scholarly and peer-reviewed journals - a good choice for most topics
click here for a helpful demonstration of how to use this database
history & culture of U. S. and Canada from prehistory to the present
history of U.S. from selected reference sources & documents
newspapers, magazines & journals of the ethnic, minority and native press
click here for a helpful demonstration of how to use this database
Watch acclaimed documentaries and educational programs about American history.
Documentaries and feature films about American history, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, California, New York, American politics and more (including Ken Burns films).
Educational programs from well-known producers like A&E, BBC, and PBS.
Watch archival films from 1888-present day: pre- and post-WWI, the Jazz Age & Depression, pre- and post-WWII, the late 20th Century, and the early 21st Century.
Primary sources are documents, images, recordings, or any other physical objects created during the time period being researched. They are essential to the study of history because they allow a researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during a historical event or time period.
In the field of History, primary sources include (but are not limited to):
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Secondary sources are created by someone who did not personally experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions being researched. Instead secondary sources interpret and analyzes primary sources.
Some common types of secondary sources in the field of History are:
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Browse the digital collections of the U.S. Library of Congress for documents, photographs, essays and more
Museum collections reflect the breadth, depth, and complexity of the experiences of the American people, from social and cultural history to the history of science, medicine, and technology. The Museum collects the ordinary as well as the extraordinary and is interested in how objects are made, how they are used, how they express human needs and values, and how they influence society and the lives of individuals.
Voting America examines long-term patterns in presidential election politics in the United States from the 1840s to today as well as some patterns in recent congressional election politics. The project offers a wide spectrum of animated and interactive visualizations of how Americans voted in elections over the past 168 years. The visualizations can be used to explore individual elections beyond the state level down to individual counties, which allows for more sophisticated analysis.
The primary professional association for historians in America.