The excellent Chronicling America site housed at the Library of Congress has a greatly revamped/expanded topical section that includes multiple entries on Women Studies ranging from Belle Boyd (a Confederate spy) to Susan B Anthony. Each person/event contains a timeline, access to full text contemporary newspaper articles, and suggested search terms for retrieval of additional stories. A wonderful resource for online primary source materials.
Archive for Online Primary Sources
Centuries of Newspaper Articles on African Americans
The Chronicling America site at the Library of Congress allows free access to millions of newspaper articles from the past two centuries. It has a special topical section where there is a listing for African American Studies where you can investigate pre-selected subjects or craft your own inquiries. A very valuable research tool!
“African American Heritage”
This site from The National Archives highlights the treasure trove of information contained in records and images about the African American experience in this country. Explore such topics as People in Black History, Pictures of African Americans During World War II, Photo Album of the Tulsa Massacre and Aftermath, and numerous other subjects with supporting documentation.
“Colored Conventions”
From the mid to late 19th century, African Americans would gather at “colored conventions” throughout the country at the national, regional, and state levels. These assemblies would bring men and women together to discuss political topics focusing on civil/human rights. The Colored Conventions Project, features hundreds of documents that can be filtered by year, or national/state level, and is considered the primary, scholarly resource for this topic.
African-American Speeches
From the end of the 18th century until the present day, this site – African American History: Speeches – presents dozens and dozens of addresses along with historical context.
“Briefing Books” on Henry Kissinger
The National Security Archive, located on the campus of George Washingon University, is at the forefront of requesting declassification of government documents. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the NSA has wrested tens of thousands of classified materials and brought them into the daylight for public access/scrutiny. With the passing of Henry Kissinger, the NSA has issued Briefing Book #848 – Henry Kissinger: The Declassified Obituary containing dozens of memos, telcons, and reports that highlight his many roles in government deliberations.
This briefing book also contains links to over thirty previously published briefing books on various aspects of his diplomatic career – all based on formerly classified documents. These works are goldmines of information and give an introduction into the behind-the-scenes- workings of government and its diplomatic officers.
Bureau of American Ethnology
This government entity, formed in 1879, lasted until it merged into another part of the Smithsonian in 1965. During its existence, its primary focus was on “anthropologic research” in America as is emphasized in the opening pages of the first Annual Report. The article – The Rise and Fall of the Bureau of American Ethnology – provides a meaningful overview of its history.
Its Bulletin, numbering an even two hundred, the last number being a comprehensive index, examined Native American languages and cultures, and included such important works as: Kathlamet texts and Tsimshian texts, both by Franz Boas; Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico (part 1 and part 2) by Frederick Webb Hodge; Indian languages of Mexico and Central America, and their geographical distribution by Cyrus Thomas; and Symposium on local diversity in Iroquois culture edited by William Fenton.
Its Annual Reports (volumes 1- 48; volumes 49-81) also contain a wealth of information examining myths, religions, arts, crafts, customs, etc.
And its Contributions to North American Ethnology cannot be overlooked.
Early Examination of Native American Tribes
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an explorer and ethnologist who discovered the headwaters of the Mississippi. He is principally known today for his multi-part work – Historical and statistical information respecting the history, condition, and prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States – published between 1851 and 1857. This work encompasses the whole country and makes mention of the tribes east of the Mississippi before all traces of their existence disappeared.
The Index to Schoolcraft’s “Indian tribes of the United States” (1954; repr 1969) makes access to this massive undertaking much easier.
“The North American Indian” by Edward Curtis
Curtis set out to record Native American culture and published twenty volumes of text and photographs between 1907 and 1930. The work is concentrated on the trans-Mississippi West as native cultures in the east had been eradicated by that time. Because of the cost of printing, only 500 were planned; it is thought that only 300 sets were actually published.
His work has engendered controversy and praise; here is an informed summary of his legacy.
Online Primary Sources for American History: Early U.S. Documents on Native Americans
American State Papers is a thirty-eight volume collection of Congressional documents that spans the years 1789 – 1838; there is a series/class devoted to Indian Affairs. This two-volume work contains a page-turn text and a seachable, linked index.
The Papers of the War Department 1784 -1800 is an ambitious project to recreate the files of this entity that were lost on a massive fire in 1800. Many of the letters, documents, journals, etc. have been transcribed, and if they have not yet been rendered into full-text, a helpful description of the piece in question is provided as well as image of the document. Items range from a few lines of a receipt to this 1791 State of the Creek Nation running for one hundred thirty-two pages.
Newspaper Accounts of Historic Importance for Hispanic Heritage Month
The Chronicling America site for the Library of Congress features millions of newspaper pages, many of them arranged by a specific topic. Here is the listing for Hispanic Heritage Month.
60th Anniversary of the March on Washington
This historic gathering of over 250,000 has been memorialized in the following sites:
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (National Park Service; with numerous links);
The March on Washington (from the Library of Congress’ Civil Rights History Project);
Official program for the March on Washington (National Archives);
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Stanford University. King Institute; with numerous links and access to the King Papers);
1963 March on Washington (Smithsonian Institution, with access to many artifacts); and
“I Have a Dream” speech.
Papers of Albert Einstein
This ongoing project – The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein – now has sixteen volumes online, taking us to May 1929. There are two works per volume, one presents the papers in German while there is also an accompanying supplement with the documents rendered into English. Almost thirty institutions’ libraries/archives were searched to provide as full an enumeration as possible of his writings.
This feature from the Library of Congress, takes the volume including 1905 (The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vol. 2: The Swiss Years: Writings 1900-1909, Princeton University Press, 1990. English translation supplement) and presents four of his seminal papers written in that year.
Online Primary Sources for American History: Louisiana
The five-volume Historical collections of Louisiana embracing translations of many rare and valuable documents relating to the natural, civil and political history of that state (1846-53; repr 1976) contains numerous reports from explorers as well as letters, journals, and grants that pertain to the initial development of Louisiana.
This can be supplemented by Calendar of manuscripts in Paris archives and libraries relating to the history of the Mississippi valley to 1803 (vol.1, 1926); Discovery and exploration of the Mississippi Valley with the original narratives of Marquette, Allouez, Membré, Hennepin, and Anastase Dovay; Athanase de Mézières and the Louisiana-Texas frontier, 1768-1780 : documents published for the first time, from the original Spanish and French manuscripts…; Acts of French royal administration concerning Canada, Guiana, the West Indies and Louisiana prior to 1791; and Mississippi provincial archives … French dominion, 1701-1763 (the first three out of five volumes available).
New Jersey Death Index (1904-2017), and Marriage Index (1901-2016) Now Freely Available Online
From the good folks at Reclaim the Records, the New Jersey Death Index and the New Jersey Marriage Index have been retrieved and digitized for public consumption. Previously sequestered in hard-to-access repositories and behind paywalls, these important resources are now online. Additional New Jersey registers can be found here as well.
Declassified Documents on the Manhattan Project
While scientists labored under the weight of the lethal aftereffects of the atom bomb, the military commander of the Manhattan Project, General Groves, vigorously denied the consequences of the explosions. These documents and other just-declassified reports this can be found at 78th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings: Revisiting the Record.
The above is an update to The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, a highly referenced compilation of primary sources.
Numerous previously declassified materials can be found Manhattan Project Historical Resources.
Online Primary Sources: Digital Historic New Jersey Newspapers
Consult this list, arranged by county, to find what newspapers are available electronically, and whether they are freely available or available via a paid subscription. This compilation from the Chronicling America site of the Library of Congress, contains freely accessible historic New Jersey newspapers; there are currently 37 papers with over 20,000,000 pages online. This latter enumeration continues to add titles.
Online Primary Sources: Women’s History Collections
Discovering American Women’s History Online is a portal to hundreds of digital collections emphasizing the role of women in the United States. From slave narratives to the Emma Golden Papers, this site is an excellent place to start doing research.
Blacks in Central Europe
Black Central Europe examines the Black presence in German-speaking lands over a time span of one thousand years, pre-dating the Atlantic slave trade. As this site states:
We argue, quite simply, that Black people have always been a part of Central European history. Different events and forces brought Central Europe and the Black Diaspora together: trade, diplomacy, and the arts fostered cultural exchange. Slavery, imperialism, and war shaped the categories of race and nation that still greatly affect Black people in Central Europe today.
Primary sources and biographies enhance the usefulness of this site.
Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom
Digital collections from Harvard University comprised of numerous primary sources curated with scholarly context.
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 