Librarian for History and African American Studies
609-258-0496
steven.knowlton@princeton.edu
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https://steven-knowlton.scholar.princeton.edu/
Major resources
Evans Digital Edition
Digital library of works published in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. Materials include fiction and non-fiction covering every aspect of American life in the period. Replaces the microfilm collection, Early American Imprints, Microfiche 802.
Shaw-Shoemaker Digital Edition
Digital library of works published in America in the early 19th century. Materials include fiction and non-fiction covering every aspect of American life in the period.
American History & Culture Online
Digital library of works written or published in the United States, as well as items printed elsewhere, that document the history of the Americas from 1492 to the mid-1800s. Based on Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.
America's Historical Newspapers
Provides searchable full-text of newspapers more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers including titles from all 50 states. Includes newspapers from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society, the Library of Congress, the Wisconsin Historical Society and others, including the microfilm collection based on Brigham's "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers." Note that this digital edition replaces Early American Newspapers, Microfilm S00973.
Nineteenth Century U. S. Newspaper Digital Archive
Digital archive of U.S. newspapers from the 19th century.
American Broadsides and Ephemera
Digital edition of broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. From the collections of the American Antiquarian Society.
American Pamphlets Series I 1820-1922: From the New York Historical Society
Digital edition of pamphlets from the collections of the New-York Historical Society. Includes more than 25,000 short works printed in every region of the United States between 1820 and 1922.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection
Digital collection of American periodicals published between 1691 and 1877.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Provides partially searchable digital images of about 150,000 books, primarily British, printed in the eighteenth century. Based on the Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue.
Making of the Modern World Digital Archive
Digital edition of the Goldsmiths'-Kress collections of books on that document economic and business activity in the West, from the last half of the 15th century to the mid-19th century. Materials include books, pamphlets and ephemera and cover a broad range of topics in political science, history, sociology, and banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing. Replaces Goldsmiths'-Kress collection, Microfilm S00656
Fold3
Online access to material from the National Archives documenting a wide range of topics in American history. Also includes genealogical material and a collection of small town newspapers. Formerly known as footnote.com.
British Records on the Atlantic World British Online Archives "This series brings together a wealth of collections spanning two centuries of Britain's colonisation, commercial, missionary and even literary relations with Africa and the Americas." Reproduces in part microfilm from the series British Records Relating to America in Microform (BRRAM), including some collections listed elsewhere on these guides.
- American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new windowDocuments American history from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection.
- Colonial America This link opens in a new windowDigital edition of the documents in Colonial Office (CO) 5 at the UK National Archives. CO 5 constitutes the original correspondence of the colonial governments with the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together holding responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean.
- Docuseek2 Complete Collection This link opens in a new windowEducational streaming access to documentaries.
- Colonial Society of MassachusettsDigitized primary sources from early European colonists
- The Gilded AgePrimary documents and scholarly commentary, with key treatises, songs, letters, photographs, cartoons, government documents, and ephemera from the late 19th century.
- Everett D. Graff Collection of Western AmericanaMore than 3,700 digitized manuscripts from the Newberry Library's Graff collection, documenting America's westward expansion. Topics covered include narratives from explorers, pioneers, hunters, traders, and prospectors; accounts of the Mormon treks of 1846 and 1849, the California gold rush, and overland travel during the 19th century; the development of transcontinental railroads; the growth of Western city and town life; and the history and culture of Native Americans.
- Edward E. Ayer Digital CollectionDigitized manuscripts from the Newberry Library's Ayer collection on American Indians.
- Freedom on the MoveRediscovering The Stories Of
Self-Liberating People: A database of fugitives from American Slavery. A searchable database of advertisements in newspapers offering information about enslaved people escaping from captivity.
Related guides
Other guides that cover American history before 1900:
Interactive maps
- The Overland TrailsTrack westward migration in the 1840s
- Mapping American Social Movements Through the 20th CenturyThis project produces and displays free interactive maps showing the historical geography of dozens of social movements that have influenced American life and politics since the start of the 20th century, including radical movements, civil rights movements, labor movements, women's movements, and more.
- Invasion of AmericaShows the change in sovereignty over time as Indian lands became subject to the U.S. government, from 1776-1887
- IndianNationAllows users to locate an Indian Community from the 1900 Census and obtain information about that community
- Mapping OccupationShows the size and location of U.S. army posts during Reconstruction
- Of Methods and MadnessMaps guerrilla violence during the Civil War
- Pox AmericanaMaps outbreaks of smallpox throughout American history
- Fugitive Federals: A Digital Humanities Investigation of Escaped Union PrisonersVisualizes the escape of 3,000 Federal prisoners of war during the Civil War
- Monroe Work Today - Interactive Map of Lynchings Over TimeThis site presents a history of lynching, highlights anti-lynching activists, and offers an interactive map that shows the time and place of all recorded lynchings between 1835 and 1964.
- Mapping InequalityDigitized real estate maps from the Home Owners' Loan Corporation between 1935 and 1940, showing redlining in numerous cities across the U.S.
- Electing the House of RepresentativesInteractive map showing relative strength of parties, changing district boundaries, and trends over time.
- Renewing Inequality: Family Displacements through Urban RenewalVisualizes the forced moving of families due to federally-funded "urban renewal" projects between 1950 and 1966
- The Executive AbroadTracks trips to other countries by presidents and secretaries of state from 1906 to 2016
- The Forced Migration of Enslaved PeopleTracks the numbers of enslaved people forced to migrate within the United States, showing in-migration and out-migration by state and year
- The Lasting Legacy of RedlingCompare maps of redlined neighborhoods from the 1960s to current maps
- Mapping PrejudiceInteractive maps and data showing the extent of "racial covenant" clauses in Minnesota real estate
- Justice InDeedInteractive map showing "racial covenants" clauses in Michigan real estate
- Landscape of LiberationAn interactive map showing the landscape of emancipation as it unfolded from 1860 to 1890. As slavery and plantation life dissolved in the crucible of war and occupation, Tennessee became a laboratory of innovative social arrangements for African Americans. This application provides new tools and powerful geospatial software for looking at these transformative events during a time of profound social change. Every point on the map is linked to primary documents and images that tell the story of people, places, and events.
- Land Acquisition and Dispossession: Mapping the Homestead Act, 1863-1912The Homestead Act of 1862 offered Americans the opportunity to claim parcels of "public land," occupy and improve it for five years, and then receive title to it. This map visualizes over time and space the more than 2.3 million claims and 900,000 "patents" granting ownership made and issued in the half-century after passage of the act. By 1912, homesteaders had transformed more than 125 million acres—more than 5% of the total acreage of the entire United States—from public lands to private property.
During the same period, Americans and their government dispossessed Native Americans of large portions of the American West. While not doing it full justice, this map pays particular attention to the dispossession of those lands through violence and claims on Indian reservations that the federal government defined as "surplus."
Photographs and Illustrations
- New York Public Library Digital CollectionsMore than 700,000 images from NYPL's collection
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Digital CollectionsMore than 400,000 digital images
- Carl van Vechten Collection of PortraitsPhotographs of celebrities, including many figures from the Harlem Renaissance, taken between 1932 and 1964.
- Ad*AccessOver 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.
- Images of America: a history of American life in images and textsover a million images of people and places in American small towns and cities, pulled from the local history book series
- Everett D. Graff Collection of Western AmericanaMore than 130,000 digitized images from the Newberry Library's Graff collection, documenting America’s westward expansion. Topics covered include narratives from explorers, pioneers, hunters, traders, and prospectors; accounts of the Mormon treks of 1846 and 1849, the California gold rush, and overland travel during the 19th century; the development of transcontinental railroads; the growth of Western city and town life; and the history and culture of Native Americans.
- Edward E. Ayer Digital CollectionMore than 100,000 digitized images from the Newberry Library's Edward E. Ayer collection, one of the world's premiere sources of primary documents on American Indians. Topics covered include Native American archaeology, ethnology, art, and language; the history of the contact between Europeans and native peoples; voyages, travels, and accounts of early America; the development of cartography of the Western Hemisphere; and the history of the aboriginal peoples under the jurisdiction of the U.S. in the Philippine Islands and Hawaii.
- Billy Ireland Cartoon LibraryDigitized collection of cartoons from the 1830s to the present
- Marchand ArchiveArchive of photos and paintings depicting scenes from American life
- NPGallery - National Park Service Digital Asset Management SystemThousands of images digitized from the archives of the National Park Service; not limited to images of national parks, but includes many other historical scenes
- AP Newsroom (includes AP Images Collection) This link opens in a new windowContains breaking news, feature stories, photographs, graphics and audio clips produced by the AP network of journalists, who operate in more than 250 locations worldwide.
- Old Book IllustrationsDownloadable illustrations—usually engravings or woodcuts— from books prior to the 1920s
Datasets
- The Magazine of Early American Datasets (MEAD)Open-access datasets for U.S. history; includes passenger lists, probate records, jail records, business records
- Members of Congress who Enslaved Black PeopleWashington Post interactive database