Henry Buhl Library


RESEARCH GUIDE: HISTORY — World Wide Web Sites

Research Guides: History Home                                Research Guides Home

 


 
Ancient and Medieval History Oral History Statistical Sources
General History Selected U.S. Government Women's History
Historical Associations Twentieth Century World Wars and Military
Historical Documents U.S. Civil War and Nineteenth Century  

 

Using Primary Sources on the Web -- (Instruction & Research Services Committee of the Reference and User Service Association History Section in the American Library Association) --- helps define primary sources, locating primary sources on the World Wide Web, how to evaluate web sites and citing sources information.

Evaluating the World Wide Web --- The World Wide Web is filled with wonders and has become an invaluable tool for all of us. Unfortunately, not all web sites are equally valuable or reliable, especially for your more scholarly research.  It's important for you to evaluate each site as you use it. Here's a checklist to help you sort the good from the bad and indifferent.  


 


Ancient and Medieval History:

The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook 
(Fordham University) – Contains information and primary sources on the ancient societies of Greece, Rome, and Egypt, as well as early Christianity.

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook
  (Fordham University) – Contains information and primary sources on the Renaissance, the Reformation and Luther, Sex and gender, and the medieval church.

Medieval and Renaissance Europe 
(Brigham Young University) – A research guide to online links about European history, many of which link to primary sources.

The Online Medieval and Classical Library

Perseus --
Contains the largest number of classical texts, fiction and non-fiction, on the web as well as a stunning number of artifact pictures.

World History to 1500 – A research guide to online links about Rome, Greece, the Near East, and Asia.
 

 

 

General History:

National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections  - "cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) creates online records in the RLG Union Catalog on behalf of eligible archival repositories throughout the United States."
 

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers -- on-line access to more than 226,000 pages of public-domain newspapers from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia and the District of Columbia published between 1900 and 1910.  A joint venture between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

The National Security Archive  -- "An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States."
 

American Women's History:  A Research Guide (Middle Tennessee State University Library)
 

Digital History   (University of Houston)


France in America = La France en Amerique (Library of Congress & the Bibliotheque Nationale de France)

H-NET, Humanities and Social Sciences Online

History Matters (George Mason U.)

Making of America (Cornell) --- not a mirror site; different holdings.  Be sure to check both sites!

Making of America (Univ. of Michigan) --- not a mirror site; different holdings.  Be sure to check both sites!

NYPL Digital Gallery -- provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.

Top Humanities Websites: EDSITEment  (National Endowment for the Humanities)
 

Victorian Web

 

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Historical Associations:

American Historical Association

Oral History Association

Organization of American Historians

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Historical Document Sites:
 

*new*  Hansard, the Official Report 1804 -2004 -- the edited verbatim report of proceedings in both Houses of Parliament. Hansard is not a verbatim account of debates in Parliament.      Contemporary Hansard can be found on the UK Parliament site, including content going back to 1988 in the House of Commons and 1995 in the House of Lords. Hansard is available on the site about three hours after debates.

Darwin Correspondence Project -- almost 5,000 of Darwin’s personal letters available online. Also provides summaries of an additional 9,000 missives — including some that Darwin wrote when he was just 12 years old.

National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections  - "cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) creates online records in the RLG Union Catalog on behalf of eligible archival repositories throughout the United States."

Avalon Project (Yale Law School) -- documents in law, history and government

Eurodocs: primary historical documents from western Europe

University of Oklahoma Law Center -- contains a chronology of US historical documents

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Oral History Sites:

In the First Person -- in-depth indexing of more than 2,500 collections of oral history in English from around the world.

Rutgers/New Brunswick History Department Oral History Archives of W.W.II

What Did You Do in the War, Grandma? (Brown U./South Kingstown H.S.)

The World War II Oral History Web Site

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Selected U.S. Government sites:

The National Security Archive  -- "An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States."

Architect of the Capitol

House of Representatives


McCarthy Hearing Transcripts -- available from the GPO

National Archives and Records Administration

Senate

Senate Historical Office

Supreme Court

U.S. Capitol Historical Society

U.S. State Department

White House

Congresslink

Presidential Libraries:
visit through the National Archives and Records Administration link, or visit sites directly:
  Hoover
  Roosevelt
  Truman
  Eisenhower
  Kennedy
  Johnson
  Ford
  Nixon - Presidential Materials Staff 
  Nixon - Library and Birthplace Foundation
  Carter
  Reagan
  Bush 
  Clinton

Inaugural addresses of the presidents of the United States -- from G. Washington, 1789 to date -- part of Project Bartleby, Columbia U's full-text archive of important documents and literary works; scroll list to "Inaugural..."

Scripps Library Bibliographies of 18 U.S. Presidents (Univ of Virginia) -- includes the founding fathers as well as bibliographies for Roosevelt, Taft, Hoover and Nixon.

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Twentieth Century History Sites:
 

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers -- on-line access to more than 226,000 pages of public-domain newspapers from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia and the District of Columbia published between 1900 and 1910.  A joint venture between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

Voices of Civil Rights  (collaboration between AARP; Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Library of Congress)

Rutgers/New Brunswick History Department Oral History Archives of W.W.II

The World War II Oral History Web Site

In the First Person  in-depth indexing of more than 2,500 collections of oral history in English from around the world.


 

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U.S. Civil War and Nineteenth Century Sites:

American Civil War Resources (Virginia Tech Special Collections)
 

American Civil War Homepage (University of Tennessee Knoxville)

American Slave Narratives (University of Virginia)

AmericanSouth.org (Emory University)

Civil War Women: on-line archival collections  (Duke)

Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Editorials on Secession Project (George Mason University)

19th Century Documents Project (Furman University)

Brooklyn Eagle, 1841-1902

The Freedman and Southern Society Project (U. Maryland) 

The United States Civil War Center (LSU)

Race and Place:  An African-American Community in the Jim Crow South (University of Virginia)

Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture: a multi-media archive (University of Virginia) 

The Valley of the Shadow Project (University of Virginia) 

Making of America (Cornell) --- not a mirror site; different holdings.  Be sure to check both sites!

Making of America (Univ. of Michigan) --- not a mirror site; different holdings.  Be sure to check both sites!
 

VMI Archives: Civil War Resources (Virginia Military Institute)
 

 

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Statistical Sources:

 

Historical Census Browser (University of Virginia) -- "The data presented here describe the population and economy of the U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960"

Census Bureau

FedStats

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Statistical Resources on the Web (U. Michigan)

US Economic Data (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

 

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Women's History Sites:


Women Working, 1870-1930 (Open Collections Program, Harvard University Library)

What Did You Do in the War, Grandma? (Brown U./South Kingstown H.S.)

American Women's History: A Research Guide  (provides citations to print and Internet reference sources, as well as to selected large primary source collections. Created and maintained by Ken Middleton, a reference librarian at Middle Tennessee State University Library.)

American Women Through Time (offers two approaches for the study of specific time periods in American women's history. Created and maintained by Ken Middleton, a reference librarian at Middle Tennessee State University Library.)

 

American Women Gateway (Library of Congress)

Diotima – Bibliography and other online resources documenting the position of women in the ancient world

 

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World Wars and Military Sites: 

English text of Hitler's speeches


The Nizkor Project  and The Trial of German Major War Criminals at Nuremberg, Germany

Cold War International History Project (Woodrow Wilson Int'l. Ctr. for Scholars)

Fireside Chats of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Mid-Hudson Regional Info. Ctr.)

The New Deal Network (Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute)

U.S. Army Center of Military History

Great War Primary Documents Archive  -- World War I document archive

World War II Documents (Avalon Project, Yale)

 

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Updated:   09/08/08
©Henry Buhl Library
Grove City College 2008