19th Century
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American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and SettlementEyewitness accounts of North American exploration from AD 1000 to the early nineteenth century, including Viking sagas, Indigenous narratives, missionary and settler writings from across the continent.
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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and DebatesDocuments the debates and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress. From the Library of Congress.
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Documenting the American SouthPrimary-source texts, images, and audio files relating to the history, literature, and culture of the American South.
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Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Culture, and the Environment (via Alexander Street)Search or browse documents related to the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850.
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Guide to the Mexican War (Library of Congress)Links to manuscripts, broadsides, newspaper articles, maps, and government documents from the 1846-48 U.S.–Mexico conflict.
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Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930Over 400,000 pages of books, manuscripts, and photographs documenting voluntary immigration to the United States from 1789 to 1930, with a focus on 19th-century experiences and diverse immigrant voices.
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Mystic Seaport Museum : Collections & Online ResourcesBrowse ships’ logs and journals, diaries and ledgers, ship plans, and the world-class photography collections alongside specializedatabases such as American Offshore Whaling Voyages, crew lists, Seamen’s Protection Certificates, and other tools for research.
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Trial Pamphlets CollectionDigitized, contemporary accounts of notable trials from the late seventeenth through the late nineteenth century, drawn mostly from the United States with some early British examples.
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Witness to the Early American ExperienceDigitized documents, maps, broadsides, and papers from early New York and the American Revolution.
U. S. History: Civil War
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Abraham Lincoln Papers (Library of Congress)Approximately 20,000 manuscripts, letters, speeches, drafts, and other documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln, especially during his political and presidential careers.
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Antietam on the WebDetailed soldier profiles, interactive maps, narratives, and original documents related to the 1862 Maryland campaign and the battle at Sharpsburg.
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Civil War Collection (Michigan State University)Letters, diaries, photographs, and muster rolls from the Civil War era (1861-1866) relating to Michigan participants and regiments across multiple state and national units.
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Civil War Diaries and Letters (University of Iowa)Digitized correspondence and diaries from Iowa soldiers and their families during the Civil War era, offering firsthand perspectives on military service and home-front life.
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Civil War Diaries and Letters Collections (Auburn University)Diaries and letters from common soldiers, spies, civilians, and even a bodyguard of Abraham Lincoln, dating from the Civil War era.
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Civil War Era Diaries (Penn State)Diaries and letters from soldiers and civilians in Pennsylvania during the American Civil War.
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Civil War Glass Negatives and Related PrintsApproximately 7,000 glass-plate negatives and prints from the American Civil War era (1861-1865), including battlefield views, portraits, camp life, and post-war scenes.
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Civil War Maps (Library of Congress)More than 8,000 maps created before and during the American Civil War that show battlefields, troop movements, fortifications, and political boundaries across the United States.
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The Civil War: Women and the Homefront (Duke University )Highlights digitized Civil War–era materials featuring letters, diaries, and memoirs from women and enslaved people, including Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Union informant Sarah E. Thompson, and enslaved women Hannah Valentine, Lethe Jackson, and Vilet Lester.
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The Crisis of the Union (Universityof Pennsylvania)Pamphlets, books, broadsides, cartoons, and other print materials dating approximately 1830 to 1880 from the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
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Harper's Weekly Original Civil War NewspapersPage scans of Harper’s Weekly from 1861 to 1865 with illustrations, articles, maps, and advertisements, organized by year and issue.
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Official Records of the Union and Confederate NaviesProvides access to digitized volumes and indexes of the U.S. Naval War Records Office publication documenting Civil War naval operations, with many volumes available in full view.
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The Papers of Jefferson DavisA set of transcribed documents from its published volumes, offering letters, speeches, reports, and proclamations from 1828 to 1874.
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Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper CollectionFull-text, searchable access to selected Pennsylvania newspapers from the years before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War, including all words, images, and advertisements.
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Pictures of the Civil WarThe National Archives’ Civil War Photographs page presents a select list of images from the Still Picture Branch—primarily from Record Groups 111 and 165—organized by activities, places, portraits, and Lincoln’s assassination with links to digitized items in the catalog.
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Richmond Daily Dispatch (the Civil War Years)Offers a searchable digital archive of the Richmond Daily Dispatch from 1860 to 1865, showing how the Civil War reshaped the city and the lives of its residents.
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Secession Era Editorials ProjectTanscribed, searchable newspaper editorials from the 1850s through the Civil War era, enabling comparison of regional perspectives on slavery, secession, and national politics.
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Ulysses S. Grant Presidential LibraryPrimary sources on Grant’s life and era, including letters and documents from The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, photographs, political cartoons, sheet music, and a bibliography with chronology.
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The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil WarA digital archive that follows Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania through the Civil War era, featuring letters, diaries, newspapers, census and military records, photographs, and maps.
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The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of Official Records of the Union and Confederate ArmiesProvides full volumes of official Union and Confederate military reports, orders, correspondence, and returns from the U.S. Civil War.
American West
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"California, As I Saw It": First Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 (Library of Congress)Over 180 first-person published accounts that document the Gold Rush era, settlement, agriculture, mining, urban development, and encounters among Anglo-Americans, Native peoples, and Spanish-speaking Californians before the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century.
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Journals of the Lewis & Clark ExpeditionFull text of the Nebraska edition of the expedition journals with dated tables of contents and supplementary images, maps, audio, video, and contextual essays from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
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Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890Maritime history resources including ship registers, whaling logs, crew lists, and historic photos from Mystic Seaport Museum.
Environmental History
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Journals of the Lewis & Clark ExpeditionFull text of the Nebraska edition of the expedition journals with dated tables of contents and supplementary images, maps, audio, video, and contextual essays from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
U.S. History: Slavery
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Amistad Research CenterOnline exhibits, digitised primary-source collections and archival materials documenting African-American history, civil-rights movements and related cultural themes.
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Black Abolitionist Archive (University of Detroit Mercy)Over 800 speeches by Black abolitionists and around 1,000 newspaper editorials from the antebellum period, documenting African-American activism in the fight to end slavery in the United States.
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Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 (Library of Congress)First-person interviews with formerly enslaved Americans gathered in 17 states, enriched by around 500 photographs, and offering rare firsthand accounts of life under slavery.
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Anti-Slavery Collection (Boston Public Library | Internet Archive)Digitized anti-slavery materials, such as reports of abolitionist societies, almanacs, and pamphlets from the nineteenth century.
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Digital Library on American Slavery (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)Public records about enslavement in the American South with detailed personal and property data for over 100,000 individuals.
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Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave TradeData, documents, and digital collections that trace the lives, movements, and networks of enslaved people across the Atlantic world from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.
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Frederick Douglass PapersSpeeches, correspondence, autobiographical writings, and other documents that trace Douglass’s life as an abolitionist, writer, and statesman.
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The Geography of Slavery in VirginiaMore than 4,000 digitized runaway and captured slave and indentured servant ads from Virginia and Maryland newspapers, with full transcripts, images, and maps and timelines covering 1736 to 1803.
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Secession Era Editorials ProjectTanscribed, searchable newspaper editorials from the 1850s through the Civil War era, enabling comparison of regional perspectives on slavery, secession, and national politics.
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Slavery and Abolition in the U.S.: Select PublicationsA digital collection of nineteenth-century books and pamphlets from Dickinson College and Millersville University that presents first-person narratives, legal records, sermons, and anti-slavery tracts with searchable transcriptions.
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Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new windowAll known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world, as well as materials on free African-Americans in the colonies and the U.S. before 1870. Included are every statute passed by every state and colony, all federal statutes, all reported state and federal cases on slavery, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on the subject.
NOTE: The EMU Library does NOT subscribe to the HeinOnline collection materials listed under the tab Scholarly Articles & Other Documents.
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North American Slave NarrativesDocumenting autobiographical narratives and related works of enslaved and self-emancipated people from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries.
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Slavery and Abolition in the U.S.: Select PublicationsA digital collection of nineteenth-century books and pamphlets from Dickinson College and Millersville University that presents first-person narratives, legal records, sermons, and anti-slavery tracts with searchable transcriptions.
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Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave LifeHistorical images that document the African slave trade and the lives of enslaved people and their descendants across the Atlantic world.
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Slaves and the CourtsIncludes 105 digitized books and manuscripts totaling about 8,700 pages that document legal cases, statutes, and debates about slavery in the United States and Great Britain.
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Slave Societies Digital ArchiveProvides access to more than 700,000 digitized records from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries documenting Africans and their descendants across the Atlantic world.
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The Texas Slavery ProjectA digital history site on the Republic of Texas (1837–1845) that visualizes the spread of slavery with interactive maps and a searchable database built from surviving tax records.
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Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade DatabaseA research portal with primary datasets on the slave trade across the Atlantic and within the Americas, including more than 36,000 documented voyages, plus maps, visualizations, and tools to explore routes, ships, and people.
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Umbra Search - African American HistoryA portal that aggregates hundreds of thousands of digitized materials on African American history from more than 1,000 libraries and archives.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-Media ArchiveA multimedia archive of primary sources on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel and its impact, including editions of the text, contemporary reviews, songs, plays, films, illustrations, and material culture.
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Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave NamesSearch for legal, estate, court, and other historical records that reflect the lives of free and enslaved African Americans in Virginia, especially from the colonial through antebellum period.
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Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their StoriesFirsthand narratives and interviews with formerly enslaved people recorded between 1932 and 1975, preserving their memories of slavery and its aftermath.
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Yale Slavery & Abolition PortalFind primary sources on slavery, abolition, and resistance across Yale libraries and galleries, with options to browse by repository or search by topic.