A collection of 3000 slides, 500 photographs, and 50 hours of sounds from 45 different countries, maintained by the University of Wisconsin Libraries.

A list of digital repositories in Africa, compiled by the International African Institute at University of London.

AODL provides access to tens of thousands of cultural heritage materials from and about African countries and communities.

Selected online resources, maintained by Stanford University Libraries.

Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.

Digitized materials from the Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University, the largest Africana collection in the United States.

Digital collection of hundreds of photographs of East African life and how it changed over time, collected by Northwestern University.

A digital collection of 113 maps of Africa collected by the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University.

Approximately 5000 pictures of African art published prior to 1921.

Over three decades worth of work of 230 historians and specialists resulting in an 8 volume publication on the history of Africa. These volumes are freely accessible online, as well as studies and documents used for the publication.

49 African nations are represented in the World Digital Library's collections. The WDL is a collaboration of the U.S. Library of Congress, and UNESCO, to make primary materials from nations across the world easily accessible.

Millions of pages of primary source content from the 15th-21st centuries.

Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy (ancient through 21st century).

Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.

Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.

Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.

Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK, covering Canada, the Caribbean and the USA.

Sources from the British Library. Module I: Trade, Governance and Empire, 1600-1946; Module II: Factory Records for South Asia and Southeast Asia, 1595-1830.

Manuscript and rare printed sources documenting cultural contacts and literature of empire. Section I: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Section II: Literature and Empire; Section III: The Visible Empire; Section IV: Religion and Empire; Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007.

A index of printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Covers the history of European exploration, portrayals of Native American peoples, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and slavery.

A full-text archive of over 1,000 of the best scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities, mathematics, life sciences, etc. Full-text is available from the first issue, but does not include the most recent 2-5 years.

Street Culture, Social Reform & the Victorian Underworld. Sources from the Lilly Library, Indiana University.

Featuring a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe. Section I: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Section II: Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Section III: Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Section IV: Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema.

Original documents on the Suffrage Question in Britain, Empire and Colonial Territories combined with a Finding aid to Women's Resources in The National Archives, UK.

Primary source materials in American history. Discover eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records through electronic versions of historical newspapers and books.

Millions of pages of primary source content from the 15th-21st centuries.

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), the premier library documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Digitized images of American magazines and journals from 7,600+ periodicals with 7 million images.

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York City. Module I: Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform, 1493-1859; Module II: Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era, 1860-1945.

Sources from the Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago.

The American State Papers contain the legislative and executive documents of Congress during the period 1789 to 1838. The collection includes documents that cover the critical historical gap from 1789 to the printing of the first volume of the U.S. Serial Set in 1817.

Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy (ancient through 21st century).

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation consists of a linked set of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875. It includes materials related to the proceedings of the Continental Congress, the federal and state conventions related to the framing and adoption of the Constitution, and the proceedings of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It also includes the Statutes at Large for 1789 to 1875; the American State Papers for 1789 to 1838; and congressional bills and resolutions for selected sessions beginning with the 6th Congress (1799) in the House of Representatives and the 16th Congress (1819) in the Senate.

Historic Newspapers from 1789-1925.

Contains major articles gleaned from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.

From The National Archives, UK. Module I: Early Settlement, Expansion and Rivalries; Module II: Towards Revolution; Module III: The American Revolution; Module IV: Legislation and Politics in the Colonies.

Features more than 1,600 open-source images. Political cartoons, manuscripts, broadsides, pamphlets, and German-language translations of pamphlets.

Contains more than 40 million images, texts, sounds, and multimedia objects form libraries, archives and museums in the United States. Copyright status of items vary; however, many items are public domain or available for re-use. Check the "rights" field for each item.

A publishing initiative that provides access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.

Full text of books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints. With subjects ranging from captivity narratives to playbills to atlases to sermons to juvenile literature, this collection provides information about all aspects of American life and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries.

A index of printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Covers the history of European exploration, portrayals of Native American peoples, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and slavery.

Materials from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture, Duke University and New York Public Library.

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. Over 185,000 searchable documents, fully annotated, from the authoritative Founding Fathers Papers projects.

Documents from 16 archives and libraries from around the world.

Millions of digitized items from libraries around the world.

Contains 343 Informational pamphlets, government reports, instructions, regulations, declarations, speeches, and propaganda materials distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) during the Second World War. Digital Collection from Southern Methodist University.

From John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Manuscript sources from the American Jewish Historical Society, New York.

Provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

To identify a pre-1980 New York Times article and obtain it for FREE, please follow these steps:

1. Use the link above to go to the New York Times Index


2. Search for articles using the search box and filters


3. After identifying an article you want, complete the ARTICLE " Request It " form

Please include the following:



1. Article title


2. The title of the publication (New York Times)


3. Date of the article


4. Page(s) of the article (if provided)

The Civil War Collection includes newspapers, regimental histories, and diaries.

Readers’ Guide Retrospective covers the popular press and offers full coverage of the original paper volumes for nearly 100 years.

Documentary archive and transcription project, hosted by University of Virginia.

Contains a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. Includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.

Information on more than 35,000 slave voyages embarking over 12 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Teaching with primary documents encourages a varied learning environment for teachers and students alike. Lectures, demonstrations, analysis of documents, independent research, and group work become a gateway for research with historical records in ways that sharpen students' skills and enthusiasm for history, social studies, and the humanities.

Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, originally published in approximately 13,800 bound volume.

The Ferrar Papers, 1590-1790, from Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The online version of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion available through Hathi Trust.