History – a big topic! My goal here is modest – to provide some of the “go to” links that I’ve found in the course of research, especially the useful primary sources. (The focus here is on the colonial and early Federalist periods, and Virginia and Pennsylvania geographically.
Diaries, Letters & Suchlike (check the “Collections” links also)
- George Washington Papers – from the Library of Congress
- Thomas Jefferson
- Guide to Online Resources from UVA
- Princeton University’s Papers of Thomas Jefferson
- Monticello’s Jefferson Encyclopedia
- Thomas Jefferson Papers – from the Library of Congress
- John & Abigail Adams
- Travels in the American Colonies (no longer free online, alas)
- French Memories of Eighteenth Century America
- Fithian’s Journal and Letters (of course)
- From the Library of Congress
- From Gutenberg.org
- Journal of Nicholas Cresswell
- From the Library of Congress
- From the Internet Archive
- The Library of Congress also has collections for Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Monroe, and many specific topics. The trouble is that they tend to be images, where as other sources often offer downloadable text and pdf versions.
- My experience is that Google is best for finding specific documents, e.g. a specific letter. You will likely end up at one of the links here or under “collections”
Collections
- National Archives – Founders Online
- Guide to online resources re: Jefferson
- Project Gutenberg
- Internet Archive
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania & Library Company
- Colonial Williamsburg’s Online Resources
- And don’t forget Google Books, especially as so many primary sources are out of copyright.
Government & Laws
- Library of Congress: Congressional journals, debates, bills, resolutions, American State Papers, public laws
- Hening’s Statutes at Large (Virginia)
- Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia
- The American Presidency Project
- The US Senate’s history site
- The US House of Representative’s history site
- White House Historical Association
Miscellaneous
- Mount Vernon Collections Online
- My bibliography for the Founding Fathers mysteries (biographies, etc. – not primary sources for the most part)