Primary Sources: Web Resources

This is the main portal for all of the digital collections housed by the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Items contained in the archives include photographs; manuscripts; audio-visual materials; the Alabama Official and Statistical Register; the Dictionary of Alabama Biography; and the WPA Alabama Writers' Project.

A subset of the Alabama Department of Archives and History Digital Collections, this site serves primarily as a resource guide for high school teachers but is useful for finding primary sources directly related to important events in Alabama's history.

The web site for The Cornerstone Project, Alabama Mosaic provides access to primary sources from a variety of Alabama archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories. The collection contains items related to the settlement of Alabama through the Civil Rights movement. Also includes photographs from the University of South Alabama Archives (http://www.southalabama.edu/archives).

An ongoing project of the Cartographic Research Laboratory at the University of Alabama, this site includes the Historical Map Archive, which brings together maps of Alabama from the University of Alabama Map Library; the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library; the Rucker Agee Collection of the Birmingham Public Library; the Geological Survey of Alabama; and the Alabama Departement of Archives and History.

This database provides digital access to a growing number of collections from the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. Particularly strong in Alabama and Southern history, new manuscripts and photographs are added regularly.

Containing mostly collections with a focus on Auburn University history, this site also provides access to the Alabama Postcard Collection and an assortment of manuscript and photograph collections related to Alabama history.

The BPL Digital Collections includes documents, photographs, newspapers, audio files, and much more about the history of Birmingham and Alabama. Includes collections concerned with the Gee's Bend quilt-makers and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing.

Drawing on the collections of the Library of Congress, this database provides access to more than 7 million digital items related to the history and culture of the United States.

A project of the Library of Congress, UNESCO, and various institutions from around the world, this site provides digital access to rare and unique documents from a wide variety of cultures. Formats included are books, journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and sound recordings.

A digital library of primary sources with 19th century imprints in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction hosted by Cornell University and University of Michigan. The Cornell site provides access to 109 monographs and 22 journals from between 1840 and 1900.

Provides links to a variety of digital collections made available by state archives.

Contains eyewitness accounts of Early American exploration and settlement, ranging from Viking accounts from AD1000 to Rocky Mountain settlers' memoirs of the 1800s. Among the 18000 pages of accounts, there is a significant amount of material concerning the Southeast.

A contemporary history research archive at George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Providing sources for national and international subjects, some featured collections include the Emergence of Advertising in America; Ration Coupons on the Home Front (1942-1945); the 50,000 item William Gedney Photographs and Writings Collection; and African American women slave letters.

This digital archive contains over 88,000 documents related to the study of the Presidency.
Of particular interest is the media archive which contains audio and video resources dating
back to President Hoover.

The Living Room Candidate presents video advertisements for presidential candidates from all applicable parties dating back to the 1952 elections.

Audio recordings from interviews with witnesses to a wide variety of historical events.

Including documents dating back to Ancient Greece, this collection contains documents primarily relevant to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government. Project Diana, a human rights archive, is also located on this site.

The Valley project details life in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of Reconstruction through thousands of pages from letters, diaries, newspapers, census records, and other primary sources.

One of the largest digital image databases in the world, this service of the Library of Congress provides access to more than 1 million freely accessible digital images.

Hosted by Google, the LIFE Photo Archive provides digital access to millions of historical images ranging in date from 1750 to the present.

Containing over 700,000 digital items, the NYPL Digital Gallery provides free access to a diverse collection of manuscripts, antique maps, vintage photographs, rare prints, and much more.

This database simplifies access to over 450 digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. The earliest material dates to the 1730s with the majority being from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The gateway to women's collections contained within the Library of Congress's American Memory digital collections.

Women Working provides manuscripts, books and pamphlets, and photographs related to the impact of women on the economy of the United States from 1800 through 1930. This digital collection draws from the resources of numerous Harvard University libraries.

Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Assocation collection, 1848-1921, consists of 167 books, pamphlets, and other ephemera documenting the suffrage campaign.

This collections seeks to provide access to a wide variety of primary sources in order to advance the debate and scholarship of women's roles in social movements in the United States.

Divided into a wide variety of topics, this site serves as a gateway to a multitude of women's history resources available digitally and through other media.