Alcove 9: An Annotated List of Reference Websites

U.S. History

American Journeys
From the Wisconsin Historical Society, a collection of digitized primary source materials on early American exploration and settlement. Users can do fielded searches for documents by subject, geographic area, and other criteria; browse documents by date; and search for images.

American Memory (Library of Congress)
Digitized primary source documents, manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, and other materials from the Library of Congress collections related to American history. Users can browse collections by subject, time period, format, or geographic area; search by keyword; or list all collections alphabetically by title. The Learning Page provides resources for K-12 educators and students using American Memory in the classroom.

American Presidency Project
From the University of California at Santa Barbara, an archive of over 52,000 documents related to the study of the American presidency. This collection offers a document archive, which includes the only online source without charge of the "Public Papers of the Presidents: Hoover to G.W. Bush," a media archive, great addresses of the modern presidents (listed on the main page), and extensive presidential election information.

American Social and Cultural History (Smithsonian Institution)
A collection of links to online exhibits, information sheets, bibliographies, and other resources from the Smithsonian Institution website. Part of the "Encyclopedia Smithsonian" listing of frequently requested topics.

Avalon Project (from Yale Law School)
A collection of full-text documents related to U.S. and international law, history, government, economics, politics, and diplomacy. The documents date from classical antiquity to the present, though the emphasis is on documents from the 16th to 20th centuries.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present
Online search facility for the Web version of the Biographical Directory of the American Congress (LCCN 98-640105). Entries can be searched by name, state, and position (Senator, Representative, Speaker of the House, etc.). The database is not browseable; terms must be typed into the search engine for any entries to be viewed. "Value-added" features for the online version include photographs, expanded bibliographies, and information about collections of primary source materials for some entries. Web version developed by the Senate Historical Office and the Legislative Resource Center of the House of Representatives.

Brooklyn Eagle
The full text of a major American newspaper (1841-1902), browseable by date or searchable by keyword.

Documenting the American South
From the University of North Carolina Library, a collection of digital primary source materials on the history of the southern U.S. Materials are organized into collections by subject. Users can also browse individual items by author, title, and Library of Congress subject headings. Users can also locate materials via clickable maps of the United States and North Carolina counties.

History Matters
Put together at George Mason University by several groups with funding from the Kellogg Foundation, this site is a collection of resources to assist those teaching history survey courses at both the secondary and college level. Still under construction, this site focuses on the years from Reconstruction to the end of World War II. Major sections include WWW.History (annotated list of U.S. History websites, arranged by subject), Digital Blackboard (Web-based teaching assignments), Many Pasts (annotated list of full-text, first-person historical documents), Making Sense of Evidence (interactive historical exercises for students), and Past Meets Present (articles and essays linking past issues to current events). Keyword search is available.

Library of American Civilization (partial listing from Quinnipiac University Library)
List of links to online editions of titles found in the microfiche Library of American Civilization (LCCN 83126245), which is held by many U.S. research libraries. Not all titles from the microfiche collection are available online, and the links are compiled from a variety of online sources.

The Making of America: University of Michigan and The Making of America: Cornell University
Two separate collections of digitized books and periodical articles from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. At both sites researchers can browse by title and author; or perform Boolean, proximity, and fielded searchs by author, title, or subject.

National First Ladies' Library
Website for the library in Canton, Ohio, with an extensive bibliography of materials written by and about the first ladies, including citations to articles, books, manuscript collections, and theses. The bibliography page is arranged by first lady in chronogical order, and is quite graphics-heavy (with a GIF image for each first lady).

United States Historical Census Data Browser
Selected demographic and socioeconomic variables from the decennial censuses, searchable by state and county. The search facility limits the number of variables one can use in a single search. Selected data from 1790 to 1960 are available to users.