Digital Collections
To find digital collections, please consult our Guide to Digital Collections:
- Guide to Digital Collections (History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library)Guide to digitized primary source collections, for the most part collections that are owned or licensed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Organized by broad discipline (History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and African American Studies). History is subdivided by region and time period.
See especially the following sections of the guide:
Below is a selection of primary source collections from the Guide to Digital Collections:
Digital Collections: Themed Collections
- American History, 1493-1945Documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection at the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History. Record series digitized include the Henry Knox Papers; the Livingston Family Papers; hundreds of record series documenting the years 1493-1859; hundreds more documenting the years 1860-1945; a collection titled "Papers and Images of the American Civil War"; and a selection of Civil War era newspapers and periodicals. Inludes subject indexes. Note: the Henry Knox papers in this collection do not duplicate the papers in the microfilm collection, which was created from the papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society, not the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Being released in modules. Modules now available: Module I Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859; and Module II Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945.
- Indigenous Histories and Cultures (formerly: American Indian Histories and Cultures)Digitized from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer Collection, American Indian Histories and Cultures contains both published and unpublished primary sources that document the American Indian experience from first contact with Europeans through the mid-20th century.
- The American West: Sources from the Graff Collection at the Newberry LibraryTavel narratives, manuscripts, personal papers, printed books, maps, city directories, store catalogs, newspapers, company records, and ephemera (e.g. trade cards, posters, photos, claim certificates, city prospectuses, and more) that document the American west in its frontier period.
- Early Encounters in North America, 1543-1850: Peoples, Cultures, and the EnvironmentPersonal accounts from traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. Includes multiple indexes for exploring the collection in different ways. Includes a complete, transcribed edition of the Jesuit Relations.
- Everyday Life and Women in America, 1800-1920Books, periodicals, pamphlets, and broadsides. Emphasis on American women's social, cultural, and popular history. Digitized from the collections of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University Library and the New York Public Library. Collection aims to showcase the role of religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes, with a concentration on conduct of life and domestic management literature. Collection covers regional, urban, and rural settings.
- Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement, and Colonial Encounters1650-1920, with bulk of documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Emphasis is on British colonialism in North America, Africa, and Australasia. Hybrid collection of books, government documents, legal records, correspondence, business records, maps, diaries and memoirs, pamphlets, ephemera, realia, artwork, and more. Organized around fifteen broad themes: Travel and Exploration; Natural World; Land and Property; Government and Politics; Warfare and Military History; Law and Order; Business and Commerce; Industry and Technology; Agriculture; Art and Entertainment; Healthcare; Women’s History; Children and Family; Religion; and Indigenous Peoples. Collection can also be browsed by subjects (topics, people, and places).
- Indigenous Peoples: North AmericaBooks, newspapers, periodicals, manuscript sources, and photographs that document American Indian experience in North America.
- ProQuest Civil War Era166 pamphlets, speeches, reports, legal opinions, and convention proceedings from the Salmon P. Chase & John P. Hale Slavery and Anti-Slavery Pamphlets Collections; 1,785 pamphlets from the Civil War Pamphlet Collection; and nine major newspapers: Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va., 1852-1865), Charleston Mercury (Charleston, SC, 1840-1865), Columbus Gazette (Columbus, Ohio, 1856-1865), Daily Picayune (New Orleans, La., 1840-1865), Boston Herald (Boston, MA, 1848-1865), New York Herald (New York, NY, 1840-1865), Louisville Daily Journal (Louisville, Ky., 1840-1865), Memphis Daily Appeal (Memphis, Tenn., 1847-1865), and Ohio State Journal (Columbus, Ohio, 1840-1853).
- Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice, 1490-2007Manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, and maps. Emphasis on the Atlantic world, but includes coverage of Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. Documents all aspects of slave trade and the slave experience.
- The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 (University of Chicago Library and Filson Historical Society)NO LONGER AVAILABLE Books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, letters, journals, legal documents, financial records, maps, physical artifacts, and pictorial images documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century.
- Online Collections of National Museum of the American IndianPhotographs and artifacts documenting American Indian history. Covers both the Indians of North America and the Indians of South America.
- Reports of Explorations Printed in the Documents of the United States GovernmentPart of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
- Annual Reports of the American Home Missionary Society1826-1891. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
- Congregational Home Missionary Society Records1827-1916. From the collections of the Congregational Library and Archives in Boston. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
- Papers of Henry Rowe SchoolcraftGeographic coverage: North America (especially upper Mississippi Valley, Ozarks, and Northwest Territory).
Date range: 1788-1906 (bulk, 1820-1856).
Document types: Personal correspondence; expedition notes; manuscript magazines; literary works; lectures; government reports; financial records; genealogical notes; maps; statistical compendia; and newspaper clippings.
Topical coverage: American Indian affairs; American Indian history; American Indian culture; exploration; geology, ethnology, American Indian vocabularies and grammars; and personal life.
Source Institution: Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
Part of Indigenous Peoples of North America
NOTE: This digital collection does not include the contents of Box 91, the so-called "Outsize Material, ca. 1822-1856". For the contents of that box, please consult the microfilm edition of this collection. - American Indian Correspondence: Presbyterian Historical Society Collection of Missionaries’ Letters, 1833-1893TRIAL. Almost 14,000 letters written by those who served as Presbyterian missionaries to the American Indians. From the Library of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia. Part of Archives Unbound.
- Indian Rights Association (Selected Publications)Publications and annual reports of the IRA, ca. 1884-1932. This collection is not the same as the microfilm collection, Indian Rights Association Papers, which reproduces the collections at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Digital Collections: Books
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryOver 17 million books, periodicals, and government documents digitized by Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and research libraries. About 2,500,000 of these works can be read online (because they are public domain works, and therefore freely accessible).
- Internet Archive BooksOver 20,000 digitized books. Most of the books in the collection were published before 1923.
- Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922: From the Library Company of PhiladelphiaOver 12,000 printed works, including books, pamphlets, and broadsides. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: 1639-1800Based on Charles Evans's American Bibliography. Includes almost every book printed in the United States between 1639-1800. See also the two supplements: the Library Company of Philadelphia supplement, and the American Antiquarian Society supplement. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: 1639-1800, Supplement from the American Antiquarian SocietyAdds 2,300 books to the original collection. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: 1639-1800, Supplement from the Library Company of PhiladelphiaAdds 1,100 books to the original collection. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Early American Imprints, Series II: 1801-1819Based on Ralph Shaw and Richard Shoemaker's American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801-1819, includes almost every book printed in the United States between 1801-1819. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Sabin Americana, 1500-1926Based on Joseph Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana, this collection includes books, pamphlets, and periodicals about the Americas from 1492 to 1868. Includes publications both from the Americas and from elsewhere.
- Selected Travel Titles from the Collections of the American Antiquarian Society1787-1916. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
- Selected Titles from the Children’s Collection at the American Antiquarian Society1800-1920. 453 books. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
- Selections from the Baldwin Library Collection of Historical Children’s Literature1850-1869. 10,980 books. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
Digital Collections: Periodicals
- American Periodicals1740-1940. Over 1,000 titles. Probably the single most important digital collection of early American periodicals. Includes the sub-collection American Periodicals from the Center for Research Libraries, which is particularly strong in trade and labor periodicals.
- American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian SocietyComplements several existing digital collections (American Periodical Series Online, America’s Historical Newspapers, 19th Century American Newspapers, and Early American Imprints), and makes pre-1900 American print culture among the best covered source bases for online historical research here at the University of Illinois Library. Like these other collections, American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, 1684-1912 has a pronounced European-American bias. Part of Gale Primary Sources: Newspaper and Periodical Databases (formerly Gale NewsVault).
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995About 170 periodicals published by, for, or about African Americans. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Home Mission Monthly, 1886-1924Published by the Women's Executive Committee of Home Missions. From the collections of the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
Digital Collections: Newspapers
To find digitized newspapers, the best place to begin is our guide to Finding Newspapers:
- Find NewspapersGuide to finding newspapers at the University of Illinois Library, with an emphasis on historical newspapers and digitized, historical newspapers.
Below is a selection of digitized newspaper collections that might be especially relevant for this subject:
- ProQuest Historical NewspapersDozens of major metropolitan newspapers, like the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, major African American newspapers like the Chicago Defender, and more. Especially strong coverage of the 20th century. Click here to see a complete list.
- America's Historical NewspapersHundreds of titles, with especially strong coverage of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, but also strong coverage of the early twentieth-century. Includes the following sub-collections: Early American Newspapers, Series I through VII, X, XIII, and IV (1690-1922); Hispanic American Newspapers (1808-1980); African American Newspapers, Series I-II (1827-1998); Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection (1799-1977); and Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876). Newspapers were primarily sourced from the American Antiquarian Society and the Center for Research Libraries. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Nineteenth Century U.S. NewspapersHundreds of titles covering the entire continent, from both urban and rural communities, with substantive runs of some major nineteenth century newspapers like the New York Herald, the Cleveland Daily Herald, the Chicago Inter Ocean, the Milwaukee Sentinel, and the Rocky Mountain News. The new interface includes a term frequency graphing app, similar to Google’s NGram Viewer. (It’s difficult to assess the real value of this feature since the collection’s OCR text is hidden, and the page scan quality varies wildly from completely illegible to crisp, two-bit reproductions.) Click here to view a complete list. Part of Gale Primary Sources: Newspaper and Periodical Databases (formerly Gale NewsVault).
- Indigenous Newspapers in North America (formerly American Indian Newspapers)59 newspapers, most of which are digitized in full color. Few are already available on our various microfilm collections, so the collection includes many sources that our new to our Library. Collection includes issues from nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Click here to view a complete title list for American Indian Newspapers. Formerly titled American Indian Newspapers.
- African American Newspapers, Series I and II: 1827-1998A wide ranging collection that complements our largest collection of digitized African American newspapers, ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers. While ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers covers the major, metropolitan black newspapers of the twentieth century, African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 provides access to a broader range of publications, especially the black press of America's smaller cities, and the few extant issues of the earliest black newspapers, most of which were previously available only on microfilm or in smaller digital collections scattered around the Internet. Click here to view a complete title list for African American Newspapers Series I and II. Part of America's Historical Newspapers and the Archive of Americana.
- Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980Mostly scattered issues of over 300 Hispanic-American newspapers. Purports to be largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the nineteenth and twentith centuries. Based on the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project" collection at the the University of Houston. Click here to view a complete title list for Hispanic American Newspapers. Part of America's Historical Newspapers and the Archive of Americana.
- Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and AlabamaTRIAL. Part of Archives Unbound.
Digital Collections: Government Documents
- American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-1899The actual documents listed in Steven Johnson's bibliography Guide to American Indian documents in the Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1899, a major reference work in the field of American Indian studies.
- American Indian Law CollectionTreaties, federal statutes and regulations, federal case law, tribal codes, constitutions, and jurisprudence, much of it historical. Includes rare compilations edited by Felix S. Cohen that have never before been accessible online. Part of HeinOnline.
- Treaties Between the United States and Native AmericansComplete, transcribed texts of treaties from 1778 to 1868.
- Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties: Compiled and Edited by Charles J. KapplerFully searchable, highly accurate transcribed text of Kappler's complete seven volume set.
- Native American Constitution and Law Digitization ProjectThis project is a cooperative effort among the University of Oklahoma Law Center, the National Indian Law Library (NILL), and Native American tribes providing access to the constitutions, tribal codes, and other legal documents. It offers the user access
- Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881Digitized from 962 reels of microfilm (M234) from RG 75 (Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs).
- Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, 1910–1935Digitized from 174 reels of microfilm (M1011) from RG 75 (Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs).
- Pacific Railway Surveys, 1853-1855: Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean1853-1855. From the National Archives and Records Administration. Part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online.
- American State PapersU.S. congressional materials, 1789 through 1838. Generally regarded as the unofficial predecessor to the United States Congressional Serial Set, though the two overlap chronologically somewhat.
- Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1939Issued in two modules, the first module covers United States Executive Branch publications from 1789 to 1932 (not already printed in the U.S. Serial Set). The second module extends coverage to 1939. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "Executive Branch".
- Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations, 1789-presentExecutive orders and proclamations are legal instruments, and as such carry the force of law. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "Presidential Materials".
- United States Bills and Laws, 1789-presentAll public and private bills and resolutions of the United States Congress. Previously called "Digital U.S. Bills and Resolutions". Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "Bills and Laws".
- United States Congressional Hearings Digital Collection, 1824-presentBoth the published and unpublished hearings, which includes transcripts of spoken testimony, written statements of witnesses, reports, exhibits, correspondence, or other material submitted by interested parties. Hearings are held by Congressional committees as a way of collecting the information needed to inform decision making. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select the file "Hearings".
- United States Congressional Record and Its Predecessors Permanent Digital Collection, 1789-presentIn ProQuest Congressional (for best results, choose the "Congressional Record Only" search tab). The Congressional Record, which began publication in 1873, is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. Its predecessors were the Annals of Congress (1789-1824), the Register of Debates (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873). The Hein Online Congressional Documents Library has a slightly more-extensive collection: the Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1789), the Annals of the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1825-1837), the Congressional Globe (1833-1873), the Congressional Record (1873-present), and the Congressional Record Daily (1980-present, updated daily). Part of ProQuest Congressional: navigate to "Advanced Search" and select the file "Congressional Record".
- United States Congressional ResearchPart of ProQuest Congressional. Combines two separate files: CRS Reports, 1916-present; and Committee Prints, 1830-present. CRS Reports are produced by the Congressional Research Service, an official arm of the United States Congress, in response to requests from Congress. Committee Prints are studies and reports produced for specific Congressional committees. Both CRS Reports and Committee Prints are used to support Congressmen and Congresswomen in their legislative work. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "CRS Reports".
- United States Congressional Serial SetA collection of Congressional "Reports" and "Documents". A Congressional Report is an official report to the House of Representatives or the Senate, issued by a House or Senate committee, usually related to legislation about to be considered by Congress. Congressional Documents, on the other hand, are typically reports to Congress by Executive Branch departments, but can also include documents received by Congress from other sources. Congress began publishing the Serial Set in 1817. The predecessor to the Serial Set was the National State Papers of the United States, also known as the American State Papers. The American State Papers cover the years 1789-1817, and then were published alongside the Serial Set until 1838. The Serial Set and the American State Papers are also available through ProQuest Congressional. ProQuest Congressional's version of the Serial Set includes the most recent volumes, whereas the version linked above (Readex) ends with the volumes for the 96th Congress in 1980.
- American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism1968-1979 . FBI Files on the American Indian Movement and Wounded Knee. Digitized from the 26 reel microfilm collection, FBI Files on the American Indian Movement and Wounded Knee. Part of Archives Unbound.
Microfilm Collections
- Western Americana: A Collection of 1012 Books and Documents of the 18th, 19th, and Early 20th CenturyCall Number: MFICHE 978 W5253Includes a sub-section of travel accounts. Consult the collection guide for more information. See also Western Americana : Frontier History of the Trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900 : Guide and Index to the Microfilm Collection, which goes with a separate microfilm collection, not owned here but available through Interlibrary Loan.
- Periodicals by and about American IndiansCall Number: FILM 070.484 P418Publication Date: 1968-198282 reels.
- American Indian Periodicals from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1884-1981Call Number: FILM 070.484 Am3548Publication Date: 198113 reels.
- American Indian Periodicals in the Princeton University LibraryCall Number: MFICHE 970.00497 Am354 and MFICHE 970.00497 Am354ser.2Publication Date: 1981-1986Titles listed in the accompanying guide, and also separately in the Library Catalog and UIUC Newspaper Database.
- The Pacific Northwest Tribes Missions Collection of the Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus byCall Number: FILM 266.2795 J499pISBN: 0842030387Publication Date: 198734 reels.
- The Papers of John Peabody Harrington in the Smithsonian Institution, 1907-1957 byCall Number: FILM 970.00497 H238pHarrington's field notes on Native American history and culture, his correspondence, and his photograph collection.
Guides to Finding Primary Sources
- The Rampaging Herd: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Men and Events in the Cattle Industry byCall Number: 016.6362 AD1RPublication Date: 1959
- Six-Guns and Saddle Leather: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Western Outlaws and Gunmen byCall Number: 016.364 Ad15s1969ISBN: 9780806108490Publication Date: 1969
- A Bibliographical Guide to the History of Indian-White Relations in the United States byCall Number: 016.9705 P95bISBN: 0226684768Publication Date: 1977Continued by: Indian-White Relations in the United States: A Bibliography of Works Published 1975-1980.
- Indian-White Relations in the United States: A Bibliography of Works Published 1975-1980 byCall Number: 016.9705 P956IISBN: 0803236654Publication Date: 1982Each of these volumes consists of two parts: citations to guides and reference works, followed by a classified bibliography of books and articles (covering Indian policy, treaties, land, military relations, trade, missions, law, education, health, specific groups, and "special topics," including captivities, images of Indians, and place names). All entries are annotated. Coverage is limited to works of historical narrative and analysis, including biographical treatment; and anthropological works are generally excluded. The main volume lists publications through 1974, with 306 entries in part I (guides and reference works) and nearly 9,400 in part II (the classified bibliography). The supplemental volume adds another 3,400 citations (91 in part I and more than 3,300 in part II).
- Native American References: A Cross-Indexed Bibliography of Seventeenth-Century American Imprints Pertaining to American Indians byCall Number: 016.97400497 ONLINEPublication Date: 1974Comprehensive listing of books, pamphlets, and broadsides published between 1639 and 1700. Entries are arranged chronologically, with separate ethnological and geographical indexes. The Readex numbers for the Early American Imprints set are provided. In American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. Proceedings, n.s. Worcester, 1974. 24 cm. v. 83, pt. 2 (1974), p. 287-341.
- Digest of American Indian Law: Cases and Chronology byCall Number: 346.7301 ONLINEISBN: 083770684XPublication Date: 1990This digest presents selected summaries of Important Indian law cases, as well as a chronological history of U.S. Indian policy since Columbus landed in the Americas.
- American Indian Sovereignty and Law: An Annotated Bibliography byCall Number: Q. 016.34273087 Am351ISBN: 0810862352Publication Date: 2009
- Dictionary Catalog of the Edward E. Ayer Collection of Americana and American Indians in the Newberry Library byCall Number: 016.973 ONLINEPublication Date: 196116 vols. Combined author and subject catalog of this magnificent collection, totaling, in 1960, more than 90,000 items. The three-volume supplement lists 9,500 books added to the collection during the 1960s.
- A Catalogue of the Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana byCall Number: 016.978 ONLINEPublication Date: 1968The catalogue of the collection that forms the basis for the digital collection American West. Catalogue includes a name index, place name index (including broad regions like Northwest Territory), and a subject index. And, since it has been digitized, is keyword searchable.
- Dictionary Catalog of the Edward E. Ayer Collection of Americana and American Indians in the Newberry Library. Supplement.Call Number: Q. 016.973 N42DSUP.Publication Date: 1970
- Native American Periodicals and Newspapers, 1828-1982: Bibliography, Publishing Record, and Holdings byCall Number: 016.9730497 N213ISBN: 0313237735Publication Date: 1984Complete bibliographic descriptions for 1,164 periodicals and newspapers by and about Native Americans, published between 1828 and 1982, arranged alphabetically by title Includes holdings for selected repositories, subject index, geographic name index, and index of publishers.
- American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals byCall Number: 051 L73AISBN: 0313234256Publication Date: 1984-1986Vol. 1: 1826-1924, vol. 2: 1925-1970, vol. 3: 1971-1985. Covers periodicals and newspapers edited by published by American Indians or Alaska Natives and others whose purpose was to publish about contemporary American Indians or Alaska Natives. For each title, there is a narrative history, a full bibliographic description, detailed publication history, citations to other sources of information, and a list of location sources. There is a chronological list of titles, and indexes by tribal affiliation and place of publication, and a list of contributors to the project with brief biographies.
- A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772-1924 byCall Number: 016.9730497 L73bISBN: 0810814633Publication Date: 1981Lists works in English by Native Americans published between 1772 and 1924. Includes political essays, sermons, published letters, memoirs, and historical writings, as well as belles lettres. Each volume is comprises two main sections: the first is a bibliography of writings arranged alphabetically by author, and the second consists of biographical notes on the authors with bibliographic references to sources of information. There is a separate section for writers known only by pen names, plus an index by tribal affiliation and a subject index.. The first volume covers 250 writers, and the supplement covers an additional 942 writers.
- A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772-1924. A Supplement byCall Number: 016.9730497 L73bsup.ISBN: 0810818027Publication Date: 1995Covers works written in English by American Indians and Alaska natives from Colonial times to 1924.
- Tentative Guide to Historical Materials of the Spanish Borderlands byCall Number: 016.976 ST3T1971ISBN: 9780833733795Publication Date: 1971Bibliography of primary sources. Covers the period 1513 to 1846.