Related Guides
Primary Sources
- Digital Public Library of America DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA—photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so much more—are free and immediately available in digital format. The cultural institutions participating in DPLA represent the richness and diversity of America itself, from the smallest local history museum to our nation’s largest cultural institutions.
- Library of Congress Digital Collections Browse the full array of digitized collections at the Library of Congress
- Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window ARTstor is a database of images from museums, artists, libraries, colleges and universities, scholars, private collections, and photo archives available for teaching, education, and scholarship, with all images cleared for educational use.
- HistoryMakers: African American Video Oral History Collection This link opens in a new window HistoryMakers is a collection of video oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans. Transcripts are included with the interviews.
- Story Corps StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world. We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story matters. At the same time, we are creating an invaluable archive for future generations.
- Activism in the US, Digital Public Library of America The United States has a long history of activists seeking social, political, economic, and other changes to America—along with a history of other activists trying to prevent such changes. American activism covered a wide range of causes and utilized many different forms of activism.
- Patrick Frazier Political and Social Movements Collection This collection contains broadsides, flyers, handbills, photographs and posters and covers all of the major political and social movements of the 1960s and 1970s including civil rights, gay and lesbian rights and feminism as well the anti-nuclear and the Vietnam War protests. The protests featured in this collection are mostly from the Washington, DC area including student protests at American University and the University of Maryland at College Park.
- Columbia Center for Oral History The Columbia Center for Oral History (CCOH) was founded by historian and journalist Allan Nevins in 1948 and is credited with launching the establishment of oral history archives internationally. At over 10,000 interviews, the Oral History Archives is one of the largest oral history collections in the United States.
- Oral History Center, UC Berkeley The Oral History Center preserves the recollections of persons who have contributed to the development of California, the West, and the world. These oral histories include series on politics, agriculture, water resources, winemaking, fine printing, land use, and University of California history.
- Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Since 1973, the SOHP has conducted 6,000 interviews with men and women–from mill workers to civil rights leaders to future presidents of the United States. Made available to the public through UNC’s renowned Southern Historical Collection and through our online database, these interviews capture the vivid personalities, poignant personal stories, and behind-the-scenes decision-making that bring history to life.
- American Archive of Public Broadcasting We are a collaboration between WGBH and the Library of Congress with a long-term vision to preserve and make accessible significant historical content created by public media, and to coordinate a national effort to save at-risk public media before its content is lost to posterity.
Politics, Laws & Legislation
- U.S. Supreme Court Library This link opens in a new window The official U.S. Reports derived from bound volumes as well as preliminary prints, slip opinions, and books and periodicals related to the Court.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Nexis Uni is a source for newspapers and magazines, trade journals, wire services and transcripts, as well as legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790, and information on U.S. and international companies and executives.
- Law and Society since the Civil War This link opens in a new window A collection of documents from the Harvard Law School Library featuring the papers of three Supreme Court Justices, the first Black federal judge, and the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
- Political Extremism and Radicalism in the 20th Century This link opens in a new window Political extremism and radicalism in the twentieth century is a compilation of archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements. It has been sourced from libraries and archives across the world. Covers a broad assortment of both far-right and left political groups. It offers a mixture of materials, including periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera, which allow researchers to explore unorthodox social and political movements. The collections cover the 1900s through 2010s.
- Immigration to the United States, 1789-1950 This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.
