For the OU Community (requires 4x4 login)
For a very thorough guide to finding and using primary sources available at OU, see Laurie Scrivener's Primary Sources guide. The guide contains links to digitized books, newspapers, government documents, etc.
- America's Historical Imprints (1639-1900; Readex/Newsbank)Books from Early American Imprints, the Evans Series (1639-1800), the Shaw-Shoemaker Series (1801-1819), and full text of broadsides, 1820-1900, (large sheets of paper usually printed on one side), and ephemera, 1760-1900 (things like invitations, lottery announcements, menus, stock certificates, etc.) from American Broadsides and Ephemera.
- American History in VideoProvides access to commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries related to American history.
- American Indian Histories and CulturesFour centuries of history, from early contact to the modern era, are featured in this resource. Coverage includes peoples of North and Central America; materials include manuscripts, illustrations, newspapers, books, photos and maps.
- America WestOriginal manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material and rare printed sources related to frontier life, to Native Americans and to vigilantes and outlaws as well as the growth of urban centers, the environmental impact of westward expansion and of life in the borderlands.
- Black FreedomProvides access to texts that document the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th century from the perspectives of men, women, and children.
- Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880Provides access to the Overland Journeys: Travels in the West collection, which contains over 70,000 images from the Travels in the West and Southwest and Plains & Rockies microfilm collections.
- Sanborn Maps (Oklahoma)Provides access to detailed maps of Oklahoma cities from late 1800s to the mid 1900s. View street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use and physical features, house and block numbers, pipelines, railroads, wells and dumps.
On the Open Web
- American Currency ExhibitExplore the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s American Currency Exhibit online, a truly priceless collection that brings history alive and shows you how currency actually shaped our country’s history.
- American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project.
- Bomb SiteAn interactive map of London during the Blitz. Zoom to street level to see where the bombs and parachute mines landed. Under the Explore London tab, users can select an area and find letters, images, and first-person narratives of witnesses.
- Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: a Digital ArchiveA rich resources containing manuscripts, maps, diaries, images, and other archival material related to the confinement of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- Map of Early Modern LondonDigitized version of the 1560s Agas woodcut showing streets and buildings. Links from many sites to encyclopedia entries and other material.
- Posters from the First World War, 1914-1918Over one hundred posters that illuminate the lived experience of the war from the point of view of its participants and observers worldwide.
- Salem Witch Trials Documentary ArchiveMaps, literary works, portraits of notable people, and documents including court records, record books and personal letters regarding the Salem, MA witch trials.
- Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil WarDetails life in two American communities, Augusta County, VA, and Franklin County, PA, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of Reconstruction. Explore thousands of original letters, diaries, speeches, census and church records, and more.
- World Digital LibraryMakes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. Spans from 8,000 BCE to 2010.
- World War OneImages, manuscripts, diaries, literature, and other WWI-related material from the collection of the British Library.