Online Collections / US

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Amherst College
Emily Dickinson Collection

ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.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.

Archives West
Descriptions of archival and manuscript materials held by institutions in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Utah.

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Boston College
The Robert E. Brooker III Collection of American Legal and Land Use Documents, 1716-1930

Boston Public Library
American Revolutionary War Manuscripts
The Boston Public Library has an extensive collection of original manuscripts from the American Revolutionary War era. The letters and documents were drafted by John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, James Otis, Joseph Warren, George Washington and other important Revolutionary War figures.

Anti-Slavery Collection
In the late 1890’s, the family of William Lloyd Garrison, along with others closely involved in the anti-slavery movement, presented the library with a major gathering of correspondence, documents, and other original material relating to the abolitionist cause from 1832 until after the Civil War.

John Brown: Correspondence relating to John Brown and the raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
This collection contains correspondence relating to the abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859), specifically the unsuccessful armed slave rebellion he led at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown was captured and convicted of both murder and treason. He was hanged on December 2, 1859.

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Calisphere
Manuscript search
Calisphere is a gateway to digital collections from California’s great libraries, archives, and museums. Discover over 1,025,000 images, texts, and recordings—and counting.

The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis
Ryan White Letters
(Awaiting more information)

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Dickinson Electronic Archives
Devoted to the study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings directly influencing her work, and critical and creative writings generated by her work.

Dickinson Electronic Archives 2
(An updated platform.) A creative and critical collaboratory for reading Dickinson’s material bodies and for featuring new critical and theoretical work about Emily Dickinson’s writings, biography, reception, and influence, the Dickinson Electronic Archives 2 is a scholarly resource showcasing the possibility of interdisciplinary and collaborative research and exploring the potential of the digital environment to reveal new interpretive material, cultural, historical, and theoretical contexts.

Digital Commonwealth – Massachusetts Collections Online
A statewide consortium of libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies from across Massachusetts.
Manuscripts

Digital Paxton
Manuscripts
Transcriptions
The “Paxton” in Digital Paxton refers to a little-known massacre in colonial Pennsylvania of unarmed Susquehannock Indians in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The following manuscripts were authored by numerous figures directly and indirectly involved in the Paxton debates, including Benjamin Franklin, Israel Pemberton, and Thomas. Dates 1681–1782.

Duke University
Duke Digital Collection
American Slavery Documents Collection
Legal and personal documents related to the institution of slavery in the United States from 1757–1860s.
Correspondence
Women’s Travel Diaries

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Emily Dickinson Archive
High-resolution images of Dickinson’s surviving manuscripts available in open access, and provides readers with a website through which they can view images of manuscripts held in multiple libraries and archives.

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Folger Shakespeare Library
List of resources and material, early modern

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Harvard University
Worlds of change
A collection of more than 700,000 digitized pages of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th- and 18th-century North America.

Commonplace books
Manuscripts and records
Subtopics:
Account books
Exploration and Scientific Discovery in the Modern Age
Expeditions and Discoveries includes over 50,000 pages of digitized manuscript and archival materials, and nearly 2,800 digitized photographs, prints, and drawings. The manuscript and archival materials selected for Expeditions and Discoveries can be used for research, for the creation of class projects, or to illustrate secondary works.
Families
Farming
Land
Law
Maps
Medicine
Politics
The Sea
Slavery
Science
Women

Harvard Law School Library
Early Manuscripts
Modern Manuscripts

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Jane Addams Digital Edition
(Laura) Jane Addams (September 6, 1860-May 21, 1935) won worldwide recognition in the first third of the twentieth century as a pioneer social worker in America, as a feminist, and as an internationalist.

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Kentucky Historical Society
Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition
Repositories
The Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition (CWGK) is a freely-accessible online collection of historical documents associated with the chief executives of the state, 1860-1865. CWGK is not just about the five governors; it is about reconstructing the lost lives and voices of tens of thousands of Kentuckians who interacted with the office of the governor during the war years. CWGK is working to identify, research, and link together every person, place, and organization found in its documents.

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Library of Congress
America’s Founding Documents
Charters of Freedom
These three documents, known collectively as the Charters of Freedom, have secured the rights of the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States.

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution of the United State
• The Bill of Rights
  High Resolution Downloads

Civil Rights
Civil War
Digital Collections, Manuscripts
Manuscript Reading Room
The Manuscript Division’s holdings, approximately sixty million items in eleven thousand separate collections, include some of the greatest manuscript treasures of American history and culture and support scholarly research in many aspects of political, cultural, and scientific history.

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The Mary Baker Eddy Papers
Correspondence, sermons, and other manuscript materials with annotations.

Massachusetts Historical Society
Online Resources
Founded in 1791, the Massachusetts Historical Society is an invaluable resource for American history, life, and culture. Its extraordinary collections tell the story of America through millions of rare and unique documents, artifacts, and irreplaceable national treasures.

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National Archives
Civil Rights
Civil War
Docs Teach
The online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives
Manuscripts

Newberry Library
Modern Manuscript Digital Collection

New York Historical Society
American Manuscripts
Civil War Collections
Collections Related to Black History
New-York African Free School records, 1817-1832

New York State Archives
Digital Collections

North Carolina
Digital Collections
Over 90,000 historic and recent photographs, state government publications, manuscripts, and other resources on topics related to North Carolina. The Collections are free and full-text searchable, and bring together content from the State Archives of North Carolina and the State Library of North Carolina.

New York Public Library – NYPL
Digital Collections
This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Correspondence
Dairies
Early American Manuscripts Collection
The project will present on-line for the first time high quality facsimiles of key documents from America’s Founding, including the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Drawing on the full breadth of the Library’s manuscript collections, it will also make widely available less well-known manuscript sources, including business papers of Atlantic merchants, diaries of people ranging from elite New York women to Christian Indian preachers, and organizational records of voluntary associations and philanthropic organizations.
Manuscripts
Manuscripts / Documents
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Surveys

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Online Archive of California
OAC
provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 300 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses. Access 55,000 collection guides.

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Princeton University
Manuscripts
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940
The Great Gatsby, autograph manuscript

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Shapell Manuscript Foundation

The Smithsonian Institution
Archives of American Art, manuscripts search
The Archives of American Art collects, preserves, and makes available primary sources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. Our vast holdings are a vital resource to anyone interested in American culture over the past 200 years and consist of more than 20 million letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, financial records, photographs, films, and audiovisual recordings of artists, dealers, collectors, critics, scholars, museums, galleries, associations, and other art world figures.  The Archives also houses the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art.

The Art of Handwriting
The letters here, from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, show that an artist might put pen to paper just as he or she would apply a line to a drawing.

The State Historical Society of Missouri
Manuscript Collection
Personal papers, photographs, oral histories, correspondence, diaries and journals, and audiovisual material, as well as the records of churches, organizations, and businesses. These materials provide researchers an insight into the lives of Missourians and the development of organizations and businesses throughout Missouri.

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The University of Chicago Library
Manuscript Collection
Many different collections, including…

African American Studies

American Recipes, 1855-1905

Baldwin, Loammi. Papers, 1821-1842
Loammi Baldwin was a pioneering civil engineer who lived in Massachusetts from 1780 to 1838.

Bekker, Immanuel. Papers, 1806-1853
Immanuel Bekker (1785-1871) Philologist.

Brainerd, Mary Bowen. Papers. 1895-1915
Mary Bowen Brainerd, writer.

Butler-Gunsaulus Collection, 1527-1915
Chiefly letters and manuscripts by notable American men such as John Adams, William Cullen Bryant, DeWitt Clinton, Stephen A. Douglas, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greeley, Washington Irving, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, William Henry Seward, George Washington and many more. Also contains a small number of manuscripts by Europeans, including Erasmus and the Marquis de Lafayette.

Carter, Henry Kendall. Papers, 1823-1880
The Henry Kendall Carter Papers (1823-1880, bulk 1840-1870) are made up of business documents, primarily concerning Carter’s time in New Orleans (circa 1842-1874), personal and business correspondence, and personal memo books and diaries (1850-1878). Together, these items shed light on business life in Antebellum New Orleans, and on the realities of personal and business life in a divided country during the Civil War.

Chicago Committee of Fifteen. Records, 1909-1927
Also known as Manuscript Codex 1028, these twenty-six volumes were gathered for an investigation of Chicago crime, focusing on prostitution and the illegal sale of alcohol. Notes are from on-scene investigations, summaries of court records and newspaper clippings.

Davis, Jefferson, Trial Papers. MS 979, 1865-1868
These fourteen documents indicate the legal entanglements, ambiguous delays, political floundering, and shifting of responsibilities that occurred during the period from Jefferson Davis’ first indictment for treason, on May 10, 1866, through March 6, 1868, when the trial, finally set for March 26, 1868, was postponed again.

Field, Eugene. Correspondence, 1884-1895
Eugene Field, writer, poet. The Eugene Field Correspondence consists of 301 letters written to Eugene Field by various admirers, friends, family members, and business associates during the years 1884 – 1895. The collection also contains newspaper and magazine clippings pertaining for the most part to Field and his poetry.

Heaton, David F. Papers, 1837-1853
The David F. Heaton Papers contain personal and professional correspondence, documenting Heaton’s work as a clerk in the General Land Office during the presidency of Andrew Jackson and in the private sector as an expert in land transfer and ownership.

Lane, Ebenezer, Family. Papers, 1811-1866
The Ebenezer Lane Family Papers contain materials relating to Lane and his son, also named Ebenezer. The papers of the father (1793-1866) document his career as an attorney and judge, with materials including financial records, legal documents, letterbooks, notes on law cases, and a travel diary.

Lee, Elon N. and Edson S. Bastin. Papers, 1864-1919
Elon N. Lee and Edson S. Bastin, early students. The Elon N. Lee and Edson S. Bastin Papers consist of Edson S. Bastin’s correspondence (1866-1919), Elon Lee’s diary (1864-1865), drafts of essays, and miscellaneous ephemera concerning the Old University of Chicago (1867-1881).

Lewis, Fielding. Papers, 1783-1900
Fielding Lewis, plantation owner. Papers contain business records, legal documents, tax receipts and other records that document the management of an ante-bellum plantation on the James River. The collection also includes receipts for purchase of slaves as well as daily expenses.

Lincoln Collection. Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1587-1924
The Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscript section of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana contains material relating to Abraham Lincoln, his parentage, the Civil War, and his presidency. Included are briefs, pardons, and commissions in Lincoln’s hand, original letters of Mary Todd Lincoln, one of the few extant letters written by Lincoln to his wife, a letter written by Willie Lincoln while accompanying his father on a trip to Chicago, and letters written by members of the Lincoln cabinet and other notable political and military figures of the time.

Murdock, Fanny Bristol and Sarah Bristol Family. Papers, 1836-1866
These papers contain the personal correspondence of Fanny Murdock, her mother Sarah Bristol, and other family members in the mid-19th century. They document the family life and war-related difficulties of a Mississippi family. Material in the collection dates from 1836 to 1866.

O’Gorman Mahon. Papers, 1824-1892
James Patrick Mahon, also known as “The O’Gorman Mahon” was an Irish politician and adventurer. The collection contains correspondence, materials from court cases, documents pertaining to business ventures, a letter book, a diary, a passport, election posters, and two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings. Papers document Mahon’s various political, military and business activities.

O’Hara, James E. Papers, 1866-1970
James E. O’Hara (1844-1905), Lawyer and Republican Congressman, 1883-1887. Contains letters from family and constituents, photographs, a biographical sketch (1970) written by O’Hara’s granddaughter, Vera Jean O’Hara Rivers, and memorabilia.

Schaffner, Joseph Halle, Collection in the History of Science, 1642-1961
Contains correspondence and other documents from or related to prominent scientists. Includes the Marie Curie Correspondence with Charlotte Kellogg (ca. 1921-1929) and Curie Memorabilia, the Charles Darwin and Darwin Family Correspondence, the Albert Einstein-Walther Mayer Correspondence (1930-1933) and Einstein Photographs, the Isaac Newton Collection (1642-1727), and Miscellaneous Scientific Manuscripts (1744, 1777, 1820).

Slavery and Indentured Servitude Collection, 1752-1864
Contains seven documents pertaining to indentured servants (1766-1785). The remaining documents relate to slavery and include bills of sale, a memorandum describing the slave trade in Havana (1783), estate inventories, public notices, letters, deeds, a will, and indemnity bonds. Many of the documents are facsimiles.

Starr, Frederick. Liberian Research Collection, 1892-1914
Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago Frederick Starr maintained these research materials for his book, Liberia: Description, History, Problems.

Starr, Frederick. Papers, 1868-1935
Contains professional and personal correspondence; research material; field notebooks; diaries; class lecture notes; memorabilia; photographs; bibliographies; and scrapbooks. Correspondents include Frank Boas, W.E.B. Du Bois, Federico Gamboa, William Rainey Harper, John Haynes Holmes, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Julius Rosenwald, and Albion Small.
Keywords: African studies, anthropology, Latin American, Japanese studies

Whitman, Walt, “The Bible as Poetry.” Manuscript, 1883
Original manuscript of Whitman’s essay, first published in The Critic in 1883. Included with the manuscript are two portraits of Whitman, a copy of the published essay and Whitman’s cover letter to the publishers Jeannette Leonard Gilder and Joseph B. Gilder. Codex MS 263.

University of Georgia
Manuscripts

University of Michigan
Assorted Manuscripts for Students on Site

Flora and Fauna of the Great Lakes Region: A Multimedia Digital Collection
Fish Field Notes

Poetry Here and Then

Reptiles and Amphibians Field Notebooks

The Western Michigan University Libraries United States Civil War Collection
Eight diaries of men with connections to Michigan or the Midwest; additional letters added.

University of Pennsylvania
Letters in English
Manuscripts in English

University System of Georgia – Digital Library of Georgia
Manuscripts
Correspondence

US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
Collection
Books on medicine, medical recipe books, folk recipes, etc.

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The Walt Whitman Archive
Index
Manuscripts
The Walt Whitman Archive endeavors to make Whitman’s vast work freely and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers.

Wellesley College
The Civil War Letters of Wellesley College and Brandeis University
Online academic resource to reach students, scholars, and researchers interested in exploring the voices of those who were deeply involved in the Civil War. This website presents several paths to that exploration, from lesson plans and timelines to maps and voice recordings.

The Willa Cather Archive
The Complete Letters of Willa Cather
The Willa Cather Archive is an ambitious endeavor to create a rich, useful, and widely accessible site for the study of Willa Cather’s life and writings.

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Online Modern Manuscript Collections / UK

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Bodleian Library, Oxford University
Digital Bodleian

Modern Archives and Manuscripts
Archives and manuscripts from the 19th and 20th centuries, including items from the Oxfam Archive and Christ Church’s Lewis Carroll Collection.

British Library
Manuscript Collection
(currently offline due to cyberattack)
The manuscript collections of the British Library form part of the national repository of manuscripts, private papers and archives. They contain material of outstanding research importance for all periods, countries and disciplines.

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Dartmouth College
The Diaries of “Michael Field”
The poets, dramatists, and diarists Katharine Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Cooper (1862-1913) were not only aunt and niece, but also long-term partners who wrote collaboratively under the composite name “Michael Field.” “They” published prolifically—particularly collections of lyric poetry and historical verse-dramas—finding success with the early works in the 1880s, and winning new-found fame in recent times primarily with their poetry. However, perhaps their most fascinating document is the diary they co-wrote to record their lives and literary endeavors. Titled “Works and Days,” it primarily covers the years from 1888 to their deaths just prior to World War I.

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Stanford University
Manuscripts In the Historic Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Material is 1799 and earlier.

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University of Cambridge
Darwin Correspondence Project
Read and search the full texts of more than 9,000 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and find information on 6,000 more. Discover complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1873.

University of South Carolina
Victorian Lives and Letter Consortium
The John Ruskin Digital Archive – Lancaster University
In nineteenth-century Great Britain, John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a figure about whom no reader could have been ignorant: a public intellectual, in our terms, who had ideas about what buildings should look like, what Christianity should be, what paintings were valuable and not, what responsibility the state had to its citizens and what responsibilities citizens had to the state. He wrote about myths and about science, about the duties of the sexes, the limits of capitalism, the pleasures of dancing, the meaning of the Alps, the sorrowful testimony of Venice. He tried to transform the heart of Great Britain.
Seven previously unpublished Ruskin Diary Notebooks held at the Ruskin Centre are now accessible online.

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