Research Guides: Visiting Special Collections: Research collections online

Primary Source Collections

Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, & Diplomacy
The Avalon Project provides digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Coverage includes documents from ancient history to the present.
Online Froissart: A digital edition of the Chronicles of Jean Froissart
Coverage: Full Text
The Online Froissart includes more than 100 transcriptions covering Books I, II and III of the Chronicles, a powerful collation tool and a search engine. With essays and notes on the history, politics and personalities of the period, the resource also includes a new translation into modern English of selected chapters from the first three Books of the Chronicles.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Coverage: Full Text
An online sourcebook of medieval texts and documents (some in translation), histories, maps, encyclopedia entries and more. From the Fordham University.

Digitized Medieval Manuscripts [Harvard] This link opens in a new window
Coverage: Some Full Text
The Houghton Library's collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts represents a significant resource for the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Western Europe. Bibliographies and an ongoing digitization program provide full text access to a growing number of manuscripts.

Digital Library from the Meiji Era
Coverage: Full Text
This database from the National Diet Library of Japan provides full-text access to works from the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods. Generally, only the bibliographic information and table of contents are searchable.
Digital Scriptorium
The Digital Scriptorium from the Bancroft LIbrary (UC Berkeley) is a growing image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool to allow scholars to verify with their own eyes cataloguing information about places and dates of origin, scripts, artists, and quality. Special emphasis is placed on the touchstone materials: manuscripts signed and dated by their scribes
Medical Heritage Library
Coverage: Full Text
The Medical Heritage Library (MHL) is a digital curation collaborative among some of the world’s leading medical libraries. The Medical Heritage Library’s growing collection of digitized medical rare books (10,000+ so far) is available here through the Internet Archive.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
First World War Poetry Digital Archive / Great War Archive
Coverage: Full Text
The Archive is a combination of collections of primary source material from major poets of the period plus over 6,500 items contributed by the general public relating to the First World War, either abroad or at home.
British Pathe [archive]
Coverage: Full Text
The British Pathe archive contains newsreels, documentaries, cinemagazines, and television programs from the beginning of the 20th c. to the mid 1970s available as video clips or stills.
Nuremberg Trials Project: A digitial document collection
Coverage: Full Text
Offers access to approx. one million pages of documents relating to the trial of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) and to the twelve trials of other accused war criminals before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT).
Holocaust Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Shoah) includes more than 300 articles on the history of the destruction of the Jews of Europe. Each topical or biographical entry deals with one aspect or person and is enhanced by photographs, documents, oral histories, ID cards, artifacts, animated or still maps, historical film footage, music, and/ or individual life stories.
Avalon Project - The Cold War (Yale University)
A selection of documents highlighting the phases and evolution of the Cold War.
Wilson Center Digital Archives
Selected sets of historical documents related to a specific topic, region, or event.
Solidarity collection, 1989-1990
The Solidarity collection contains political memorabilia and newspapers from the senate and parliamentary campaigns of the Polish Solidarity movement in 1989. The collection includes hundreds of posters, handouts, leaflets, and ephemera.

Old English Corpus This link opens in a new window
The Corpus comprises over 3000 different texts (all surviving OE material, excluding some variant texts).

Consistory Database: Testimony in the Late Medieval London consistory court
Consistory is a database featuring testimony offered in the main church court of the diocese of London. The testimony entered in the court's records offers invaluable evidence for our understanding of many aspects of late medieval history;This database is projected over the next several years to present all the surviving medieval (pre-1500) records of litigation
British History Online
Coverage: Some Full Text
A digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust. UMBC access is available only for the free content.
Old Bailey Online: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913
Coverage: Full Text
A fully searchable edition of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. The project is a collaboration between the Open University, and the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sheffield.

ECCO- TCP [Eighteenth Century Collections Online - Text Creation Partnership] This link opens in a new window
ECCO-TCP, in partnership with Gale, offers access to highly accurate, fully-searchable transcriptions of texts from the Eighteenth Century Collections Online Database. Approximately 2,200+ titles are currently available.

London Lives 1690-1840: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis [archive]
Coverage: Full Text
Provides a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners including parish archives and criminal, coroner, guild and hospital records.
British Parliamentary Papers: Enhanced Parliamentary Papers on Ireland 1801 - 1922
Coverage: Some Full Text
The bibliographic records and searchable PDFs of the EPPI are now available for most of the collection. No login is required.
HANSARD 1803–2005 [British Parliamentary papers]
Coverage: Full Text
This site is generated from the Official Report of debates in Parliament. Information presented here is generated from the publicly available XML files. Files can be browsed by year, by House, by named person, official Acts, bills, etc.

Evans-TCP [ Evans Early American Imprints - Text Creation Partnership] This link opens in a new window
Evans-TCP, in partnership with Newsbank and the AAS, offers access to highly accurate, fully-searchable transcriptions of texts from the Evans Early American Imprints Collection. Approximately 6,000 titles are currently available.

America's Historical Documents [National Archives]
The National Archives preserves and provides access to the records of the Federal Government. Here is a sample of these records, from our most celebrated milestones to little-known surprises .
American Founders Online: An Annotated Guide to Their Papers and Publications
The digital resources described in this guide provide online access, in varying degrees, to the personal papers and/or publications of the major founders of the American Republic—that is, those men who served in roles of national political leadership between 1765 and 1815—and members of their families.
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents & Debates
Coverage: Full Text
A Century of Lawmaking brings together the records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress, including the first three volumes of the Congressional Record, 1873-75. Included are the Journals of Congress, statutes and and documents, debates of Congress, Congressional Record, more.
War of 1812 in the Collections of the Lilly Library (IUB)
This web site provides an overview of the War of 1812, outlining the major military conflicts as well as the principal causes and outcomes of the war. More importantly, the site provides access to fully digitized books, broadsides, prints, maps, correspondence, log books, legal documents, diaries, speeches, letter copybooks, orderly books, and receipts relating to the conflict.
Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names
Coverage: Full Text
Using unpublished historical manuscripts the database provides access to biographical details of enslaved Virginians. In some cases there may only be a name on a list; in others more details survive, including family relationships, occupations, and life dates.
Runaway Slave Advertisements [UNC]
The North Carolina Runaway Slave Advertisements project provides online access to all known runaway slave advertisements (more than 2300 items) published in North Carolina newspapers from 1751 to 1840. These brief ads provide a glimpse into the social, economic, and cultural world of the American slave system and the specific experience within North Carolina.
American Eras - Primary Sources: Civil War and Reconstruction
Gale's American Eras - Primary Sources provides access to selected full text documents with supporting commentary on contemporary issues and events. Each volumes covers areas ranging from arts and business to science and sports. A chronology of world events and an era overview provide additional context.
Yale Slavery and Abolition Portal
Coverage: Full Text
Provides access to primary sources related to slavery, abolition, and resistance in relevant collections in each Yale institution.
Slavery & Abolition in the US
Slavery and Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s is a digital collection of books and pamphlets that demonstrate the varying ideas and beliefs about slavery in the United States as expressed by Americans throughout the nineteenth century. The collection includes more than 15,000 individual pages of printed text and corresponding searchable transcriptions.
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War [University of Virginia]
Coverage: Full Text
The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War.
American Eras - Primary Sources: Development of the Industrial United States, 1878-1899
Gale's American Eras - Primary Sources provides access to selected full text documents with supporting commentary on contemporary issues and events. Each volumes covers areas ranging from arts and business to science and sports. A chronology of world events and an era overview provide additional context.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.
more...less...
Also available in print at the UMBC Library:
call no. E444 .F27 1976 [seventeen volumes]
Civil War Diaries and Letters (University of Iowa)
The University of Iowa’s Civil War Diaries and Letters web site contains digitized diaries, correspondence, photographs, and other items. Searching or browsing is available and item information includes date of origin, thumbnails or originals, and transcription into plain text. Links to other Iowa primary source collections are available.
Civil War Home Page
Coverage: 1861-1865
The Civil War Home Page represents one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Civil War related material available electronically. Includes full text documents, maps, statistics, official records, oral histories, slave narratives, photos.
Southern Historical Society Papers [Hathi Trust]
The Southern Historical Society was founded in 1868-1869 to document Southern military and civilian viewpoints from the American Civil War. These were compiled into the Southern Historical Society "Papers". They were published in the late 19th Century, comprising 52 volumes of articles written by Southern soldiers, officers, politicians, and civilians. Full text available for vols. 1-43. Index to the papers in the Reference collection: REF E483.7 S762. R62

American Decades - Primary Sources (20th c.)
Gale's American Decades - Primary Sources provides access to selected full text documents with supporting commentary on contemporary issues and events. Each volumes covers areas ranging from arts and business to science and sports.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Maryland [Library of Congress]
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online Checklist provides a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company. The Sanborn maps are arranged by state, then city and release data. Currently there are over 25,000 sheets from over 3000 city sets.
Progressive Era to New Era (Library of Congress)
Provides an overview and selected documents for various facets of the period.
FRASER: Federal Reserve Archive
FRASER is a mixed subject and institutional repository that preserves and provides access to economic and banking data and policy documents. To this end, various types of documents have been digitized, including Federal Reserve policy documents, publications, speeches and news releases, economic and statistical data.
Lantern
Lantern offers access to nearly 2 million pages of digitized books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.
Historic Government Publications from World War II: a digital library
Coverage: 1939-1946
SMU Central University Libraries, part of GPO's Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), have digitized hundreds of historical World War II publications and photographs and made them available to the public.
Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Coverage: Full Text
Provides access to digitized copies of United States Commission on Civil Rights publications held in the Library's collection and available on the USCCR Web site.
NSA Declassified Documents
Coverage: 1940-current
NSA/CSS periodically releases declassified documents or indexes to these documents to the public. Full text docs listed on this page include those related to Vietnam (Tonkin Gulf) UFO projects, Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy assassination, more.
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
NYPL Digital Gallery access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. Below are links to specific collections that may be useful for Dance research.
Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University [Virtual Vietnam Archive]
The mission of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University is to support research & education regarding all aspects of the history of the American Vietnam experience. Materials include full text documents, maps, oral histories, diaries, videos, other.
Photogrammer (Library of Congress)
Photogrammar is a web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI).

Artists' books

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
The ARTstor Digital Library is an online resource that provides more than one million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research.
To use the full functionality of the Artstor Digital Library you must be logged in through the library website and have created a personal account.
-The basic/advanced search on the Artstor homepage searches the Artstor Digital Library and Public Collections [we have no institutional collections]
-You do not need a personal account to search but you do need it to save images.
-Your saved images will appear in Personal Collections, you will have to login to retrieve/view your images.
-Images saved for a class or presentation can be shared in Groups. Anybody with a personal account can create a Group (you will see UMBC examples when you click on Groups)
Additional Help

University of California Berkeley: Artists' Books Collection
UC Berkeley collection of artists' books in ARTStor (requires UMBC log-in)
UNC-Chapel Hill: Joseph C. Sloane Art Library Collection of Artists’ Books and Zines
UNC-CH collection of artists' books in ARTStor (requires UMBC log-in)
Bucknell University: Artists' Books Collection
BU collection of artists' books in ARTStor (requires UMBC log-in)

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