Historical Newspapers
Contemporary Newspapers
The following databases provide electronic reproductions of full-text primary-source documents including maps, letters, diaries, oral histories, memoirs and other personal narratives.
Find visual materials such as drawings and paintings, still photographs and videos via the databases listed below.
No search for primary-source materials is complete without a visit to the Library of Congress's Digital Collections. This vast collection can be keyword searched or browsed by topic, time period, or media types that include manuscripts, maps, motion pictures, photos, video recordings, and more.
Explore a map and timeline of the Library of Congress' Chronicling America Newspapers collection.
NARA offers one of the richest repositories for U.S. history, but only a relatively small portion of the collection is available online.
The Archival Facility for NARA's Mid-Atlantic Region is located in Center City Philadelphia.
"The 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."
In cooperation with the University of Virginia Press, the National Archives have launched Founders Online, a free online tool that brings together the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. The nearly 120,000 fully searchable documents come from published volumes as well as unpublished sources, with more to be added over time.
