5 Free Digital History Collections

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Man holding a mobile phone with the New York Public Library Digital Collections on screen.

1. American Centuries: View from New England

Learn more about life in early New England with a digital collection of about 2,000 items and document transcriptions from the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and the Memorial Hall Museum and Library in Deerfield, Mass. The site is friendly to researchers as well as young students and teachers.

Screenshot of the American Centuries website homepage, featuring navigation menus, a welcome message, and sections for collections, exhibits, lessons, and topic sets.

2. Center for Jewish History Digital Collections

Several important Jewish heritage organizations have contributed to this vital resource, which provides access to more than 30,000 photographs, nearly 12,000 archival items and a bevy of other resources for historians, including maps, original letters, scrapbooks, oral histories and publications such as dissertations.

3. Digital Library of Appalachia

Search here for archival and historical materials from southern and central Appalachia, the mountainous region in the eastern United States. Topics include daily life, work and occupations, cultural environment, education and religion.

4. Library of Congress Digital Collections

Among the more than 100 collections related to US history, you’ll find the Chronicling America historical newspaper collection, as well as collections about cities and towns, historic buildings, Civil War maps, Sanborn and railroad maps, digitized photographs and more. Most of the former American Memory collections have migrated to this site.

5. New York Public Library Digital Collections

More than 750,000 digitized images of photos, illustrations, manuscripts, documents and more are available in this free resource. Highlights for genealogists include collections of atlases and maps; store ledgers and cash books; Farm Security Administration photos; New York City directories and photographs; and artifacts from Jewish history.