George Washington Papers
This site includes letters, diaries, financial accounts, military records, and other writings from Washington's youth and service as a surveyor and colonel, as delegate to the Continental Congress, as commander during the Revolutionary War, and as president (1789-97). His many interests and correspondents make these papers are a rich source for almost every aspect of early American history.
Frontline Diplomacy
This site opens a window into the lives of American diplomats and U.S. foreign policy -- how it is formulated in Washington and implemented at our embassies abroad. Transcripts of more than 1,300 interviews with U.S. diplomatic personnel capture their experiences, motivations, personal analyses, and private thoughts.
From Slavery to Civil Rights
This is a timeline of African-American history. Photos, broadsides, maps, and other items are organized around time periods: slavery, abolition, antebellum, Civil War, reconstruction, progressive era, World War I, between the wars, World War II, and civil rights.
Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry
This site provides a selection of more than 500 letters, lectures, photos, articles, and sound recordings related to the birth of the recording industry. Hear auctioneers, animal calls, musical instruments, and Native American songs, Italian songs, Swedish songs, and more. Berliner (1851-1929), an immigrant and largely self-educated man, was responsible for the development of the microphone and the flat recording disc and gramophone player.
Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images
This is one of the most significant and controversial representations of American Indian culture ever produced. Issued in a limited edition from 1907-1930, the publication continues to influence the image of Indians in popular culture. In over 2000 photos and narrative, Curtis portrayed the traditional customs and lifeways of 80 Indian tribes.
Early Virginia Religious Petitions
Early Virginia Religious Petitions presents images of 423 petitions submitted to the Virginia legislature between 1774 and 1802 from more than eighty counties and cities. Drawn from the Library of Virginia's Legislative Petitions collection, the petitions concern such topics as the historic debate over the separation of church and state championed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the rights of dissenters such as Quakers and Baptists, the sale and division of property in the established chu
Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention Broadsides
The Continental Congress Broadside Collection (256 titles) and the Constitutional Convention Broadside Collection (21 titles) contain 277 documents relating to the work of Congress and the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. Items include extracts of the journals of Congress, resolutions, proclamations, committee reports, treaties, and early printed versions of the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Most broadsides are one page in length; others range from
Chronicling America
Welcome to Chronicling America, enhancing access to America's historic newspapers. This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887
This site showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints, and artifacts relating to the violent 1886 confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters that was a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights.
California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
This site consists of texts and illustrations of 190 works documenting California's history from the Gold Rush to the turn of the century. It captures the pioneer experience; encounters between Anglo-Americans and the diverse peoples who had preceded them; the transformation of the land by mining, ranching, agriculture, and urban development; the often-turbulent growth of communities and cities; and California's emergence as both a state and a place of uniquely American dreams.
Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982
The Buckaroos in Paradise Collection presents documentation of a Nevada cattle-ranching community, with a focus on the family-run Ninety-Six Ranch. The documentation was largely the work of the Paradise Valley Folklife Project (1978-1982), a research initiative conducted by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. This collection presents 41 motion pictures and 28 sound recordings that tell the story of life and work on the Ninety-Six Ranch and of its cowboys, known in the region
Baseball Cards, 1887-1914
This site presents 2,100 early baseball cards. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base, Tris Speaker batting, and pitcher Cy Young formally posing. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathematics and Statisticsewson.
Baseball: As American as Apple Pie
This is an annotated collection of Library of Congress resources about America's pastime. It includes early baseball pictures, baseball songs and stories, baseball cards, the first all-professional baseball team in America (the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1869), Cy Young, Ty Cobb, home run kings, and letters and speeches by Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball.
Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World's Transportation Commission, 1894-1896
This site makes available for viewing the nearly nine hundred images of modes of transportation taken by American photographer William Henry Jackson in North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. The site allows searches by subject and Keyword, and gives archival information about it.
An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. In total, the collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. An American Time Capsule, the online presentation of the Printed Ephemera collection, comprises 17,000 of the 28,000 physical items. More are scheduled to be digitized in the future. While the broadside format represents the bulk of th
America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864
This site consists of more than 650 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Portrait daguerreotypes produced by the Mathematics and Statisticsew Brady studio make up the major portion of the collection. The collection also includes early architectural views by John Plumbe, several Philadelphia street scenes, early portraits by pioneering daguerreotypist Robert Cornelius, and copies of painted portraits.
American Women: A Reference Guide
This is a first stop for using Library of Congress resources to do research in the field of American women's history. It presents some digital items; however, it serves primarily as a comprehensive guide to the entirety of the Library's holdings on women's history. It includes exhibits that feature women and how to find women within exhibits where they're not featured. Essays examine women as a symbol 1590-1800, the women's suffrage parade of 1913, and the equal rights amendment.
American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election, 1918-1920
This site consists of 59 sound recordings of speeches by American leaders at the turn of the century. Speakers include Warren G. Harding, James Cox, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel Gompers, Henry Cabot Lodge, and John J. Pershing.
American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920
This collection of approximately 2,800 lantern slides represents an historical view of American buildings and landscapes built during the period 1850-1920. It represents the work of Harvard faculty, such as Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Bremer W. Pond, and James Sturgis Pray, as well as that of prominent landscape architects throughout the country. The collection offers views of cities, specific buildings, parks, estates and gardens, including a complete history of Boston's Park System. In addition
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest
This digital collection integrates over 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text relating to the American Indians in two cultural areas of the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Coast and Plateau. These resources illustrate many aspects of life and work, including housing, clothing, crafts, transportation, education, and employment. The materials are drawn from the extensive collections of the University of Washington Libraries, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (formerly the Cheney Cowles M
