Reference Shelf: Archival Resources

  • Ad*Access is a project of Duke University, presenting "images and database information for over 7000 advertisements printed in US and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955."
  • Adflip.com a searchable archive of digitized images of print advertisements from 1940 to present. Adflip can be searched by year and subject.
  • American Memory from the Library of Congress, is a digital archive of over 70 collections that include textual documents, photographs, maps, audio recordings and film clips.
  • United States Historical Census Browser. Historical data from the US Census on the population and economy by state and county from 1790 to 1960. Based on data compiled by the Inter-University Consortium for political and Social Research. Data before 1830 focuses on population only, while later entries include economic census data.
  • Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln is a searchable online version of the 8 volume set published in 1953 by the Abraham Lincoln Association. This site has been created as part of the University of Michigan's "Making of America" project.
  • Documenting the American South "is a collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period to the first decades of the 20th century." Produced by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this site contains 734 books and manuscripts under subjects that include, First-Person Narratives and North American slave narratives.
  • EuroDocs. This site operates as a clearinghouse to documents--mostly primary--relating to to the history of Europe. Organized by country, the site also offers two major subject collections: "Medieval & Renaissance Europe;" and "Europe as a Supernational region."
  • The Historical New York Times Project, 1860-1866. An ongoing free Web project at the Universal Library at Carnegie Mellon University to digitize the New York Times Archive. The current site includes digital images of the entire contents of the New York Times from 1860-1866.
  • The Historical New York Times Project, 1851-2001. A full-image--subscription only-- archive of the entire historical run of The New York Times, from 1851-2001. Every word appearing in the New York Times for this period is indexed, including those found in display and classified ads, comics and cartoons as well as editorials. Full page in-context pdf images as well as individual item pdf images are available. BU-px
  • Jewish Women's Archive includes a Virtual Archive database consisting of "500 archival images and the records of over 200 women, whose collections are held in repositories in the United States and Canada. The archive is also searchable by subject, occupation as well as by the genre of the primary source material (i.e. oral histories, diaries, personal papers)."
  • Thomas A. Edison Papers is a digital archive at Rutgers University that--to date--has "published 227 reels (four parts) of microfilm, comprising one-third of a million pages and covering Edison's life from 1847 to 1910; four volumes that detail the first 32 years of Edison's life; and a six-reel collection of film and equipment catalogs from the earliest years of motion pictures." This site is "sponsored by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the New Jersey Historical Commission and supported by over 60 public and private foundations, corporations, and individuals."
  • Making of America. This site, produced at the University of Michigan, is "a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction... particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology... The collection currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints."
  • PHOTOBANK online is a collection of over 10,000 digitized images from the archives of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). PHOTOBANK can be searched by region, country, theme, subject, keyword, year and photographer.
   


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