Research Guides: United States History Resources: Image & Video Sources

Collections of Advertisements & Images

IMAGES

Smithsonian Institution Open Access Images
Digital archive of public domain images. Free to reuse and remix!
Digital Public Library of America
Brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
Contains 800,000+ digital images from the NYPL collections.

LIFE Photo Archive
LIFE photo archive provides access to photographs stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time.
AP Images [via EBSCOhost]

Note: As of 8/1/25, AP Images is no longer available on the EBSCOhost platform. Please access via AP Newsroom.
AP Images contains U.S. and international photos, from 1826 to present. Also includes graphics, charts, and timelines.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Ad Access Database
Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955. From Duke University Libraries.
Culinary Institute of America's Menu Collection
The Culinary Institute of America’s special collection of over 30,000 menus is comprised of menus from more than fifty collections, including historical menus from the CIA restaurants and donations from major menu collectors, including George Lang, Chapman S. Root, Vinnie Oakes, and Roy Andries de Groot (see below). Assembled over decades, the collection illustrates the history of dining in America and abroad, with menus from all of the states and over 80 countries, as well as ships, railroads and airlines.

Collections of News Broadcasts, Commericals, Films, & Video

C-SPAN Video Library
C-SPAN Video Library records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses. All C-SPAN programs aired since 1987, are contained in the C-SPAN Archives and accessible through the database.
Kanopy

Note: Not all content is available for immediate access. To request a title, please fill out the form from within the database.
Kanopy is a streaming video service for educational institutions that offers award-winning collections, including titles from PBS, Criterion Collection, Media Education Foundation, Kino Lorber, California Newsreel, Documentary Educational Resources (DER) and more.

The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2012
This exhibit from the Museum of the Moving Image contains over 300 commercials from every presidential election since 1952. It's searchable by election year, type of commercial ("backfire," "fear," "children," etc.), and issue (civil rights, corruption, taxes, etc.).
National Archives Universal Newsreels
Online access to Universal Newsreel Motion Pictures, produced between 1929 & 1967.
National Screening Room: Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has digitized hundreds of hours of motion pictures that will be freely available on the newly launched National Screening Room website.

PBS Video Collection
Contains documentary films and series from the history of PBS, including Frontline, American Experience, NOVA, and more.
Television News Archive (Vanderbilt)
Television News Archive is an extensive archive of television news. The collection holds network evening broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC (since 1968), and CNN (since 1995). Detailed searching instructions are contained in the TV-NewsSearch database, along with instruction for downloading the free RealOne media player required for viewing the collection video. (Requires downloading free RealOne media player from Real Networks.)

Interactive Map Resources

American Panorama
Historical atlas of the United States for the twenty-first century. It combines cutting-edge research with innovative interactive mapping techniques.

Temple University

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