Subject Librarian
US Military History Sources - General
(Also see U.S. Government primary sources)
Databases
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new windowArchives of searchable historical primary source materials. See the Subcollections Guide for a list of collections.
- Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents for U.S. national security topics.
- Primary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new windowMany collections related to war and military history
- History Vault This link opens in a new windowArchival collections documenting topics in eighteenth- through twentieth-century American history. Includes many sources on different moments in military history.
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new windowProvides access to a broad range of previously classified U.S. federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Includes over 700,000 of the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies.
Online Collections
- Truman Library & Museum Online CollectionsTopics include WWI, WWII, the Cold War, and the Korean War
- All Hands Archives (1920-present)Magazine of the US Navy
- Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library Digital LibraryDocuments from the Skelton CARL collections and student papers created at the US Army Command and General Staff College, plus collections from other Army educational and historical organizations
- Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S. K. Brown Military CollectionDigital collection of military artwork from the 16th through the 20th centuries. From Brown University.
- Veterans History Project (Library of Congress)Primary source documents on US veterans' experiences. Material types include correspondences, diaries, photos, and more.
- Voces Oral History Project (UT-Austin)Oral histories about WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War
Civil War
Databases
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new windowSelect the subcollections The Civil War, Parts I-VII.
- African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new windowOnline access to 270 African American newspapers published in the U.S. from 1827-1998.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection 1684 - 1912 This link opens in a new windowAccess to historical periodicals published from 1684 to1912.
- American Civil War Research DatabasePhotographs and information on over soldiers and battles, regimental rosters, officer profiles
- American Indian History This link opens in a new windowOnline encyclopedia of the history of the American Indian.
- American Women's History Online This link opens in a new windowOnline encyclopedia of the history of women in the United States.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
- Civil War Collection This link opens in a new windowOnline archive of newspaper articles published in and books during the U.S. Civil War.
- History Vault: Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War This link opens in a new windowPrimary source materials candidly documenting the realities of slavery at the most immediate grassroots level in Southern society and provides some of the most revealing documentation in existence on the functioning of the slave system.
- Proquest Civil War EraCivil War era newspapers, pamphlets, and other primary source material
Web Resources
- American History: From Revolution to Reconstruction and BeyondThe documents tab on the American History website includes documents originating beyond the borders and before the establishment of the United States, but all are related to the history of the country and are very interesting. The site also includes other tabs with a wealth of information and it is worth a visit.
- The Civil War: The Nation Moves Towards War (1850-1861)Conflict between abolition and slavery marked the 1850s, preceding the election of 1860 and the attack on Fort Sumter. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and secession in maps, newspapers, political cartoons and song sheets. Part of the Library of Congress Primary Source Sets.
- Colonial North America at Harvard LibraryArchival and manuscript materials related to 17th- and 18th-century North America from Harvard Library
- Crisis of the Union: Causes, Conduct and Consequences of the US Civil War (Univ. of Pennsylvania)Print memorabilia about the United States from 1830 to 1880
- Valley of the Shadow Archive (Univ. of Virginia)Primary sources from two communities in the American Civil War
World War I
Databases
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new windowArchives of searchable historical primary source materials. See the Subcollections Guide for a list of collections.
Online Collections
- Europeana Collections: 1914-1918Includes WWI letters, postcards, film, and more. Initiative of the European Union.
- WWI Centennial, National Archives (U.S.)Primary source materials organized by topic
World War II
Databases
Online Collections
- The Atomic Bomb and the End of WWII: A Collection of Primary SourcesNational Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 162
- Historic Government Publications from WWIISouthern Methodist University Libraries
- Historic Government Publications from WWII (SMU Libraries)Pamphlets, government reports, speeches, propaganda, and more from the Government Printing Office
- Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital ArchiveUC-Berkeley, Bancroft Library
- Japanese American Incarceration during WWIIWashington State University
- Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from WWIINational Archives (U.S.)
- Women Veterans Historical ProjectUNC Greensboro
- World War, 1939-1945, German Concentration Camps and Prisons CollectionCollection of correspondences. Project from McMaster University.
Cold War
Databases
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new windowProvides access to a broad range of previously classified U.S. federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Includes over 700,000 of the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies.
- Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents for U.S. national security topics.
Web Resources
- Avalon Project: The Cold WarThe Avalon Project is provided by Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School. This collection contains law, history, and diplomacy documents pertaining to the Cold War.
- CIA Historical Collections (Open Gov)Declassified historically significant documents from the Central Intelligence Agency.
- CIA Special Collections Archive (Open Gov)Declassified materials from the Central Intelligence Agency
- Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cold War (Mt. Holyoke College)Not every link takes you to a primary source but many do. The site is maintained on a server at Mt. Holyoke College.
- NASA HistoryHistorical materials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Nevada Test Site Oral History ProjectOral histories from people affected by the Nevada Test Site during the Cold War
- War and Peace in the Nuclear AgeHundreds of interviews from the PBS series of the same name
- Wilson Center Digital Archive: Cold WarCold War-related collections in the Wilson Center Digital Archive. Collections are organized to present the Cold War era through a variety of aspects, which is helpful as you attempt to deal with the very disparate subjects and issues that were part of the era.
Vietnam War
Databases
Online Collections
- Pentagon Papgers (National Archives)US Department of Defense records on military involvement in Vietnam from 1945-67
- Vietnam War (National Archives, U.S.)Rowan users only