InfoGuides: US History Sources 1880s-1930s: Access Specialized Archival Collections

Collected Primary Sources By Topic

History Commons This link opens in a new window
Formerly Accessible Archives. Full text, searchable collections of American 18th and 19th century primary sources with bibliographic citations. Access eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements and genealogical records.
African American Communities This link opens in a new window
Primary source database provides a variety of digitized items documenting African American community, race relations and history from several regions of the U.S., including Atlanta, Chicago, St Louis, New York and North Carolina. Sources included are pamphlets, newspapers, correspondence, official records, oral histories, photographs, maps and ephemera. Coverage: 1863-1986.
African Diaspora, 1860-Present This link opens in a new window
Provides digitized primary source documents from African diasporic communities around the world, with a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France. The collection personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera.
Black Drama: Third Edition This link opens in a new window
Contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window
Comprises the National Negro Business League files in Part III of the Booker T. Washington Papers in the possession of the Library of Congress.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Brings together essential historical and current material for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. Includes the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, the historical backfiles of the Chicago Defender newspaper, and full-text coverage of core Black Studies journals. Also includes the International Index to Black Periodicals and the Black Literature Index.
Black Thought & Culture This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full-text documents of major black leaders in North America from the 19th & 20th centuries to 1975. Currently includes approximately 100,000 pages of primary source materials.
ProQuest History Vault: The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century, Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 This link opens in a new window
Contains the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. Papers included are those of the civil rights and labor leader A. Philip Randolph; the long-time civil rights activist and organizer of the March on Washington, Bayard Rustin, and the papers of the pioneering educator Mary McLeod Bethune.
ProQuest History Vault: The Black Freedom Struggle of the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2 This link opens in a new window
Contains records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, and the Robert F. Williams Papers. SNCC, formed by student activists in 1960 after the explosion of the sit-in movement, was one of the three most important civil rights organizations of the 1960s, alongside SCLC and the NAACP. With the addition of SNCC records, History Vault now includes SNCC, SCLC, and NAACP records.
ProQuest History Vault: NAACP Papers: Special Subjects This link opens in a new window
These files cover subjects and episodes that are crucial to the NAACP's history, such as civil rights complaints and legislation, the Klan, Birth of a Nation, the Walter White-W. E. B. Du Bois controversy of 1933-1934, communism and anticommunism during the years of the "red scare," the congressional prosecution of Hollywood personalities, the prosecution of conscientious objectors during World War II, NAACP’s relations with African colonial liberation movements, NAACP fundraising and membership recruitment, urban riots, the War on Poverty, and the emergence of the Black Power Movement.
ProQuest History Vault: Southern Life and African American History, 1775–1915, Plantations Records, Part 1 This link opens in a new window
Documents the far-reaching impact of plantations on both the American South and the nation. As business owners, the commodities produced by plantation owners—rice, cotton, sugar, tobacco, hemp, and others— accounted for more than half of the nation’s exports. The plantation, therefore, played a key role in the development of a nationwide market economy. Plantation records also document the personal lives of plantation owners and their families.
ProQuest History Vault: Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantation Records, Part 2 This link opens in a new window
In the second set of Plantation Records in History Vault, the records presented in this module come from the University of Virginia and Duke University. Major collections from the holdings of the University of Virginia include the Tayloe Family Papers, Ambler Family Papers, Cocke Family Papers, Gilliam Family Papers, Barbour Family Papers, and Randolph Family Papers. Major collections from the Duke University holdings document plantation life in the Alabama, as well as South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.
Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Designed as a portal for slavery and abolition studies, this resource provides access to documents and collections covering 1490-2007, from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Close attention is given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Coverage: 1940 – 2007.

Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. It focuses on the history of 15 major commodities, and examines the ways that they have changed the world. In addition to historical documents, collection provides users with visual resources, such as thematic galleries, data and maps, and a searchable chronology.
Trade Catalogues and the American Home This link opens in a new window
Collection explores domestic consumerism, life and leisure in America between 1850-1950. This resource presents a wealth of highly illustrated primary source documents that highlight commercial tastes and consumer trends and provide a valuable visual record for a breadth of interdisciplinary study.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window
Comprises the National Negro Business League files in Part III of the Booker T. Washington Papers in the possession of the Library of Congress.
Business Periodicals Index Retrospective: 1913-1982 This link opens in a new window
Provides cover-to-cover indexing for more than 1,000 periodicals from 1913-1982, including the complete file of Industrial Arts Index (1913-1957), for a unique coverage of business in the first half of the 20th Century.
ProQuest Historical Annual Reports This link opens in a new window
Annual reports (1844-current) available for over 800 companies, 43,000 reports, 1.3M pages. Searchable puff images with indexed data such as: financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor and related companies. It can also be browsed by company name, related names, industry or date.
Mergent Archives This link opens in a new window
Access an indexed collection of historical corporate and industry related documents. Includes digitized corporate (Moody’s) manuals, municipal & government manuals, annual reports, industry reports, and Ford Equity Research Reports, as well as the Key Business Ratios, country reports, bond reports, the Million Dollar Directory Index, Hoover's Handbooks, commodity yearbooks, and First Research industry research reports. Now includes all content from Mergent WebReports.
World's Fairs: A Global History of Expositions This link opens in a new window
Online resource offers insight into over 200 world’s fairs and international expositions. The database provides digital access to primary source material collated from thirteen archives in North America, the U.K., and France. Material includes pamphlets, guide books, official catalogues, periodicals, minutes, and correspondence. There is also a selection of visual material including maps, photographs, postcards, and illustrations.

Compendex This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and full bibliographic citations for worldwide engineering and technical literature. Encompasses all engineering disciplines as well as related fields in science and management.
GeoRef This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to the geoscience literature containing references to geoscience maps, serial, and non-serial literature. Includes references to all publications of the U.S. Geological Survey. Also covers master's theses and doctoral dissertations from US and Canadian universities. Coverage for North American resources starts in 1669, whereas worldwide coverage starts in 1933.
Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries This link opens in a new window
A virtual encyclopedia of over 35,000 tracks of music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds that includes recordings from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and archival audio collections of the Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and others. Browse by musical instrument, geographical area, or cultural group.
Through the Camera Lens: The Moving Picture World and the Silent Cinema Era, 1907-1927 This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of the early-20th century magazine, Moving Picture World, which set a standard for the coverage of silent film, reviewed current releases and published news, features, and interviews relating to all aspects of the industry.
Web of Science: Core Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains citations and searchable author abstracts, covering scholarly literature in journals, books and conference proceedings. Includes: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, Index Chemicus, and Emerging Sources Citation Index. Additional resources available by selecting from the dropdown list next to the Core Collection heading.

Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
Supports the study of American Indian history from the early colonial period to the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. Features a wide range of materials including manuscripts, artwork, American Indian newspapers covering the 1960s to 1990s, rare printed books, photographs, and maps.
American West This link opens in a new window
Original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material, and rare printed sources from the Graff Collection about the American West, including tales of frontier life, Native Americans, vigilantes, and outlaws, and the growth of urban centers and environmental impact of westward expansion and of life in the borderlands.
Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America This link opens in a new window
Formerly called the Bibliography of Native North Americans. Contains the citations from the cumulative eight volumes of the Ethnographic Bibliography of North America.

History Commons This link opens in a new window
Formerly Accessible Archives. Full text, searchable collections of American 18th and 19th century primary sources with bibliographic citations. Access eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements and genealogical records.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full-text North American women's diaries and letters from the Colonial period to 1990s; includes biographies and an annotated bibliography of database sources.
Women & Social Movements in the U.S. This link opens in a new window
Includes primary documents, images, scholarly essays, and bibliographies documenting women's reform efforts in the United States between 1600 and 2000.
Women & Social Movements, International This link opens in a new window
Collects primary source materials providing insight into women’s social movements around the world. Includes conference proceedings, reports of international women's organizations, essays, diaries, letters, and memoirs of international women activists dating as far back as the middle nineteenth century.
Everyday Life & Women in America, c.1800-1920 This link opens in a new window
Collection of digitized primary sources that illuminate the daily lives of women in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Conduct of life manuals and domestic management literature are major highlights of the collection. The collection includes monographs, pamphlets, periodicals, and broadsides. Materials in this collection provide insight into a wide variety of topics, including political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, pastimes, and regional, urban, and rural cultures. Coverage: 1800-1920.

American Memory
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity from the Library of Congress.

Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
Supports the study of American Indian history from the early colonial period to the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. Features a wide range of materials including manuscripts, artwork, American Indian newspapers covering the 1960s to 1990s, rare printed books, photographs, and maps.
American West This link opens in a new window
Original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material, and rare printed sources from the Graff Collection about the American West, including tales of frontier life, Native Americans, vigilantes, and outlaws, and the growth of urban centers and environmental impact of westward expansion and of life in the borderlands.
China, America and the Pacific This link opens in a new window
Provides primary source materials for the study of the history of North American trade and cultural exchange with China during the 18th and 19th centuries. Additionally covers China's economic dealings with the whole of East Asia and the Pacific.
China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window
Provides variety of original source material detailing China's interaction with the West, beginning with Macartney's first Embassy to China in 1793, and relating to the activities and observations of British and American diplomats, missionaries, business people and tourists in China between 1793 and 1980, together with rare periodicals, color paintings, maps, photographs and drawings.

Documenting the American South
Provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.

Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia This link opens in a new window
Consists of the diaries, journals, and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans, and travelers; as well as accounts on the development of farming and mining communities, family histories, and folklore. Covers the social, political, economic, scientific, religious and agricultural characteristics of the region between Lexington, Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama, from 1700-1950.

Great Depression Era

ProQuest History Vault: New Deal and World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files and Records of Federal Agencies This link opens in a new window
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Office Files. Roosevelt’s Office Files constitute the heart and soul of the administrative record of the Roosevelt White House. They highlight the domestic and foreign concerns of the President and his administration. Roosevelt's policies, responses to crises, and plans for the future were all based on both classified and nonclassified information that he received and digested from all levels of government and the public. The office files represent the materials deemed especially important by the President on the basis of content and source. Major topics covered in the files are the Great Depression, the New Deal, America's involvement in World War II, the internal workings of the Roosevelt administration, and Roosevelt's personal leadership style.
Literature, Culture and Society in Depression Era America: Archives of the Federal Writers' Project This link opens in a new window
Comprises the Primary Source Media microfilm collection Archives of the Federal Writers’ Project: Printed and Mimeographed Publications in the Surviving Federal Writers’ Project Files, 1933-1943.

Federal Theatre Project Collection
The Federal Theatre Project Collection contains administrative records, play service and research records, library records, and production records created or collected by the Federal Theatre Project from 1935 to 1939. A few items in the collection were created before or after this time period but directly relate to the 1930s material. This collection consists of original materials with some duplicates and photocopies.
Federal Theatre Project Photograph Collection
During the lifespan of the FTP they established a photographic unit to document the productions and ensure a graphic record of their work. The photographers who made up the unit worked in every major city and on each major production. Project photographers recorded not only the actual theater productions themselves, but they also captured on film the rehearsals, the audience, the behind the scenes work of the stage crew, and the equipment used to produce FTP plays. Find all that here!