LibGuides Home: History Day: Online Collections beyond CSL

Additional Online Collections

The following are additional digital collections that may be helpful. Many are beyond the scope of the Connecticut State Library (CSL). Connecticut and federal government sites are within our scope.

The organization of links is done to facilitate maintaining the page. It should not be considered as anything else.

Internet Archive
Online full text access to books, documents, and so much more. Includes the Wayback Machine
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Site description: "Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more."
HathiTrust
Site description: "HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world."
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Sometimes maps, and other pages that fold out, were not scanned correctly. Check Internet Archive or the physical item at the CT State Library.
Also, items under copyright are not accessible
Primary Sources (U.S. History)
Lone Star College Research Guide on primary sources, with video explanation.
Subscription resources may not be accessible to our patrons, but free resources will.

Images

Finding Images

Connecticut State Library

For images held by the Connecticut State Library (CSL), search our digital collections and State Archives. Many items have not been digitized. State Archives Picture Groups (PG) are focused on images, the Record Groups (RG) contain images too. Ask History & Genealogy librarians for help with archival materials.

Digitized maps may be treated as images or may be handled under a separate "item type".

History & Genealogy The History & Genealogy Unit assists a steady stream of patrons with historical information about our state and its people.
CT State Archives Finding Aids
Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA) CTDA home page - for all collections (Connecticut libraries, museums, colleges & universities, historical societies, and more). To limit to Connecticut State Library (CSL) collections, use specific link in guide, or select the collection on CTDA home page.
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Site: "The CTDA is part of the Digital Preservation Repository Program at the University of Connecticut. We serve the entire state and are dedicated to the maintenance, delivery, and preservation of a wide range of digital resources for educational and cultural institutions and State Agencies in Connecticut."
Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA) Connecticut State Library (CSL) collections CTDA section for CSL items. Some digital items are in our other collection, ContentDM. It helps to search both. Many items have not been digitized - contact us for help finding the original item.

Map & Geographic Information
by History & Genealogy Last Updated May 6, 2025 2994 views this year

Select List Of Manuscript Maps, Plans And Atlases Relating To Connecticut In The Connecticut State Library
Call Number: Hist Ref Conn Doc St292 slm
Publication Date: 1926

Other Resources

These are only a few suggestions, that focus on images. Images may be found in other resources listed here.

Artstor Public Collections
Only items in the Public Collections section of Artstor are freely accessible.
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Site: "Artstor’s ever-growing Public Collections offer approximately 1.3 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files from library special collections, faculty research, and institutional history materials, as well as hundreds of thousands of open access images from partner museums. Anyone may view and download these collections; no subscription or login required."

U.S.A., Canada, and multi-focused

Connecticut History Illustrated Featured Topics
This collection features curated resources from libraries and institutions across the state on various topics, including Communication. Some CSL digital resources are in each collection, and there are search tips for finding more resources on each topic.
CyberCemetery
University of North Texas (UNT): "The CyberCemetery is an archive of government web sites that have ceased operation (usually web sites of defunct government agencies and commissions that have issued a final report). This collection features a variety of topics indicative of the broad nature of government information. In particular, this collection features web sites that cover topics supporting the university's curriculum and particular program strengths."
Story Corps
Women Working, 1800-1930
From Harvard: "An exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression"
American Presidency Project
Contains comprehensive collection of resources pertaining to the study of the President of the United States.
New York Public Library's Digital Collections
Site: "About NYPL Digital Collections. The New York Public Library Digital Collections contains 756,625 items and counting. While that is a small fraction of the Library's overall holdings, it is representative of the diversity of our vast collections—from books to videos, maps to manuscripts, illustrations to photos, and more."
Open Access Maps at NYPL
New York Public Library (NYPL) blog post on The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division's release of more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution downloads.
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Blog post includes links to collection and information on using the collection.
National Women’s History Museum (NWHM)
Site: "Vision - Our mission is to tell the stories of women who transformed our nation. We will do that through a growing state-of-the-art online presence and a future physical museum to educate, inspire, empower, shape the future, and provide a complete view of American history."

Federal Government

Library of Congress

Library of Congress (LOC) Primary Sources by State
LOC: "The extensive collections at the Library of Congress contain historic artifacts and cultural materials from across the U.S."
Connecticut: Selected Library of Congress Primary Sources
Library of Congress Collections with Maps
Primary Source Set (LOC)
Library of Congress (LOC) Classroom Materials - selected primary sources by topic.
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Previously: Student Discovery Sets (LOC) http://www.loc.gov/teachers/student-discovery-sets/?loclr=blogtea
Library of Congress (LOC) site: "The new Library of Congress Student Discovery Sets bring together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents on a wide range of topics, from history to science to literature. Interactive tools let students zoom in, draw to highlight details, and conduct open-ended primary source analysis. Full teaching resources are available for each set."
Education Resources from the Library of Congress
Site: "The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections."
American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB)
Library of Congress: "The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB), a collaboration between the Library of Congress, WGBH Boston and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, launched a new website at americanarchive.org External today, providing the public with access to a collection of American public radio and television content dating back to the 1950s. These audio and video materials, created by more than 120 public broadcasting organizations across the country, have now been digitized and preserved, and will be a resource for scholars, researchers, educators, filmmakers and the general public to delve into the rich history of public broadcasting across America."
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (LOC)
Library of Congress (LOC): "Prints & Photographs Division holdings, including over 1 million digital images."
Moving Image and Recorded Sound Collections - LOC
Library of Congress (LOC): "Broadcast and archival recordings, including 78s, 45s, and Copyright tapes"
Selected Library of Congress Resources for Connecticut - LOC
Library of Congress (LOC): "The extensive collections at the Library of Congress contain historic artifacts and cultural materials from across the U.S. The list below is just a sample of the many Connecticut resources available for free on the Library's Web site.
Teachers can find even more primary sources, along with the tools to help use them in the classroom, at www.loc.gov/teachers."
Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation
From the Library of Congress. Collection of U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates for the early years of the U.S.A. Detailed description available on their website

National Archives

Milestone Documents, Compiled by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Site: "The primary source documents on this page highlight pivotal moments in the course of American history or government. They are some of the most-viewed and sought-out documents in the holdings of the National Archives."
Historic Supreme Court Decisions - by Topic
From Legal Information Institute (LII)

Smithsonian

Smithsonian - Our Museums, Galleries, and Zoo
Links to the Smithsonian museums, galleries and zoo. Scroll past ticket information.
Smithsonian Learning Lab
Smithsonian's large repository of materials, including user-created learning activities.
Site: "digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 major research centers, the National Zoo, and more, can be used together, for learning."
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Site: " The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access created the Smithsonian Learning Lab to inspire the discovery and creative use of its rich digital materials—more than a million images, recordings, and texts. It is easy to find something of interest because search results display pictures rather than lists. Whether you've found what you were looking for or just discovered something new, it's easy to personalize it. Add your own notes and tags, incorporate discussion questions, and save and share. The Learning Lab makes it simple.

By encouraging users to create and share personalized collections of Smithsonian assets and user-generated resources, the Learning Lab aspires to build a global community of learners who are passionate about adding to and bringing to light new knowledge, ideas, and insight."

Other Federal Institutions

Federal Judicial Center (FJC)
Also see WayBack Machine for previous versions of website.
FJC: "The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the judicial branch of the United States Government. The Center supports the efficient, effective administration of justice and judicial independence. Its status as a separate agency within the judicial branch, its specific missions, and its specialized expertise enable it to pursue and encourage critical and careful examination of ways to improve judicial administration. The Center has no policy-making or enforcement authority; its role is to provide accurate, objective information and education and to encourage thorough and candid analysis of policies, practices, and procedures."
National Library of Medicine Digital Collections (NLM)
National Library of Medicine (NLM) portal to their online collections.

Other Institutions

Not all content may be available to patrons beyond the institution's own community.

Gateway to Women's History
From Texas Woman's University.
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Site: "The Gateway to Women's History is an online site providing electronic access to primary source materials from the Woman's Collection at Texas Woman's University. Visitors can access photographs, documents, pamphlets, menus, programs, catalogs, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, negatives, artifacts, clothing, textiles, and descriptive records of all our manuscript collections. Rare books, ephemera, and memorabilia are also available for your viewing."
Museum of History and Industry
School (S)-Collection in the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL)
Site: "The School (S)-Collection in the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign consists of over 165,000 cataloged volumes of children’s and young adult literature. The collection was created in 1941 with an initial collection of approximately 3,000 titles. In 1993, the S-Collection acquired an uncatalogued collection of 58,000 children’s books from the Center for Research Libraries, which were subsequently added to the collection. With this addition, it became one of the most comprehensive collections of children’s literature in the nation, second only to the Library of Congress."
Digging into the Archives, UVA Library Brings Old Folksong Recordings to Light
By Anne E. Bromley, January 27, 2020 UVAToday. Site: "The University Library has made 173 aluminum instantaneous discs – containing nearly 700 songs – available online, digitizing recordings made in the 1930s"

Canada

Primary Sources and Teaching Links
From THEN/HiER: "This collection of online archives, websites and databases of primary sources on significant topics in Canadian history is designed to help student-teachers, teachers, social studies educators and historians locate significant online collections of primary sources for a wide range of topics in Canadian history."
Sites of Interest
From THEN/HiER (Canada)
Children's Library Internet Archive
Site: "Books for children from around the world."

British History Online (BHO)
Site: "British History Online is a digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800. We aim to support the learning, teaching and research of our users from around the world."
HANSARD 1803–2005
Site: "This site has been produced from digitised editions of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament. This was part of a project led by the Commons and Lords libraries."

Additional

Here are some other resources that might be of help

ArchiveGrid
Site: "ArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies."
Educator Resources > National History Day
National Archives page for educator resources for History Day
African History: Primary Sources - Bowdoin Library
Bowdoin Library's research guide. Includes explanation of primary and secondary sources, with examples.
Free resources should be accessible to general public, but not subscription resources for Bowdoin Library community.
History Matters
Site: "Designed for high school and college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history."
Making Sense of Evidence
Site: "This section helps students and teachers make effective use of primary sources. “Making Sense of Documents” provide strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. “Scholars in Action” segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources, allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis."
History Channel Introduction to History Day - video
Site: "A brief energetic introduction to History Day produced by The History Channel, one of the major sponsors of the History Day program. The video was produced before the introduction of the website category at Nationals in 2008, otherwise it is still relevant. The introduction is good for students, teachers, or parents to better understand."
National History Day - video
Site: "Almost 3,000 middle and high school students from the 50 states, US territories and Department of Defense schools around the globe gather each year near Washington, DC, for National History Day. Students enter history research projects at the local and state levels and winners come to the nationals. Think of it as a science fair for budding historians. Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Conducted and supported in partnership with America's state and territorial humanities councils."
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
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Site: "The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 30 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from about 1550 to the present."
United Nations
International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)
Site: "The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children's literature from around the world."

Oceanian & Antarctica

Trove - National Library of Australia
Site: "Find and get over 457,198,438 Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more"
It says it is free, but you should register to use it.

The Connecticut State Library will be closed on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2025

History Day