U.S. History: Primary Source Collections Online

Search many great collections in one spot! This discovery tool searches collections nationwide from libraries, museums, and other repositories, including the New York Public Library's Schomburg Research Center for Black Culture and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

This African American Experience in Ohio collection documents specific moments in the history of African Americans in Ohio in their own words, in particular focusing on their experiences from 1850 to 1920. It includes manuscript collections, photographs and pamphlets from the Ohio History Connection Archives & Libraries and its National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center division in Wilberforce. This collection only scratches the surface of the African American experience in Ohio and serves as a place to begin inquiry into this diverse and complex history. (Ohio Historical Society)

Robert E. Williams (d. 1937), an African-American Photographer, operated a photography studio, R. Williams and Son, in Augusta, Georgia, from 1888 until around 1908. 84 images show African-Americans in the Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia area, including depictions of dwellings and domestic chores, rituals of baptism, harvesting and transporting cotton, vehicles and transportation, and children and family life. (Digital Library of Georgia)

The African Activist Archive is preserving and making available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s. (African Studies Center, Michigan State Univ.)

A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture

Historical & Biographical Series at the Maryland State Archives

This collection of material illustrates the development of political campaigns in Maryland with particular focus on the experience of African American candidates.(Thurgood Marshall Law Library, Univ. of Maryland)

Photographs, news clippings, pamphlets, scrapbooks, directories, and newsletters documents the experience of African American women in Iowa during the twentieth century, ca. 1924-1970. (Michigan State Univ.)

Historically, the stories of African Americans have been suppressed and underrepresented in archival collections and experiences of African American women are, at times, even more so hidden. This guide hightlights material within the holdings of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library ranging from the early days of slavery to the present that document African American women's stories, many of which can be found just underneath the surface. (Duke Univ.)

The collection includes interviews, round-table discussions, field-produced features and artistic performances featuring African Americans, many of who are among the nation's most recognized and controversial figures, and provides the visual and audio context of key debates and discussions surrounding African American history, culture, and politics. (Michigan State Univ.)

Click "Exhibition" and page through using the "Next" links (lower right of the page) to see various images and primary documents. (National Library of Medicine)

"Black Film Archive celebrates the rich, abundant history of Black cinema. We are an evolving archive dedicated to making historically and culturally significant films made from 1915 to 1979 about Black people accessible through a streaming guide with cultural context."

Click "Browse the Collection" to actually access recorded songs, but be sure to check out the interviews on this homepage to understand the collection's context. You may also be interested in this story from Public Radio International about how the black gospel recordings of the 1960s and 1970s relate to the civil rights movement. (Baylor Univ.)

Includes primary sources on slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, black in the World Wars, and the Civil Rights Movement. (Fold3)

BlackPast is dedicated to providing reliable information on the history of Black people across the globe, and especially in North America. Our goal is to promote greater understanding of our common human experience through knowledge of the diversity of the Black experience and the ubiquity of the global Black presence.
(BlackPast.org; Quintard Taylor, Professor of American History)

The Richmond Planet was an important African American newspaper in the age of segregation. This site is not a comprehensive archive, but does present some of the most important articles printed each year, along with essays on their significance. (Univ. of Richmond)

The collection of documents brought together in this project begins to tell the story of the growth of Protestant religion among African Americans during the nineteenth century, and of the birth of what came to be known as the "Black Church" in the United States. (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

An interactive mapping tool for visualizing primary data drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, 1915-1930. Focuses on the lower socioeconomic end of the population rather than the affluent members of Harlem society. (Note: the map images themselves are not primary documents, but the data being mapped is original data from primary sources, as detailed on the Sources tab.) (Univ. of Sydney)

The papers of Dorothy West (1907-1998), Harlem Renaissance writer and long-time resident of Martha's Vineyard. These papers (ca.1890-1998) contain drafts, manuscripts, published stories and articles, issues of Challenge and New Challenge, correspondence with other Harlem Renaissance writers, family correspondence, and photographs. (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University)

Documents disagreements on race among American Catholics in the 1920s and 1930s. (Catholic Univ. of America)

"Leonidas Berry, M.D. (1902–1995) devoted his life to combating segregation and what are known today as racial disparities in health. Examine photographs, publications, and correspondence that document a life of advocacy for equality and justice in health care." (National Library of Medicine)

The papers of nineteenth-century African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), who escaped from slavery and then risked his freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher, consist of approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images), most of which were digitized from 34 reels of previously produced microfilm. The collection spans the years 1841-1964, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1895. Many of Douglass’s earlier writings were destroyed when his house in Rochester, New York, burned in 1872.(Library of Congress)

Paul Heinegg's books available online.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help transition them from slavery to citizenship, providing food, housing, education, and medical care. And for the first time in U.S. history, the names of those individuals were systematically recorded and preserved for future generations. Enter an individual's name to search FamilySearch.org’s extensive database of more than 5 billion searchable names in historical records. Emancipation freed nearly 4 million slaves.

Scroll down to the individual collection descriptions, and use the "View Collection Online" link to view any collection of sources. (Louisiana State Univ. Libraries)

Oral history interviews conducted in the 1980s with aging Philadelphians who participated in and witnessed firsthand the first Great Migration to Philadelphia between 1910 and 1930. (West Chester Univ.)

Photographs, documents, and other items that document the significant black population which existed in Knox County, Ohio, for several hundred years. (Kenyon College)

The Negro Travelers’ Green Book was a travel guide series published from 1936 to 1964 by Victor H. Green. It was intended to provide African American motorists and tourists with the information necessary to board, dine, and sightsee comfortably and safely during the era of segregation. The New York Public Library presents digital editions of the 1937-1964 green books. (New York Public Library)

"This book provides biographical sketches of noteworthy African Americans in Texas, and advice on how African Americans can lead fulfilling lives." (Houston Public Library)

Digital images from the 1921 race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Univ. of Tulsa)

Well-known African American attorney Walter L. Gordon collected these photographs taken by the African American newspaper the California Eagle. The photos depict black social life in Los Angeles, leading members of the black community, black resorts, local political figures, jazz legends, and more. (UCLA/Univ. of California Los Angeles)

Digitization of a rare first edition of Douglass' 1852 oration. (Internet Archive)