This is just a small selection of the growing universe of digitally available Primary Sources. The Digital Public Library of America and the U.S. National Archives Docs Teach also recommended, including their browse-able list of primary source sets. The Lloyd Sealy Library subscribes to several primary source databases which are available with a John Jay log-in. See also An Introduction to Archival Research and the Lloyd Sealy Library Guide to Special Collections
Digital Special Collections
Selected portions of our Special Collections are now available digitally.
The FBI Vault - Electronic Reading Room includes hundreds of FBI files requested by FOIL requests or made publically available for other reasons. You can browse by FBI categories such as Gangs and Extremist Groups Counter-Terrorism, Gangster Era Violent Crime and Unexplained Phenomenon
Govinfo the website of the Government Printing Office (GPO) Core Documents of Our Democracy you can also browse and search governmental documents available freely online.
The American Memory Project provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.The digitized collections are mostly held by the Library of Congress, 23 other institutions have also contributed content to this resource. Search or browse this vast collection for primary materials on American History. There is also a the Digital Rare Books and Special Collections at the Library of Congress
The National Archives (NARA) Digital Vaults web site is a portal into the heart of the US National Archives, and can be reached from the home page of the National Archives Experience. This new site uses visual records such as documents, photographs, and popular media, and illustrates how these materials can come together. NARA also has several online exhibits, presents a document of the day links to digital copies of America's Historic Documents and you can search the ARC catalog with the option of restricting your search to documents available as digital copies. There's also a page of NARA record groups that available via 'digital partnerships' some are behind a paywall, others free with member sign up, all are freely available at a NARA facility or, many through Ancestry Library at NYPL The New York office of the NARA is at the Alexander Hamilton US Customs House, Broadway and Whitehall streets in lower Manhattan.
Founders Online provides the searchable, annotated correspondence and writings of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. This is another project of the National Archives.
Perseus Digital Library The flagship collection here consist of Ancient Greek and Roman texts in English translation (covering the history, literature and culture of the Greco-Roman world). Additional collections include 19th century American materials, Renaissance materials and an Arabic collection.
Peripheral Histories has made a list of digitally available primary sources mainly focused on the Soviet/Russian time periods and areas.
The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 30 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.
The Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (ncse) is a free, online edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers, published in England.
Second World War in Europe - primary resources - listed by Hunter College Librarian Clay Williams.
Mapping Eastern Europe is a platform intended to promote study, teaching, and research about Eastern Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries
Science History Institute Digital Collections Search digitized items: artifacts, photographs, advertisements, letters, rare books, and more. You can also learn more about the rest of their collections.
Smithsonian Institution Digital Collections Search images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries. Click online results only for digitially available materials. Read the blog The Bigger Picture for the latest digital images available. Check also at the Smithsonian Institution's Photostream on The Flickr Commons
The Smithsonian also has a guide to Trade Catalogs in their collections and other repositories.
They also have a guide to Automobile and Transportation Resources in their collections and other repositories.
The Anti-Slavery Manuscripts Project by the Boston Public Library is currently in a crowd sourced transcription phase to which anyone can contribute.
The Howland Album is a photograph album at the Library of Congress with photograph portraits of Harriet Tubman, John Willis Menard, and other anti-slavery contemporaries. These images are freely available online
New York State Slavery Records Index A searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and their owners, beginning as early as 1525 and ending during the Civil War.
Slavers of New York is currently available as a Twitter feed. This is a sticker project to identify NYC locations named after slave holders.
U.S. National Archives: Records Relating to Fugitive Slaves, 10/17/1837 - 4/30/1860
Slavery and Anti-Slavery collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery CUNY access
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. (JJay access)
Slavery in New York - an online exhibition following the 2011 exhibit at the New-York Historical Society.
Slave Voyages Provides digital access to more than 48,000 transatlantic and intra-American slave trade journeys. A project based at Emory University.
May Anti-Slavery Pamphlets at Cornell - The pamphlets in Samuel J. May's Anti-Slavery library are now available as electronic searchable text.
Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom: Primary Sources from Houghton Library is an ongoing 2021 project at Harvard University.
Born in Slavery Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938 and The Frederick Douglas Papers are available from the Library of Congress - American Memory Project.
Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) Enslaved and Freed African Muslims: Spiritual Wayfarers in the South and Low Country
National Archives of Canada - The Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada
National Geographic - The Underground Railroad
Spartacus Educational (UK)- The Anti-Slavery Society
The Vermont Historical Society - The Underground Railroad Project
Slavery Microfiche Collection - this collection of microfiche is arranged by 31 subjects, including sources on anti-slavery, slaves' and slavers' homelands and historical events such as Harper's Ferry and the Dred Scott Case. Some of the content may be digitally available from the above sources. Two boxes of microfiche and a bibliographic guide are shelved next to each other in the Microfiche Area - Special Collections cabinets- HT 861 .M52 1983
The New York Historical Society N-YHS Digital Collections include online collections related to their exhibits as well as a growing number of images and documents from their collections on the history of NYC.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery includes perhaps millions of images and other objects scanned from NYPL's vast collections, which include early real estate maps of NYC there are collection guides and NYPL Blog that feature highlights of the collections.
Early American Manuscripts Project The New York Public Library is currently digitizing upwards of 50,000 pages of historic early American manuscript material.
New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery. provides free and open research access to over 800,000 items digitized from the Municipal Archives’ collections, including photographs, maps, motion-pictures and audio recordings.
Historic Brooklyn Photo Galleries from the Brooklyn Public Library historic photographs of Brooklyn neighborhoods and institutions, and explore related resources from the Brooklyn Collection and the Brooklyn Eagle.
Digital METRO NY is a directory of digital projects completed by METRO members in the NYC area.
The New York State Archives, Library and Museum share a catalog which can be restricted to electronic documents only They also have a digital image library you can also search or browse images from all three institutions. NY State Consider the Source offers primary sources which can be browsed by subject. State library electronic documents which are digitally available can be browsed or searched here
NY State Library Erie Canal Images Digital Collection
NY Heritage Digital Collections - 200 years on the Erie Canal
W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999 at U. Mass Amherst 294 boxes (122.59 linear ft.) all 99,665 items are now digitally available.
The Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Project will allow anyone with internet access to research his or her family’s history online. The Museum began this project in an effort to help African Americans discover their ancestors and help historians better understand the years following the Civil War. (National Museum of African American History & Culture). See also: the NMAAHC other digital initiatives.
The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
The Black Press Research Collective is dedicated to generating digital scholarship and archiving the Black Press to preserve the significance of the historical and contemporary role of black newspapers in Africa and the African Diasporas.
1921 Tulsa Race Massacre - Primary Sources in Yale's collections.