United States History

Participating Member of Metropolitan Library System

General U.S. History

Visit our U.S. History Suggested Resources.
Constitution Study Guide
A Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents by the University of Oklahoma Law Center. Historical documents gathered from all over the Web from the Pre-Colonial Era to the present presented in 25 year periods. Links to inaugural addresses and biographies.
American History and Art from New England Students, teachers, and just about anyone with an interest in American history will find helpful resources at the Memorial Hall Museum Online, a village museum of 300-year-old Deerfield, Massachusetts. Features of the site include: the Digital Collection, a searchable database of over 1,000 artifacts selected from 70,000 in the Museum's holdings; In the Classroom, a collection of curriculum ideas for teachers; and the Turns of the Centuries exhibit. This exhibit presents images and artifacts on five broad themes: Family Life, Native American Indians, African Americans, Newcomers, and The Land. The exhibits span across three eras -- 1680-1720, 1780-1820, and 1880-1920. For example, in The Land 1880-1920, view a collection of posters and publicity from the agricultural fairs and expositions popular at that time.
American History from About.com Links for many historical topics! Includes 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Biographies, Age of Exploration, Colonial America, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Reconstruction, Industrial Revolution, Gilded Age, Westward Expansion, Spanish-American War, Women's Suffrage, World War I, Great Depression, World War II, Korean War, Civil Rights, Cold War, Vietnam, Persian Gulf War, Progressive Era, American West, Immigration, and more!
American Memory From the Library of Congress. Includes many primary source documents.
American Women's History: A Research Guide "American Women's History provides citations to print and Internet reference sources, as well as to selected large primary source collections. The guide also provides information about the tools researchers can use to find additional books, articles, dissertations, and primary sources." There are more than 1700 citations and more than 900 links to Web sites. From reference
librarian Ken Middleton at Middle Tennessee State University Library.
Archiving Early America
A unique site dedicated to displaying 18th century documents in their original formats online. Find original newspapers, maps and writings that form an historical record of a significant time in the American experience--the Colonial Period, the War of Independence, and the presidencies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The section on America's Freedom Documents includes:
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Bill of Rights
- The Constitution of the United States
Avalon Project at Yale Law School source documents from the 18th century, 19th century, 20th century and 21st century.
Benjamin Franklin: a documentary history
Benjamin Marston Diaries Benjamin Marston was an eighteenth century Loyalist adventurer.
Betsy Ross Home Page
All about Betsy Ross, the Star-Spangled Banner, and the history of the US flag--including flag etiquette (how to display the flag; laws and regulations)
Digital History "The materials on Digital History include a U.S. history textbook; over 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library, supplemented by primary sources on slavery, Mexican American and Native American history, and U.S. political, social, and legal history; succinct essays on the history of film, ethnicity, private life, and technology; multimedia exhibitions; and reference resources that include a searchable database of 1,500 annotated links, classroom handouts, chronologies, glossaries, an audio archive including speeches and book talks by historians, and a visual archive with hundreds of historical maps and images. The site's Ask the HyperHistorian feature allows users to pose questions to professional historians.... This Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston."
Digital Librarian A gateway to websites related to American history.
EyeWitness History through the eyes of those who lived it.
Historical Text Archive source documents
History in the Parks from the National Park Service. Describes historic sites maintained by the National Park Service.
The History Net Links with eyewitness accounts
A Hypertext on American History from the colonial period until modern times.
Jefferson Digital Archive Extensive information on Thomas Jefferson, including biographical information, bibliographies, full-text documents, and quotations. A project of the Scholar's Lab at the University of Virginia Library.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library: The Reference Desk Online material related to John F. Kennedy, including a biography; major speeches; speeches of his brothers Robert and Edward; sound files; photographs; executive orders; eulogies; an "accurate listing" of the music played at his funeral; and more. It is "comprised of information frequently requested from the library's main research room."
Political Graveyard This site indexes over 81,000 dead politicians, diplomats, and judges. Politicians are listed by name, office, birth place, and many other categories, including, for example, politicians born into slavery and politicians who donated their bodies to science.
The Time Page: An Examination of Cycles in U.S. History Interesting and factual look at the Generations of American History.
Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890 This online research compilation is a part of the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection and presents pictorial and textual materials illustrating major themes in the history of maritime westward expansion. Some of these themes include the California Gold Rush, the roles of women, the immigrant experience, whaling life, life at sea, shipping, and native populations. Covering a wide geographical area including California, Texas, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest, the materials are drawn from the Mystic Seaport Museum and the G.W. Blunt White Library.
WhiteHouseTapes.org
Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward -- of Woodward and Bernstein Watergate reknown -- likes to call the Nixon White House tapes "the gift that keeps on giving." Indeed, when we think about tape recording in connection with the Oval Office, Richard M. Nixon is definitely the name that comes to mind. However, he was not unique among presidents in making sub rosa White House recordings.
Here you can listen to more than 5,000 hours of White House conversations recorded between 1940 and 1973 by six American presidents: {links to the overview page for each, after slicking a link, look in the left column for links to recordings]
- Roosevelt
- Truman
- Eisenhower
- Kennedy
- Johnson and, of course...
- Nixon
300 Women Who Changed the World Superb site from "Encyclopedia Britannica". Contains articles on hundreds of American women from 1600 to modern times. Also included are timelines, primary documents, classic Britannica articles, audio and video clips, and a study guide.

Christopher Columbus

1492: An Ongoing Voyage an exhibit from the Library of Congress

Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Museum
Salem, Massachusetts City Guide Includes information about the Salem Witch Trials.

Old Newspapers

History Buff An historical reference of press coverage from the 16th to the 20th century. Also includes Online Newspaper Archives--scanned versions of newspaper articles from 1700 on. The collection is very selective, but covers key historical events. For example, there are a number of articles from 1865 about Lincoln's death and funeral. And the 1945 folder contains articles about Hitler's death, the atomic bomb, and the end of WWII.
Olden Times Old Newspapers for Genealogy & History Buffs: Obituaries, Births, Marriages, News and More!

Lewis & Clarke

Discovering Lewis & Clarke contains many source documents

Native American History

Native American Documents Project includes source documents

Slavery in the U.S.

Lest We Forget Contains many related links to information about the history and culture of African Americans from slavery to present day.
Amistad Research Center Includes historical links on other African American topics as well.
Amistad.org Lists many links to sites about Amistad and related topics.
Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency This collection features currency issued and circulated in the South during the Antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction Eras that featured images of slavery. However, many Southern currency did not feature images of slavery.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Before 1863, the Underground Railroad was a system of cooperation among Black slaves, abolitionists, sympathetic Whites, and Native Americans to help slaves escape the bondage of American slavery. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center wants to educate the public about the legacy of the Underground Railroad and its historic struggle to abolish human enslavement. The Center’s site currently contains a timeline dating from 1501 - 1865, a list of major players and contributors of the Underground Railroad Movement along with brief descriptions, and a list of related resources on each individual. The site also contains family stories and links to other related history sites.

American Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution by KidInfo. Includes many links to additional sites.

Women's Suffrage

Women's Suffrage Movement from About.com
By Popular Demand: "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920 These thirty-eight pictures include individual portraits, photographs of suffrage parades, picketing suffragists, an anti-suffrage display, and cartoons. The images, which complement a collection of text documents, are both searchable and browsable. From the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress.
More Women's History

California Gold Rush

Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890 This online research compilation is a part of the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection and presents pictorial and textual materials illustrating major themes in the history of maritime westward expansion. Some of these themes include the California Gold Rush, the roles of women, the immigrant experience, whaling life, life at sea, shipping, and native populations. Covering a wide geographical area including California, Texas, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest, the materials are drawn from the Mystic Seaport Museum and the G.W. Blunt White Library.

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress
Alice Williamson Diary Diary of a school girl during the Civil War era.
The Valley of the Shadow Two communities in the American Civil War
Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress
United States Civil War Center
African-American Women
Civil War Women
American Civil War Home Page Many primary sources, many links to additional sources.
Civil War at Smithsonian: Collecting, Preserving,
Remembering the National Experience This site, produced by the National Portrait Gallery, provides information and pictures from the
Smithsonian Institution's extensive collections on the United States Civil War. The collections represented include slavery and abolition, Abraham Lincoln, weapons, leaders, cavalries, navies, the surrender at Appomattox, and the life and culture of the time. A bibliography of resources and timeline of events relating to the war are also available.
Also check our Civil War page

Native American Issues

Native American Indian Resources Contains links to over 300 web pages of information about Native American tribes, arts, literature, education, history, and science.

Temperance & Prohibition

American Temperance and Prohibition Excellent background material on prohibition and links to related primary sources.