Skip to Main Content

History : Primary Source Websites (focused prior to 1900)

Primary Source Websites and Databases (Pre-1900 focus)

A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1776-1825 (Tufts University)

American Civil War Homepage (University of Tennessee)

American State Papers  Legislative and executive documents from 1789-1817. Continued by the Congressional Serial Set.

Archive of Early American Images (Brown University)

Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation (Library of Congress) Congressional document & debates 1774-1875.

Early English Books Online Virtually all books published in England and British North American prior to 1700

France in America (Library of Congress)

LincolnNet (Northern Illinois University) Resources on Lincoln before his Presidency.

Making of America (Cornell University and University of Michigan). Primary sources on social history, mainly in the 1800s.

Massachusetts Historical Maps (Massachusetts Historical Society) Chiefly from the 18th century.

Nineteenth Century America (Tufts University)

Papers of the War Department 1784-1800 (George Mason University)

Salem Witch Trials (University of Virginia)

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, Law (Hein)

US Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 

Valley of the Shadow (University of Virginia). Civil War material

Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (Emory University)

Women Working, 1800-1930 (Harvard University)

Boston Burlington Charlotte London Nahant Portland San Francisco Seattle Silicon Valley Toronto Vancouver