Primary Sources - History - 19th-Century U.S. History

19th-Century U.S. History Online Primary Sources

American Periodicals
This collection includes digitized images of American magazines and journals ranging from special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, trade journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals.
New York Times Historical
This database includes full-text, full-image articles of The New York Times going back to 1851. The database can be used to search national and international news, editorials, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, plus historical photos and advertisements. The documents are downloadable in PDF format.
Detroit Free Press Historical
This historical newspaper includes first-hand accounts and coverage of the politics, society and events of the time. This is an electronic database of articles, which includes the complete paper with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF format. Coverage is from 1831-1999.
Early American Imprints (Series I and II)
This collection is a definitive resource for teaching and researching the Early National Period in American History. It includes full text, digital images of books, pamphlets, broadsides and periodicals published in America from 1639-1800 (Series 1) and 1801-1819 (Series II). Both series cover subjects ranging from history, literature and culture to politics, government and society.
Harper's Weekly
Provides full-image reproductions of Harper's Weekly from 1857-1912, one of the most important weekly magazines read by Americans during the 19th Century.
Women's Magazine Archive
This archival database includes the full backfiles of leading womens interest consumer magazines. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Includes key primary sources to examine the events, trends, and attitudes of this period.
History Vault: Southern Life and Slavery
A collection of digitized primary sources documenting the far-reaching impact of slavery and the plantation system on the American South and the nation.

The Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
Letters, diaries, speeches, and other documents that illustrate the life of 2 communities, one in the North and one in the South, in the era from John Brown's raid to Reconstruction.
Early Washington, DC Law and Family
Documents the challenge to slavery and the quest for freedom in early Washington, D.C., by collecting, digitizing, making accessible, and analyzing freedom suits filed between 1800 and 1862,
as well as tracing the multigenerational family networks they reveal.
Documenting the American South
Digital collection of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs documenting a range of topics in Southern history (daily life, African American churches, slavery, Civil War, politics, and more).
The Dred Scott Case Collection
(Washington University Libraries). In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark decision declaring that the Scotts remained enslaved.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project
Over 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of the formerly enslaved. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project.
Black Abolitionist Archive
Speeches and editorials by Black abolitionists and activists from the pre-Civil War and Civil War period, documenting Black involvement in the anti-slavery movement in 19th-century U.S. (from the University of Detroit, Mercy)
Sidney Lapidus Slavery and Abolition collection
Digitized documents on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery pertaining to the Atlantic World.
Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives from North American Slavery
A database of fugitives from North American slavery, compiled from “runaway ads” posted by enslavers in newspapers.
African American Perspectives
A selection of books and pamphlets from the 19th century that document African American lives and issues at that time (from the Library of Congress collections)
Documents from Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867
Transcriptions of archival documents housed in the National Archives of the United States and dealing with the history of slavery and emancipation in the U.S. (part of the volume series "Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation").
The Civil War: Women and the Homefront: Primary Sources Online
Guide to print and manuscript materials at Duke University's Rubenstein Library related to women and their roles in the Civil War.
Confederate Broadside Poetry Collection
Over 250 examples of poems written by Southerners and Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War, as well as some pamphlets and clippings (Wake Forest University).
Civil War Governors of Kentucky
Historical documents associated with the chief executives of the state, 1860-1865, and documenting the lives and voices of tens of thousands of Kentuckians—white or Black; free and enslaved; Unionist or Confederate—who interacted with the office of the governor.
Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi
An archive of the people of Mississippi who interacted with the governor's office in the years during the Civil War to early Jim Crow.
Native Northeast Portal
Primary source materials by, on, or about American Northeast native communities.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
Historical manuscripts, books, photographs and other materials documenting voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression, but focusing heavily on the 19th century (Harvard University).
Hearth Home Economics Archive
Books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines, published between 1850 and 1950 (Cornell University).
Transportation History Collection: Railroads
Reports, Locomotive World magazine, images, and other materials documenting transportation technology and travel, especially in Michigan and Ohio, in the 19th-century / early 20th-century (University of Michigan).
Hagley Digital Archives
Selected items from the Hagley Library's collection of images, documents, and publications related to the history of business, technology, and society.

Primary Sources at OU's Archives and Special Collections

The William Springer Civil War Collection
A large collection of materials on the history of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. including 2000 volumes, pamphlets, graphics, newspapers, artifacts, and manuscripts.

Explore some digitized materials from the Springer collection.

Search the entire collection.

Frederick L. Black Papers
Materials regarding the death of John Wilkes Booth and his burial. Mr. Black was a lawyer and assistant to Henry Ford, who researched the conspiracy to kill President Lincoln and the death of John Wilkes Booth. The collection includes documents Black gathered over the 2 years of his investigation.
Eugene Mack Papers (1846-1935)
Eugene Mack was a prominent farmer and business and civic leader of Addison Township, in Oakland County, Michigan. The collection contains his personal and business files.

To access these collections, and more, contact the University Archives and Special Collections at Kresge Library.

Assistant Professor, Archives and Special Collections Librarian

Emily Ruth Benoit

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History - 19th-Century U.S. History

19th-Century U.S. History Online Primary Sources

Primary Sources at OU's Archives and Special Collections

Assistant Professor, Archives and Special Collections Librarian