Resources: Nineteenth Century American history on the web

PLEASE SEND RECOMMENDATIONS TO a.i.p.smith@ucl.ac.uk

Selected libraries and historical societies
Library of Congress
Repositories of Primary Sources A listing of over 4500 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources.
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The Newberry Library
New York Public Library
Organization of American Historians
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
The Abraham Lincoln Association
Harvard University Library
New-York Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society
The Ohio Historical Society

Syllabi for courses in American Ninteenth Century History
The Crisis of the American Republic, 1854-1877 (Adam Smith, UCL)
American History to 1877 (Gary Kornblith, Oberlin College)

Selected primary source material
The American Memory Project at the Library of Congress
A huge and ever-expanding searchable database of primary documents housed by the Library of Congress. It includes letters and papers of figures like Jefferson and Lincoln, as well as collections of broadsides and pamphlets, photographs and sheet music.

Making of America, University of Michigan
A "digital library" of thousands of primary documents from the Antebellum period through Reconstruction. Begun in 1995, it currently offers approximately 630,000 pages from 4,000 volumes. Includes 10 major 19th-century journals--like Appleton's from 1869 to 1881, the Southern Literary Messenger from 1835 to 1864, and DeBow's from 1846 to 1869--as well as novels and tracts important for understanding the development of American education, sociology, history, religion, psychology, and science.

Documenting the American South
A digital publishing initiative from the University of North Carolina that provides internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Currently DocSouth includes seven thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.

Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginia
This is a searchable archive of thousands of pages of maps, images, letters, diaries, newspapers, and church, agricultural, military, and public records--all relating to two Shenandoah Valley communities: Staunton, Virginia, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, before, during, and after the Civil War. A project directed by Edward Ayers at the University of Virginia, this is a wonderful tool for teaching a research.

THE LINCOLN WEB
Historical materials from Abraham Lincoln's Illinois years (1830-1861), including Lincoln's writings and speeches, as well as other materials illuminating antebellum Illinois. From Northern Illinois University.

Getting the Message Out: National Political Campaign Materials, 1840-1860
A fantastic resource: hundreds of documents with Interpretative material by Michael F. Holt.

The United States Civil War Center, Louisiana State University
The home page of the Civil War Center at LSU which aims to 'locate, index, and make available all appropriate private and public data on the Internet regarding the Civil War'.

Archiving Early America
Presents about 50 reproductions of original documents, newspapers, books, autobiographies, biographies, portraits, and maps from the 18th and early 19th centuries.

SECESSION ERA EDITORIALS PROJECT
A well-organised collection at Furman University of hundreds of editorials from Northern and Southern newspapers, focusing on reponses to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision and the raid on Harper's Ferry. When complete the project will have at least one complete run of editorials from each major political party in each state of the Union.

Harper's Weekly OnlineAn impressive on-line resource, although not all of it is free. Contains cartoons (includiing many of Thomas Nast's most famous), line-drawn illustrations together with editorials and articles from the magazine.

Uniting Mugwumps and the MAsses: Puck's role in Gilded Age Politics A fantastic site which contains dozens of annotated Puck cartoons. Created by Dan Backer at the University of Virginia.

African-American History Links
Offers 68 general links to African-American history resources including links to the works of W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. The site is hosted by the Department of History, University of California, Riverside.

Excerpts from Slave Narratives
Excerpts from 46 slave narratives, arranged in 11 chronological and thematic categories. Topics include the religious practices, family life, and childhood experiences of slaves throughout the antebellum period. The site was created by Steven Mintz of the University of Houston.

Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices
Material relating to slavery, such as a broadside announcing a reward for the return of a runaway slave, a map delineating slave labor on an indigo plantation, and a New York bill of sale for the purchase of a slave in 1785. THe site is part of the Digital Scriptorium run by the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project
Features primary documents relating to the emancipation of teh slaves. Includes a letter by General William T. Sherman explaining why he refused to return fugitive slaves to their owners; an 1864 letter from Annie Davis, a Maryland slave, to President Abraham Lincoln; and a description by a Union general of a bloody battle at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, where a brigade of black soldiers fought. This site is part of a larger effort underway by the Freedmen and Southern Society Project to publish a multivolume, print documentary history of emancipation.

The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
Primary material relating to African-American life in Ohio between 1850 and 1920, including selections from 11 Ohio newspapers, including The Palladium of Liberty, the earliest black newspaper in the state. Also presents portions of the A.M.E. Church Review, perhaps the oldest African-American periodical, as well as political proceedings, articles, pamphlets, and speeches. The site is run by the Ohio Historical Society.

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