Research Guides: History: Digital Collections

Digital Collections and Additional Web Resources

While you will likely find a variety of useful resources for your research through the library's collections and databases, there are also many web resources that may help you. This list is not comprehensive, as research needs will vary greatly based on topic, but it should give you a good start to finding reliable sources online.

American Fact Finder
Find historical census data dating back to the 1790s. Start out by going to "FAQs" in the upper left corner to navigate to historical data.
British Pathé
British Pathé is a treasure trove of 85,000 historically and culturally significant films.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Contains over 29 million images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.
Eurodocs
Coordinated by a librarian at Brigham Young University, this open access database showcases digitized primary source materials that are organized by geographic area.
Europeana
An online database that provides access to over 50 million digitized items (including books, music, art, and more) from European libraries, archives, and museums.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress has many valuable digital collections of primary and secondary sources including Slaves and the Courts, the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana, American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I, American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, and many more.
National Archives
An independent agency of the United States government that preserves and documents government and historical records. It aims to make these documents accessible for research.
National Libraries - List
A list of national libraries around the world, many of which have digital collections that can be accessed online.
Newportal
A free online database that allows users to search across participating cultural heritage institutions (including Newport Historical Society, Newport Art Museum, Redwood Library & Athenaeum, and the Preservation Society of Newport County.
NYPL Digital Collections
"Explore 754,732 items digitized from The New York Public Library's collections."
RIAMCO
Gateway to information about archival collections in Rhode Island.
Roy Rosenzweig Prize Recipients
A list of the recipients of The Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History. Many of the linked websites provide access to digital copies of primary sources.
South Kingstown Colonial Records
The Town Clerk’s Office in South Kingstown, Rhode Island holds records dating back to the late seventeenth century chronicling the social relations and material culture of this early American town. Moreover, they document the existence of enslaved people. Traces of these individuals remain in probate records, where human beings were assigned value and treated as property.