U.S. History

Digitized books and special collections from libraries, archives, and museums around the world.

Interface in English. Content in English or other languages.
Digitized collections from the Library of Congress, includes manuscripts, books, photos, maps, audio recordings, and more. Strongest between the 17th and 21st centuries. Content dating back to B.C.E.
Open Access.

Including photographs, manuscripts, prints, newspapers, objects, and more. Browse the images below to view many of our digitized collections from this period in American history.

"The focus of this website is on the people who participated in the battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg). We've collected information about many of them over the years. In addition to thousands of individual soldier profiles, we have several ways to look at the battle and the campaign of September 1862: with interactive maps, narratives from the official to the personal, and special projects highlighting aspects of the history."

The VMI Archives contain a wide variety of primary source materials relating to the Civil War era and the participation of VMI Cadets in the Battle of New Market.

"Although no actual battles were fought in Michigan, men—and women—from the state served throughout the war in more than 50 Michigan regiments of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers, as well as in regiments of other states. These Michigan citizens were vital to the Union cause, and President Abraham Lincoln is quoted as exclaiming, “Thank God for Michigan!” when the state’s first troops arrived to serve."

Research and discussion on the Missouri-Kansas Border War that shook the region from 1854 to 1865. Through a collaborative effort among libraries, museums, and historical societies across the greater Kansas City region, the project provides free access to selected primary source materials and adds unique interactive features and a thematic layer of original scholarly essays and topical encyclopedia entries.

Poised for the sesquicentennial remembrance of the Civil War, South Carolina and the Civil War brings together eyewitness views and accounts of this period of American history, selected from the rich holdings of University of South Carolina Libraries.

Documents the Civil War through letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches and records from Augustus County Virginia and Franklin County Pennsylvania.

Contains approximately 650 hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the laying of the transatlantic cable in Ireland, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire, and numerous other aspects of nineteenth-century American culture.

With contributions from across Massachusetts--including the Boston Public Library--this digital library has expansive coverage of the Civil War.

Nine Civil War manuscript collections ; access to Massachusetts 54th Regiment ; collection on Celebrating Lincoln.

The records of the Confederate States of America span the years 1854-1889, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1861-1865, during the Civil War in America. The collection relates to the formation of the government of the Confederacy and the conduct of its internal, external, and military affairs. With few exceptions, the collection consists of official or semiofficial records generated by departments of the Confederate government and their agents. The departments of state, justice, treasury, navy, war, and the post office are represented, along with material relating to the president, congress, and constitution.

The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is comprised of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
The material in this collection is in the public domain.

Presents documents related to all aspects of Southern life during the Civil War. In particular, government and civilian publications demonstrate the Confederate States of America's unsuccessful attempt to create a viable nation state. This collection includes over four hundred Civil War era maps, broadsides, photographs, printed works, Confederate currency, and manuscript letters and diaries.

Brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman's Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts all available for the first time in one place.

Consists of over 2500 pieces culled from the Library's collections. This collection is unique in that it offers a contemporary perspective from both sides of the conflict, unfiltered by generations of historical interpretation.

An online collection that brings together musical scores, recordings, photographs, and essays documenting an important but insufficiently explored part of the American musical past.

Interface in English. Content predominately in English and some Spanish.
Digitized newspapers from 1789-1963 from numerous states. Also includes the U.S. Newspaper Directory with information about American newspapers published between 1690-1965.
Open Access.

Papers cover 1815 to 2006, with extensive coverage of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

There are currently 1384 issues of the paper available online, ranging in date from November 1860 through December 1865.

Approximately 20,000 documents, which include correspondence with enclosures of newspaper clippings, drafts of speeches, notes, pamphlets, and other printed material by Lincoln, are available. Most of the material dates from the presidential years. Lincoln had a lively correspondence with many people in his day, so this is a rich resource. Each piece is scanned, with accompanying transcription.

A small collection of family papers of American painter John Gadsby Chapman, consisting mostly of letters to Chapman from colleagues and associates, and correspondence with his son, Conrad Wise Chapman, who served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. Creation Date: 1791-1898, bulk 1861-1865.

These collections consists of diaries and collections of letters from the Civil War era found in Special Collections and Archives. The diaries offer a unique look into the lives of common soldiers, spies and even a bodyguard of Abraham Lincoln. Letters include both private and official correspondence. Correspondents in the latter group include Rufus King and Ulysses S. Grant. Transcripts are provided for each handwritten page.

More than 230 digital facsimiles from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A selection of original Civil War correspondence between soldiers from the battlefields and their family members and friends on the homefront. These letters describe firsthand accounts of battle, reflections on the nature of war and its profound effect on those involved - both on those at the front lines and loved ones who remained anxiously at home.

This collection contains the mementos Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Franklin Eshleman, a former commander of the Washington Artillery battalion, saved in his scrapbook.

Offspring of the Corpus of American Civil War Letters (CACWL) project, an effort to amass a large number of letters penned by individuals with limited educations who knew little about formal conventions of punctuation and capitalization.

Is a collection of diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives written by Southerners. The majority of materials in this collection are written by those Southerners whose voices were less prominent in their time, including African Americans, women, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans.

Papers of George Fearing Hollis, Union Naval officer and United States Consul to Cape Town, South Africa from 1888-1893. The collection consists mainly of Civil War-era correspondence, manuscript memoirs, and documents regarding Hollis's tenure in Cape Town. Creation Date: 1852-1903.

This collection is made up primarily of incoming correspondence to husband and wife Gilbert and Adeline James of Cherry Creek, New York. Their most prolific correspondent was Gilbert's brother Henry James, who sent 18 letters, most written while serving in Company C of the 7th Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War. Henry James wrote to his family about life at Maple Grove, near Saginaw, Michigan; camp life during training at Camp Kellogg, Grand Rapids; experiences fighting at Gettysburg and elsewhere in Pennsylvania; and his posting at Camp Stoneman, Washington, D.C.

This collection is made up primarily of incoming correspondence to husband and wife Gilbert and Adeline James of Cherry Creek, New York. Their most prolific correspondent was Gilbert's brother Henry James, who sent 18 letters, most written while serving in Company C of the 7th Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War. Henry James wrote to his family about life at Maple Grove, near Saginaw, Michigan; camp life during training at Camp Kellogg, Grand Rapids; experiences fighting at Gettysburg and elsewhere in Pennsylvania; and his posting at Camp Stoneman, Washington, D.C.

The papers of educator, Confederate cartographer and topographical engineer Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899) span the years 1835-1908, with the bulk of the material dating from 1875 to 1898.

Includes personal papers, military records, letters, as well as journals and diaries. Most documents are transcribed.

A Civil War nurse and agent for the United States Sanitary Commission who was known as "Mother Bickerdyke" to Union soldiers, consist of 1,800 items in five containers spanning the years 1847-1905. A large portion of the papers consists of correspondence grouped into family, general, and special correspondence files.

This collection includes Maxcy Gregg’s Sporting Journal (1839–1860) as well as letters and reports from his service during the Civil War. Letters and newspaper clippings commemorating his death at the Battle of Fredericksburg are also included.

A documentary editing project based at Rice University in Houston, Texas, has published (1971-2015) a 14 volume edition of his letters and speeches, several of which can be found on this web site. The site also provides extensive information on Davis and his family and numerous images.

The digital collection consists of 31 volumes of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, political cartoons, and sheet music from the larger collection. Other materials will be added to the digital collection as processing continues.

The papers of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), army officer and eighteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 50,000 items dating from 1819-1974, with the bulk falling in the period 1843-1885. They include general and family correspondence, speeches, writings, reports, messages, military records, financial and legal records, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and other papers. The collection relates to Grant's service in the Mexican War and Civil War, his pre-Civil War career, and his postwar service as U.S. secretary of war ad interim under President Andrew Johnson, his 1868 presidential campaign and two-term presidency, his unsuccessful 1880 presidential bid, and his extensive travels and financial difficulties.

Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings. Includes Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints ; Gladstone Collection (photographs relating to the Civil War) ; Liljenquist Family Collection (many ambrotype and tintype portraits) ; Drawings (Documentary) (eyewitness drawings from the Civil War) ; Stereograph Cards (relating to the Civil War) ; and more.

This Civil War-era photograph album contains cartes-de-visite photographs of members of the S. C. Secession Convention, Confederate and U.S. Governments, officers of the Confederate and U.S. Armies, S.C. governors, and officers of the South Carolina Volunteers 1st Regiment of Rifles.

"Illuminates specific moments in the history of Ohio's African-Americans and provides an overview of their experiences during the time period 1850 to 1920 in the words of the people that lived them."

Gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909.

This site contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts and 500 black-and-white photographs of former
slaves.

The collection consists of correspondence, pay vouchers, orders, muster rolls, enlistment and discharge papers, receipts, contracts, affidavits, tax records, miscellaneous military documents, and printed matter. Most items document African Americans in military service, especially the United States Corps d'Afrique and the United States Colored Troops, which were organized during the Civil War. Also included are many documents concerning slavery and various other Civil War documents that mention African Americans.

Resource to help put Confederate monuments in historical perspective and foster dialogue about the future of these monuments created by the Atlanta History Center.

The records of the Confederate States of America span the years 1854-1889, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1861-1865, during the Civil War in America. The collection relates to the formation of the government of the Confederacy and the conduct of its internal, external, and military affairs. With few exceptions, the collection consists of official or semiofficial records generated by departments of the Confederate government and their agents. The departments of state, justice, treasury, navy, war, and the post office are represented, along with material relating to the president, congress, and constitution.

Often referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The bureau records were created or maintained by bureau headquarters, the assistant commissioners and the state superintendents of education and included personnel records and a variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs and conditions in the states.

Mapping Occupation, by Gregory P. Downs and Scott Nesbit, captures the regions where the United States Army could effectively act as an occupying force in the Reconstruction South. For the first time, it presents the basic nuts-and-bolts facts about the Army's presence, movements that are central to understanding the occupation of the South. That data in turn reorients our understanding of the Reconstruction that followed Confederate surrender. Viewers can use these maps as a guide through a complex period, a massive data source, and a first step in capturing the federal government's new reach into the countryside.

Documents the Civil War through letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches and records from Augustus County Virginia and Franklin County Pennsylvania.

In 1873, the University of South Carolina became the only state-supported Southern university to fully integrate during the Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War.