Research & Subject Guides: Using the Internet for Historical Research: Digital Collections

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The Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History

The Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History online provides access to typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes. Related are accounts of Indian ceremonies, customs, social conditions, philosophies, and standards of living. Members of every tribe resident in Oklahoma were interviewed. The collection includes the original tapes on which the interviews were recorded, as well as microfiche copies of the typescripts. The digital representation of the typescripts are organized by tribe but may be searched by interviewee, by interviewer, by tape number, or by keyword searching of the full-text of the transcript.

Digital Collections

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Coverage varies. 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. A digital record of American history and creativity. From the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Making of America Project (Cornell)
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project Collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts. The main sourcebooks have primary documents for Ancient, Medieval, and Modern history. Other subsidiary sourcebooks include: African, East Asian, Global, Indian, Jewish, Islamic, Lesbian/Gay, Science, Women.
EuroDocs: Western European Primary Historical Documents
Western European historical documents (mainly primary) that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. They shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries (and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history). The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.
Internet Library of Early Journals (ILEJ)
Digital collection from the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford. Searchable full text of several eighteenth and early nineteenth-century British publications.
The European Library
Search digital collections, audio and printed music, images, manuscripts, maps, journals, children's literature, theses and dissertations from Europe's National Libraries.
Voice of the Shuttle
Searchable database of websites for research in the Humanities; includes a large section of primary and secondary material about European History.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
NARA has preserved and provided access to the records of the United States of America for more than seven decades. Records help us claim our rights and entitlements, hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, & document our history as a nation. In short, NARA ensures continuing access to the essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their Government. NARA is the keeper of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

New York State Library: Selected Digital Historical Documents
Sets of historical documents from the collection of the New York State Library, available online as PDF documents. Collections include: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; New York State Census; American Civil War; Laws of New York State; Native American Materials; New York State Constitutional History: Constitutional Conventions;New York State Government; New York State History - Colonial Period and Towns and Counties; and New York State Museum Publications.
European History Primary Sources (EHPS)
Index of scholarly websites with digitized primary sources on the history of Europe. The websites listed on EHPS are not only meta-sources but also include invented archives and born digital sources. Each website that is listed in EHPS has a short description and is categorised according to country, language, period, subject and type of source. The portal can be searched in a variety of ways. The listed websites can be accessed for free, though sometimes a registration is required.

Using the Internet for Historical Research

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