LibGuides: HIST 300: Historical Research (Simonsen): ... in Digital Collections

Find Primary Sources in Digital Collections

CARLI Digital Collections
Digitized primary sources from academic libraries in Illinois. Hosted by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, of which Augustana is a member.
Chicago Public Library Digital Collections
Digitized materials on Chicago history and more from the collections of the Chicago Public Library.
Illinois Digital Archives
The Illinois Digital Archive is "a repository for the digital collections of the Illinois State Library as well as other libraries and cultural institutions in the State of Illinois." Find "photographs, slides, and glass negatives; oral histories; manuscripts and letters; federal government documents; postcards; posters; videos; newspapers; maps; and much more."
Illinois Digital Heritage Hub
Illinois State Archives
"The [Illinois] State Archives serves as the depository of public records of Illinois state and local governmental agencies which possess permanent administrative, legal, or historical research values."
Illinois State Genealogical Society
The Illinois State Genealogical Society's website features several databases and indexes that are free for the public to search.
Illinois State Historical Society
Home page of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Iowa Digital Library
"The Iowa Digital Library features more than a million digital objects created from the holdings of the University of Iowa Libraries and its campus partners. Included are illuminated manuscripts, historic maps, fine art, historic newspapers, scholarly works, and more."
Midwest Regional Collections
From the University Libraries of the University of Washington. This page links digitized collections of primary sources from throughout the Midwest. (Many of the linked collections are free on the web, but you may find a few that are not.)
National Archives at Chicago
The National Archives at Chicago "hold[s] permanent records created by federal agencies and courts" in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Newberry Library Core Collections
"At the heart of the Newberry is a set of collection strengths that have continued to grow over many decades, attracting scholars and other readers, and serving as the focus for our research activities. This core involves original sources in a variety of formats, such as books, manuscripts, maps, images, and music. In most cases it is supported by secondary materials, including monographs and periodical literature."
Pioneering the Upper Midwest
From the Library of Congress. "Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works drawn from the Library of Congress's General Collections and Rare Books and Special Collections Division."
State Historical Society of Iowa
"Numerous indexes, records and publications in the collections are available online" from the State Historical Society of Iowa. "Through partnerships with various organizations you can enjoy digitized maps, publications, newspapers and vital records."
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Digital Collections
"The Digital Collections at the UWM Libraries include over 180,000 photographic images, maps, and books drawn from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library, the Archives, Special Collections, and the Curriculum Collection."
Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive
"Explore the region as seen through the eyes of the late 19th and early 20th century people who lived here. Our archive currently features photographs from the collections of Davenport Public Library, Augustana College, Buffalo Historical Society, Galesburg Public Library, Putnam Museum, Rock Island County Historical Society, Rock Island Public Library, and Musser Public Library in Muscatine."
Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society's "world-class collections contain an extraordinary range of artifacts and information about American history, from the remote archaeological past to current events. North American genealogy and Wisconsin history are particular collection strengths."

American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Focuses on American Indians in the first half of the 20th century
*Contains records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes
*Access to collections on American Indians in the 19th century
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Access to resources related to U.S. Hispanic history, literature, and culture from colonial times until 1960
*This resource is indexed and searchable in Spanish and English
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 2 This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Contains primary resources related to Hispanic-American civil rights, religion, and women’s rights from the 18th to the 20th centuries

Bracero History Archive
"The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America."
Digital Public Library of America
"The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world."
The Freedom Archives
The Freedom Archives primarily "contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings" as well as "pamphlets, journals and other materials" from the 1960s to 1990s. The collections are organized by movement, including Black Liberation, Chican@/Xican@, Gender and Sexuality, and Indigenous/Native American Struggles, among many others.
Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room (FOIA Electronic Reading Room)
"The FOIA Electronic Reading Room is provided as a public service by the Directorate of Digital Innovation's Information Management Services" in order to "view documents released through the FOIA and other CIA release programs."
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a fully digital library of more than 17 million items, mostly books, from academic and research libraries. All books in the public domain are 100% viewable.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
"Documenting voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression." From Harvard University.
Independent Voices
Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Internet Archive
"The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge."

LGBT Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Resources documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day

Library of Congress Digital Collections
"The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office."
Making of America
"The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is comprised of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction."
Newspaper Navigator
From the Library of Congress, this resource searches photographs from American newspapers 1900-1963. All photos in Newspaper Navigator are in the public domain.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, & Oral Histories
This collection includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines.
North American Indian Thought & Culture
Brings together more than 100,000 pages, many of which are previously unpublished, rare, or hard to find. The project integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files for the first time.
South Asian American Digital Archive
Containing more than 4,000 digitized items, "SAADA digitally documents, preserves, and shares stories of South Asian Americans."

NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Papers focusing on crucial issues: lynching; school desegregation; and discrimination in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, and housing
*Coverage from 1909 to1970
NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Papers on civil rights in the United States
*Coverage from 1913 to 1972
NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Papers of the NAACP Legal Department from 1956-1972
NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Papers of the NAACP Legal Department from 1956-1972
NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Papers focus on the NAACP’s efforts regarding anti-lynching, peonage, and discrimination in employment and the criminal justice system
NAACP Papers: Special Subjects This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Papers on several subjects

Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Civil rights records, including FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Records and personal papers from civil rights leaders
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2 This link opens in a new window
What's included?
*Records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
*Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett
*Robert F. Williams Papers