Introduction to Special Collections Materials
Special collections with rare or historical documents, sheet music, recordings, and ephemera can be excellent sources for your research. We are highlighting several collections on this page that you can browse here in person (in the case of the UIUC special collections materials) or online (in the case of digital collections at the bottom of the page).
Local Resources
The University Archives includes a rich collection of oral history records and other archival materials related to Native American history. If you want to consult them in person, check out the University of Illinois Archives' Plan a Visit page.
- Doris Duke Indian Oral History Program Archives (1908-95)The collection includes correspondence, news clippings, publications, field notes and diaries, oral history and interview tapes, and transcriptions, relating to Native American customs, history, music, politics, and religion. The archives also contain an extensive collection of Native American music.
Digital Collections
The following digital collections provide access to primary source materials about American Indians, including films, letters, manuscripts, and photographs.
- American Indian Histories and Cultures This link opens in a new windowA 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.
- American West This link opens in a new windowOriginal manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material, and rare printed sources from the Graff Collection about the American West, including tales of frontier life, Native Americans, vigilantes, and outlaws, and the growth of urban centres and environmental impact of westward expansion and of life in the borderlands.
- Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new windowSearchable and browsable database documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women.
- Indigenous Peoples: North AmericaBooks, newspapers, periodicals, manuscript sources, and photographs that document American Indian experience in North America.
Free Online Collections
Below are several collections of primary source materials relating to Indigenous peoples in North America that have been digitized by archives, libraries, and museums and are freely available online.
- Acclaimed Western PhotographersCollection of photographs taken from 1900-1910 on the Indian reservations of Montana.
- American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection (University of Washington)This site provides an extensive digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures, complemented by essays written by anthropologists, historians, and teachers about both particular tribes and cross-cultural topics.
- Doris Duke Collection of American Indian Oral HistoryThe Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History online provides access to typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes. Related are accounts of Indian ceremonies, customs, social conditions, philosophies, and standards of living. Members of every tribe resident in Oklahoma were interviewed.
- Early Canadiana Online (Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions)Books, magazines and government records, all in complete sets where possible, documenting early Canadian history. Includes over 900 titles relating to Indians (First Nations Peoples) of Canada.
- Edward Sheriff Curtis' The North American IndianEdward Sheriff Curtis published The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930 with the intent to record traditional Indian cultures. The work comprises twenty volumes of narrative text and photogravure images. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates.
- First Nations Tribal Collection of the Southern Oregon Digital ArchivesThe First Nations Tribal Collection of the Southern Oregon Digital Archives consists of documents, books, and articles relating to the indigenous peoples of this bioregion. Some of these nations include the Coos, Hupa, Karuk, Klamath, Modoc, Takelma, Shasta, Siuslaw, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua, Yahooskin, and Yurok nations.
- Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital CollectionsThe Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Collection includes photographs, paintings, ledger drawings, documents, serigraphs, and stereographs from 1874 through the 1940's. In 1998, the images were digitized and drawn from the library collections of three of the Montana State University campuses (Billings, Bozeman and Havre), the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, and Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Montana.
- National Museum of the American Indian CollectionsIncludes a representative sample of NMAI's object and historic photo collections. Each item is accompanied by basic, standardized information.
- Omaha Indian Music (Library of Congress)Selections from the American Folklife Center's collections documenting Omaha music traditions. It includes wax cylinder recordings, songs, speeches, spoken-word segments, photographs, and additional documentation.
- Yale Indian Papers ProjectThe New England Indian Papers Series Electronic Archives is a scholarly critical edition of New England Native American primary source materials gathered into one robust virtual collection. It offers students, educators, researchers, Native American tribal members, and the general public, visual and intellectual access to significant historical knowledge for the purposes of teaching, scholarly analysis, and research.