Virtual Digital Collections

From libraries and museums to historical societies, it seems that everyone is digitized their collection for sharing on the Internet. Others are focusing on ways to preserve those materials that are already in a digital form.

The best digital archives do more than provide a collection of links to different resources on a topic; rather, a true archive houses all the materials on one Web server, helping ensure that materials referenced are well organized and available. (Mark Hofter, Online Digital Archives, Learning and Leading with Technology, 32(2), 2004)

Digital Collections

When viewing a digital reproduction, transcriptions, or other elements of a digital collection, ask questions about the original and the method of reproduction. Many website contain an About page that contains this information. Some examples include:

Primary Source Collections

American Memory from the Library of Congress quality
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Collection of resources from American history.

Archives Canada
http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/virtual/search.asp
Virtual exhibits from Canada.

British Museum: Compass Collection quality
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/
Features over 5000 objects from many periods. Be sure to check out the Children's Compass!

Library and Archives Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index-e.html
Resources and collections from Canada.

Library of Congress Exhibitions
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/
Dozens of topics.

National Archives of UK
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
National archives of the United Kingdom.

National Library of Scotland Digital Library quality
http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/index.html
Great resource with materials in many topics.

NARA: US National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/
Best collection of US documents. Go to the Exhibit Hall for collections. Be sure to check the HHPRC projects.

Online Archive of California
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/
The resources affiliated with Berkeley connects to over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections. Virtual collections include:

World History Sources
http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/whmfinding.php
This guide provides online primary source archives.

Digital Libraries and Collections

America Votes from Duke University
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/americavotes/
An online exhibit of U.S. presidential campaign memorabilia including presidential elections in letters, sheet music, leaflets, buttons, bumper stickers, and even t-shirts.

American Centuries from Memorial Hall museum Online
http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu/home.html
Explore New England through historical artifacts and documents.

American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement
http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-021/index.asp
More than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration from 1000 to 1800s from the Wisconsin Historical Society. Be sure to check out the Images.

Archimedes
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html
Explore artifacts, stamps, pictures, and more.

Avalon Project at Yale Law School
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy.

BBC - History - Family History
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/
Great resource on family history and digital storytelling. Interesting sections include Bloodlines and Photos.

Brooklyn Public Library
http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/digital_collections.jsp
Includes Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1902), Brooklyn in Civil War, Historic Brooklyn Photographs, What Shall We Read to Children (1800s-1900s), and Brooklyn Works Speak, Work Lore.

Colorado Digitization Program
http://www.cdpheritage.org/
Explore a heritage collection, educator resources, and digitization resources.

Cornell University

Connecticut History Online
http://www.cthistoryonline.org/
Photographs, drawings, and prints about Connecticut history.

Digital History from University of Houston
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
Many primary sources including documents, references, exhibits, multimedia, and timelines.

Digital Past: North Suburban Library System
http://www.digitalpast.org/
Collection of Illinois historical document.

Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement from Duke University
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/
An on-line collection featuring transcribed texts and scanned images of over 40 articles, pamphlets, flyers, and booklets published from 1969 to 1974 which reflect the diversity of theory and activities characterizing the early years of the U.S. Women's Liberation Movement.

Documenting the American South from UNC University Library
http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html
Primary sources for southern history, literature and culture.

ECO: Early Canadiana Online
http://www.canadiana.org/eco/english/index.html
Digital library with millions of pages. More than 700 documents from early Canada.

Einstein Archives Online
http://www.alberteinstein.info/
Manuscripts, diaries, and databases.

Florida Memory Project from the Florida State Archives
http://www.floridamemory.com/
Thousands of photographs and resources.

Free Library of Philadelphia Digital Library
http://libwww.library.phila.gov/diglib/diglibsrchfrm.cfm
Digital Collections include: United States Centennial Exhibition, Central Library's 75th Anniversary, and Historical Images of Philadelphia.

Heritage Images Online from Auckland City New Zealand
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/heritageimages/apphoto.htm
Explore photographs from New Zealand.

Heinz History Center
http://www.hswp.org/
Pennsylvania's largest history museum.

Home Economics Archive from Cornell University
http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/index.html
Explore a core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines between 1850 and 1950.

Indiana's Storyteller from Indian Historical Society
http://www.indianahistory.org/library/digital_image/digitalpics.html
Wonderful online digital collection containing 17,000 digital images.

Indiana University Digital Library Program
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/
Many collections including Commons, Hoagy Carmichael, Nuer Field Notes, Swinburne Project, Victorian Women Writers, Wright American Piction, and others.

Kentuckiana Digital Library
http://kdl.kyvl.org/
Explore archives, electronic texts, timeline, and oral histories.

Manuscripts of the American Civil War from Notre Dame
http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/civil_war/index.shtml
Letters, diaries, and records.

National Security Archive from George Washington University
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
Explore primary sources documents on national security topics such as Cuban Missile Crisis (i.e., documents, audio clips, photographs, chronology, analysis).

National Women's History Museum
http://www.nmwh.org/home/home.html
Includes virtual exhibits on many topics.

Newseum - The Interactive Museum of News
http://www.newseum.org/
Designed to help the public understand the news media.

New York Public Library Picture Collection
http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/index.html
Includes 30,000 images mostly pre 1923. Also, go to the NYPL Digital Gallery.

New York Public Library Digital Library Collections
http://www.nypl.org/digital/
Includes many collections.

Ohio Memory: An Online Scrapbook of Ohio History
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/nietz/
Explore 26,000 primary sources from 330 archives.

Our Roots from Canadian Digital Local Histories Site
http://www.ourroots.ca/
Information on local histories from Canada.

Picture Australia
http://www.pictureaustralia.org/
Images from Australia.

Primary Sources for Historical Research from Duke University
http://www.lib.duke.edu/reference/subjects/prihist/prihist.htm
Links to resources. Check out the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library from Duke University
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/
Many online collections.

September 11 Digital Archive
http://911digitalarchive.org/
Archive includes photographs, moving images, audio, and documents.

Smithsonian
http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/
Library and Archival Exhibitions on the web.

Trials of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869 from BYU
http://overlandtrails.lib.byu.edu/
The collection contains original writings of 49 voyagers on the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Montana trails who wrote while traveling on the trail.

UNESCO/IFLA Directory of Digitized Collections
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/digicol/
A directory to many digital collections.

United States Holocaust Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/
Great animated stories with primary documents.

University of California, Berkeley
Holdings include many digital collections from Bancroft Library and Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE:

University of Virginia
Holdings include digital collections:

Virginia Center for Digital History
http://moderntimes.vcdh.virginia.edu/research.html
This resource includes many digital collections.

Wisconsin Historical Society
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/
Many resources including Online Collections and Visual Materials.

University of Michigan Making of American
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
Digital library of primary sources in American social history form antebellum period through reconstruction.

University of Minnesota Electronic Text Research Center
http://etrc.lib.umn.edu/
Projects on Women's Travel Writing (1830-1930) and Early Modern French Women Writers.

University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections
http://content.lib.washington.edu/
Primary sources materials including photographs, document, and audio/video resources.

Yale University Manuscripts & Archives
http://mssa.library.yale.edu/madid/
The Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database (MADID) are great.

Personal Papers Collections

Helen Hunt Jackson
http://www.coloradocollege.edu/library/SpecialCollections/Manuscript/HHJ.html
Letters, diaries, photographs, and other materials by novelist and Indian rights activist.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers from GWU
http://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/documents/
Examine the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Digital Preservation

MINERVA from the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/minerva/
Stands for Mapping the INternet Electronic Resources Virtual Archive. It's purpose is to preserve the world’s cultural and intellectual output that is presently created in digital formats and does not exist in any physical form. The program collects and preserves these primary source materials.

Wayback Machine
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
A useful tool if you are tracing the development of websites.

Online Primary Source Collections

Authentic History Center
http://authentichistory.com/
Primary sources from American popular culture including a diversity section, oral history project, and urban collection.

Digital Photography Collections

Photography Collection - Western History
http://photoswest.org/
Explore photographs of the west; check Children in the Photo Collection

US Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System - Images
http://images.fws.gov/
Examine images from this agency.

Living History

Pioneer Living History Village
http://www.pioneer-arizona.com/
1800s village in Arizona.

Newspaper Collections

The Stars and Stripes
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/
Newspaper from February 8, 1918 to June 13, 1919.

Text Collections

19th Century Schoolbooks
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/nietz/
Explore full-text collections of many schoolbooks.

The Classic Text: Traditions and Interpretations
http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clshome.htm
Galleries including Bible, Homer, Artistophanes, Vigil, Ovid, Saint Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, Joyce, and more.

Links to Collections

Amdocs: Dcouments for the Study of American History
http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/amdocs_index.html
Organized by date.

American Colonist's Library
http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/
Links to many primary sources.

Digital Librarian: Electronic Texts and Primary Sources
http://www.digital-librarian.com/electronic.html
Links to many resources.

Digitized Image Collections
http://www.rbls.lib.il.us/dpl/ref/hist/histdigital.htm

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/index.html
Links to transcriptions, facsimiles, and translations from European countries.

Internet Sourcebooks from Fordham

SoldierQuest
http://www.soldierquest.org/research_facilities.htm
Links to military resources.

Sources for General History Collections
http://facultystaff.vwc.edu/~dgraf/genhist.htm
Many links.

World Art Treasures
http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/
Many works of art.

Learn More

Hofer, Mark (October 2004). Online Digital Archives. Learning and Leading with Technology, (32)2, 6-11.

Created 12/04. Updated 10/05.
For information, contact Annette Lamb.

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