Primary Sources: Special Topics

Listings for the permanent collections of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City.

A virtual exhibit showcasing materials documenting the devastating earthquake and its aftermath.

Materials from the National Archives relating to pivotal moments in America's history.

Materials from the National Archives relating to pivotal moments in America's history.

The National Archives collection of their most important documents related to the founding and establishment of the United States.

The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project consists of an electronic collection of primary source materials relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a new transcription of the court records. The Archive also contains educational information, such as biographical profiles, a collection of images containing portraits of notable people involved in the trials, pictures of important historic sites, historical paintings and published illustrations taken from 19th and early 20th century literary and historical works.

Browse through selections from the thousands of records in the Museum’s Collections in this curated list of frequently searched collection types and themes.

A collection of articles and items documenting this pivotal event in Russian history.

A list of select collections on individuals, such as the Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court.

The Einstein Papers Project is engaged in one of the most ambitious scholarly publishing ventures undertaken in the history of science. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein provides the first complete picture of Einstein’s massive written legacy.

A comprehensive collection of the papers of the founding father.

The Frederick Douglass Papers collects, edits, and publishes in books and online the speeches, letters, autobiographies, and other writings of Frederick Douglass.

Hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, the American Presidency Project is a non-profit, non-partisan exhaustive collection of presidential papers on the internet.

A ProQuest database featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.

The University of Georgia's grant-funded project to deliver comprehensive educational content on the Civil Rights Era via the Web.

Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents ("the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times), leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.

The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more.

Items and special digitized collections from the British Library including the Harley Scientific Manuscripts; a collection of over 900 Greek manuscripts and papyri from the 1st to 18th centuries; and the Royal Illuminated Manuscripts, among others.