LibGuides: Primary Sources for United States History: 20th to 21st Centuries

20th to 21st Centuries

American Politics and Society from JFK to Watergate, 1960-1975 This link opens in a new window
Compilation of document types from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies as well as records from federal agencies. Issues of the challenging times chronicled span women’s rights, environmental issues, urban renewal, rural development, tax reform, civil rights, space exploration, international trade, War on Poverty, and the Watergate trials.
Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement This link opens in a new window
A landmark online collection that fills the gap, with a comprehensive and international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.
Food Studies Online This link opens in a new window
Provides researchers rich archival content, visual ephemera, monographs, and videos that explore how food shapes the world around us. Food studies is a relatively new field of study, but its importance is felt in many major disciplines. It has social, historical, economic, cultural, religious, and political implications that reach far beyond what is consumed at the dinner table.
Historical Statistical Abstracts (1878-2012) This link opens in a new window
Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political and economic conditions of the United States.
Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 This link opens in a new window
Presents the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS’s regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.
New Deal and World War II (1933-1945) This link opens in a new window
The centerpiece of this module is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files. Roosevelt's Office Files constitute the heart and soul of the administrative record of the Roosevelt White House. They highlight the domestic and foreign concerns of the President and his administration. Roosevelt's policies, responses to crises, and plans for the future were all based on both classified and non classified information that he received and digested from all levels of government and the public.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, & Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
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.
Sixties: Primary Documents & Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 This link opens in a new window
Brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
Socialist Party of America Papers, 1897-1976 This link opens in a new window
Provides an exceptional historical overview of the Socialist Party of America as it struggled to gain support and realize its goals. Documents in the collection include correspondence, position papers, memoranda, financial records, pamphlets and broadsides, and leaflets.
Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement This link opens in a new window
Consists of 14 collections representing 12 different anti-Vietnam War organizations. Inspired, in part, by the civil rights movement, and especially by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in its early years, SDS emphasized participatory democracy, community building, and creating a political movement of impoverished people. As U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalated in the mid-1960s, SDS became involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement, before eventually splintering and disbanding by 1970. Coverage from 1958 to 1981.
Thomas A. Edison Papers This link opens in a new window
Documents the life, work, and vision of Thomas Edison in laboratory notebooks, diaries, business records, correspondence, and related materials. Inventor, businessman, scientist, industrialist, entrepreneur, engineer, Thomas Alva Edison developed many of the technologies that have shaped the modem world. Perhaps more than anyone else, Edison integrated the worlds of science, technology, business, and finance; and his work laid the foundation for the age of electricity, recorded sound, and motion pictures.
Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975 This link opens in a new window
Features the records of the Associated Press’s Saigon Bureau. Over 40 years ago, as Saigon was falling to the communists and the U.S. was evacuating Vietnam, Peter Arnett saved the records of the AP’s Saigon Bureau and brought them back to the United States. Until ProQuest scanned them and digitized them in History Vault, they were never before available to the public. Other key collections in this module include records of the Military Assistance and Advisory Command, Vietnam (MACV); General William Westmoreland Papers, and National Security Files from the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations.
Workers, Labor Unions, and the American Left in the 20th Century: Federal Records This link opens in a new window
Consists of a wide range of collections documenting the American workers and labor unions in the 20th century, with a special emphasis on the interaction between workers and the U.S. federal government.

Collections on the Web:

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.
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.
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."

To access Tredway Library's collection of historical Black newspapers, including the Chicago Defender, go to the "Newspapers & Magazines" page of this guide and click the "Black Newspapers" tab.

Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records This link opens in a new window
The focus of the Federal Government Records module is on the political side of the freedom movement, the role of civil rights organizations in pushing for civil rights legislation, and the interaction between African Americans and the federal government in the 20th century.
Major collections in this module include the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, an exceptional collection of FBI Files covering five of the most pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, detailing the interaction between civil rights leaders and organizations and the highest levels of the federal government.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records, Supplement This link opens in a new window
This module supplements the original module of federal government records by adding civil rights records from the Ford and Reagan presidencies.
The Ford Administration records in this module consist of the subject files of J. Stanley Pottinger (Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department) and Anne R. Clarke (Special Assistant in the Research Unit of the Civil Rights Division’s Sex Discrimination Program) detailing the implementation of federal civil rights law from 1973-1977. Records from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library consist of the White House Office of Records Management Subject File on Human Rights and seven FOIA collections covering affirmative action; Bob Jones University; busing and school desegregation; civil rights; fair housing; Martin Luther King Jr. Day; and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, Grove City College and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1982.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 This link opens in a new window
The Organizational Records and Personal Papers module brings a new perspective to the Black Freedom Struggle via the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle.
The three major civil rights organizations are the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. Papers of civil rights leaders included in this module are those of the civil rights and labor leader A. Philip Randolph; the long-time civil rights activist and organizer of the March on Washington, Bayard Rustin; and the papers of the pioneering educator Mary McLeod Bethune. Through records of Claude A. Barnett’s Associated Negro Press, this module also branches out to cover other aspects of African American life in the 20th century, like religion, sports, education, fraternal organizations, and even the field of entertainment.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2 This link opens in a new window
This newest Black Freedom module is highlighted by the records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, and the Robert F. Williams Papers.
SNCC, formed by student activists in 1960 after the explosion of the sit-in movement, was one of the three most important civil rights organizations of the 1960s, alongside SCLC and the NAACP. Rounding out this module are the papers of Chicago Congressman Arthur W. Mitchell, the Chicago chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, and records pertaining to the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
Black Freedom Website This link opens in a new window
Explore the open primary source documents from historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more from specific time periods in U.S. history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom.
Includes the following time periods:
1. Resistance to Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860)
2. The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877)
3. Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932)
4. The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945)
5. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975)
6. The Contemporary Era (1976-2000)
Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
Streaming videos featuring award-winning documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States.
All programming includes public performance rights.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
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.
NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files This link opens in a new window
This module charts the NAACP's work and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues: lynching; school desegregation; and discrimination in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, and housing, among others. It provides a comprehensive view of the NAACP’s evolution, policies, and achievements from 1909–1970.
NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files This link opens in a new window
Chronicles the local heroes of the civil rights revolution via NAACP branches throughout the United States, from 1913-1972.
The contributions of scores of local leaders—attorneys, community organizers, financial benefactors, students, mothers, school teachers, and other participants—are revealed in these records.
NAACP Papers: Special Subjects This link opens in a new window
The NAACP was involved in several subjects that did not rise to the level of major campaigns but were still vital to the organization. This module contains records on those subjects, and in so doing, reveals the wide scope of NAACP activism and interest.
NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, and Armed Forces This link opens in a new window
Major campaigns for equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military are covered in this module.
The education files in this module document the NAACP’s systematic assault on segregated education that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Files from 1955-1965 focus on the NAACP’s efforts to implement the Brown decision as well as to combat de facto segregation outside of the South.
NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files This link opens in a new window
Papers of the NAACP Legal Department from 1956-1972.
For the period from 1956-1965, this includes the working case files of the NAACP’s general counsel, Robert Carter. Among the topics covered in these cases are school desegregation, abuses of police procedure, freedom of speech, desegregation of public facilities, voting rights, housing discrimination, and employment discrimination.
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
Focuses on the NAACP’s efforts regarding anti-lynching, peonage, and discrimination in employment and the criminal justice system.
A rich set of records in this module is the NAACP file on one of the most celebrated criminal trials of the 20th century: the case of the Scottsboro boys. In this case, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women on a train in northern Alabama. Sixteen days after their arrest, eight of the nine teenagers were sentenced to death in the electric chair. All eight escaped execution when the Supreme Court, in the landmark case of Powell v. Alabama, ruled that the defendants had been inadequately represented by counsel.

Collections on the Web:

Behind the Veil Oral History Project
The Behind the Veil Oral History Project's purpose "was to record and preserve the living memory of African American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s."
Civil Rights Digital Library
The Civil Rights Digital Library helps users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.
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.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Images of artifacts from the museum's collection. The NMAAHC is part of the Smithsonian Institution.
Umbra Search
Umbra Search is a database that "brings together hundreds of thousands digitized materials from over 1,000 libraries and archives across the country" to make "African American history more broadly accessible."

Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Focuses on 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
Manuscripts, books, and newspapers on Hispanic-American civil rights, religion, and women’s rights from the 18th - 20th centuries.
Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 This link opens in a new window
Presents the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS’s regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
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.

Collections on the Web:

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."
Center for Puerto Rican Studies Digital Collection
"Browse material from throughout the Centro Archive showcasing the history and culture of Puerto Ricans in the diaspora." The Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños is based at Hunter College.
Farmworker Movement Documentation Project
From the University of California San Diego, the Farmworker Movement Documentation Project provides "primary source accounts by the UFW volunteers who built the movement," 1962-1993.
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.
Hispanic Reading Room (Library of Congress)
The Library of Congress's Hispanic Reading Room collects digital exhibits and primary sources related to Latinx history in the U.S.
Historic Mexican and Mexican-American Press
"The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s." From the University of Arizona.

American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 This link opens in a new window
This collection focuses on American Indians in the first half of the 20th century, a period that has not been studied in as much detail as the calamitous 19th century. The two major collections on the 20th century in this module are Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and records from the Major Council Meetings of American Indian Tribes. In addition to these 20th century records, American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 features a number of excellent collections on American Indians in the 19th century, with a focus on the interaction among white settlers, the U.S. federal government, and Indian tribes.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
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.
Indian Claims Insight This link opens in a new window
The Constitution of the U.S. authorizes the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties. Of all the treaties signed, most involved Native American lands, Indian removal or resettlement, or clarification of boundaries between white settlements and Indian lands. The resource covers the history of Indian claims from 1789-present.
North American Indian Thought & Culture This link opens in a new window
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.

Collections on the Web:

'Ulu'ulu Henry Ku'ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai'i
'Ulu'ulu "aims to perpetuate and share the rich moving image heritage of Hawai‘i through the preservation of film and videotape related to the history and culture of Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawai‘i."
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
The Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center "aims to develop a comprehensive searchable database of Carlisle Indian School resources."
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.
National Museum of the American Indian
Images of artifacts from the museum's collection. The National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian Institution.
Native American Heritage Month Exhibits and Collections
This website is dedicated to compiling primary sources, exhibits, and teaching materials for Native American Heritage Month each year as part of a "collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration."
Native Northeast Portal
"Native Northeast Portal contains primary source materials by, on, or about Northeast Indians from repositories around the world. Documents are digitized, transcribed, annotated, reviewed by the appropriate contemporary descendant community representatives, and brought together with scholarly annotations and academic/community commentary into one edited interactive digital collection."

Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 This link opens in a new window
Presents the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS’s regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.

Collections on the Web:

Asian Voices
This page, part of the Digital History website hosted by the University of Houston, links significant primary source documents from 19th- and 20th-century Asian American history.
Chinese Historical Society of America: Online Exhibits
"CHSA has produced these online exhibits to make the social, cultural and political history and contributions of the Chinese in America more widely available to the general public."
Densho Digital Repository
"Hear the story of the Japanese American incarceration experience from those who lived it, and find thousands of historic photographs, documents, newspapers, letters and other primary source materials from immigration to the WWII incarceration and its aftermath." Densho is an educational organization focused on Japanese American incarceration during WWII.
Japanese American National Museum: Collections and Research
This page links a variety of digital collections from the Japanese American National Museum.
Korean American Digital Archive
Digitized primary sources from the University of Southern California.
SEAAdoc: Documenting the Southeast Asian Experience
"SEAAdoc is an educational resource of the Southeast Asian Archive at the UC Irvine Libraries focusing on post-1975 refugees and immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam and the communities they have developed in the United States. It contains 1,500 visual images and 4,000 pages of searchable text selected from the Archive to represent a cross section of our holdings."
South Asian American Digital Archive
Containing more than 4,000 digitized items, "SAADA digitally documents, preserves, and shares stories of South Asian Americans."

For additional databases and resources related to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, visit the WGSS Resources Guide here: https://library.augustana.edu/wgssresources.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
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.
LGBT Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
This online resource hosts books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
Manuscript Women's Letters & Diaries This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together 105,000 pages of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
North American Women's Letters & Diaries This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
Struggle for Women's Rights, Organizational Records, 1880-1990 This link opens in a new window
Comprised of records of three important women’s rights organizations: the National Woman’s Party, the League of Women Voters, and the Women’s Action Alliance. Originally a committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the National Woman’s Party (NWP) was founded in 1913 when Alice Paul and her colleagues broke away from NAWSA in dissent over strategy and tactics. The Women’s Action Alliance, established in 1971 as a grass-roots organization, concerned it self with issues such as employment and employment discrimination, childcare, health care, and education. The League of Women Voters collection documents almost every facet of women’s involvement in U.S. politics from 1920 to 1974.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
An archive of leading women’s interest magazines, dating from the 19th century through to the 21st. Collection contains 18 magazines including: Better Homes & Gardens, Chatelaine, Company, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, Prima, Redbook, Seventeen, She, Town and Country, Woman's Day, and Women's International Network News.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
A resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000.
Women at Work during World War II: Rosie the Riveter and the Women's Army Corps This link opens in a new window
Contains two major sets of records documenting the experience of American women during World War II: Records of the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Correspondence of the Director of the Women’s Army Corps. Primary sources document a wide range of issues pertinent to women during this time of turbulent change, including studies on the treatment of women by unions in several midwestern industrial centers, and the influx of women to industrial centers during the war. Topics covered in records and correspondence include women’s work in war industries, pivotal issues like equal pay, childcare and race, and extensive documentation on the women who joined and served in the Women’s Army Corps as WACs.

Collections on the Web:

ACT UP Oral History Project
"The ACT UP Oral History Project is an archive of 187 interviews with members of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York."
American Women's History Museum
" To create a more equitable America, the Smithsonian is researching, disseminating, and amplifying the histories of American women through its American Women’s History Initiative in preparation for the future Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum." With this goal in mind and "with a digital-first mission and focus, the Smithsonian amplifies a diversity of women’s voices in a new museum and throughout the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, cultural heritage affiliates, and anywhere people are online."
Digital Transgender Archive
"The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world." Based at Northeastern University.
Discovering American Women's History Online
Maintained by Middle Tennessee State University's Walker Library, the Discovering American Women's History Online database
"provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States."
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.
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives
"Founded in 1981, Gerber/Hart’s collections focus on the culture and history of LGBTQ peoples and additional marginalized sexual and gender minorities in Chicago and the Midwest. Open to all, Gerber/Hart serves these communities by collecting, preserving, and making accessible collection items of individuals, organizations, and businesses, as well as publicly distributed items. Additionally, Gerber/Hart provides programming and exhibitions related to items in its collections and on other topics in LGBTQ history and culture."
GLBT Historical Society
"The GLBT Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture and arts in all their diversity. Founded in 1985, we are recognized internationally as a leader in the field of LGBTQ public history."
Iowa Women's Archive
"The Iowa Women’s Archives holds more than 1200 manuscript collections that chronicle the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities. These personal papers and organizational records date from the nineteenth century to the present. Together with oral histories, they document the activities of Iowa women throughout the state and beyond its borders. The Iowa Women’s Archives is open to the public."
Lesbian Herstory Archives
The Lesbian Herstory Archives, a grassroots community-run archives, is "home to the world’s largest collection of materials by and about Lesbians and their communities."
Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute
"The Schlesinger Library illuminates the lives of American women past and present through its collections, research support, public programming, and exhibitions, all while advancing Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s commitment to women, gender, and society."