History

This website, hosted by Sam Houston State University describes a number of different resources for primary sources in history as well as different sites that can be used for finding resources in U.S. history and world history (primarily European).

This website, published by the University of Illinois: Champaign-Urbana focuses on the five step process for analyzing a primary source. The five steps are understanding, what is it, who made it, when/where was it made, what does it tell you, and why was it created.

This website provides a guide for analyzing primary source documents. It includes questions for understanding the document as well as placing the document within its historical context. Both are required to effectively analyze a primary source.

This website, hosted by the Open Education Database includes links to libraries, archives, and museums across the U.S. who have their collections available for free to search online. Each of these collections is different and allows for more specialized searches.

Archives Portal Europe is an initiative of the European Union to unite archives across Europe and present the items contained in them in a single, unified, website. In addition to searching the archives, Archives Portal Europe also includes a series of articles on various topics of European history illustrated with objects from their archives.

The Avalon Project is a project by Yale University's Law Library to provide several significant documents in the history of law and diplomacy, starting from early history and stretching to the present day. The documents are either saved as text or pdf. The website also includes a large amount of materials related to the Nuremberg Trials.

An overview of the collections of the Utah Historical Society, including their special collections (rare books), archival/museum collections, and newspapers from the state of Utah. While much of the collections are available online, some would require you to head to the (temporary) collections Midvale, Utah.

The Digital Inquiry Group is an initiative of Stanford University which seeks to foster critical thinking skills through an analysis of primary historic documents. The website hosts a number of primary sources and lesson plans that are useful for both teachers who want to use the lesson plans and people who are simply looking for primary sources.

NOTE: Most of the documents and lessons require you to set up an account with the website. Fortunately, an account is free.

The Digital Public Library of America is database that includes materials held in libraries, archives, and museums across the U.S. It is a single search that allows you to search millions of items held in hundreds of repositories. In addition to the search bar, the DPLA has a series of primary source sets, which includes a series of documents and artifacts on a single topic.

Europeana is an initiative of the European Union to unite and present all of the information stored in various galleries, archives, libraries and museums across the 27 countries. The website allows users to search for materials and has guides for various themes in European history such as art, industrialization, and migration. The site also includes articles written by prominent scholars across Europe on European history and culture.

The Smithsonian Database includes all of the artifacts housed across the Smithsonian's 21 museums as well as items that are in storage. It represents an incredible resource on U.S. history and culture as well as world history and cultures. The Smithsonian also has collections of materials on certain prominent topics.

Google Arts and Culture is a collaboration between Google and some of the largest museums in the world. Through this web portal, you can browse the collections of some of the largest and greatest museums across the U.S. and the world. Each item includes a description and many museums include guided tours of their galleries. While this is a bit more in line with art than history, it is still something that would have value for people interested in history.

A database of all of the items and objects located on the Library of Congress Website. The Library of Congress holds a large amount of materials from books to photographs to recordings. The materials are organized into a series of collections which assist users in finding materials.

The National Archives Catalog is a database of the materials stored in the National Archives. These include materials created by the federal government as well as materials collected by the government.

New Mexico Digital Collections is an initiative of the University of New Mexico Libraries to bring together archival collections across the state. The collection provides access to digitized photographs, manuscripts, posters, oral histories, videos, maps, and books. Major topics discussed include New Mexico history, land and water rights, Route 66, music, and politics.

The World Digital Library is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and other national libraries across the world to digitize and present their collections in a central location. It includes materials from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The collection includes just over 19,000 items.

Reddit's subreddit /r/askhistorians, is the premiere subreddit for historians and historical discussion on Reddit. The subreddit allows users to ask any historical question that they would like and have it be answered by experts in the field of history. The website includes very strict rules regarding the use of evidence and the types of evidence being used. In addition to the posts, the subreddit also has a frequently asked questions section for certain, pertinent, historical questions.

The American Battlefield Trust is an organization dedicated to preserving the sites U.S. military history with a focus on the U.S. Civil War. The American Battlefield trust includes a section titled, "Learn" which includes a number of articles on prominent sites, people, and things from the U.S. military history including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War. These also include maps of various battles.

An initiative of the University of Richmond which seeks to present U.S. history through a series of maps. They include research on U.S. history overlaid over a series of interactive maps. It includes information on things like migration, politics, race, culture, domestic policy, foreign policy, slavery, and transportation. The website also includes a link to the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, a reproduction of a historic atlas from 1932, which discusses several major issues of U.S. history.

H-Net is an initiative of Michigan State University, which focuses on bringing together historians from various disciplines and helping them present their work. H-Net is broken up into several networks which include information on various sub-facets of history such as geographical (the Africa Network) and topical (the gender network). It includes a large amount of open-access peer reviewed articles.

Ken Burns is considered one of the most prominent American documentary filmmaker, who produced several documentaries for the Public Broadcast System (PBS). This website, hosted by PBS, includes a series of lessons on U.S. history, visualized by documentary clips from Ken Burns.

An important piece of evidence for history are the historic sites that are located throughout the U.S. The National Register of Historic Places is a program of the National Parks which identifies and preserves certain locations throughout the U.S. The website provides information about the National Register of Historic Places as well as a spreadsheet of all historical places in the U.S.

Time Team is a television show hosted by BBC's Channel 4 and later self-published on YouTube. The show includes a series of archaeologists who travel across England and do archaeological digs before construction is done. The show demonstrates how archaeology is done in the field and how archaeological evidence is used by historians to come to conclusions about the past.

The War is an initiative of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, which includes articles on various facets of WWII history from both the Pacific Theater, Atlantic Theater, and the Home Front.

An overview of the history of U.S. presidents. The website includes information about all 47 presidents from Washington to the current president. Each president includes several essays on them, including their life in brief, life before the presidency, their campaigns, foreign/domestic policy, family life, and their impact/legacy.

An important piece of evidence for history are the historic sites that are located throughout the world. The United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provides a database of locations across the world that are considered part of our collective natural and cultural history. The website includes a list of all heritage sites as well as a map showing the locations of each site. Each entry includes information and photographs about the site.

The World History Encyclopedia is an online encyclopedia that is a partner with UNESCO. The website includes 2,754 definitions and 1,523 articles on various topics related to world history. The encyclopedia's goal is to help engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide.