Primary Sources - U.S. History Digital Collections

A collection of sources, including documents, photographs, survivor interviews, and models that examine the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York and its lasting impact on labor relations and workplace safety.

Primary-source texts, images, and audio files relating to the history, literature, and culture of the American South.

Transcripts and video interviews with eyewitnesses to the Great Depression (1929–early 1940s), documenting personal experiences of economic hardship, activism, labor, and social change.

Over 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.

An online archive of U.S. presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to the present, organized by year, issue, and ad type, with transcripts and historical context.

Contains approximately 75,000 pages drawn from special collection libraries and archives around the United States.

Videos, documents, and educational resources from more than 200 collaborating libraries and archives that document the American civil-rights movement, with a focus on both major events and lesser-known local activism.

Over 40,000 pages of documents, letters, diaries, and photographs that record the efforts of civil rights activists who worked to challenge segregation and expand voting rights in Mississippi.

Curates links to major civil rights collections with oral histories, photographs, newspapers, and archival databases to help researchers find and access primary materials on SNCC and the broader movement.

Documents, photographs, and oral-history materials from 1948-1952 related to the U.S. response to the Soviet blockade of Berlin.

Declassified intelligence reports, photographs, maps and essays that document the planning and construction of the Berlin Wall construction in 1961 and its impact on Berlin during the Cold War era.

Full-text primary documents from the Cold War, including treaties, diplomatic correspondence, policy statements, and government reports that trace tensions and negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Declassified archival documents covering the origins of the Cold War period (from the late World War II years into the early 1950s), including memoranda, cables, meeting minutes, letters, and military reports drawn from international archives.

Summary transcripts and working notes from roughly 705 interviews with Soviet refugees conducted in 1950–1951, offering searchable firsthand accounts of political, social, economic, and cultural life in the USSR.

Declassified documents and key policy texts such as the Long Telegram, the Foreign Affairs X article, the Clifford Elsey Report, and National Security Council Report 68, with photos, oral histories, a background essay, and a chronology of early Cold War policy debates.

Digitized documents from 1946 to 1953 with supporting primary sources such as photographs, oral history transcripts, and related exhibits for studying the European Recovery Program.

Explore declassified U.S. government documents, photographs, and more.

Find first person accounts of U.S. military service, including oral histories, letters, diaries, photographs, and published materials.

A multimedia archive showcasing oral histories, photographs, underground newspapers, and other documents that chronicle anti-war activism in the Pacific Northwest from World War I through the nuclear era.

Declassified reports, correspondence, and surveillance records documenting federal investigations into anti-war organizations and activists during the Vietnam War era.

Scans and full-text of underground newspapers and newsletters produced by U.S. service members during the Vietnam War era.

Contents include links to White House photographs, the Daily Diary, the Digital Artifact Collection, and the DiscoverLBJ online archive.

Points to primary sources such as Marine Corps command chronologies, Navy deck logs, photographs, films, electronic datasets, and casualty files, plus guides to both digitized materials and on-site research.

Find first person accounts of U.S. military service, including oral histories, letters, diaries, photographs, and published materials.

Provides digitized photographs, letters, news clippings, and related materials on the Vietnam War, with browse and search tools for exploring people, places, and events.

Presents Native veterans’ perspectives on the war, with contextual materials. It includes accounts connected to efforts to honor Vietnam veterans, such as a 1981 powwow.

Presents digitized leaflets, pamphlets, underground newspapers, and other campus publications from the 1960s and 1970s in Seattle that document student activism and protest.

Contains about seven million pages of digitized materials on the Vietnam War, including documents, photographs, oral histories, films, sound recordings, maps, and finding aids.