History Research

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection is the premier library documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction, to provide digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912.

This important collection of papers spans the majority of the twentieth century, from 1912 to 1990. Law and humanities libraries serving scholars and students in twentieth-century American social history and politics will find this archive of special interest because of its focus on civil rights, civil liberties, race, gender, and issues relating to the U.S. Supreme Court.

From the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society, this database features more than 13,500 works published between 1860 and 1922. The fully searchable collection offers printed items addressing all facets of the Civil War and its aftermath. Materials include full color broadsides, lithographs, maps, books, pamphlets, photographs, political cartoons, stereographs, and more.

Search for primary documents that present a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid- to late-twentieth century.

Contains digitized pages of American periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children’s and women’s magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.

American West provides access to a vast body of original source material including original manuscripts, ephemeral material (trade cards, wanted posters, photos, claim certificates, news-sheets etc...).

A free website that provides access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized American newspaper pages.

Colonial America will consist of all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series of Colonial Office files held at The National Archives in London, plus all extracted documents associated with them. This unique collection of largely manuscript material from the archives of the British government is an invaluable one for students and researchers of all aspects of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American history and the early-modern Atlantic world.

Access to a vast body of original source material from a wide range of original sources including ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, poetry, receipt books and conduct and advice literature. Topics covered include conduct and politeness, domesticity and the family, consumption and leisure, education and sensibility and the body.

Declassified U.S. government documents, providing primary source material to advance research in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century history, politics, and international relations. More than 650,000 pages are included, with many gathered through extensive use of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act by The Archive.

A resource for the study of American social, cultural, and popular history, providing access to rare primary source material from the Sallie Bingham Center for Womens History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.

The primary source documents collected here in Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters help us to understand existence and consequences on the various frontiers that arose from the movements of Europeans to Africa, Australasia and North America.

A search interface for searching across the resources included in American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society, Archives of Sexuality and Gender, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Sabin Americana, The Making of Modern Law: ACLU Papers, and The Times Digital Archive.

An online and fully searchable version of the Historical Statistics of the United States. Contains statistics ranging from the earliest part of American history to present day, covering population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations.

With material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including both major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups, the documents in the Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 present important aspects of LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond.

Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 provides a unique insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through access to the market research reports and supporting documents of Ernest Dichter; the era's foremost consumer analyst and market research pioneer.

Searches hundreds of newspapers published across the United States during the 19th century. This database searches through articles, advertisements, and illustrations included in this collection.

This unique collection showcases the development of 'popular' medicine in America during the nineteenth century, through an extensive range of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals. Explore an array of printed sources, including rare books, pamphlets, trade cards, and visually-rich advertising ephemera.

Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department's staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.

Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this database is an online collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from 1500 to the early 1900s.

This digital resource reveals the story of war as told by the newspapers that brought information, entertainment and camaraderie to the forces at home and overseas. Explore over 300 titles from key nations across the globe that took part in the world-changing conflict.