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State History

Websites dealing with state history are listed alphabetically by state. For Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington see Pacific Northwest History. For other sites dealing more broadly with U.S. history see United States History to 1865 and United States History from 1865.

Regional

• 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."

Alabama

• Alabama Mosaic
  Searchable collections of photographs, documents, artifacts and finding aids from Alabama libraries and organizations.

Arizona

• Bisbee Deportation of 1917
  Collection of digitized materials dealing with 1917 deportation of miners includes "I.W.W. publications, personal recollections, newspaper articles, court records, government reports, correspondence, and journal articles."
• Historical Photograph Collection at the Arizona State Archives
  Searchable database of photographs primarily pre-1940.
• Shema Arizona: Arizona Jewish Historical Society Oral History Project
  Transcripts of more than 60 oral history interviews detailing the history of migration of Jews to the West in the early 20th century.

California

• Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916
  Collection of 26 films. Part of American Memory.
• California as I Saw It
  "full texts and illustrations of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's history through eyewitness accounts. The collection covers the dramatic decades between the Gold Rush and the turn of the twentieth century." Part of American Memory.
• California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties
  Collection of recordings, photographs and documents dealing with European ethnic, Hispanic and English folk music. Part of American Memory.
• California History Online
  The California Historica Society presents "an online guide to over three hundred years of California history" including "over 400 images from our fine arts, library, and photography collections and articles written by James J. Rawls, the Review Editor for California History."
• The California Underground Railroad
  Digital archive of newspapers, manuscripts and other material documenting the experiences of African American slaves in California.
• Digger Archives: San Francisco 1966-68 and Beyond
  "The Digger Archives is an ongoing Web project to preserve and present the history of the anarchist guerilla street theater group that challenged the emerging Counterculture of the Sixties." Includes primary sources, posters and the beginnings of an oral history.
• Electronic Neighborhood
  "The Electronic Neighborhood is a unique one-stop information resource for information on California and regional history topics." Included is an index to articles on local topics, a photographic database and a menu database. Project of Los Angeles Public Library.
• Museum of the City of San Francisco
  In addition to general museum information, this site includes an index to San Francisco history with excerpts from period newspapers and magazines as well as graphics. Also see the digitized photographic collection at San Francisco Public Library.
• Online Archive of California
  The Online Archive of California is a "digital" archive containing photographs, pictures, and manuscripts from the collections of the Bancroft Library and other institutions.
• Online Campaign Literature Archive
  A century of campaign texts and emphemera dealing with elections in Los Angeles.
• Sacramento History Online
  "Sacramento History Online is a joint project of four Sacramento County institutions to digitize and catalog over 2000 items from their collections. The project's goal has been to document agriculture and transportation in the Sacramento region from the mid 19th to early 20th century."
• San Fernando Valley History Digital Library
  "The San Fernando Valley History Digital Library is the first effort to assemble, digitize and make globally available historically significant documents, manuscripts, photographs and related graphic materials from public and private collections in the San Fernando Valley. "
• University of California History Project
  "This websource provides access to a growing collection of digitized historical documents, images and materials, along with past and current analysis on the history of the University of California."
• Web de Anza
  "Web de Anza provides students and scholars with primary source documents and multimedia resources covering Juan Bautista de Anza's two overland expeditions from the Sonoran desert to northern California, leading to the colonization of San Francisco in 1776."

Colorado

• Colorado's Historical Newspaper Collection
  Digitized collection of more than 80 Colorado newspapers published between 1859 and 1928.
• Fort Collins On-Line History & Architecture Database
  Collection of material dealing with Fort Collins history including photographs and buildings. Eventually the site will include city building permits and city directories.
• Germans From Russia on the Trail to Colorado Collection of oral histories, images and maps detailing this ethnic group in Colorado.
• History of the American West, 1860-1920
  "Over 30,000 photographs, drawn from the holdings of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library." Part of American Memory. Also see Photography Collection at Denver Public Library.

Connecticut

• Colonial Connecticut Records
  Digitized version of the printed colonial records covering 1636-1776 provided by the University of Connecticut Libraries.
• Connecticut History Online
  Searchable database of photographs dealing with all aspects of Connecticut history.
• Hartford Black History Project
  This site provides the first comprehensive history of the Black community of Hartford, Connecticut. Included are narrative, images and documents.

Delaware

• Delaware Public Archives
  Delaware Public Archive's collection of digital resources includes coroner's inqurest, slavery papers, Civil War records, photographs and maps.

Florida

• Florida Aerial Photography
  Collection of aerial photographs dating from 1930 to 2000.
• Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections
  "A multiformat ethnographic field collection documenting African-American, Arabic, Bahamian, British-American, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, and Slavic cultures throughout Florida." Includes folksongs, folktales and life histories collected during the 1930s. Part of American Memory.
• Florida Heritage Collection
  "The Florida Heritage Collection is an ongoing cooperative project of the State University System (SUS) of Florida to digitize and provide online access to materials broadly representing Florida’s history, culture, arts, literature, sciences and social sciences."
• Florida Memory Project
  "Florida Memory Project provides a web-based structure for primary records that illustrates significant moments in the state's history, provides educational resources for students of all ages, and makes available collections for historical research. The Florida Memory Project utilizes original documents, photographs, and other materials from the collections of the Florida State Archives. "
• Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida's Natural History, 1884-1934
  This American Memory collection "includes a rich diversity of unique or rare materials: personal correspondence, essays, typescripts, reports and memos; photographs, maps and postcards; and publications from individuals and the government."
• Ringling Collection
  University of Florida collection of photographs of 19th century American and British actors.
• Samuel Proctor Oral History Collections
  Transcriptions of of more than 1300 interviews covering topics such as Native Americans in Florida, civil rights and the citrus industry.
• Sanborn Maps
  Digitized Sanborn fire insurance maps for Florida from 1884 to 1924.
• Travel, Tourism, and Urban Growth in Greater Miami
  A digital archive that "looks at how different groups of individuals promoted Miami over the past two centuries."

Georgia

• Digital Library of Georgia
  Growing digital collection of materials dealing with Georgia history. Current collections cover issues dealing with Native Americans, the Civil War, colonial records and newspapers.

Hawaii

• Annexation of Hawaii: A collection of documents
  "Digitized reports and debates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries related to the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and the annexation of Hawai'i."
• Hawaiian Language Newspapers
  Digitized images of Hawaian language newspapers dating primarily from the 19thc.
• Hawaii Pacific Journal Index
  Hawaii Pacific Journal Index is an index to nearly 100 journals published in or about Hawaii and covering all subjects.

Illinois

• Chicago Historical Society's History Files
  History of notable events and characters in Chicago history with narrative, image and bibliography.
• Homicide In Chicago 1870-1930
  Searchable database of homicide records, site also highlights 25 "crimes of the century" and provides historical context.
• 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
  This American Memory "collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair" of 1886-1887. Also see Dramas of Haymarket.
• Illinois Digital Archives
  Collection of digital projects from around the state.
• Maps of Illinois and the Old Northwest
  Searchable collection of maps covering more than 400 years of Illinois history. Also see the Historic Aerial Photo Imagebase. Both are projects of the University of Illinois' Digital Imaging & Media Technology Initiative.
• Photographs from the Chicago Daily News: 1902-1933
  This American Memory collection "comprises over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives between 1902 and 1933 by photographers employed by the Chicago Daily News, then one of Chicago's leading newspapers."
• Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963
  "Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963, uses historical documents, images, interpretive essays, biographies, and works of social science, urban geography, literature and memoir. The documents range from archival materials including correspondence, scrapbooks, institutional records, diaries, journals and unpublished manuscripts to printed materials not easily available: newspaper clippings, articles from magazines and journals, broadsides, pamphlets, posters, government reports. Images include photography, illustrations, architectural renderings, maps and art work."
• World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath
  A hypertext master's thesis by a University of Virginia student "investigates visitor's reactions to the Fair and analyzes the social, political and cultural legacies of the World's Columbian Exposition" of 1893.

Indiana

• Indiana University Digital Library Program Collections
  Links to a variety of collections including the Hoagy Carmichael collection, Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection and U.S. Steel Gary Works Photograph Collection.
• Shaping the Circle: German-Americans in Indianapolis: 1840-1918
  Pilot digital exhibit from the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives demonstrates the influence German-Americans have had on music, architecture, and physical education in Indianapolis.

Iowa

• Calvin Photographic Collection
  Collection of photographs taken in the late 19th century illustrating geological features and other aspects of Iowa by University of Iowa geologist Samuel Calvin.
• Iowa Heritage
  "An online repository of Iowa history and culture created by bringing together in digital form documents, images, maps, finding aids, interpretive and educational materials, and other media from collections held by a wide range of organizations throughout Iowa."
• Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive
  "Searchable database of thousands of digital images from local history collections covering the 1860s through the 1950s."

Kansas

• Historical Publications of the Agricultural Experiment Station
  Digitized collection of annual reports, bulletins, circulars and other material documenting Kansas agriculture from the period of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.
• Kansas Collection
  Digitized collection of books, articles and images both primary and secondary. Includes sites such as Orphan Trains of Kansas and a newletter Voices.

Kentucky

• First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
  This American Memory collection "consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century... Among the sources included are books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, scientific publications, broadsides, letters, journals, legal documents, ledgers and other financial records, maps, physical artifacts, and pictorial images."
• Kentuckiana Digital Library
  Collections of oral histories, books and images dealing with Kentucky history.

Louisiana

• LSU Digital Library
  Collections of photographs, maps and other materials detailing Louisiana history.

Maine

• Maine Memory Network
  "The Maine Memory Network is a statewide database of electronic versions of Maine's Historical Documents." The searchable site includes "letters, journals, photographs, paintings, drawings, museum objects, broadsides, maps, sound and video files."

Maryland

• Archives of Maryland
  Online version of the multi-volume set of colonial records and papers.

Massachusetts

• Barnstable Patriot Newspaper Archive
  Digitized Cape Code newspaper from 1830 to 1930.
• Boston African American Project
  Collection of pamphlets, images, broadsheets and other material related to lives of African Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Boston College, John J. Burns Library Digitized Collections
  Currently this site has digitized photographs from four collections: Boston Gas Company Photographs, University Archives Photographs, Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Photographs, and Liturgy and Life Artifacts
• The Ten O'Clock News
  Digitized videoclips from Boston's WGBH's news program. The newsclips date from 1974 to 1991 and focus on Boston's African American community.
• The Ursuline Convent Charlestown, Mass. Collection
  "This collection documents the ministry of the Ursulines of Quebec in Boston area during the early 1800s and demonstrates the strong anti-Catholic sentiment that existed in New England. The collection spans the years 1833 - 1903 and includes correspondence, a hand-written copy of an eyewitness report of the convent's burning in 1834, a scrapbook history, printed items including journals, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings, and a photo and sketch of the convent." Part of the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives.
• Witchcraft in Salem Village
  Created by the Danvers Archibal Center, this site includes an electronic version of Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1693 and other primary sources.

Michigan

• Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, 1820-1910
  Collection of 138 volumes including "first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works." Part of American Memory.

Minnesota

• Duluth Lynchings Online Resources
  A digital collection of more than 2,000 pages of primary sources dealing with the lynching of three Black men on June 15, 1920.
• Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Database
  Searchable collection of more than 80,000 photographs detailing "Minnesotans, their lives, landscapes, leisure and occupations from 1850 to the present." Currently only 15% include images.
• Minnesota Maps Online
  "The Minnesota Historical Society has created this tremendous collection of land survey maps, plat books and atlases, dating from 1848 to 2001."

Missouri

• Kansas City Local History Database
  Collection of more than 10,000 photographs, postcards, biographies, maps and exhibits dealing with Kansas history.
• Virtually Missouri
  Variety of collections depicting the history of Missouri as well as other digital collections. Includes links to Historic Newspapers of Missouri, Globe Democrat photo collection and the Births and Deaths database.

Nebraska

• Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters
  Collection of approximately 3000 photographs and 3000 pages of letters of the Oblinger family depicting life in Nebraska between the years 1886 and 1912. Part of American Memory.
• Westward Through Nebraska
  "Selected electronic books (1867-1933) covering westward movement through Nebraska along the Oregon Trail and the Union Pacific rail lines."

Nevada

• Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada 1945-1982
  "This collection presents 41 motion pictures and 28 sound recordings that tell the story of life and work on the Ninety-Six Ranch and of its cowboys, known in the region as buckaroos." Part of American Memory.

New York

• American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850
  New York Public Library digital collection of historic maps.
• Brooklyn Daily Eagle
  Digital version of the newspaper covering 1841 to 1906.
• Brooklyn in the Civil War
  Documents, images and lesson plans provided by Brooklyn Public Library.
• Buffalo History Works
  Presents the industrial history of Buffalo and includes segments on the Erie Canal and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.
• Drums Along the Mohawk
  Narrative, biography and excerpts from primary documents illustrate this history of the American Revolution on the New York frontier.
• The Glovers of Fulton County
  "The Glovers of Fulton County is a long term research and documentation project that examines the glove industry in Fulton County, New York." Includes transcripts of mediation hearings and selected secondary sources.
• Illuminations: Revisiting the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition of 1901
  Exhibit created by the "University at Buffalo Libraries to commemorate the grand events that took place in Buffalo in 1901." The exhibit includes documents, essays, and images.
• The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
  Collection of 45 early films of New York City. Part of American Memory.
• New York State Historical Literature
  Cornell's digitized collection of 655 New York State historical pamphlets and books.
• NYC 100
  "The following articles offer a glimpse into the past 100 years of New York City -- a decade at a time. Each decade includes a full time line prepared by the staff at The New York Times, photos from The Times archives, headline clippings from archive copies of The Times, and essays by noted authors and Times staff writers." Also see Newsday's Long Island: Our Story.
• NYPL Picture Collection Online
  New York Public Library's digitized collection of 30,000 images from "books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards." Also see NYPL's collection of Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region.
• 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.
• Rochester Images
  Searchable collection of contemporary and historic images of Rochester and Monroe County history.
• Small Town America: Stereoscopic Views from the Dennis Collection, 1850-1920
  "12,000 photographs of the Mid-Atlantic states New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut from the 1850s to the 1910s, from the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views at the New York Public Library." Part of American Memory.

North Dakota

• Northern Great Plain: Photographs from the Hultstrand and Pazandak collections
  "900 photographs of rural and small town life at the turn of the century. Highlights include images of sod homes and the people who built them; images of farms and the machinery that made them prosper; and images of one-room schools and the children that were educated in them." Part of American Memory.

Ohio

• African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
  Digital collection includes manuscripts, newspaper and magazine articles, photographs and pamphlets. Part of American Memory.
• Cleveland Memory Project
  Vast collection of photographs and other items detailing Cleveland history. Major collections include the The Cleveland Press Collection, Postcards of Cleveland and the Annals of Cleveland. Also see the Cleveland Digital Library.
• Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
  Expanded and revised electronic version of the encyclopedia, originally published in 1987. Includes photographs and maps.
• Oral History Digital Collection
  Collection of more than 1000 transcribed oral histories dealing with Youngstown and northeastern Ohio focusing on "World War II, Vietnam, Youngstown College (University), Greek, Puerto Rican, Romanian, Russian and Italian culture, industry (steel, pottery, brick, labor relations, coal, and railroads), politics, the Holocaust, and religion."

Pennsylvania

• Bethlehem Digital History Project
  Collection of primary sources dealing with the history of Bethlehem, Pennyslvania from 1741 through 1844. Included are records, diaries, correspondence and maps.
• Centennial Exhibition Digital Collection
  Collection of photographs, trade cards and other material from the Free Library of Philadelphia about the 1876 Centennial Exhibition.
• Historic Pittsburgh Project
  "Historic Pittsburgh is a digital collection that provides an opportunity to explore and research the history of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania area on the Internet. When complete, it will consist of a full-text collection of more than 400 items, over 500 archival finding aids, approximately 600 land ownership maps, and access to the Historical Society's catalog."
• Philadelphia Historical Digital Image Library
  Digitized photographs from the collections of Scott Memorial Library of Thomas Jefferson University and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Many images deal with local hospitals.
• Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
  Digitized versions of The Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), and The Jewish Chronicle (1962-Present).

South Carolina

• Revolutionary War Letters, Diaries and Orders
  Collection of 400 transcriptions of primary sources dealing with the Revolution in South Carolina. Provided by the South Carolina Historical Society.

Tennessee

• Digital Library of Appalachia
  "The Digital Library of Appalachia seeks to provide online access to archival and historical materials related to the culture of the southern and central Appalachian region."
• Tennessee Documentary History, 1796-1850
  This "on-line project will contain 2,000 documents and images relating to the history of antebellum Tennessee." Part of UT's Digital Library Center.
• The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  More than 1500 entries on all aspects of Tennessee history.
• Tennessee Heritage Online
  Links to a variety of digital collections dealing with Tennessee history.

Texas

• Handbook of Texas Online
  Expanded electronic version of the New Handbook of Texas originally published in 1996. It is "a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture" with more than 23,000 articles.
• Images of a Rural Past: Photographs from the Texas Agricultural Extension Service
  This collection consists of nearly 7000 photographs most dating from the 1930s through the 1970s. The images "document many activities aimed at improving the lives and livelihood of rural Texans. Farming, home improvement, livestock raising, and other programs of the Extension Service" are illustrated.
• Murphy & Bolanz Collection
  A collection of Dallas County real estate maps dating from 1880-1920.
• The South Texas Border, 1900-1920: Photographs from the Robert Runyon Collection
  "The Robert Runyon Photograph Collection of the South Texas Border Area, a collection of over 8,000 items, is a unique visual resource documenting the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the early 1900s." Part of American Memory.
• Texas Constitutions Digitization Project
  "The goal of the Texas Constitutions Project is to digitize the various versions of the Texas Constitution and to make digital versions of the documents available online together with explanatory text and images."

Utah

• Galloway-Stone River Expedition, 1909
  Digitized photographs and diaries detailing the 1909 expedition of the Colorado River from Wyoming to California.
• Utah History Encyclopedia
  A collaborative online encyclopedia coordinated by the Utah State Historical Society.
• Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection
  "This collection documents the history of the Intermountain West in the twentieth century as no other collection does. The emergence of modern America is documented in architecture, transportation, urbanization, transportation, etc."
• Utah Digital Collections
  Links to a variety of digitized collections dealing with Utah including maps, documents and photographs.
• Utah Digital Newspapers Digitized versions of the following papers: Grand Valley Times, 1896-1922, Vernal Express, 1891-1922 and The Wasatch Wave, 1889-1922. Part of the University of Utah Marriott Library Digitized Collections.

Virginia

• An African American Album
  "An African American Album, the Black Experience in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County was published by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in 1992. The book, now out of print, is made up of photographs donated by community members. These compelling images reflect African-American Life in the years before 1950."
• Early Virginia Religious Petitions
  Images of more than 400 petitions presented to the Virginia legislature between 1774 and 1802 dealing with "the historic debate over the separation of church and state championed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the rights of dissenters such as Quakers and Baptists, the sale and division of property in the established church, and the dissolution of unpopular vestries." Part of American Memory.
• Jackson Davis Collection of African American Educational Photographs
  Searchable collection of photographs by Virginia educator, Davis. Most of the photographs depict Virginia and the South during the first half of the 20th century. The site also includes a brief biography and transcriptions of Davis's 1911 and 1913 diaries.
• Library of Virginia Digital Collections
  Collections include finding aids, photographs, estate records and colonial documents.

West Virginia

• West Virginia Historical Photographs
  Collection of more than 20,000 photographs depicting West Virginia history.

Wisconsin

• State of Wisconsin Collection
  Various collections dealing with Wisconsin history including the Wisconsin Pioneer Experience, Great Lakes Maritime History Project and Ada James Papers and Correspondence. Also see the Wisconsin History Portal.