LibGuides: U.S. History: Websites

About Websites

Remember that anyone can post anything at all on the Web, from outright lies to informed opinion to accurate, thoroughly researched information. Therefore you must always evaluate a website before you rely on it for your research or personal use.

The sites listed here have been collected and reviewed for quality by an STLCC faculty librarian. For help with evaluating websites and other information sources which you find on your own, visit ...

Evaluate Your Sources
STLCC Libraries

Websites

Smithsonian Institution
"The nation's attic" website includes digital collections.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Fordham University has put together this extensive directory of resources on United States and world history.
Monticello
The website for the home of Thomas Jefferson includes research collections on our third president and his era. The Library contains many valuable collections.
Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection
Historical maps of the United States from the University of Texas at Austin Libraries.

Teaching Resources

Best of History Web Sites
From EdTechTeacher. High-quality history websites by category, including K-12 lesson plans and quiz sites.
History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web
A project of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning of the City University of New York and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Primary Sources

Large Collections

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Digital Collections, Library of Congress
Primary sources ranging from the letters of Andrew Jackson's letters to folk song recordings collected by Alan Lomax.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. This is a great resource for primary sources including historical documents, books, letters, photographs, posters and more. The collections are fully searchable. Includes curated exhibits.
National Archives and Records Administration
Smithsonian Open Access
Reusable open images from the Smithsonian collections. These are copyright-cleared for use including remixing.
DASH: Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard:
A central, open-access repository of research by members of the Harvard community. Includes a searchable database of more than 17,000 full-text articles representing a variety of disciplines (including World War I).

Documents

Our Documents
100 milestone documents of American history, a cooperative effort among National History Day, The National Archives and Records Administration, and USA Freedom Corps.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School
American History, a documentary record 1492 - present

History Organizations

Gale Directory Library This link opens in a new window
Full text of Encyclopedia of Associations, International and U.S. versions.
Gale Directory Library provides full-text, searchable access to Encyclopedia of Associations: International Organizations and Encyclopedia of Associations: National Organizations of the US. Users can also sort and export data from the directories.

Help videos

U.S. History