Looking for more? Check out the main Newspapers guide.
The list of sources below is not everything! Please see the main Primary Sources guide for more.
Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is an all-digital library that aggregates metadata and thumbnails for millions of photographs,manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Digitized works from the Library of Congress collections. See also, the American Memory list of collections: https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/updatedList.html
British Library site devoted to the history of book production, illustration, and publishing in the Nineteenth Century, including penny dreadfuls, children's books, and much more. Site includes cover images of books, but no text.
Black Short Fiction and Folklore: African, African American, and Diaspora
Comprehensive collection of stories from Africa and the African Diaspora, offering short stories and folktales, ranging thematically from oral traditions that date back many hundreds of years to contemporary tales of modern life. Also includes complete runs of selected literary magazines.
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama and Fiction
Contains approximately 380 plays and 67,500 pages of prose and poetry by Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Latin writers working in the United States.
English literature of the Medieval, Renaissance, 17th Century and Restoration periods.
Transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century.
World Digital Library: Literature & Rhetoric
Collection of manuscripts and books. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range or topic.
Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875
The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
This site "illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials...These documents describe the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California, including the nature of inter-ethnic tensions. They also document the specific contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries, and cultural and social life in California."
Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive: Chinese Americans
Primary documents that tell the story of ethnic groups along the Columbia River Basin (encompassing areas of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah and and British Columbia).
American Indian Constitutions and Legal Materials
Historical constitutions and legal materials digitized from the Law Library of Congress collection.
American Indian Histories and Cultures
A wide-ranging digital resource presenting a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library's extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection. Includes manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books, photographs and newspapers.
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection
Digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures.
Documents Relating to Indian Affairs
The collection currently includes "Documents Relating to the Negotiation of Ratified and Unratified Treaties With Various Indian Tribes, 1801-1869" and the "Office of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs." Includes instructions to treaty commissioners, reports, letters, and in some cases copies of the treaties.
Early Encounters in North America
This release contains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of material: letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters in North America. The collection is centered on present-day Canada and the U. S. with limited coverage of Mexico.
Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital Collection
Includes photographs, paintings, ledger drawings, documents, serigraphs, and stereographs from 1874 through the 1940's.
Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
Kappler's Indian Affairs is an historically significant, seven volume compilation of U.S. treaties, laws and executive orders pertaining to Native American Indian tribes. The volumes cover U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883 (Volume II) and U.S. laws and executive orders concerning Native Americans from 1871-1970 (Volumes I, III-VII).
Native American Documents Project
Texts of documents, mostly from the 19th century, about the history of federal policy concerning native peoples.
Offers digital views of Plains drawing on paper created during the 1860-1900 period.
