LibGuides: History: Online Resources

Useful Websites for United States History

American Archive of Public Broadcasting
"The American Archive of Public Broadcasting seeks to preserve and make accessible significant historical content created by public media, and to coordinate a national effort to save at-risk public media before its content is lost to posterity."
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Library of Congress, & GBH Archives. (n.d.). Vision and Mission Statements. American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://americanarchive.org/about-the-american-archive/vision-and-mission
The American Presidency Project - Election Map Data
Provides maps of election results for every presidential election from 1828-2008. Also includes party platforms, debates, inaugural addresses, convention speeches, and many more documents relating to the presidency.
Boundless US History
OER history course that covers 1492 through to the 21st century - works with HIS 131, HIS 132, & HIS 220
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Archived Version - can not download & no longer updated.
Chronicling America
"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."
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National Endowment for the Humanities. (n.d.). Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Crash Course: US History
Entire Series - 48 videos
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Also available at: The Crash Course
Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
Maps of election results and predictions for presidential, gubernatorial, and Congressional elections. 1789 - present.
Founders' Constitution
This site provides an electronic equivalent to the printed work and contains a select collection of thoughts, opinions, and arguments of the Founding Fathers.
Library of Congress – Digital Collections
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Formerly American Memory.
American Memory from the Library of Congress 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.
Making of America
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
National Archives Catalog
A search index of the items contained in the United States National Archives. Includes over 150 million digitized items that are available online.
U.S. History
Contains thousands of individual pages covering all aspects of U.S. History.
U.S. v. Liddy Trial Records and Government Exhibits (aka: Watergate)
"To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Break-in, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has digitized and is providing online access to the U.S. v. Liddy Trial Records and Government Exhibits"
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Special Access and FOIA Program. (2022, June 15). U.S. v. Liddy Trial Records and Government Exhibits. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved June 30, 2022, from https://www.archives.gov/research/investigations/watergate/us-v-liddy-trial-records-government-exhibits
US History: Pre-Colombian to the New Millennium
A useful website covering the entire history of the United States, from Pre-colonization to the start of the 21st century.

Britannica Encyclopedia - Native American culture and history
This site owned by the Britannica Encyclopedia,
with useful information covering the history, culture about the Natives of America.
Native American History Timeline
The site provides a timeline focused on the wars fought in Native American history.

Office of the Historian
This resource is a government site that holds useful information and timeline data on the French and Indian War.

The American Revolutionary War
This source provides an colorful overview of the American Revolution, biographies of the Founding Father's along with information of the spies, women and other famous Americans during the War.
Founders' Constitution
This site provides an electronic equivalent to the printed work and contains a select collection of thoughts, opinions, and arguments of the Founding Fathers.

National Archives - War of 1812
Access Heritage The War of 1812
A free source to find articles relating to events that occurred in the War of 1812.
A Guide to the War of 1812
This resource is from the Library of Congress and is a complied resource of materials that the Digital Reference Specialist has found on various information on the War of 1812.

Causes of the Civil War
This source talks about the causes that led to the American Civil War.
Civil War Map File - Online
"This file unit consists of manuscript, published, and annotated maps relating to areas in the southern states during the Civil War, including a large number of Confederate maps."
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National Archives. (n.d.). Civil War. National Archives Catalog. Retrieved October 08, 2021, from https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f.ancestorNaIds=7491472&sort=naIdSort%20asc&tabType=online
National Archives - The Civil War

U.S. Participation in World War I
from the Library of Congress
World War I
from the National Museum of American History.
World War I Centennial
from The U.S. National Archives.

Crash Course: U.S. World War I

The National WWII Museum
"The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn."
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The National WWII Museum. (n.d.). Mission / Vision / Values. The National WWII Museum New Orleans. Retrieved July 21, 2020, from https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us/mission-vision-values
WWII Records
From the U.S. National Archives.
Commemorating World War II
The U.S. Dept. of Defense.
World War II Resources (Virtual Programs & Services)
from the Library of Congress.

Crash Course: U.S. World War II Part 1

Crash Course: U.S. World War II Part 2

Cold War Museum
This resource has useful information regarding important people and events during the Cold War Era.
Cold War History
This source is a direct link to the History Channels section covering the Cold War period with summaries, pictures, and videos.

BBC News Vietnam profile - Timeline
This source has a chronological timeline of key events for the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam War
This source is dedicated to the Vietnam War with articles related to the beginning, major battles, key figures, battle tactics, events on the home front, and the aftermath of the war.
US History: Pre-Colombian to the New Millennium: The Vietnam War
A direct link to the Vietnam section on the USHitory website.

Useful websites that be be used for World History

Best of History Web Sites
Best of History Web Sites, created by EdTechTeacher Inc, is a portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites that explore a wide range of categories.
The History Channel - World War 1
This is website captures the events of the first World War brief summaries, with the addition of numerous short videos that can be watched.
History World
HistoryWorld’s aim is to make world history more easily accessible through interactive narratives and timelines. Written by Bamber Gascoigne, it consists of about 300 narratives ( the alphabetical list runs from Aegean Civilization to Zoroastrianism) and some 10,000 events on searchable timelines.
Internet History Sourcebooks
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts covering ancient, medieval, and modern history presented for educational use.
World History Matters
World History Matters is a portal to world history websites developed by the Center for History and New Media through George Mason University.
Crash Course: World History 2
Entire Series - 31 videos
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Also available at: The Crash Course
Crash Course: World History 1
Entire series - 42 videos

History Channel - Ancient Rome
Discover and learn the history of Rome, the Republic to the Empire and how it fell.
PBS The Roman Empire: in the First Century
This source is a PBS owned website, dedicated to the fist Century of the Roman Empire.
History on the Net
This source provides a series of subjects that range from the Fall of the Empire, to the
construction of roads, trade, society, public services, government, tactics in battle and much more. This source is designed to provide historical information that is easy to navigate and understand, with a few illustrations providing a visual aid.

BBC History Middle Ages
The is a BBC website detailing various subject on the historic period of the Middle Ages.
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note: This page has been archived and is no longer updated
Central Asia: A Historical Overview
The Coins and History of Asia
This source contains information and scans of well over 3,000 coins from various time periods of Asian History. Ranging from Persian to Ancient China, with dates going as far back as 600 BC.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
This database contains links to open access primary source historical documents from Western Europe.

eHistory: World War II
from Ohio State University.
History - WWII
from the BBC.
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note: Archived page no longer updated.
How did WWI change the world?
from the BBC.
Primary Sources - World War II
from University of Washington.
Virtual Tribunals International criminal tribunal records (1945-present)
"The ultimate vision of this project is to compile a comprehensive database of international criminal tribunal records, from the post-WWII cases through the contemporary tribunals, fully digitized, and rendered searchable through a single online portal."
note: as of 10-07-2021 contains the Taube Archive of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg (1945-1946)
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Stanford University. (n.d.). Virtual Tribunals International criminal tribunal records (1945-present). Stanford Libraries. Retrieved October 07, 2021, from https://exhibits.stanford.edu/virtual-tribunals
World War I - Timeline
from The Library of Congress.

Crash Course: World History - World War I

Crash Course: World History - World War II

Ancient History Map Encyclopedia
A free, non-profit source for history articles and a large selection of ancient, interactive maps from around the world.
Ancient Egypt Maps
This source has maps of ancient Egypt which serves to show the locations of major construction, and the historical development of Egypt. There are additional search tabs that discuss various different topics in Egyptian History
Geology.com
Maps of World

Acadian Archives
The Acadian Archives/Archives Acadiennes at the University of Maine at Fort Kent documents, preserves, celebrates, and disseminates information about the culture, way of life, and history of the Franco-American and Acadian people of the Upper St. John River Valley.
Digital Collections at the University of Maine System Libraries
This site provides online access to thousands of selected, digitized materials in all formats . Specific finding aids can be found https://library.umaine.edu/speccoll/eadsearch/.
Franco-American Collection
The University of Southern Maine’s Franco-American collection is one of the largest repositories of Franco-American archival material in the State of Maine. The Collection’s holdings cover local history, government, religion, language, education, industry, sports and the arts.
Maine's Bird's Eye Views, 1870-1905
""Maine's Bird's Eye Views, 1870-1905," is a collaborative research tool and database that combines relevant collection items from the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education (OML), the Maine Historic Preservation Commission (MHPC), and the Maine Historical Society (MHS), in an effort to create a comprehensive digital resource of all extent Maine Bird's Eye View maps created between 1870 and 1905..."
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University of Southern Maine Digital Commons. (n.d.). Maine's Bird's Eye Views, 1870-1905. University of Southern Maine Digital Commons. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/oml-maine-birds-eye-view-exhibit/
Maine History
Information from the State of Maine Website.
Maine Memory Network
The Maine Memory Network, a project of the Maine Historical Society, provides access to thousands of historical items belonging to over 200 organizations from across Maine.
Maine Military Records
This resource is a direct link to the Maine State Archives from the Department of Maine's Secretary of State. This resource contains Military Records of soldiers who have served in the U.S. military, dating back to the Civil War.
Maine Town Documents
University of Maine. A database of the annual reports of thirty towns from across the state of Maine.
Oral History and Folklife Research, Inc.
This non profit organization is dedicated to preserving, through sound, image, and performance, the stories, voices, and cultural traditions of Maine and beyond.

Maine Newspaper Project

History of Canada

Canada History
This resource has great information on the history of Canada.
Canadian Historical Association
This source has various sections regarding a various subject of Canadian history.
Canadian Museum
This source is a direct link to the Canadian Museum of History.
Historica Canada
The source is an encyclopedia of Canada, with links to other useful websites on Canadian History.
Government of Canada: History and Heritage of Canada
This source is from the Canadian Government detailing the history of Canada from the beginning to the present.

Additional Useful Websites

Additional Websites to Check Out

Maine Memory Network
The Maine Memory Network provides online access to thousands of historical items belonging to over 200 organizations from across Maine. Below are some new additions to the collection.