U.S. State & Local History

History > U.S. > Local History>

Separate state & local history pages for (more to follow):
- California
- Massachusetts
- New York
- Texas
- Virginia
- Washington State
- Native American Tribal & Local Histories

American Association for State and Local History

United States Newspaper Program
"The United States Newspaper Program is a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present."

 

Alabama

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Alabama Maps
"...is an ongoing project of the Cartographic Research Laboratory, which operates under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama...The Historical Map Archive is a digitized collection of selected map holdings from the University of Alabama Map Library, the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the Rucker Agee Collection of the Birmingham Public Library, the Geological Survey of Alabama, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History."

 

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

The Birmingham News - Special Report

  • Unseen. Unforgotten.
    "These Birmingham News photographs of the civil rights movement have not been seen by the public. Until now."

Birmingham Public Library

Geological Survey of Alabama

Legends of Tuskegee: Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and the Tuskegee Airmen
"Tuskegee is more than a town located in Macon County, Alabama. It is an idea and an ideal. It was a bold experiment and a site of major African-American achievements for over 100 years."
- National Park Service Exhibit

University of Alabama Map Library - (dead link)

Alaska
Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Alaska Volcano Observatory - AVO - (dead link)
"...is a joint program of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAFGI), and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADGGS). AVO was formed in 1988, and uses federal, state, and university resources to monitor and study Alaska's hazardous volcanoes, to predict and record eruptive activity, and to mitigate volcanic hazards to life and property."

  • Catalog of Historically Active Volcanoes of Alaska - (dead link)
    "By T.P. Miller, R.G. McGimsey, D.H. Richter, J.R. Riehle, C.J. Nye, M.E. Yount, and J.A. Dumoulin. U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Open-File Report 98-582, 104 pages, 102 figures. Alaska Volcano Observatory, Alaska, 1998."

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Includes both wildlife and oil development information. Sections include: Refuge Information ; Wildlife ; Habitat ; People.
Official U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service page

Birds and Mammals of Mount McKinley National Park
By Joseph S. Dixon
U.S. National Park Service - Fauna Series No.3 - 1938
Fauna of the National Parks of the United States

California Academy of Sciences - Dept. of Anthropology

  • Native Alaskan Graphic Arts: Founding Artists
    "Artistic traditions among Alaska's native people span many centuries, but flat two-dimensional drawings intended to be hung on a wall are a product of the 20th Century. Beginning in the 1930s, several Inupiat artists began recording scenes of traditional arctic life on tanned seal and caribou skins. This exhibit features works by several of these artists, including George Ahgupuk, Robert Mayokok, Kivetoruk Moses, and Florence Nupok Malewotkuk."

California Academy of Sciences - Exhibits

A Century of Ecosystem Science: Planning Long-Term Research in the Gulf of Alaska
Committee to Review the Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Monitoring Program, National Research Council, 2002.
Online version from the National Academy Press

[Curtis, Edward S.] Frontier Photographer: Edward S. Curtis
A Smithsonian Institution Libraries Exhibition
"Edward S. Curtis (1748-1952) left an indelible mark on the history of photography in his 20-volume life's work, The North American Indian."
Sections include: The Curtis Family ; Working on the Frontier ; Gaining Support ; A Life's Work ; Early Books ; Suggested Readings ; Timeline ; Family Sacrifices ; Curtis' Technique ; "The Man Who Never Took Time to Play" ; Alaska.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council

Guide to USDA Programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives
Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, Program Aid 1617.

HistoryLink.org
The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History

  • Klondike Gold Rush Historical Database
    "This database contains photographs, newspaper clippings, documents, contemporary Seattle business names and locations, vessel sailing dates and passenger lists related to the 1897-1898 Klondike Gold Rush, which Seattle served as a major gateway for supplies and prospectors."

Inupiat of Arctic Alaska
By Norman Chance

Living in Both Worlds: Inupiaq Women and Urban Life
"...adapted from a 'Commentary' article by Nancy Fogel-Chance in the journal Arctic, vol 47. no.4 (December 1994). A more detailed account of this research was published in Arctic Anthropology, vol. 30, No. 1, p p. 94-108, 1993."

Meeting of Frontiers
"...a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest...It is intended for use in U.S. and Russian schools and libraries and by the general public in both countries. Scholars, particularly those who do not have ready access to major research libraries, also will benefit from the mass of primary material included in Meeting of Frontiers, much of which has never been published or is extremely rare."
- Library of Congress

National Academy Press (free online versions)

Northern Alaska Environmental Center
"...promotes conservation of the environment in Interior and Arctic Alaska through advocacy, education, and sustainable resource stewardship."
Sections include: Arctic ; Boreal Forest ; Denali Watch ; Local Issues ; Mining ; Camp Habitat.

The Ongoing Challenge of Managing Carbon Monoxide Pollution in Fairbanks, Alaska (etext)
Committee on Carbon Monoxide Episodes in Meteorological and Topographical Problem Areas, National Research Council, 2002.

Salmon: Spirit of the Land and Sea
"Join the One World Journeys team along with nature photographer Natalie Fobes, author Susan Zwinger, conservationists Ian and Karen McAllister aboard the Explorer as we travel the coastal waters of Alaska and British Columbia."
Sections include: Live Journey ; Saga of the Salmon ; Eco-Gallery ; People of the Salmon ; Learn and Explore.
Presented by One World Journeys

Tlingit National Anthem - Alaska Natives Online
 "Alaska Native and American Indian anthems, flags, history, art, celebrities, culture, dance, storytelling, photographs, music, languages, writers, radio, and media. Alaska Natives Online, tourist attractions. Alaska Native and American
Indian issues, internet resources."

U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. Geological Survey - Alaska Science Center
Sections include: Biology ; Geology ; Water ; Geography.

U.S. Geological Survey - Energy Resources Program

  • The Oil and Gas Resource Potential of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 Area, Alaska - (dead link) (Open File Report 98-34)
    By ANWR Assessment Team

University of Alaska Fairbanks - Alaska Sea Grant Program
- School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences

Klondike
City Rises on 'Golden Wave'
From The Seattle Times 1896-1996 Centennial series
By Sharon Boswell and Lorraine McConaghy

Ghosts of the Klondike Gold Rush - (dead link)
Includes anecdotes, images, a brief history, and an interest database called Pan for Gold

Golden Dreams: The Quest for the Klondike - (dead link)
"...retraces the path to the Klondike Gold Fields from Washington State in 1897 and 1898 through the eyes and lens of photographer Asahel Curtis. Using images, period objects and artifacts, multimedia exhibits and interactive storytelling techniques..."
- Washington State Historical Society

HistoryLink.org
The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History

  • Klondike Gold Rush Historical Database
    "This database contains photographs, newspaper clippings, documents, contemporary Seattle business names and locations, vessel sailing dates and passenger lists related to the 1897-1898 Klondike Gold Rush, which Seattle served as a major gateway for supplies and prospectors."

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - (dead link) Alaska

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Seattle Unit - (dead link)
"Find out about early Seattle and the Klondike Gold Rush"

Klondike Ho! 1897-1997
Klondike Gold Rush Centennial
By Alan Taylor

The Klondike Weekly
"Its purpose is both to enable us to more clearly direct you to the Klondike material that is already on the 'Net, and to post the large number of high-quality articles arriving almost daily in our mailbox from other historian/writers."

Threads of Gold: Women in the Klondike - (dead link)
"...explores the wide range of experiences of both Alaska Native and pioneer women during the Alaska-Klondike gold rush era. Women played many important roles in the dramatic development of the north which was a result of the gold rush."
University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Arizona - (dead link) Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records

Arizona State Museum
University of Arizona
"...is the oldest and largest anthropology museum in the region and brings to life the culture history of the Greater Southwest, from the mammoth hunters to the present, through many ongoing research projects. The museum's rich and varied collections are among the most significant resources in the nation for the study of Southwest anthropology."

  • Archaeological Research
    Sections include: Techniques ; Projects ; Volunteers ; AZITE ; Services ; Earthwatch ; Zooarchaeology Lab.

The Bisbee Deportation of 1917
A University of Arizona Library Web Exhibit
"The Bisbee Deportation of 1917 was an event specific to Arizona that influenced the labor movement throughout the United States. What started as a labor dispute between copper mining companies and their workers turned into vigilante action against the allegedly nefarious activities of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). This site is a research-based collection of primary and secondary sources for the study of the deportation of over 1,000 striking miners from Bisbee on 12 July, 1917...Materials include I.W.W. publications, personal recollections, newspaper articles, court records, government reports, correspondence, and journal articles that are part of the collections of three libraries: The University of Arizona Library, the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, Arizona, and the Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona.

Geology of the Grand Canyon (K12)
Sections include: How Was it Formed? ; Where Did all the Rock Come From? ; Why Does it Look Like it Does? ; When Did All this Happen?
By Bob Ribokas

Northern Arizona University, Cline Library Special Collections and Archives Imaging Database
"The Special Collections and Archives Department at Cline Library houses 700,000 photographs, 3 million manuscripts and 1,300 maps. This browsing database provides a small sample of the complete collections."

The Physical Geology of the Grand Canyon District
By Clarence Edward Dutton in 1882

The Pleasant Valley War
 "This site is owned by Leland Hanchett, Jr, dba Pine Rim Publishing. Its purpose is to increase awareness of and interest in the Pleasant Valley (Young) region of Arizona, especially with regard to the accurate history of the Pleasant Valley War."

Sharlot Hall Museum Archives and Library
"Our mission is to collect, preserve, and make available the documentary history of Yavapai County [Arizona] and the surrounding region (see map). We are also a repository for information on cowboy lore, Yavapai County genealogy, the Rough Riders of Arizona, mining history, Western womenís literary history and the life and works of Sharlot M. Hall."

Tribal Maps
EPA Region 9 [Southwest]

Water Politics and the History of the Fort McDowell Indian Community
Essay by James Q. Jacobs, Adjunct Faculty, Central Arizona College

California - see our separate California History page.

 

Colorado

Colorado State Archives

  • Historic Mine Report Files Index c.1900-1980
    "This large collection of mining records from the Department of Natural Resources is organized alphabetically by county and alphabetically by mine name. The collection is especially useful to those doing corporate research, mine histories, geological work, and is often referred to when we conduct research for uranium miners who are trying to document their radon exposure levels."

Columbine High School Shooting
[Columbine High School Shootings] - Jefferson County, Colorado Sheriff
"The following listing will allow the reader to navigate through the report and obtain details for activities that occurred around the Columbine High School incident. [April 20, 1999]"
Sections include: Time Lines ; Crime Scene Diagrams ; Detailed Information ; Photographs ; General Information ; Audio ; Video.
- From CNN

 

Google Directory - Columbine High School - (dead link)
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Denver Public Library - The Photography Collection
"The Western History / Genealogy Department houses a major collection of photography documenting the development of the American West. The gallery exhibits will introduce you to topics chosen from the collection."

  • The Parks Album
    "...documents buildings and facilities in the Denver City & Mountain Parks network. The album contains 755 images on 95 pages, taken in Denver and the surrounding area. The pictures show playgrounds, tennis courts, filling stations, asphalt plants, bridges, county farms, fire stations, dams, restrooms, golf courses, municipal buildings, sewage treatment plants, police departments, highway department garages, zoos, campground cooking shelters, outdoor theaters, and other park structures."

Fort Collins Public Library - Local History Archive

 

Connecticut

Connecticut History Online
Photographs, Drawings and Prints about Connecticut History
"...is a collaboration between the Connecticut Historical Society, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and Mystic Seaport."

 

The Diary of Jared Nash - (dead link)
"...two years (1745 and 1746) in the life of a Connecticut subsistence farmer and his family. The diary is extensively annotated with information on the life of the times, farming, and the characters mentioned."
By Jack Sanders

The Mark Twain House
A National Historic Landmark
Sections include: Visitor Information ; The Man and His House ; News and Special Events ; Just for Kids ; Teaching Twain ; The Museum Shop.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
"...is to preserve and interpret Harriet Beecher Stoweís Hartford home and the Centerís historic collections, create a forum for vibrant discussion of her life and work, and inspire individuals to embrace and emulate her commitment to social justice by effecting positive change."

University of Connecticut Libraries - Archives and Special Collections

  • Railroad History Archive
    • Steam & Electric Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad Digital Collection
      "The 460 photographs that comprise this digital collection are from the Fred Otto Makowsky Collection... The photographs are an excellent snapshot of the trains of the early 1900s, showing the New Haven Railroadís mid and late generation steam engines and its first electric locomotives and multiple unit cars. The photographs were taken in the time that the New Haven RR was a pioneer in main line electrification..."

Yale, Slavery & Abolition
Yale University and its Legacy
A critical and controversial examination of Yale's historic links to slavery.
Sections include: Who Yale Honors ; Endowments ; Abolitionists ; Town-Gown ; Summary ; Additional Resources.

 

Florida

Florida Memory Project
"With over 200,000 primary source documents and photographs from the Florida State Archives, the Florida Memory Project illustrates significant moments in the state's history, provides educational resources for students of all ages, and makes available collections useful for historical research."
Sections include: Florida Photographic Collection ; Online Classroom ; Highlights of Florida History ; Collections ; Timeline.
- Florida State Archives

  • Florida Confederate Pension Application Files
    "The series includes files on approved and denied pension claims from 1885 to 1954."
    State Board of Pensions
  • Mary McLeod Bethune
    "...founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls, now Bethune-Cookman College. Bethune was active in the fight against racism and served as an unofficial advisor to President Roosevelt...The records include photographs, letters and drafts of sections of the biography."
  • Roxcy Bolton, Pioneer Feminist
    Sections include: History ; Documents ; Photos ; Quiz ; Teacher Resources.
  • Spanish Land Grants
    "The first portion of an extensive series of Spanish land grant claims related to the territory that Spain ceded to the United States in 1821."

Everglades Landscape Model (ELM)
"The ELM is a regional scale ecological model designed to predict the landscape response to different water management scenarios in south Florida, USA. The ELM simulates changes to the hydrology, soil & water nutrients, periphyton biomass & community type, and vegetation biomass & community type in the Everglades region."
- South Florida Water Management District

 

Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942
"...is a multiformat ethnographic field collection documenting African-American, Arabic, Bahamian, British-American, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, and Slavic cultures throughout Florida. Recorded by Robert Cook, Herbert Halpert, Zora Neale Hurston, Stetson Kennedy, Alton Morris, and others in conjunction with the Florida Federal Writers' Project, the Florida Music Project, and the Joint Committee on Folk Arts of the Work Projects Administration, it features folksongs and folktales in many languages, including blues and work songs from menhaden fishing boats, railroad gangs, and turpentine camps; children's songs, dance music, and religious music of many cultures; and interviews, also known as "life histories."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

Florida Holocaust Museum
Includes virtual tours & exhibits.

Florida Museum of Natural History
- University of Florida

  • St. Augustine Exhibition
    "The settlement was already forty two years old when Jamestown was founded, and has survived until today as the oldest European town in the United States."

Florida State University - Center for the Advancement of Human Rights

Historical Museum of Southern Florida
Explore 10,000 Years of History and Culture in Greater Miami, South Florida and the Caribbean.

  • Calypso: A World of Music
    An Exhibition of Photographs and Illustrations of the International History of Calypso, 1930-1970.

Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum
Key West, Florida

  • Key West African Cemetery - The Last Slave Ships - (dead link)
    "A riveting story about slave ships captured by the US Navy and brought to shore in Key West. A story about the ships, their crew and human cargo that united the town in a humanitarian
    effort to end human suffering. Exhibition located at the Mel Fish."
    Sections include: Introduction ; U.S. Navy and the Slave Trade ; Africa ; Slave Ships and the Clandestine Trade ; Africans in Key West ; Cuba ; Liberia ; African Cemetery in Key

National Academy Press (free online versions)

Paradise at Risk - (dead link)
Florida's Costly Battle with Beach Erosion
A Special Report by Gannett's Florida News Agency
"The project brought together 67 journalists at three Florida newspapers, three TV stations and two news bureaus...They produced an in-depth report about erosion and its impact on Florida lifestyles, politics, economics and environment."

Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida's Natural History, 1884-1934
"...includes a rich diversity of unique or rare materials: personal correspondence, essays, typescripts, reports and memos; photographs, maps and postcards; and publications from individuals and the government...The materials in this online compilation are drawn from sixteen physical collections housed in the archives and special collections of the University of Miami, Florida International University and the Historical Museum of Southern Florida."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

A Roadmap to African-American and Diversity Resources
"The sites offer a range of resources: connecting you to pages where you can access both primary and secondary documents, databases, archives, libraries, maps, images and more. The focus covers what is available for the United States with an emphasis on Florida and Central America."

South Florida Water Management District [Everglades]

  • Everglades Consolidated Reports - (dead link)

Supreme Court of the United States
Official site of the U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

 

Georgia

Digital Library of Georgia
"...is a gateway to Georgia's history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, audio, video, and other materials."

Atlanta 1906: A Race Riot
"This is the story of how Atlanta descended into four days of mob violence-an even that stymied race relations for the next fifty years."

 

Atlanta History Center

  • Kenan Research Center
  • If These Walls Could Speak
    "...provides a tour of four historic homes, allowing visitors to see behind the scenes of four distinct Atlanta neighborhoods--in Dekalb County farmland, on the City's west side, in the emerging Buckhead suburb, and in a small country cabin. With primary documents to download for the class, oral histories to give texture to the times, music, lesson plans, and diagrams, a feast of learning material awaits for students, history enthusiasts and educators alike."
  • Lesson Plans: American Civil War, 1861-1865
    "Students investigate the steps taken to defeat the Confederate states by following the path of an Indiana soldier on his journey with Sherman's army from the Midwest to the Atlantic."
  • Lesson Plans: Native Lands: Indians and Georgia Curriculum
    "...explored three Native American societies that rose and fell on what became Georgia -the Mississippian, Creek and Cherokee.Containing detailed lesson plans, primary documents, worksheets andintroductory information for each section, the following curriculagive students the opportunity to learn more about these societies."

The King Center
"a nonprofit organization that educates the world about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philosophy and methods of nonviolence in order to create the Beloved Community."

"Now What a Time": Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals (1938-1943)
"...consists of approximately one hundred sound recordings, primarily blues and gospel songs, and related documentation from the folk festival at Fort Valley State College (now Fort Valley State University), Fort Valley, Georgia. The documentation was created by John Wesley Work III in 1941 and by Lewis Jones and Willis Laurence James in March, June, and July 1943. Also included are recordings made in Tennessee and Alabama (including six Sacred Harp songs) by John Work between September 1938 and 1941. These recording projects were supported by the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center. Song lists made by the collectors, correspondence with the Archive about the trips, and a special issue of the Fort Valley State College student newsletter, The Peachite: Festival Number, are also included. One interesting feature of this collection is the topical rewording of several standard gospel songs to address the wartime concerns of the performers."
- American Memory Project, Library of Congress

GALILEO - Online Databases
 University System of Georgia
To access the database below click on Digital Library of Georgia then Databases.

  • Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842

    "This database contains over 1,000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States from the collections of the University of Georgia Libraries, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers, and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast."

University of Georgia Hargrett Library Rare Map Collection
"...maintains a collection of more than 800 historic maps spanning nearly 500 years, from the sixteenth century through the early twentieth century."
Site contents include: New World ; Colonial America ; Revolutionary America ; Revolutionary Georgia ; Union & Expansion ; American Civil War ; Frontier to New South ; Savannah & the Coast ; Transportation.

 

Hawaii - (dead link)

Hawaii State Government Home Page

  • Brief History of Hawaii - (dead link)

Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History - Bishop Museum

  • Hawaii Biological Survey
    • Guidebook of Introduced Marine Species of Hawai'i
      "This brief guide was assembled to provide information concerning some of the most common marine alien species to people who spend time in the coastal waters of Hawaii."
    • Hawaiian Flowering Plant Checklist Database
      "...is an authority file of names of recognized native and naturalized angiosperm taxa in the Hawaiian Islands. It is updated annually to incorporate newly published island and state records, nomenclatural and taxonomic changes, and newly described native taxa. The file does not include any synonyms or cross-referencing of names. The Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i (Wagner et al. 1990) serves as the foundation for this checklist."

University of Hawaii - School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)

  • The Ocean Atlas of Hawaii
    "This is a description of the ocean around Hawai'i - marine climate, water properties, currents, tides, waves."

University of Hawai'i at Manoa - Digital Archive Collection

Remembering Pearl Harbor
Includes: "Multimedia Map and Time Line: Photos, footage, firsthand accounts, and narration bring the attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, to lifeómoment by moment, target by target" ; Searchable Archive of Survivors' Stories.
- National Geographic Online

PBS - P.O.V. - American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i (August 2003)
Companion website to the film by Lisette Marie Flanary and Evann Siebens.
"...shows the survival of the hula as a renaissance continues to grow beyond the islands...From the suburbs of Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area, the largest Hawaiian communities have settled in California, and the hula continues to connect communities to their heritage on distant shores. Sounding a universal note of cultural adaptation and renewal, "American Aloha" takes us on a tour through the practices and philosophies of some of those at the forefront of hula's renaissance on the mainland. The film focuses on the work of three kumu hula, or master teachers of hula, in the largest Hawaiian communities in California."
Sections include: More About Hula ; On Language ; Discover More ; Resources ; For Educators.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)
Sections include: Kilauea ; Mauna Loa ; Earthquakes ; Other Volcanoes ; Volcanic Hazards.

Volcanic and Seismic Hazards on the Island of Hawaii
Online Edition of print version first printed 1990 and revised 1992, 1997.
- USGS publication.

Idaho
Idaho Historical Society

Basque Museum & Cultural Center (Boise, Idaho)

  • Basque Oral History Project
    "Recently, a grant provided by the Basque Government is allowing these interviews to be transformed and published into a medium that makes them more accessible to the public. The Museum is actively posting the interviews already collected and is collecting more stories from those people yet to be chronicled."

Idaho Geological Survey

Idaho Human Rights Campaign
Sections include: Campaign History ; Campaign Progress ; Events Calendar ; Articles ; Resources ; Inspiration ; Links.

Idaho Mining Association

 

Illinois

Illinois State Archives

Illinois State Library

 

Illinois State Museum

Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO)
"To date, the IPO project has reached agreement with ten journals; Illinois Country Living, Illinois Heritage, Illinois History : A Magazine for Young People, Illinois History Teacher, Illinois Issues, Illinois Municipal Review, Illinois Parks & Recreation, Outdoor Illinois, Point of View, and Prairie Farmer."
A Digital Imaging Project at the Northern Illinois University Libraries

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum

The Arab American Action Network

  • The Arab American Oral History Project
    "...a project to collect oral histories about the community's past and present experiences as immigrants in Chicago."
    A Joint Effort of the Arab American Action Network and the American Friends Service Committee.

Art Institute of Chicago Museum

  • Art Access
    "Art Access examines objects from various areas of the Art Institute of Chicagoís permanent collection to enrich visitors' understanding of their content, style, and historical context. Included are a variety of online resources of special interest to educators, parents, students, and young people, including lesson plans for the classroom and art projects for the home.
  • Girodet: Romantic Rebel
    Online companion to the exhibition held February - April 2006.
    Sections include: Overview ; Exhibition Themes ; Selected Works ; Additional Resources.
  • Pharaohs of the Sun - (dead link)
    Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen
    "View twenty selected highlights that trace the story of Akhenaten, his city, and his legacy. Linked to each of these highlights are related objects with which to explore the exhibition further."
  • Science, Art & Technology
    "...began as a year-long course offered by The Art Institute of Chicago to Chicago Public School science teachers interested in exploring the relationship between science and art within a museum setting... Teachers used the information provided to create written guides for museum visits with their students and lesson plans for in-class instruction. The program's overarching goal was to show science teachers that an art museum may be used as a visual library to augment and to enrich established high-school science curricula in chemistry, earth science, or physics."
    Sections include: Intro to Science and Art ; Art and Astronomy ; The Chemistry and Physics of Light and Color ; Perception, Light, and Color ; Conservation: Light in the Making and Viewing of Art ; Careers in Science, Art, and Technology ; Lesson Plans ; Self-Guides ; Glossary.
  • Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South
    "The following images are accompanied by excerpts of letters written by Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh between 1887 and 1889. The two artists wrote often to one another, friends, and relatives."
    Sections include: Paris 1887-1888 ; Brittany/Arles 1888 ; Studio of the South 1888 ; After Arles.

Chicago Anarchists on Trial : Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1874-1887
"This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1874 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights...Of special interest and significance are the two dozen images of three-dimensional artifacts, including contemporary Chicago Police Department paraphernalia, labor banners, and an unexploded bomb casing given to juror J. H. Brayton by State's Attorney Julius Grinnell. The cornerstone is the presentation, as images and searchable text, of the transcript of the 3,200 pages of proceedings from the murder trial of State of Illinois v. August Spies, et al."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

Chicago Historical Society

  • Encyclopedia of Chicago
    "The Encyclopedia of Chicago is a dynamic and unprecedented metropolitan history. Thousands of historical resources-including articles, photos, maps, broadsides and newspapers-related to Chicago's colorful and complex history are at your fingertips."
  • Wet with Blood
    An online exhibit from the Chicago Historical Society.

Chicago in 1900
A Millennium Bibliography
By By Lyle Benedict, Ellen O'Brien and Shah Tiwana, Municipal Reference Collection, Chicago Public Library

Chicago Public Library

City Sites: An Electronic Book
Multimedia Essays on New York and Chicago, 1870s-1930s
"...is an inter- and multi-disciplinary study of the iconography, spatial forms and visual and literary cultures of New York and Chicago in the period 1870s to 1930s."
Based at the University of Birmingham and the University of Nottingham in the UK.
University of Birmingham Press, 2000 (ISBN: 1-902459-09-1)

Description of the Chicago District
By William C. Alden, 1902
"The 1902 Chicago Folio, containing economic, aereal and topographic maps."
being a part of
U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Atlas of the United States, Number 81.
"This publication is a long out-of-print folio volume about the size of a folded newspaper with the first color topographical maps of the Chicago area. These old maps show older forks of the Chicago River and man-made slips, the former lakeshore of Chicago before implementation of the Burnham Plan."
Transcribed by Ellin Beltz

Dominican Central - Chicago Dominican Friars - (dead link)
"...is the web site of the American Central Province of the Dominican Friars, the Province of St. Albert the Great. We are Roman Catholic priests and brothers, part of the global "Order of Preachers," the Dominican Family of priests, brothers, sisters, nuns and lay people, who live and pray today in a holy tradition that dates back to time of St. Dominic, the thirteenth century."

The Dramas of Haymarket
"The Dramas of Haymarket itself is organized in the form of a drama, a tragedy in five Acts with a Prologue and an Epilogue. The seven major parts of the site the Prologue, the five Acts, and the Epilogueñare arranged chronologically. While the site devotes considerable attention to the protest meeting on the evening of May 4, 1874, at which several policemen were killed by a dynamite bomb attributed to political radicals, it encompasses a great deal more."
A wonderful online exhibit from the Chicago Historical Society

Early Illinois Women
"This web site attempts to capture the experiences of Illinois women during the first century of statehood. The site includes a digital archive of original material from participating libraries and links to existing Internet material."

Encyclopedia of Chicago
"The Encyclopedia of Chicago is a dynamic and unprecedented metropolitan history. Thousands of historical resources-including articles, photos, maps, broadsides and newspapers-related to Chicago's colorful and complex history are at your fingertips."
- Chicago Historical Museum

Gang Research.Net
"...is a website dedicated to providing quality research on gangs to students, academics, public officials, the media, and the general public. While most 'gang' websites either present the views of law enforcement or give unverified or questionable information, Gang research.net seeks to dispel stereotypes and present research, original documents, and helpful links."
By John Hagedorn, Dept. of Criminal Justice, University of Illinois-Chicago

  • The Negro in Chicago
    A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot
    By The Chicago Commission on Race Relations, 1919

Illinois Civil War Veterans Database
"...indexes the first eight volumes of the nine volume publication, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois. (The ninth volume lists veterans of Black Hawk, Mexican, and Spanish-American Wars.) This 1900-1901 publication, originating from the rosters maintained during the Civil War by the Illinois Adjutant General, is the result of an 1899 Illinois statute mandating that a corrected version of these records and subsequent publications be printed. The names of approximately 250,000 men, organized into 175 regiments, are found in its pages."
Created by Fred Delap and donated to the Illinois State Archives

Jazz Age Chicago
Urban Leisure from 1893 to 1934
Sections include: Introduction ; Bright-Light Districts ; Department Stores ; Movie Theaters ; Dance Halls ; Hotels ; Parks and Beaches ; Sports Facilities ; Transport Facilities ; Scrapbooks ; Links.

Lincoln/Net
Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
"Lincoln/Net presents historical materials from Abraham Lincoln's Illinois years (1830-1741), including Lincoln's writings and speeches, as well as other materials illuminating antebellum Illinois...presents a large multimedia database of primary source materials illustrating life in antebellum Illinois. In addition, Lincoln/Net offers comprehensive interpretive materials including discussions of eight historical themes and an online Lincoln biography."
Northern Illinois University

PBS American Experience - Chicago: City of the Century (January 2003)
Companion website to the on air broadcast.
"...chronicles Chicago's dramatic transformation from a swampy frontier town of fur traders and Native Americans to a massive metropolis that was the quintessential American city of the nineteenth century."
Sections include: Transcript ; Primary Sources ; Further Readings ; Special Features ; Timeline ; Maps ; People & Events ; Teacher's Guide.

PBS - American Experience - The Murder of Emmett Till (January 2003)
Website companion to the TV broadcast
"The brutal killing that mobilized the civil rights movement."
Sections include: Confession: Read the killers' shocking admission of guilt ; Segregation: Chicago and Mississippi, then and now, through the eyes of teens ; Forum: Experts answer questions about civil rights and Emmett Till's story ; The Film ; Special Features ; Timeline ; People & Events ; Teacher's Guide.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Photographs from the Chicago Daily News: 1902-1933
"This collection comprises over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives between 1902 and 1933 by photographers employed by the Chicago Daily News, then one of Chicago's leading newspapers."
"The source materials for this collection are housed at the The Chicago Historical Society."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

World's Columbian Exposition
Idea, Experience, Aftermath
"This hypertext thesis explores the Exposition through a virtual tour, investigates visitors' reactions to the Fair, and analyzes the social, political, and cultural legacies of the World's Columbian Exposition."

 

Indiana

Indiana State Museum - (dead link)

Indiana State Library

 

  • Indiana Online Newspapers
  • Civil War Soldier Photograph Exhibit
    "The images in this exhibit were selected from various files in the Indiana State Library Picture Collection...This exhibit is by no means a complete collection of every Indiana Civil War soldier. Most of the Library's collection was compiled through the generous gifts of patrons and, as such, we only have a small representation of soldiers."

Indiana State Archives
Indiana Commission on Public Records
"...is the official repository of Indiana government records of permanent historical and legal significance. It principally contains records generated by state government and state agencies, but also holds a major collection of county and local government records."
Includes online databases and texts of the 1816 and 1851 State Constitutions.

Indiana Historical Society

Indiana Magazine of History
Searchable index but no articles available online.
"It publishes articles and research notes on the history of Indiana and the history of the Middle West and reviews books widely within theses fields...The annual indexes published in the December issues of the IMH since 1980 are now available in a searchable database on this website."

 

Iowa

Calvin Photographic Collection
"Samuel Calvin, Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Iowa (1873-1911) and State Geologist, took more than 5,000 glass plate negatives, which he used to illustrate specific geological features for class instruction, public lectures, and publications. The photographic techniques are of high quality, and the images are as aesthetically pleasing as they are geologically informative...In addition to geological landscapes and features, Calvin documented mines, quarries, mills, and other buildings. The collection also contains portraits of his family, colleagues, and classes in the field. While Calvin may have taken most photographs to exhibit geological features, the images are beautifully composed. Calvin did the developing himself, producing rich blacks and a full range of grays."

Iowa Women's Archives
University of Iowa Libraries
"The archives has over 700 linear feet of materials including, but not limited to, letters, diaries and journals, memoirs, scrapbooks, reports, minutes, memoranda, speeches, photographs, audio and videocassettes, oral history interviews, slides, and films...A select number of finding aids have been encoded in SGML and HTML and can be accessed through this web page."
Includes Collections Relating to African-American Women

 

 

Kansas

Kansas State Library

  • KANAnswer
    "is the new statewide online information service for Kansas. With KANAnswer any resident of the state with an Internet computer can communicate in real-time with a librarian to get help finding answers to questions, or to get referrals to others who might answer the questions. KANAnswer will also serve non-residents who have questions about Kansas. There is no charge to use the service."

The Kansas Collection (KanColl)
"The voices of the past are heard again in KanColl, through nearly-lost books, letters, diaries, photographs, and other materials."

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas - see our separate Brown v. Board of Education page.

 

Historical Publications of the Agricultural Experiment Station
Kansas State University
"...They are included here as a matter of historical interest. The Agricultural Experiment Station published hundreds of circulars, bulletins, and other publications (for a total of more than 24,000 pages) before 1946."

Kansas Territory
Crucible of American Experience

Kansas State Historical Society

Pioneer Days in Kansas
"...deals with the events of 1856-1745, and is one of the outstanding sources for that period."
Full-text of Richard Cordley's book.

Territorial Kansas Online, 1854-1861
A Virtual Repository for Territorial Kansas History
"Explore the turbulent times of "Bleeding Kansas." Hundreds of personal letters, diaries, photos, and maps bring to life the settling of Kansas during the fierce debate over slavery... Verbal and physical confrontations between pro- and anti-slavery supporters were common."

 

Kentucky

Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL)
"...is a digital library of primary sources and access aids selected by Kentucky archivists representing 15 Kentucky colleges, universities, libraries and historical society repositories. The Kentuckiana Digital Library collection currently comprises archival collection finding aids, electronic texts, digital photographs, and digital audio files."

Kentuckiana Digital Library
"The Kentuckiana Digital Library is your gateway to rare and unique digitized collections housed in Kentucky archives. These digital collections are built to enhance scholarship, research and lifelong learning."
Sections include: Maps ; KY Bibliography ; E-Texts ; Images ; Newspapers ; Oral Histories.

 

Kentucky Historical Society

  • A Teacher's Guide to Kentucky Folklife - (dead link)

Filson Historical Society
Kentucky's oldest, privately supported historical society.

University of Kentucky - Appalachian Center

The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Electronic Records Archives

The department's Electronic Records Archives (e-Archives) contains a selection of electronic records, including the web records of Kentucky Governors, meeting minutes of state-level boards, commissions and legislative committees plus electronic state agency publications.

 

Louisiana

See also Katrina Studies

Louisiana State Museum

  • Louisiana and the Mighty Mississippi River
    A sample of historic images from the permanent exhibit.
  • Map Database
    "The museumís collection contains maps related to the exploration and settlement of Louisiana during the colonial period as well as maps delineating Louisiana and her cities after the Louisiana Purchase, from 1803 to the present time.

LOUISiana Digital Library Collections Online
"Louisiana's doorway to the unique cultural and historical resources of Louisiana's libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions

  • Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection - (dead link)
    "...is composed of photographs, audio recordings and musical instruments from the collections of the Louisiana State Museum. Primarily dealing with traditional New Orleans jazz, the collections focus on photographs (including all of the Museum's images of Louis Armstrong) and audio recordings of musicians and bands that were primarily active in New Orleans, although many toured throughout the country and the world. The musical instruments span the makeup of a traditional New Orleans jazz band and include many examples from well-known musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Warren "Baby" Dodds, Bix Beiderbecke and others.

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1719-1920
Prof. Hall "uncovered the background of 100,000 slaves who were brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries making fortunes for their owners. Pouring through documents from all over Louisiana, as well as archives in France, Spain and Texas, Dr. Hall designed and created a database into which she recorded and calculated the information she obtained from these documents about African slave names, genders, ages, occupations, illnesses, family relationships, ethnicity, places of origin, prices paid by slave owners, and slaves' testimony and emancipations."
By Dr. Gwendolyn Hall, Professor Emerita, History Dept. Rutgers University

Drawing Louisiana's New Map: Addressing Land Loss in Coastal Louisiana (ebook)
Committee on the Restoration and Protection of Coastal Louisiana, National Research Council, 2006.

H-Louisiana
Discussing Louisiana's History and Culture
"The core objective of H-Loui