Primary Source Documents on the Web
Primary source materials are fairly easy to locate on the Internet. Visit your favorite search engine and enter American history primary sources into the search box (or whatever type of historical documents you seek) or even the name of the document (quotes are helpful) and you'll find a plethora of resources. Do, however, take a minute to see who is posting the information. Generally, a domain ending of ".edu" is going to more reliable than ".com."
Some suggested starting points for general primary source browsing.
American
Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
This website offers more than seven million items from over 100 historical collections.
An offshoot of the Library of Congress, this site is browsable by topic (culture,
government, literature, etc.) or keyword.
Smithsonian
American Art Museum
The extensive online collections and exhibits at the Smithsonian alluw users
to search or browse by category. Art is a wonderful resource, reflecting society
and pushing it in new directions.
U.S.
National Archives and Records Administration: Exhibit Hall
Online exhibits include images of our founding documents (Declaration
of Independence, Constitution) as well as pictures of the century and American
originals, pivotal, groundbreaking and sometimes odd moments in American history.
www.ourdocuments.gov
This site pay tribute to "100 milestone documents of American
history." Documents are arranged in chronological order and are shown in
their original format.
Source: Booklist, April
15, 2004.
Last updated April 2010
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