U.S. History

Military History

This is a guide to scholarly research and primary source collections related to United States history. Subpages include Boston history, Indigenous people's histories, Caribbean history, as well as African American History.

Primary Sources about the U.S. Military

These access points focus on collections related to the different branches of the U.S. military. Researches are encouraged to explore BC's U.S. Legal History guide as well as the relevant temporary history guides for contextual information and additional relevant collections.

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

Broad Digital Collections

Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
Aggregates digital collections from around the U.S. and offers excellent tools to discover and explore them. Contributing institutions provide access to photographs, government documents, newspaper clippings, books, and other forms of ephemera. Focuses on 17th to 21st centuries.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.

Internet Archive
Boston College Libraries is one of many research libraries contributing scanned images of works outside of copyright. Read online or download in various formats for various e-book readers. Download options include PDF, EPUB, Kindle, DAISY (ANSI/NISO Z39.86 open format), and others.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
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.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Online
The United States' National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) serves as the archival repository for the United States' government. Small portions of the collection has been digitized from 18th to the 21st centuries.

Air Force & Army Collections

Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library
Composed of digital versions of paper documents from the Ike Skelton CARL collections and student papers produced at the US Army Command and General Staff College. Includes operational documents, obsolete military manuals, and more.
U.S. Army Chaplain Center & School Library (IA)
Hundreds of digitized resources supporting US Army Chaplains and Chaplain Assistants. Hosted by the Internet Archive.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Library
Most materials were published by USACE, but some collections contain materials by other government agencies written about USACE.
U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) Collections
"...the nation's best resource for the study of strategic leadership, the global application of landpower, and the heritage of the U.S. Army, in honor of Soldiers, past and present." Only partially available online.

Navy and Marine Corps Collections

Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive
Naval Postgraduate School's digital repository for research materials and institutional publications created by the NPS community. Materials in Calhoun are openly accessible to anyone on the web, and will be preserved for future generations. Calhoun is named for Professor of Mathematics Guy K. Calhoun, NPS’s first appointed -- and published -- scholarly author.
Homeland Security Digital Library
Includes CRS reports and briefings; GAO reports; and more. Focuses on the late 20th and 21st centuries.
Library of the Marine Corps (IA)
The mission of the Library of the Marine Corps is to support study and research throughout the Marine Corps in expeditionary, tactical, operational and strategic warfare in a joint and combined environment by providing comprehensive storage, retrieval, analysis, and distribution of warfighting-related information. Digital facsimiles of more than 400 books.
Naval Historical Collection Archives: Digital Materials
"NHC is the U.S. Naval War College's institutional archives and the repository for manuscripts, oral histories, special collections, and rare books relating to the history of the College, naval warfare, and the navies in Narrangansett Bay." Digital materials include autobiographical materials, addresses, annual reports, and more.
Naval Postgraduate School: Dudley Knox Library (IA)
Included here are Masters' Theses, Doctoral Dissertations and other degree-earning works by students of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, as well as some NPS faculty-authored Technical Reports. This content has been shared from the NPS Archive: Calhoun. More than 35,000 digital facsimiles.
U.S. Naval Academy, Nimitz Library (IA)
The United States Naval Academy is the Navy's undergraduate college. Collection includes more than 150 digital facsimiles of annual registers, lucky bags, and more.
U.S. Naval War College, Henry E. Eccles Library (IA)
Includes more than 200 digital facsimiles of war diaries and more.
US Naval Institute Oral Histories
Dozens of oral histories recorded and hosted by Naval History and Heritage Command. Focused on the 20th and 21st centuries.

Joint Collections

Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)
Publicly available documents in all areas of defense research (science, technology, engineering, social science, business & budget), DOD directives & instructions. DTIC is the central scientific, research, and engineering information support activity for the DOD.
Joint Chiefs of Staff: Joint Electronic Library
"The mission of the Joint History Office is 'to create the record of activities of the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Staff and to capture and document all aspects of joint operations conducted by the Armed Forces of the United States.' " The electronic library includes photographs, reports, histories, and more.
National Defense University: Digital Collections
"Provides electronic access to the scanned Lectures from the Army Industrial College, 1924-1942, lectures from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, 1946-1965, Industry Studies reports from 2002-, and historical materials related to the Eisenhower School."
National Technical Reports Library
Thousands of digital facsimiles of technical reports hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Material from the early 20th to 21st centuries.

Additional Useful Collections

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
This website is produced by the government as a finding tool for government publications. There are options for advanced searching and browsing, as well as instructions for how to use each search engine for the best results. Publications that are available free online are linked to in the results, along with detailed descriptions.
NATO Archives Online
"Facilitates the online consultation of the publicly disclosed formal documents of the NATO International Staff (IS) and International Military Staff (IMS). In the coming years, NATO Archives Online will also include publicly disclosed documents originating from Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)." A small selection of declassified documents are provided as digital facsimiles.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) databases
Includes information on arms transfers, multilateral peace conferences, and more from 1950 to the recent past.

For Additional Help

For additional recommendations, contact your History Liaison, Erin, at erinkate.scheopner@bc.edu or schedule an appointment.

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U.S. History

Military History

Primary Sources about the U.S. Military

What's on This Page

Broad Digital Collections

Air Force & Army Collections

Navy and Marine Corps Collections

Joint Collections

Additional Useful Collections

For Additional Help