United States History

Gateways and Historical Archives

• Africans in America
  Expands the PBS series with a variety of navigation choices, including people and documents.
• AMDOCS: Documents for the study of American history
  Provides access to documents in American history with special emphasis on the Colonial Era, Reconstruction and the Progressive Era, and World War II and aftermath.
• Best of History Web Sites
  History teacher Thomas Daccord has put together this huge gateway for students and teachers. Prehistory, American history and world history are all represented here.
• Documenting the American South
  This University of North Carolina site contains colonial to early 20th Century southern Literature and history including first person narratives. slave narratives, Civil War homefront and church in the southern black community.
• Great American Speeches: 80 Years of Political Oratory
  The website is based on a PBS series, and contains much background material in addition to the speeches which date from the late 1880's through 1999.
• Historical United States Census Data Browser
  The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research has compiled statistical data from states and counties from 1790 to 1960 from various census data. Select up to 15 fields in categories such as Agriculture, Education and Manuafacturing and then click on the Browse Data button on the bottom of the page to make your own data charts.
• The Library of Congress
  Click on American Memory and Exhibitions for links to digitized primary source documents in American History. Includes photos, audio, movies and full text documents. Excellent site to see history come alive. Easy to use keyword search.
• National Archives and Records Administration
  Thousands of digitized primary source documents with more added all the time including recently declassified war documents. Use the Archival Research Catalog the search engine which was formerly called NAIL. You can copy documents and save as images you can see in your web browser.
• Nineteenth Century Documents Project
  Primary source documents from some of the United states most notable events of the 19th century. Includes: editorials, the 1850 Statistical Almanac, civil war documents, letters, transcripts of debates, and a selection of related links for more information.
• POTUS: Presidents of the United States

Provides backgr ound information, election results, cabinet members, and notable events on every US president. Extensive links to historical documents online.
• Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University
  A search engine to help locate digitized historic documents. Represented are such topics as: The Urban Landscape, George Percival Scriven, African-American Women, and Civil War Women. Remember that sometimes digitized documents are slow to load.
• The 20th Century in the Words and Pictures of the Associated Press
  If you are looking for a particular year, use the "Timeline" button; otherwise, have a wonderful time browsing through images, video and first person stories.

• Ancient World Web
  Vast list of links to information on the ancient world.
• Africa South of the Sahara
  A Stanford University maintained database covering the history, art, politics, religion, literature and culture of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Argos Limited Area Search Engine
  A Search engine from the University of Evansville which searches only scholarly sites about the Ancient World. Links to other helpful Internet locations. Try TOCS-IN, a project which "...archives the tables of contents of over 150 journals of interest to the classicist."
• Avalon Project at Yale Law School: documents in law, history, and diplomacy
  Contains documents relevant to law, diplomacy, politics, economics, and history from ancient times to 1988. Major collections include papers on British-American diplomacy, Confederate Sates papers, economic and legal treaties, Franco-American diplomacy, Nazi-Soviet relations, Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, and World War II.
• BBC's History of Britain
  The BBC online series by Dr. Simon Schama
• Conversations with History
  From the Institute of International Studies at UCBerkeley, this website contains unedited text and images of more than 20 years of interviews with international newsmakers. Search for a name or browse.
• EuroDocs

Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe. This is a collection comprised of primary Western European documents that are translated, in facsimile, or have been transcribed, from the Middle Ages into this Century.
• The Glory of Byzantium
  New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art prepared this excellent combination of art and history to showcase the Byzantine Empire (approx 324-1453) and its cultural influence. Time lines and teacher resources.
• History Matters

A gateway site for history resources on the web. Contains a search engine and extensive browsing categories. A good portion of the site is designed for lesson planning, but there are primary source materials and numerous links.
• The History Teacher

Don't let the wild fonts scare you away. Maintained by Susan Pojer, an AP history teacher, the emphasis here is on primary sources and organization, and it succeeds on both counts. Information here on current conflicts, such as Arab-Israeli Conflict.
• History Resources

WWW Virtual Library in History from the University of Kansas is the central information server for historians. A valuable place to begin to search in any historical area, including Latin American and Asian studies. Extensive on-line library of full text documents called Carrie.
• Historical Text Archive Contains links to articles, e-books, and web sites for all geographical regions and time periods. Links are organized into three categories: geographical, topical, and resources.
• Horus' Web Links to History Resources

This site from the University of California, Riverside is impressive. Use the search engine to find specific historical events.
• Interactive Ancient Mediterranean
  This on-line atlas of the ancient Mediterranean world covers ancient history, geography, archaeology and related fields.
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook
  Part of ORB (see next entry), Fordham University is responsible for this very complete site. There is much here. Take some time to explore the introduction, overviews and help links as you would with any good reference source. Abridged and full-text sources links, plus information on how to cite sources.
• Medieval Technology Pages
  Prof. Paul Gans at NYU has put together information from mostly secondary sources on the inventions in the Middle Ages. Use the subject index or browse the timeline. Note documentation information.
• NETSERF: the internet connection for medieval resources
  This huge gateway site has an alphabetical subject listing and a search engine. Easy to navigate, you add the critical thinking part.
• ORB--Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies
  Maintained by medieval historians who review and accept each article. There are also a number of primary source documents here.

Images and Cartoons

• Images from History
  A gateway site to locating either historical images or images of historical documents. You must sift through screens to find the appropriate category, so it is helpful to know what type of image you need before searching.

Maps

• Harvard Map Collection
  A number of digitized maps plus information on exhibits and visits to this wonderful local collection.
• Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
  LC has the largest map collection in the world and is beginning to digitize. Excellent source for Civil War maps.
• Mapping Boston
  From the book of the same name (in the OWHL collection), contains background information about the book and many images of Boston and maps from the Norman B. Leventhal Collection.
• Oddens Bookmarks
  A huge gateway site from the Netherlands with maps arranged geographically and links to sites for those interested in maps. Frame buttons allow you to search, browse, or go to What's New. Try to ignore the annoying advertising--this is really a scholarly site.

• American Women’s History: A research guide
  Provides access to general resources in 27 subject areas of US women’s history including African Americans, Native Americans, and Jewish women as well as women’s rights, sexuality, historic time periods, and women scientists.

 

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© Phillips Academy 1999
Last Update February 18, 2005