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While certainly not inclusive, this list of
websites will serve as a starting point for
locating a variety of primary source
material covering a wide span of historical
periods and topics. The first site, by the
American Library Association, gives
excellent information about working with
primary sources.
Using Primary Sources on the Web
This site is not a listing of materials, but
an excellent introduction to working with
primary sources. It is written by the
Instruction and Research Services Committee
of the Reference and User Service
Association History Section in the American
Library Association. It includes such
information as: What are Primary Sources,
Finding Primary Sources on the Web,
Evaluating Primary Source Web Sites, and
Citing Web Sites.
American Journeys
The American Journeys site, maintained by
the Wisconsin Historical Society, contains
more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness
accounts of North American exploration, from
the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to
the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies
800 years later.
It contains first person accounts of
explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders
and settlers as they lived through the
founding moments of American history. You
can view, search, print, or download more
than 150 rare books, original manuscripts,
and classic travel narratives.
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American
History
AMDOCS is maintained by George
Laughead Jr., manager WWW-VL: United States
History, and Kansas History, and by Dr. Lynn
H. Nelson, original author, WWW-VL: History,
and the History Gateway at Kansas,
established in 1993.Kansas Heritage Group
founder. Updated: 25 September 2008. WWW
Virtual Library @ www.vlib.us
American Presidency Project
The American Presidency Project
(also known as americanpresidency.org),
maintained by the University of California
at Santa Barbara, was established in 1999.
The archives contain over 52,000 documents
related to the study of the American
Presidency. This is the only online resource
providing without charge the public papers
of the presidents from Hoover to Clinton.
The Authentic History Center:
Primary Sources from American Popular
Culture
The Authentic History Center is
independently owned and operated by Michael
S. Barnes, a teacher at Byron Center High
School. This site includes images of
artifacts, sounds, and written diaries and
letters. The items are organized by time
periods. The Diversity Section includes many
images of ethnic groups throughout American
history. Students are active contributors
and users of the site.
The Avalon Project at Yale Law
School: Documents in Law, History, and
Diplomacy
This site includes an extensive
collection of text primary sources organized
by century.
Connecticut History Online
Connecticut History Online
(CHO) is a collaboration between the
Connecticut Historical Society, the
Connecticut State Library, the Thomas J.
Dodd Research Center at the University of
Connecticut, Mystic Seaport, and the New
Haven Colony Historical Society.
The CHO website currently contains about
14,000 images of photographs, drawings and
prints which may be searched or browsed in a
variety of ways, including by keyword,
subject, creator, title and date.
Geographical sites may be searched using a
Digital Geographic Locator. Descriptions of
the images are provided. Online learning
tools created especially for middle and high
school students provide suggestions for
interpreting and exploring the database.
Digital History
This site is organized by
Steven Mintz, Professor of History,
University of Houston. It contains an online
textbook and a variety of sources and
resources about American History. Under the
“For Teachers”, then “Learning Materials”
sections, you can search for documents by
selecting a time period. There are a number
of useful subsections including a links to
recommended documents, images, fact sheets,
and lesson plans.
Documenting the American South
This site is a digital
publishing initiative from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill that provides
Internet access to texts, images, and audio
files related to Southern history,
literature, and culture from the colonial
period through the first decades of the 20th
century. Currently DocSouth includes seven
thematic collections of books, diaries,
posters, artifacts, letters, oral history
interviews, and songs.
Findng Primary Source
Documents Electronically
This is a selective guide to
finding primary source materials for
beginning and undergraduate historical
research. The University of North Carolina
University Libraries maintain rich
collections of primary sources in print,
microform, and electronic formats.
Additionally, there are hundreds of
collections of primary source materials
available on the Web, and more are added
everyday.
From Revolution to
Reconstruction…and what happened afterwards
Interestingly, this website of primary
sources in American history was started and
is maintained by the Department of Alfa-informatica
(Computing in the Humanities)
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
(email : usa@let.rug.nl). The site contains
texts of numerous documents arranged
chronologically from the 1400s to the
present by centuries.
History Matters
Developed by American Social
History Project/Center for Media & Learning,
City University of New York, and the Center
for History and New Media, George Mason
University, this site was designed for high
school and college teachers of American
history, but appears to be a very useful
site for American history teachers of all
grades. The “Many Pasts” feature contains
primary documents in text, image, and audio
about the experiences of ordinary Americans
throughout U.S. history. All of the
documents have been screened by professional
historians and are accompanied by
annotations that address their larger
historical significance and context. There
are 33 topics and time periods in American
history each linked to sites with primary
sources.
“Making Sense of Documents ” provide
strategies for analyzing online primary
materials, with interactive exercises and a
guide to traditional and online sources.
“Scholars in Action ” segments show how
scholars puzzle out the meaning of different
kinds of primary sources, allowing you to
try to make sense of a document yourself
then providing audio clips in which leading
scholars interpret the document and discuss
strategies for overall analysis. This
section includes detailed guides for the use
of oral histories, films, maps, letters and
diaries, advertisements, songs, photographs,
inventories of possessions, political
cartoons, speeches, newspapers and more.
History Central: Source Documents in
American History
This commercial site includes
historical information categorized by topics
and a collection of primary sources
organized by time periods.
History Now
This site, created by the Gilder Lehrman
Institute for American History, is an online
quarterly journal focusing on one historical
topic for each issue. It includes lesson
plans (for high school, middle school, and
grade 5 teachers) often based on primary
sources. There is also an interesting “Ask
the Archivist” feature which allows teachers
to ask an expert a historical question or
for advice on locating materials.
Library of
Congress American Memory Collection
American Memory
provides free and open access through the
Internet to written and spoken words, sound
recordings, still and moving images, prints,
maps, and sheet music that document the
American experience. It is a digital record
of American history and creativity. These
materials, from the collections of the
Library of Congress and other institutions,
chronicle historical events, people, places,
and ideas that continue to shape America,
serving the public as a resource for
education and lifelong learning. American
Memory is a gateway to the Library of
Congress’s vast resources of digitized
American historical materials. Comprising
more than 9 million items that document U.S.
history and culture, American Memory is
organized into more than 100 thematic
collections based on their original format,
their subject matter, or who first created,
assembled, or donated them to the Library.
The original formats include manuscripts,
prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound
recordings, motion pictures, books,
pamphlets, and sheet music.
Memorial Hall Museum Online
This site, maintained by the Memorial Hall
Museum in Deerfield, MA, includes
information and some primary source material
about the history of New England. It
includes samples of primary sources
materials (records, diaries, personal and
business records, and maps). It also
includes a mini-encyclopedia of people,
places, and events in New England history.
National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA)
NARA, an independent Federal
agency, is America's national record keeper.
Its mission is to ensure ready access to the
essential evidence that documents the rights
of American citizens, the actions of Federal
officials, and the national experience.
Among the treasures available online are the
cornerstone documents of our Government —
the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution of the United States, and the
Bill of Rights as well as many current and
past exhibits. NARA is a public trust that
safeguards the records upon which our
democracy depends. The records document our
common heritage as Americans and the
individual and collective experiences of our
people. “Teaching With Documents: Lesson
Plans” section contains reproducible copies
of primary documents from the holdings of
the National Archives of the United States,
teaching activities correlated to the
National History Standards and National
Standards for Civics and Government, and
cross-curricular connections.
New Deal Network
This site, organized by the Franklin and
Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI), is a
database of over 20,000 text documents and
photographs related to the depression and
the New Deal era. It also includes
curriculum ideas for middle and high school
teachers and students.
Our Documents
This site contains 100 milestone
documents in American history. It was
developed as a collaboration among Nation
History Day, The National Archives and
Record Administration, and the USA Freedom
Corps.
Salem in History
As a joint effort of the Salem Public
Schools, Salem State College, the Peabody
Essex Museum and the National Park Service,
SALEM in History aims to increase the depth,
breadth and quality of teachers' knowledge
and understanding of United States history,
and provide teachers with the training,
materials and support necessary to apply
this new knowledge and understanding in
their classrooms. The site has links to
primary sources.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
This site includes links to
thousands of works of American art including
paintings and photographs. The site is
organized by collections which can be
searched by artist or subject matter.
Smithsonian Institution
After entering this site, click
on “Educators – Prepare, Plan, Teach”. This
portion of the site has teaching materials
linked to hundreds of online resources.
Click on “websites and lesson plans” and
select “American History” on the pull down
menu.
Teaching With Historic Places
This site, maintained by the
National Park Service, includes a great deal
of information about historic sites
throughout the United States. You can search
by historical topic and/or geographic
location. There are also many lesson plans
organized by historical topics, many
including the use of primary sources.
University of Oklahoma College of Law
This site includes a chronology of
historical documents from pre-colonization
to the present. It includes many
presidential addresses.
Teaching
History With Technology
The Center for Teaching History
with Technology, developed by classroom
teachers, aims to help history and social
studies teachers incorporate technology
effectively into their courses. It includes
lesson plans and resources. Membership is
free and subscribers receive monthly
updates. |