Find Primary Sources Online

A collection of important American historical documents.

Digital images of American historical documents, with transcripts. Courtesy of the National Archives.

A two-volume open-access textbook that portrays American history from its indigenous beginnings to the present day through introductory essays and primary source readings.

Links to the digital collections of the AAS which collects materials on American life up to 1876, including digitized books, manuscripts, broadside ballads, and illustrations.

Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.

A searchable archive of primary source materials from all eras of American history.

Native American and European texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.

Photos, music, oral histories, and videos regarding Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker Movement.

Historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression

A list of links from the Library of Congress to state archives across the United States.

Major documents from the Revolutionary War through the Progressive Era (1775-1920).

Primary resources for American history education, with activity tools,

A digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Courtesy of Harvard University.

An ongoing project that will make available digitized images of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th and 18th century North America.

Contains primary sources such as letters, diaries, church records, and notebooks from the colonial era in Massachusetts.

A digitized collection of rare books on witchcraft, including 17th century texts on the Salem witchcraft delusion.

Links to the digital collections of the AAS which collects materials on American life up to 1876, including digitized books, manuscripts, broadside ballads, and illustrations.

Native American and European texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.

Large collection of broadside ballads collected by printer Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) of Boston. Contains images, essays, and some audio performances.

Primary sources on Mass. history from the Colonial period to the present day.

Digitized documents related to the family lives of individual Americans, with an emphasis on the New England region.

Published documents--legislation, court proceedings, records, correspondence, etc.--from the 13 original colonies and their predecessors.

Original documents and transcriptions.

A collection of 18th-century writings surrounding the American Revolution, the creation of the Constitution, and the Early Republic.

A digitized collection of handwritten manuscripts by participants and witnesses to the Revolutionary War.

This digital history project is dedicated to uncovering New England's deep complicity in the transatlantic slave trade. Resources include ship logs, census records, and insurance company documents, as well as links to indexes, databases, and local history projects that document the history of slavery in the region.

An ongoing project that will make available digitized images of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th and 18th century North America.

Correspondence and other writings by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.

Published documents--legislation, court proceedings, records, correspondence, etc.--from the 13 original colonies and their predecessors.

Information on 36,000 slaving voyages.

Digitized rare books, prints, photographs, maps, and archives, with an emphasis on Boston and New England history.

Extensive collection of 40,000 anti-slavery writings in downloadable PDF format.

Links to the digital collections of the AAS which collects materials on American life up to 1876, including digitized books, manuscripts, broadside ballads, and illustrations.

Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.

Pre-1923 primary and secondary resources. Individual pages must be saved as .jpeg images before printing (right-click to save).

A vast searchable collection of books, journals, films, and audio files in the public domain.

19th-century book and magazine primary source materials on American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction

A vast collection of Union and Confederate military orders, correspondence, and maps.

Provides background on the behind-the-scenes debates regarding the use of the atomic bomb, and the eventual decision to use it. Accompanied by scanned images of government documents.

Documents in law, history, and diplomacy from the ancient world to the present day.

The Free Speech Movement (1964-5) was led by UC Berkeley student Mario Savio. Students demonstrated and took over buildings for the right to engage in political activity on campus.

Broadcasts of complete U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate proceedings. Also includes programs in which public policy is discussed and debated.

Films, audio interviews, oral histories, and printed materials from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.

Important legislation and treaties of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882); Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896); Treaty of Versailles (1919); and the 18th and 19th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

An annotated list of links, courtesy of the Newton Gresham Library of Huntsville, TX.

Primary source documents from the The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

More than 100,000 formerly classified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Links to the texts of speeches by the leading social and political leaders of the day (1896-1916).

Allows searching for declassified diplomatic cables.

The official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity from 1861-2000.

Covers four broad areas: the Secretaries-General, Secretariat Departments, Peacekeeping Missions, and Predecessor Organizations.

Links to primary sources from the National Archives.

Declassified documents from governments all across the globe. Especially strong in its coverage of the Cold War, 1947-1991.

Courtesy of the University of Washington Libraries.

Primary documents from international sources.

A an extensive list of primary sources for the military history of World War II. Courtesy of the University of Washington Libraries.

Links to governmental archives from around the world.