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American History from 1865

See American History to 1865, African American History, Native American History, Pacific Northwest History, State History, History of Women, and World War II for other sites related to American history.

General American History Sites

• American Memory
  The premier site for American history. The Library of Congress has digitized more than 100 collections of primary sources spanning everything from the Thomas Jefferson papers to baseball cards.
• Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Government
  "The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. We do not intend to mount only static text but rather to add value to the text by linking to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text." Primarily American documents but also includes others.
• Immigration to the United States 1789-1930
  "Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, includes approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets as well as 6,000 photographs, 200 maps, and 13,000 pages from manuscript and archival collections" at Harvard University.
• Western Trails: An Online Journey
  "The Western Trails digital database provides access to thousands of primary documents associated with various aspects of Western US history."

Biographical Sites

• Alexander Graham Bell
  • Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers
    Collection of more than 1400 items "consisting of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research." Part of American Memory. See also Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone.
• Leonard Bernstein
  • Leonard Bernstein Collection
    This collection "makes available a selection of 85 photographs, 177 scripts from the Young People's Concerts, 74 scripts from the Thursday Evening Previews, and over 1,100 pieces of correspondence." Part of American Memory.
• Thomas A. Edison
  • Thomas A. Edison Papers
    Searchable collection of selected documents dating from 1847 to 1897 dealing with Edison and his work. Also see Edison Motion Picture and Sound Recordings.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • Digital Documents Project
    Collection of documents from the Eisenhower Library covers topics ranging from civil rights to the cold war.
• Gerald R. Ford
  • Ford Presidential Library - Documents
    Collections of documents such as Cabinet meeting minutes, National Security memoranda and selected Vietnam War documents.
• Lyndon B. Johnson
  • LBJ Library and Museum
    The Research section of the library includes a selection of transcribed speeches, oral histories, daily diaries, National Security Action Memoranda as well as images.
  • LBJ White House Tapes
    Searchable collection of transcripts and audio files of more than 40 hours of phone conversations made by Lyndon Johnson.
• John F. Kennedy
  • John F. Kennedy Executive Orders
    Text from 214 executive orders by JFK provided by the University of Michigan.
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Project
    Project sponsored by Stanford University and the MLK Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Includes a brief biography, selected documents, and a searchable bibliography of more than 2700 articles that deal with MLK and the civil rights movement.
• William McKinley
  • Mckinley Assassination Ink
    Transcriptions of articles, essays, editorials dealing with the McKinley assassination.
• Richard M. Nixon
  • Photographing History: Fred J. Maroon and the Nixon Years, 1970-1974
    Exhibit of photographs from the National Museum of American History.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  • FDR Cartoon Collection
    Project to document and preserve the O'Conner Collection of approximately 30,000 political cartoons featuring Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1932 to 1943.
  • New Deal Network
    A collaborative effort of the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the FDR Presidential Library, Marist College and IBM that seeks to "document the social and cultural legacy of the New Deal era." Includes full-text documents and photographs.
  • FDR Library and Digital Archives
    Thousands of digital archives dealing primarily with World War II and earlier diplomatic efforts. There are currently 3 sections: the Safe Files, the Vatican Files and German Diplomatic Files.
• Theodore Roosevelt
  • Theodore Roosevelt, Icon of the American Century
    Visual biography of Theodore Roosevelt presented by the National Portrait Gallery. "The exhibition has an introduction and three sections: Maverick in the Making, 1882-1901; Rough Rider in the White House, 1901-1909; and The Restless Hunter, 1909-1919."
  • Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film
    Collection of 104 films which record events in Roosevelt's life from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to his death in 1919. Part of American Memory.
• Harry Truman
  • Dear Bess: Love Letters from the President
    Collection of letters from Harry Truman to Bess Truman spanning the years 1911 to 1957.
  • Truman Library
    The library has digitized major collections dealing with various issues during the Truman presidency including the atomic bomb, Marshall Plan, Berlin airlift, and the Korean War.
• Booker T. Washington
  • Booker T. Washington Papers
    "The Booker T. Washington Papers Online is a completely free and searchable web site designed to provide researchers worldwide with full access to the thousands of pages comprising this 14-volume printed work, originally published by the University of Illinois Press."
• Woodrow Wilson
  • Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
    The eLibrary section contains transcripts of letters, speeches, notes and other documents and images from the Wilson presidency.

Sites Arranged Chronologically

• 1865-1900
  • Disability History Museum Library
    This archive contains "digital versions of images, texts, and other artifacts related to disability history" dating back to the 18th century.
  • Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
    "The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA) presents over 9,000 images" of early advertising from the collections at Duke University. Also see 19th c. Advertising History. For later advertising see Ad*Access. For cigarette advertising see Philip Morris Advertising Archive.
  • Evolution of the Conservation Movement 1850-1920
    "The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920" documents the historical formation and cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress." Also see American Environmental Photographs and Mapping the National Parks. Part of American Memory.
  • The Feather Trade and the American Conservation Movement
    Exhibit by the National Museum of American History providing a narrative supplemented by documents and images dealing with the development of conservation movements such as the Audubon Society.
  • Fenian Brotherhood Collection
    "The Fenians were established in Ireland and the United States in 1858 with the avowed purpose of overthrowing British rule in Ireland and establishing an Irish Republic." This collection from the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives contains letters, pamphlets, newspapers and other material from the American branch.
  • Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
    Articles, editorials, illustrations and cartoons published in Harper's Weekly between 1865 and 1869. Also see other cartoons from the magazine.
  • The Great Chicago Fire
    Multimedia exhibit with images, maps, and documents illustrating the history of the great Chicago fire of 1871. Created by the Chicago Historical Society and Northwestern University.
  • Haymarket Affair Digital Collection
    "This digital collection contains copies of most of the original manuscripts, artifacts, broadsides, photographs, and prints owned by the Chicago Historical Society (CHS) that relate to the Haymarket Affair and were contemporary with it." Also see the accompanying exhibit, Dramas of Haymarket
  • Memento Mori: Death and Photography in 19th Century America
    Detailed article written by Dan Meinwald with footnotes, photographs and excerpts from primary sources. Printed as CMP (California Museum of Photography) Bulletin, vol. 9, No. 4.
  • Performing arts in America, 1875-1923 Collection of more than 16,000 items such as playbills, photographs, newspaper clippings detailing the history of late 19th century theatre and early 20th century cinema. Part of the New York Public Library Digital Library Collection.
  • Spanish American War
    Exhibition at New York Public Library includes narrative and graphics. Also see the American Memory collection, The Spanish American War in Motion Pictures.

• 20th Century
  • Ad*Access Project
    "The Ad*Access Project presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II." For earlier advertising history see Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920.
  • Adoption History Project
    This website “highlights the people, organizations, topics, and studies that shaped child adoption in theory and practice during the twentieth century in the United States" and includes documents, images and other material covering adoption from the mid-19th to the present (though most of the material deals with the 20th century).
  • Alcohol, Temperance & Prohibition
    Collection of digitized pamphlets and other writings dealing with the temperance movement from the collections of Brown University.
  • American Cultural History the Twentieth Century
    "Divided into sections according to decade, the guide functions as a hypertextual bibliographic essay, outlining the major events, important persons, and cultural trends of each decade, and linking users to related Websites and print materials."
  • American Presidency Project
    Collection of Public Papers of the Presidents (Hoover through G.H.W. Bush), State of the Union Addresses (Washington through Bush), Inaugural Addresses, party platforms, FDR's Fireside Chats and other material.
  • American Social Hygiene Posters ca. 1910-1970
    Collection of posters from the Social History Archives at the University of Minnesota. Posters on topics such as sexually transmitted diseases, physical fitness and health.
  • Digital Images from the American Radicalism Collection
    Digitized versions of holdings at Michigan State University on topics as diverse as birth control to Wounded Knee. Material dates from approximately 1910 to 1970.
  • Famous Trials of the 20th Century
    Site created by law professor Douglas Linder. Each site includes excerpts from court documents, photographs and biographies. Current sites include: Leopold and Loeb, Scopes Monkey Trial, Rosenburg's trial and others.
  • FOIA Documents
    Heavily requested FBI documents complete with blacked-out sections from the Freedom of Information Act Reading Room dealing with organizations and personalities such as John Lennon, Thurgood Marshall and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
  • National Security Archive
    Selection of FOIA released documents dealing with national security issues with a focus on US-Latin American relations and the Cold War.
  • Frontline Diplomacy
    Transcriptions of interviews with some of the most prominent American diplomats of the 20th century.
  • George Grantham Bain Collection
    Collection of over 35,000 news photographs from the Bain news picture agency. Most photos date from the early 1900s thru the 1920s, with some earlier and later coverage.
  • Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement
    Searchable collection of more than 1,200 images (including photographs, documents and news clippings) from the DNA Learning Center at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory. Also includes an extensive exhibit. Materials date from 1910-1940.
  • NBER Macrohistory Database
    An extensive database provided by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) "that covers all aspects of the pre-WWI and interwar economies, including production, construction, employment, money, prices, asset market transactions, foreign trade, and government activity."
  • The Oyez Project
    The goal of this site is "to provide information about major constitutional cases heard and decided by the Supreme Court of the United States" since 1955. Maintained by Northwestern University.
  • Prelinger Archives Digitized collection of over 1,200 advertising, educational, industrial, civil defense and amateur films produced from the 1920's through early 1980s. Includes such classics as Duck and Cover and Molly Grows Up. Registration required.

• 1900-1920
  • On the Lower East Side: Observations of Life in Lower Manhattan at the Turn of the Century
    An excellent collection of primary sources, articles and documents written by Jacob Riis, Mary Van Kleeck and others, originally compiled to accompany a course offered at St. Mary's University of Minnesota. Also see Riis's How the Other Half Lives.
  • Anti-Saloon League
    "The Anti-Saloon League from 1893 to 1933 was a major force in American politics. Influencing the United States through the printed word and lobbying, they turned a moral crusade into a Constitutional amendment." This site, based at the Westerville Public Library, includes a lengthy narrative illustrated with documents and images. Also see the Temperance & Prohhibition page at Ohio State.
  • Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935
    Includes lengthy article and links to primary sources and other internet sources dealing with this topic. Created by Jim Zwick, a doctoral candidate at Syracuse University, who has produced a number of sites dealing with the American colonial experience in the Philippines.
  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    Photographs, contemporary accounts and reports of the fire of 1911. Presented by the Kheel Center in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
  • RMS Titanic
    Online exhibit focusing on newspaper coverage of the Titanic tragedy, includes numerous contemporary articles and editorial cartoons. Part of the Virginia Newspaper Project at the University of Virginia.
  • World War I Document Archive
    Collection of documents including treaties, personal narratives and correspondence created by the World War I Military History List and based at Brigham Young University. Also see World War I - Trenches on the Web
  • American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election
    Collection "of fifty-nine sound recordings of speeches by American leaders at the turn of the century. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding the First World War and the subsequent presidential election of 1920. Speakers include: Warren G. Harding, James Cox, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel Gompers, Henry Cabot Lodge, and John J. Pershing. Speeches range from one to five minutes." Part of American Memory.
  • The Red Scare Archive
    An image database chronicling the Red Scare of 1918-1920 with photographs, advertisements and cartoons.

• 1920-1940
  • The 1920s
    Site created by the editor of Et Ultra at the University of Louisville. Includes brief narratives and biographies with links to relevant websites.
  • Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
    Collection of material from the Library of Congress collections "that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition." Part of American Memory.
  • America in the 1930s
    Project of the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia which explores various aspects of 1930s American culture, especially media, and history.
  • American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
    "The histories describe the informant's family education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous observations." Part of American Memory.
  • By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1940
    Collection "of 907 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal." Part of American Memory.
  • Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
    Site includes exhibits, a brief history, discussion list and more.
  • September 21, 1939: A Day in Radio
    Digitized complete day of radio broadcasts from September 21, 1939.

• 1940-1960
  • Voices from the Dust Bowl
    "Online presentation of a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941. This collection consists of audio recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, publications, and ephemera." Also see America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Part of American Memory.
  • Historic Government Publications from World War II
    Collection of more than 200 U.S. government documents from WWII.
  • Literature and Culture of the American 1950s
    A collection of readings from and about 1950s America provided by the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Korean War Project
    Created by the founder of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Trust Fund, this site provides links to war, veteran and Korean-related sites. Also see NARA's list of casualities.
  • Brown v. Board of Education Digital Archive
    The University of Michigan Library's Brown v. Board of Education Digital Archive "contains documents and images which chronicle events surrounding this historically significant case up to the present."

• 1960-
  • Psychedelic 60's
    Exhibit at the University of Virginia illustrated with posters, pamphlets and photographs. See also the Sixties Project.
  • The Ultrasensitive Bay of Pigs
    Part of the National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book series at George Washington University. Provides a brief narrative and a selection of declassified documents.See also Kennedy and Castro and Beisbol Diplomacy.
  • Free Speech Movement
    Collection of documents, images and oral histories dealing with the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.
  • Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection
    Collection from the University of Washington that provides a local perspective on the antiwar movement, women's rights and gay rights movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
  • Virtual Vietnam Archive
    Collection of more than 400,000 digitized documents, audio and video files from the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech. Other web sites dealing with the Vietnam war include POW/MIA Database, Vietnam Veterans Home Page, PBS's Vietnam Online and the Peers Inquiry, the official Army investigation into the My Lai massacre and the related Congressional hearings.
  • Watergate 25
    This exhibit on Watergate produced by the Washington Post includes original news stories, timeline and biographies of key players. Also see The Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers exhibit from the University of Texas at Austin.

Image: Vietnam War Memorial and photographs of protesters and soldiers.