Research Guides: ARC 350 : finding local and regional historical information: Local history (US)

Primary Sources

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
check the title page for coverage by city and dates
America's Historical Newspapers
see the database for coverage by city and dates
Chronicling America
Digitized newspapers hosted by Library of Congress. Also includes a directory of all newspapers published in the U.S.; from that directory, used Princeton catalog or WorldCat to identify holdings in microfilm
Current newspapers at Princeton

Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 1620-1970

Contains digitized and searchable copies of over 300 years of legal primary sources, such as early U.S. state codes, city charters, constitutional conventions and compilations, and other documents.

HathiTrust
Digital repository of materials from member libraries.

From the Public Collections or My Collections tabs, login using your Princeton ID to see public PDFs.

Princeton Library catalog
find primary sources by entering your place name, plus "history" and "sources"

FINDING ARCHIVES

You may use secondary sources and examine their notes to see which archives other authors have used.

In addition, consult local public and academic libraries, as well as historical societies, to see what collections they hold.

Finally, these two databases may also point toward archives of interest.

Archive Finder
Contains the entire holdings in the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). Current directory of thousands of repositories and over 220,000 collections of primary source materials across the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. 1959+
ArchiveGrid
Index to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world.

American County Histories
Searchable collection of histories of individual American counties, that contain chapters with detailed coverage of local history, geology, geography, weather, transportation, lists of all local participants in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, government, the medical and legal professions, churches and ministers, industry and manufacturing, banking and insurance, schools and teachers, noted celebrations, fire departments and associations, cemeteries, family histories, health and vital statistics, roads and bridges, public officials and legislators, and many additional subject areas

America: History and Life with Full Text

Indexes books and journal articles on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. 1954+

Print predecessor Writings on American History covering 1904-1954 is in Firestone's General & Humanities Reference (DR) Z1236.L331.
PAIS: Public Affairs Information Service
Citations to articles, books, reports, and select government documents on U.S. and international public policy issue. Generally considered to be a comprehensive index to policy literature. 1915+

1968-1971 of the foreign language component is only available in print. (Trustees Reading Room) Z7164.A2P8

Images of America: a history of American life in images and texts
Contains thousands of volumes of local history, with text and photos, detailing life in towns, cities, neighborhoods, and rural areas of the United States
American County Histories

Discover New Jersey History
Links to electronic resources on New Jersey history
New Jersey Digital Highway
Primary sources keyed to curriculum materials
Princeton and Slavery
The Trenton Project
Documentaries on 20th century life in Trenton, made by Princeton University students