US History Research Guide

Atlases

Atlas of the Civil War. ATLASES G1201 S5 A85 1994
Historical Atlas of the United States ATLASES G1201 S1 N3

Databases

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Civil War Dictionary REF E 408 B7 1988
Dictionary of American Biography REF E 176 D5 1964
Dictionary of American History REF E 174 D52
Dictionary of National Biography REF DA 28 D5
Encyclopedia of American Political History REF E 183 E5 1984
Encyclopedia of the Confederacy REF E 487 E55 1993
Encyclopedia of Southern History REF F 207.7 E52
Encyclopedia of the South REF F 207.7 O27 1985
Encyclopedia of Texas REF F 384 E52 1986

Electronic Resources

General Links Pre-1861 Civil War 1865 - 1945 1945 - Present

General Links

19th Century United States Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies Online Links to materials available on the Web for studying and teaching about 19th century American literature, history and culture.

American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library, a Library of Congress web site.

American Presidency Project Papers and documents as well as media files dated from Hoover to Bush.

Douglass: Archives of American Public Address An electronic archive of American oratory and related documents.

The Library of Congress The nation's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library preserves a collection of more than 119 million items, more than two-thirds of which are in media other than books. These include the largest map, film and television collections in the world.

National Archives & Records Administration NARA is an independent federal agency that helps preserve our nation's history by overseeing the management of all federal records.

National Archives Genealogy Page Provides many of the finding aids, guides, and research tools that can prepare you for a visit to one of NARA's facilities in Washington D.C. or for requesting records from NARA.

New Perspectives on the West

Nineteenth Century in Print: The Making of America in Books and Periodicals Presents twenty-three popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress. Includes literary and political magazines, as well as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, and Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry. The longest run is for The North American Review, 1815-1900.

Pulitzer Prize Winners History and archives for the Pulitzer Prize winners from 1917.

Pre-1861

Federalist Papers: The Federalist Papers is a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison and were written and published to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution, which was drafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. In lobbying for adoption of the Constitution over the existing Articles of Confederation, the essays explain particular provisions of the Constitution in detail.

Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860 Library of Congress web site with 100 plus pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States. Includes an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance.

Civil War

The Gettysburg Address

Index of Civil War Information Available on the Internet

Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library Includes two collections: The Abraham Lincoln Papers, approximately 20,000 items including correspondence and papers accumulated primarily during Lincoln's presidency, and the he "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!" includes more than two hundred sheet-music compositions that represent Lincoln and the war as reflected in popular music. In addition to the sheet music, the Stern Collection contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, autograph letters, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, and other memorabilia adding up to over 10,500 items that offer a unique view of Lincoln's life and times.

1865 - 1945

Frederick Douglas Papers at the Library of Congress Papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. The papers span the years 1841 to 1964, with the bulk of the material from 1862 to 1895.

The Valley of the Shadow A hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records.

1945 - Present

Free Speech Movement Primary materials on the Free Speech Movement at University of California-Berkeley during the 60s. Includes official university records.

Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders The Office of the Federal Register presents this online version of the Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders, April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989. The paper version of this publication is out of print. The Codification provides in one convenient reference source proclamations and Executive orders with general applicability and continuing effect. It covers April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989, spanning the administrations of Harry S. Truman through Ronald Reagan.

The Sixties Project Provides resources for the study of the the 1960s in the U.S., focusing primarily on creating an electronic home for scholars of this period. Includes both primary and secondary sources.

Reference Materials

American Historical Images on File: Key Issues in Constitutional History REF E 178.5 K49 1988
Annals of America REF E 173 A5
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War v.1-v.4 E 470.B35 1888
Centennial Album of the Civil War FOLIO E467 F3
Confederate Military History v.1- v.27 Two volume comprehensive index at the end of the 27-volume set. Reprint of an 1899 series. A narration of the events of the Civil War. (Shelved in the Reference Stacks but has no call numbers)
Great Battles of the Civil War FOLIO E470 M17 1988
Military History of the Southwest ARCHIVES
New Handbook of Texas REF F384 N48 1996
Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events v. 1-v. 12 E 468.3 R42 1977
Who Was Who: Civil War REF E 47 S56 1988
Civil War Times Illustrated BASEMENT There is a comprehensive index at the end of the series.

Official Records

War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies Series I-IV. (1880) -- There is an index in the back of each volume pertaining to that volume. Each volume is arranged chronologically within each series. Check the title page for the specific time period. There is also a comprehensive index (gray volume).
- Series I (53 vols.): Contains official records of the War of the Rebellion, both of the Union and Confederate armies. It includes reports of battles and military operations, letters, telegrams, general orders and other official documents arranged in chronological order. Union reports are immediately followed by Confederate Reports.
- Series II: (8 vols.) Contains the correspondence, orders, reports and returns Union and Confederate, relating to prisoners of war, and to state or political prisoners
- Series III: (5 vols.) Contains the correspondence, orders, reports and returns of the Union Authorities not relating to specially to the subjects of the first and second series.
- Series IV: (3 vols.) Contains the correspondence, orders, reports and returns of the Confederate Authorities not relating to specially to the subjects of the first and second series, excluding the information contained in the third series.
War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies Series I-II. (1880)
- Series I (27 vols.): Contains statistical data concerning operations of the cruisers. Union reports are immediately followed by Confederate reports. Volumes are arranged chronologically.
- Series II: (3 vols.) Contains statistical data of ships, rolls of confederate government vessels, letters of marque and reprisal, confederate departmental investigation. Includes illustrations of vessels.

Internet Resources

The American Civil War Home Page, University of Tennessee-Knoxville http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/
Excerpts from Slave Narratives http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/primary.htm
Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices from Duke University http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/slavery/
The Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginia http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/
Selected Civil War Letters from the Southern Historical Collection http://ils.unc.edu/civilwar/civilwar.html
The Emancipation Proclamation http://www.nara.gov/exhall/featured-document/eman/emanproc.html
Rare Maps from the University of Georgia: The New World, Colonial, Revolution, Union & Expansion, Nineteenth Century, Transportation & Others http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/maps.html
Scartoons: Racial Satire and the Civil War; Political Cartoons Dating from the Years before the Civil War and Leading up to Reconstruction http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/SCARTOONS/cartoons.html
Selected Civil War Photographs from the Library of Congress http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cwphome.html
Civil War: Regimental Histories http://www.access.digex.net/~bdboyle/regt.html
Civil War Reading List http://web.gmu.edu/departments/history/research/subject/rdgs.html