History Department: Websites

An online archive of materials related to the spirit of the American experience in the 1930s. Source: University of Virginia.

Includes over 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration. The highlights section offers a number of noteworthy historical accounts, including the first encounter of Europeans with the Grand Canyon and the arrival of Captain James Cook in Hawaii. This site may be searched topic, author name, document type, and by keyword or full text. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society.

Includes 253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920. Also included is the thirty-two-volume set of manuscript sources entitled Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, published between 1904 and 1907. Includes works by major figures like Matthew Arnold, Fredrika Bremer, William Cullen Bryant, et al. The narratives in American Notes therefore range from the unjustly neglected to the justly famous, and from classics of the genre to undiscovered gems. Source: Library of Congress.

A comprehensive, non-partisan resource on the history and function of the American presidency. The site offers two perspectives on the presidency: the Presidency in History, and the Presidency in Action. It includes biographies of the Presidents, their Cabinets and their families; historical timelines; multimedia galleries; and information on the functions and responsibilities of the modern presidency. Source: University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs

This easy-to-use, selective site contains links by category (History, Material Culture, Religion, Jobs, etc.) Source: Richard P. Horwitz, University of Iowa.

An excellent resource for researchers, especially graduate students or advanced undergraduates interested in US women's history. Source: Ken Middleton, Middle Tennessee State University.

This is a collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the 1st decades of the 20th century. Source: Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Presents a listing of 100 milestone documents that chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965, ranging from The Bill of Rights (1791) to the Voting Rights Act (1965). Source: National Archives and Records Administration

The Washington State Pioneers database is a digital collection of writings, diaries, letters, and reminiscences drawn from various sources within the Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives collections that recount the early settlement of Washington, the establishment of homesteads and towns and the hardships faced by many of the early pioneers. Source: University of Washington Libraries.

Includes over 200 documents and other items related to the history of American slaves and Irish immigrants. The archive includes speeches, legal documents, letters, interviews, cartoons, and articles (click on "Source Documents"). The "Resources" link also provides an extensive list of online resources. Source: Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Abolition, Resistance and Slavery, Yale University

This online archive of historical photographs serves as a visual record of Wisconsin maritime history, set on the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. It also provides links to other Great Lakes and maritime history sites. Source: UW Digital Collections

Free access to original documents, lesson plans, classroom activities, and background essays on key historical events. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society.

Collection of letters, speeches and other writings of people who settled in Wisconsin during the 19th century. Source: University of Wisconsin Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

This site allows visitors to pick either lake Superior or Michigan and explore the many shipwrecks that are chronicled there. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society and UW Madison Sea Grant Institute.

A history portal created for students, history educators, and general history enthusiasts. Contains links to over 1200 sites that have been reviewed for quality, accuracy, and usefulness. Sites with engaging educational content and stimulating and useful multimedia technologies are most likely to be included. General resources and research-oriented sites have been included as well. Source: EdTechTeacher Inc.

The American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the University of Illinois Press, and the National Academy Press have joined forces to create a premier resource for historians on the Web. The site includes the full text of a number of journals and conference proceedings. Source: American Historical Association.

Instructors in U.S. History or Social Studies will want to bookmark this site. Offers hundreds of primary documents and audio clips, an annotated webliography, sample Web-based assignments, and a useful reference section which links to resources on standards, citing and evaluating Websites, and understanding copyright and fair use laws. Source: American Social History Productions, Inc.

Contains resources for periodical research, including a list of 18th-21st century periodicals available on line, such as the Cornell University Library Making of America (MOA) Collection, which offers free access to full texts of a number of 18th and 19th century magazines and newspapers. Source: Research Society for American Periodicals.

Information about people, places and businesses from the medieval and early modern period. Searchable, or browsable by type of history (administrative, ecclesiastical, local, London, and parliamentary), place, or source. The site includes items such as a 1550 map of London and House of Commons journals from the 16th and 17th centuries. From the University of London. Source: University of London & History of Parliament Trust.

Full text articles, maps, and databases relating to genocides in Cambodia, East Timor, Bosnia, and Rwanda; the Holocaust, and colonial and indigenous genocides, Source: Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

One of the best search engines to Cold War related sites. Source: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.

This digital library contains local and trade directories for England and Wales from 1750 to 1919, many of which were previously only accessible by making a special trip to any number of local historical societies or archives. Includes an interactive map of England and Wales, and provides at least one directory for each segment of the interactive map from the 1850s, 1890s, and 1910s. Can also be searched by keyword, location, and name. Source: University of Leicester.

Designed to help world history teachers and students locate, analyze, and learn from online primary sources and to further their understanding of the complex nature of world history, especially the issues of cultural contact and globalization. The searchable site includes links to primary sources, and guides to interpreting and using those sources. Source: Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Embodying what is often referred to as "The Wisconsin Idea," the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin is named after one of the most prominent members of the Progressive movement, which grew out of the ferment of the Gilded Age and a growing belief that government should exist to serve and assist the public before the interests of the corporate business community. Continuing in this tradition, the La Follette School Web site is a repository both for the academic activities of the School, and its ongoing sponsorship of public conferences, lectures, and seminars.. Persons looking for current public policy research will want to look at the biennial publication of the center, the La Follette Policy report, along with other publications dealing with a variety of regional issues, such as educational reform in Milwaukee and Wisconsin's structural deficit. Source: University of Wisconsin.

An online review for social scientists working on contemporary Turkey. Source: EJTS, Paris, France.

Middle East studies Internet resources. Sources: Columbia University Libraries.

Provides links to materials on the Middle East and North Africa. The goal is to create a subject guide to resources in the areas of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. Source: University and State Library Saxony-Anhalt, Halle.

Website for the 2007 Ken Burns series that tells "the story of the Second World War through personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns: Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota. Browse by major themes, or go to Search Explore to find archival film and video, interviews, hundreds of photos and images, and material about specific people, towns, battles, and subjects. Source: PBS.

This archive of primary documents includes hundreds of transcribed documents divided into sections such as diaries, conventions, the maritime war, and the medical front. Includes a photograph archive of over 1800 photographs that document everything from the role of animals in warfare to various heads of state. Source: Brigham Young University Libraries.

The BBC has created this website in an attempt to allow people to share their reminisces of World War II, and quite a few stories and tales have been contributed thus far. Visitors to the site can browse stories by date, location, or type; additionally, stories are organized into thematic categories such as Childhood and Evacuation, Family Life, The Blitz, and Home Front. Source: BBC.

These links provide interviews with 238 veterans of the war, both men and women. Includes related links. Source: Rutgers University