History of the American West, 1860-1920
This site features 30,000 photos of Colorado towns and landscapes that document the role of mining in the history of Colorado and the West. Photos of Native Americans from more than 40 tribes are included.
Historic American Sheet Arts, 1850-1920
This site presents 3,000 pieces of sheet music drawn from a collection at Duke University. The selection covers a variety of music types including bel canto, minstrel, protest, plantation, and sentimental songs, as well as songs from vaudeville and tin pan alley. The collection is particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, confederate imprints, and Civil War songs and music.
From Jim Crow to Linda Brown: A Retrospective of the African-American Experience, 1897-1953
This site helps students understand themes of African American life in the first half of the 20th century and explore to what extent the African American experience was separate but equal. Among the activities, students examine Plessy v. Ferguson (1897) and simulate the 1898 meeting of the Afro-American Council.
First Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
This site documents the culture of the 19th century American South from the viewpoint of Southerners. It includes diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, ex-slave narratives, and travel accounts of women, African Americans, enlisted men, Native Americans, laborers, and prominent individuals. The site features 140 titles, including some published before 1860.
First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
This site consists of letters, journals, books, newspapers, maps, and images documenting the land, peoples, and exploration of the trans-Appalachian West. The first European travelers, their relations with Native Americans, new settlers' migration and acquisition of land, navigation down the Ohio River, planting of crops, trade in tobacco and horses, and the roles of African Americans, women, churches, and schools are documented.
Elections... the American Way
This site looks at political campaigns by exploring the history and roles of candidates and voters, the structure of the party system and election process, and tough issues that politicians have faced over the years.
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
Doing the Decades, 1890-1941: Group Investigations in Twentieth Century U.S. History
This is a two-month team research project for 9-10th graders that uses Library of Congress resources to focus on long-term change in U.S. history. Students gather, analyze, and evaluate primary and secondary sources; develop their own conclusions; and refine their writing.
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.
Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Pres
The materials available in Built in America: The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) 1933-Present, provide an opportunity to develop critical thinking and creative writing skills. Descriptions and images of various buildings and structures in these collections provide the basis for research projects. Meanwhile, historic homes can serve as the catalyst for creative writing exercises and a discussion regarding the homes of authors such as F
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.
Arts for the Nation: American Sheet Arts, 1870-1885
This site consists of tens of thousands of pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the post-Civil War era. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred music and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra. This first release of the online collection consists of over 22,000 musical compositions registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1879.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner
The Gottscho-Schleisner Collection is comprised of over 29,000 images primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors and exteriors of homes, stores, offices, factories, historic buildings, and other structures. Subjects are concentrated chiefly in the northeastern United States, especially the New York City area, and Florida. Included are the homes of notable Americans, such as Raymond Loewy, and of several U.S. presidents, as well as color images of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.
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
An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, 1600-1920
This site presents a collection of 200 social dance manuals and related materials. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance.
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 Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
This site provides 253 narratives describing travels in the colonies and U.S. The collection includes works by authors not widely known as well as by Matthew Arnold, James Fenimore Cooper, Dickens, Washington Irving, Sir Charles Lyell, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other major figures. The collection is searchable and can be browsed by not only by author and title, but also by subject.
American Memory Timeline
This site helps teachers and students navigate the vast online collections of primary source materials at the Library of Congress. The links, arranged by chronological period, lead to sets of selected primary sources on a variety of topics in U.S. history.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
This site presents 2,900 life histories from 300 writers from 24 states. These histories describe individuals' families, incomes, occupations, political views, religions, diets, and observations.
