United States Digitized Collections
Archives and libraries have been digitizing their rare materials for decades. Below are lists for many of these digital collections found in the United States. They are arranged by state/territory. These are followed by a list of statewide digitization projects that bring together the digitized collections from across the respective state. There is also a brief list of digital collections that are national in their scope. All of these digital collections are open access, free to use, and include some of the best digitized sources related to early America.
State/Territory
California
Connecticut
Massachusetts
New York
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Louisiana and South Carolina coming soon!
Statewide Digitization Projects
Alabama Depart of Archives and History Digital Collections
Alaska’s Digital Archives
Arizona Memory Project
Arkansas Digital Archives
CALISPHERE (CA)
Colorado Virtual Library
Connecticut Digital Archive
Delaware Public Archives
Florida Memory
Georgia Archives Virtual Vault
Hawaii State Archives Digital Collections
Digital Library of Idaho
Iowa Heritage Digital Collections
Illinois Digital Archives
Indiana Memory
Kansas Memory
Kentucky Digital Library
Louisiana Digital Library
Maine Memory Network
Digital Maryland
Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Collections Online
Michigan Memories
Minnesota Digital Library
Missouri Digital Heritage
Mississippi Digital Library
Montana Memory Project
Nevada Library Cooperative
New Mexico Digital Collections
New York Heritage: Digital Collections
New York State Archives Digital Collections
North Carolina Digital Collections
Digital Horizons (ND)
Ohio Memory
Oklahoma Digital Prairie
Oregon Digital
Power Library: Pennsylvania’s Electronic Library
Archivo Digital de Puerto Rico
Rhode Island State Digital Archives
South Carolina Digital Library
South Dakota Digital Archives
Tennessee Virtual Archives
Texas Digital Archive
Utah State Digital Archives and Utah Division of State History Digital Collections
Green Mountain Digital Archive (NH)
Virginia Memory
Washington State Archives - Digital Archives
Recollection Wisconsin
Wyoming State Archives - Digital Collections
National
American Philosophical Society Digital Library
The American Philosophical Society is one of the United States’ premier research libraries for the history and culture of the Americas. Its digital collections include many early American sources including the Benjamin Franklin Papers and the Sol Feinstone Collection of the American Revolution.
Bancroft Digital Collections
Bancroft Digital Collections provide online access to the rich materials of the Bancroft Library at the University of California - Berkeley. The digitized collections can be found on CALISPHERE or the UC Berkeley Library Digital Collections.
Digital Collections at the Beinecke Library
The Beinecke Library is one of North America’s premier research libraries. It has digitized over a million pages of its collections material. Early American highlights include the Jonathan Edwards Collection, the Kilpatrick Collection of Cherokee Manuscripts, the Walt Whitman Collection, and the Walter O. Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers.
Harvard Digital Collections
Harvard Digital Collections provides free online access to over 6 million digitized images from Harvard University’s collections. Materials of interest to early Americanists include Expeditions and Discoveries: Sponsored Exploration and Scientific Discovery in the Modern Age, France in the Americas, Immigration to the United States: 1789-1930, the William Ellery Channing Collection, and Women Working: 1800-1930. Also of note is Colonial North America at Harvard Library, an ongoing project that seeks to digitize over 700,000 images of archival material related to North America during the colonial era.
Huntington Digital Library
The Huntington Digital Library provides online access to the digitized collections of the the Huntington Library. Some of the early American sources digitized by the Huntington include Harriet Beecher Stowe Letters and Portraits, Orderly Books of the American Revolution, and the Walking Purchase Collection.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
As the world’s largest library, the Library of Congress has no shortage of early American sources. Some of these comprise the papers and records of some of America’s most prominent persons and events, many of which are digitized. Some of highlights include the papers of various American presidents and statesmen, women’s organizations and leading suffragists, early civil rights leaders, and famous artists and writers. Other digitized collections include slave narratives, maps and charts, government documents, business records, legal treatises, sheet music, political cartoons, fine prints, and much more!
Massachusetts Historical Society - Online Resources
Several of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s collections have been digitized and made freely available online. Subject strengths include the American Revolution, slavery and abolition, and the American Civil War.
Newberry Library - Digital Newberry
One of the largest independent research libraries in the United States, the Newberry holds vast sources on early America, many of which have been digitized.
New-York Historical Society - Digital Collections
The New-York Historical Society has digitized several of its collections related to the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and African American history.
William L. Clements Library Digitized Collections
One of North America’s premier research libraries, the University of Michigan’s William L. Clements Library provides free digital access to some of its treasured early American sources. Available collections include its African American History Collection, the Fort Wayne Indian Agency Collection, the Great Britain Indian Department Collection, and several collections related to women’s correspondence and diaries.
Lists of digital sources related to the early Americas.
A list of early American digital mapping projects, programs, and collections.
A list of online databases with early American sources.