The library subscribes to many digital collections of primary source material, including early American publications, regional maps, letters and diaries, image collections, and much, much more.
Historical newspapers and magazines, or periodicals, can give you a sense of a particular time in history. Find out what was written about people and events during the time you're studying.
Search more than 1,000 historical newspapers published in the US across three centuries, from all 50 states, chronicling the evolution of American culture and society through eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries, and much more. There is an option to limit your search to early California newspapers only.
Over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
Full-text and full-image articles from the New York Times dating back to the first issue in 1851.
From historic pressings to contemporary periodicals, explore nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada. With newspapers representing a huge variety in publisher, audience and era, discover how events were reported by and for Indigenous communities.
Search for news, business, sports, historical events and cultural events from London, 1785-2009, in one of the most highly regarded resources for the 19th – 20th Century history.
We subscribe to several digital collections of diaries and letters. Some of these are scanned images and some are typed transcripts from the original source material.
These collections of images include photographs, videos, sound recordings, maps, and art. Images can give you a great sense of a particular time in history. You may even find recordings of authors reading their works.
A digital library of primary sources that includes written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
As of August 2024, the Artstor platform will no longer be available. All Artstor content will be accessible on JSTOR. Artstor includes over 500,000 images embracing architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture.
Created by the Library of Congress and WGBH in Boston, the AAPB is an archive of over 60 years of audio and video content created by public broadcasting stations around the US. "The collection of 40,000 hours contains thousands of high quality programs that have had national impact. The vast majority of this initial American Archive content, however, consists of regional and local programs that document American communities during the last half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. This extraordinary collection includes local news and public affairs programs, local history productions that document the heritage of local communities, and programs dealing with education, environmental issues, music, art, literature, dance, poetry, religion, and even filmmaking on a local level."