared lands."

This multifaceted tool places art works from the Metropolitan Museum's collection within geographical and chronological context. It has excellent thematic essays (background information) that cover the historical eras and cultures that produced the works of art (the primary sources), along with maps and key events from each place and time period.

Provides historical information on county boundaries within each state, access to PDF volumes from the print series, and interactive boundary maps. Developed at the Newberry Library.

Access to digitized maps from the Library of Congress.

Access to maps from research libraries around the world. You may search a place and a time period to find high-resolution maps.

"The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2015."