Persuasive Essays

A research guide from the Reference and User Service Association History Section in the American Library Association.

A research guide from U.C. Berkeley Library.

An expansive archive of American history and culture from the Library of Congress features photographs, prints, motion pictures, manuscripts, printed books, pamphlets, maps, and sound recordings going back to roughly 1490. Currently this site includes more than 9 million digital items from more than 100 collections on subjects ranging from African-American political pamphlets to California folk music, from baseball to the Civil War.

The DPLA brings together digitized resources that include books, images, historic records, and audiovisual materials from many collections produced by universities, public libraries, and other public-spirited organizations.

Searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. A partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC).

Extensive collection of documents in Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. From Yale Law School.

Collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly for educational use.

Hundreds of primary source texts intended to serve the needs of teachers and students in college survey courses in modern European history and American history, as well as in modern Western Civilization and World Cultures. (Part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project.)

Primary documents in text, image, and audio about the experiences of ordinary Americans throughout U.S. history. All of the documents have been screened by professional historians and are accompanied by annotations that address their larger historical significance and context

Current and historical United States government documents which define the American democracy. These legislative and legal, regulatory, presidential, demographic, and economic documents are selected and authenticated by the Government Printing Office's GPO Access service.

Important documents in U.S. history from 800 to the present.

Thousands of literary and historical texts. From University of Virginia.

Narratives and other first person sources for historical events prior to the 1940's, such as the World Wars, the Civil War, Medieval Europe, the Old West, and many others.

Primary texts from all time periods and regions available to students and faculty for use in history and humanities courses.

Index to more than 3,350 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world.

Extensive archives of primary sources. Click on “Research Room” , “Digital Classroom” and “The Exhibit Hall” . Access to Archival Databases (AAD) System provides access to material from more than 30 archival series of electronic records, which include well over 50 million unique records. The series selected for AAD identify specific persons, geographic areas, organizations, or dates. Some of these series serve as indexes to accessioned archival records in non-electronic formats.

100 milestone documents that chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Listing of materials such as manuscripts, photographs, and works of art held in libraries, museums, archives, and other institutions across California. Look for links to "online items" for direct access to digital materials.

Thousands of digitized historical and literary texts.

Transcripts of oral histories from U.C. Berkeley's Regional Oral History Project in the following subject areas: The Free Speech Movement, Women's Suffrage Movement, Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement, The Earl Warren Oral History Project, and Health Care, Science, and Technology.

This visually rich and authoritative website provides information on the slave trade that spanned five continents. Offers maps, images, timelines, tables, essays, bibliographies, a database of African names, and more. Sponsored by Emory University and the National Endowment for the Humanities.