HIST 2090 African American History: Public Access Resources

The exhibition The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, showcases the incomparable African American collections of the Library of Congress. Displaying more than 240 items, including books, government documents, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, plays, films, and recordings, this is the largest black history exhibit ever held at the Library, and the first exhibition of any kind to feature presentations in all three of the Library's buildings.

Reconstruction-era federal records document the black family's struggle for freedom and equality and provide insight into the federal government's policy toward the nearly 4 million African Americans freed at the close of the American Civil War.

BlackPast is dedicated to providing reliable information on the history of Black people across the globe, and especially in North America. Our goal is to promote greater understanding of our common human experience through knowledge of the diversity of the Black experience and the ubiquity of the global Black presence. Welcome to the largest online encyclopedia on African American and Global African history on the Internet.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.

Digital Public Library of America. Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators.

Freedom on the Move is a database of fugitives from North American slavery.
With the advent of newspapers in the American colonies, enslavers posted “runaway ads” to try to locate fugitives. Additionally, jailers posted ads describing people they had apprehended in search of the enslavers who claimed the fugitives as property.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was an annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers, commonly referred to simply as the Green Book.

Celebrating the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities is a compilation of primary resources from HBCU libraries and archives. The collection includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, alumni letters, memorabilia, and programs from campus events, representing HBCUs as cultural, social, and political institutions from the early 1800s until today.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105), also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865. The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to the refugees and freedmen and lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War.

The library’s primary mission is to provide support for the research, exhibition, and programmatic endeavors of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century guide includes a digital collection of published works by 19th-century black women writers, biographies for each author, citations and much more.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has a wealth of resources across its five research divisions that document Black librarianship.

The National Archives preserves and provides access to the records of the Federal Government. Here is a sample of these records, from our most celebrated milestones to little-known surprises .

In addition to images and military documents – such as muster rolls, generals’ orders, and supply requests – the department also houses a significant amount of correspondence and journals from the time period. As a collective whole, these materials chronicle the evolution of the American Civil War and the immediate aftermath.

ArchiveGrid includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.

The Densho Archives contain primary sources that document the Japanese American experience from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s, with a strong focus on World War II incarceration.

BDPI is a project of the Asociación de Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica (ABINIA). Its objective is the creation of a portal which provides access, from a single search point, to the digital resources of all the participating libraries. This currently includes material from the national libraries of Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, España, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, República Dominicana, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Uruguay y Venezuela. Sources include documents, books, maps, pictures, newspapers and music.

DPLA makes millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience.

These open access sources are readily available to all -- without fees or subscriptions.
Links connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
In addition you will find video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation.
The sources cover a broad range of historical happenings (political, economic, social and cultural).
The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.

The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching.

An introductory guide to sources for Latin American history. Provided by Oxford University's Bodleian Library.

A digital collection of Islamic manuscripts, published texts, and maps from University of Texas, Austin.

Discover photographs, letters, diaries, maps, directories, artifacts, oral histories and more that present a glimpse into the history and culture of what is today New York State. These items have been contributed by over 430 libraries, museums, archives, and cultural institutions.

The NYS Historic Newspapers project provides free online access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's unique history.

A research guide to primary and secondary sources for Latin American history. Provided by the University of Washington Libraries.

A guide to to using primary sources within the Simmons University Archives and on the Web.

The Smithsonian Collections Search Center is an online catalog containing most of Smithsonian major collections from our museums, archives, libraries, and research units. There are 18.2 million catalog records relating to areas for Art & Design, History & Culture, and Science & Technology with over 8.1 million images, videos, audio files, podcasts, blog posts and electronic journals.

Listing of Primary Documents in American History, organized by subject.

The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more.

This collection contains cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections.