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Primary Sources - United States

Websites for researching 1450 - 1870

Digital Public Library of America
Search by Time Period
Massachusetts Historical Society
Search by Era
Library of Congress - U.S. History Primary Source Timeline
The first four categories are relevant to 1748 - 1830
The Met Museum
Select your era and browse. Great resource for art, jewelry, sculpture, and other artifacts.

Library Databases for researching 1450 - 1870

Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This link opens in a new window
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
North American Indian Thought and Culture brings together the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples. It contains autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Over 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials depicting the personal experiences of hundreds of women. Contains materials from Colonial times to 1950.
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together thousands of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts.
Colonial State Papers 1574-1757 This link opens in a new window
The Colonial State Papers offers access to over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records with this incredible resource on Colonial History. In addition to Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals for power, this collection also covers the Caribbean and Atlantic world. It is an invaluable resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery

More Websites

US History - Primary Sources Collections Online
This is a topical list of high-quality U.S. History websites selected by the History Bibliographer.
Civil War Primary Sources
Our Mission: The Civil War Trust is America's largest non-profit organization (501-C3) devoted to the preservation of our nation's endangered Civil War battlefields. The Trust also promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public of the war's history and the fundamental conflicts that sparked it.
Primary Sources of Post-Revolution America (After 1776)
Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History (Until 1776)
A collection of historical works which contributed to the formation of American politics, culture, and ideals.

Research Databases

Not sure which database to use? These are generally useful for most topics:

U.S. History In Context This link opens in a new window
Includes scholarly content on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in US history. A great place to start out your research.
U.S. History OneFile This link opens in a new window
Provides scholarly journals and magazines covering major topics in US history.
History Study Center This link opens in a new window
Collects reference books, essays, scholarly journal articles, historical newspapers, and more covering topics throughout history.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
General reference database for over 175 subjects from magazines, journals and newspapers, including peer-reviewed and scholarly works.

Chicago Style

Chicago Manual of Style at Purdue OWL
Historians use Chicago/Turabian citations instead of MLA or APA. Learn more about citing from the Chicago Manual of Style at Purdue OWL.

Additional Help