History

The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) is an initiative of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (HPNL), and the Department of Preservation Services at the University of Illinois Library. As of 2023, the Peoria Journal Star is not included in this project.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Fordham University offers a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use.

This site contains a decreasing number collections. The LOC has migrated most of its American Memory collections to new presentations. For a full list of all digitized collections at the Library of Congress, please go to https://www.loc.gov/collections/

The Digital Library contains over 5,000 scanned books along with photo collections, videos, scholarly bibliographies, virtual exhibitions, and searchable databases of resources related to art, history, science, technology and library and museum collections or exhibitions.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes: texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections. Also home of the WayBackMachine.

Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy: A well-edited, high-quality collection of full-text primary source documents particularly rich in legal and diplomatic history and human rights. Organized by period and topic and searchable by keyword, documents include internal links to materials referenced in the text.

A digital archive of books and journals from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. It is extremely useful for the study of American social history, with strengths in education, science and technology, psychology, and sociology. A work in progress, it already includes the full text of over 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles published in the nineteenth century.

The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Search within the volumes, or browse volume titles by administration:

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.

SAADA creates a more inclusive society by giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their unique and diverse experiences.

This collection offers a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Our cases go into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery.

A repository of proclamations, speeches, statements, photographs, and other presidential papers. Documents from the George H. W. Bush administration and later are currently available online. For more information about this collection, see the National Archives following this link: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/publications/presidential-papers.html

"At the heart of the Newberry is a set of collection strengths that have continued to grow over many decades, attracting scholars and other readers, and serving as the focus for our research activities. This core involves original sources in a variety of formats, such as books, manuscripts, maps, images, and music. In most cases it is supported by secondary materials, including monographs and periodical literature."

Digitized primary sources from academic libraries in Illinois. Hosted by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, of which Bradley is a member.

Digitized materials on Chicago history and more from the collections of the Chicago Public Library.

The Illinois Digital Archive is "a repository for the digital collections of the Illinois State Library as well as other libraries and cultural institutions in the State of Illinois." Find "photographs, slides, and glass negatives; oral histories; manuscripts and letters; federal government documents; postcards; posters; videos; newspapers; maps; and much more."

The Illinois Digital Heritage Hub brings together unique digital cultural heritage resources from across Illinois. Postcards, Sports History, Maps and more can be found here. Explore collections immense in volume and rich in historical detail, including photographs, manuscripts, books, audio recordings, and videos. Established in 2015 by four institutions, the Chicago Public Library, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, the Illinois State Library, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, the content of the IDHH is made possible by a network of more than 150 partners from across the state, including dozens of institutions providing content through the Illinois Digital Archives and CARLI Digital Collections.

"The [Illinois] State Archives serves as the depository of public records of Illinois state and local governmental agencies which possess permanent administrative, legal, or historical research values." - Most of this material is not available online.

Some resources are free and do not require membership.

Home page of the Illinois State Historical Society.

The Iowa Digital Library features more than a million digital objects created from the holdings of the University of Iowa Libraries and its campus partners. Included are illuminated manuscripts, historic maps, fine art, historic newspapers, scholarly works, and more.

Compiled from the University Libraries of the University of Washington. This page links digitized collections of primary sources from throughout the Midwest. (Many of the linked collections are free on the web, but you may find a few that are not.)

The National Archives at Chicago "hold[s] permanent records created by federal agencies and courts" in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin

"At the heart of the Newberry is a set of collection strengths that have continued to grow over many decades, attracting scholars and other readers, and serving as the focus for our research activities. This core involves original sources in a variety of formats, such as books, manuscripts, maps, images, and music. In most cases it is supported by secondary materials, including monographs and periodical literature."

From the Library of Congress. "Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works drawn from the Library of Congress's General Collections and Rare Books and Special Collections Division."

Numerous indexes, records and publications in the collections are available online. Through partnerships with various organizations you can access digitized maps, publications, newspapers, vital records, some census records, federal and records such as land patents and survey plats.

The Digital Collections at the UWM Libraries include over 180,000 photographic images, maps, and books drawn from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library, the Archives, Special Collections, and the Curriculum Collection

an online visual collection of historic images showcasing the Mississippi River region along the Iowa/Illinois border. Explore the region as seen through the eyes of the late 19th and early 20th century people who lived here. Our archive currently features photographs from the collections of Davenport Public Library, Augustana College, Buffalo Historical Society, Galesburg Public Library, Putnam Museum, Rock Island County Historical Society, Rock Island Public Library, and Musser Public Library in Muscatine.

The Society's world-class collections contain an extraordinary range of artifacts and information about American history, from the remote archaeological past to current events.

Women's Knowledge Digital Library (WKDL) is an open access portal of information by and about women and girls. The goal of the project is to provide users with trusted information that is easily and efficiently accessible and that which can be used in the education and empowerment of women and girls worldwide. Our focus is to amplify women's voices and include resources that women can learn from and adapt to suit the work being done within their own communities.

A United Nations site providing information and resources on Gender Equality and Empowerment of women.

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 in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than fifty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections. By digitally localizing a wide range of trans-related materials, the DTA expands access to trans history for academics and independent researchers alike in order to foster education and dialog concerning trans history.

This webpage contains links to fact sheets and articles about women's health issues with a global perspective in mind. The page notes several broad sociocultural factors that may influence how and if women and girls are able to access adequate health services. Some of the sociocultural factors that prevent women and girls benefiting from quality health services and attaining the best possible level of health include the following: Unequal power relationships between men and women; social norms that decrease education and paid employment opportunities; an exclusive focus on women’s reproductive roles; and potential or actual experience of physical, sexual and emotional violence.

This collection contains manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.

This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.