Thread by @jacobflee

Last week, I read this article about conducting research during quarantine. With it still on my mind, I want to share some digitized sources that have been especially useful to me and might be to others in #VastEarlyAmerica. h/t @MrSidetable activehistory.ca/2020/03/a-time…

First, @internetarchive. You probably already use Google Books, and this is like that but, IMO, vastly superior. Research libraries and archives have uploaded a bunch of stuff here, mostly rare books but in some cases manuscripts, too. archive.org

Second, @USNatArchives. I haven't found a great way of figuring out what NARA has digitized, except poking around in the catalog. (If someone has advice on that, let me know.) But, there's a lot there. catalog.archives.gov

Here's one highlight: anyone interested in Native peoples or the U.S. empire in the 19th c. has probably used the microfilm of Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1880. All 900+ rolls are now available digitally. catalog.archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f…

Third, @librarycongress. It's hard to quickly summarize what all they have digitized, but their online collections are extensive, including lots of presidential papers.
loc.gov/collections/

And, some of the old American Memory websites are still hanging on, including the always useful A Century of Lawmaking site, which includes about all of the congressional documents (from 1774-1875) you'd ever want. memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/la…

Fourth, @NewberryLibrary. The Newberry has digitized an enormous number of items, including the Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection, featuring thousands of manuscripts, books, and images related to Native history. publications.newberry.org/ayer/#/

Fifth, @JCBLibrary. Some of the material at the JCB is also available on @internetarchive, but their own website has more material. This is a great resource for maps, images, and rare books. jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet

Sixth, @mohistlibrary has digitized more than 175,000 items from their collections: objects, manuscripts, images. I've used a range of materials related to the Missouri River valley in the early 19th c. mohistory.org/collections

One word of caution about the digital materials at MO History Society: in a lot of cases, they have digitized selected items rather than entire collections. So, once the pandemic has passed, you'll want to take a trip out to their beautiful reading room in St. Louis.

Seventh, genealogy websites like @FamilySearch. You wouldn't believe the amount of material Family Search has digitized. There's birth & death records, censuses, all the stuff that you would imagine genealogists would find helpful but so, so much more.
familysearch.org/search/catalog

A couple of things worth highlighting: For people interested in the French empire in North America, Family Search has digitized the microfilm of the Kaskaskia Manuscripts. Or, if you're interested in the U.S. empire, you can find a lot of digitized NARA microfilm.

Overnight, I thought of a few more digital collections that have been useful to me.

Up first, the @GilcreaseMuseum, which has put a bunch of their manuscript collections online, including the papers of Cherokee principal chief John Ross. collections.gilcrease.org/finding-aid/fi…

There's also the @BriscoeCenter at UT-Austin, which has digitized nearly 10,000 documents from the Bexar Archives (up to 1805), an incredible source of information about Spanish colonialism in present-day Texas. cah.utexas.edu/projects/bexar…

If you're interested in the fur trade in present-day Canada, the Voyageur Contract Database is an incredible resource. @englebert_r shsb.mb.ca/en/Voyageurs_d…

Library and Archives Canada has digitized the microfilm of Série C11a, the French colonial records for New France. The website isn't the easiest to navigate but still useful if you can't make it to Aix - or, you know, leave the house. collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?u…

I'm always surprised at how much I use Founders Online from @USNatArchives, which are freely accessible versions of the papers of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, etc. founders.archives.gov

I also wanted to shout-out the Civil War Governors of Kentucky project from @KyHistSoc, which uses the papers of high-ranking officials to examine the social history of a Border State during the Civil War. discovery.civilwargovernors.org

I've only included freely-accessible projects in this list. No subscriptions required. In most cases, that's only possible because of support from the institutions that house them and places like the @NHPRC and NEH.

Thanks to all those #DigitalHistory and #DigitalHumanities projects for making all of this material available. They are important all of the time, but especially so now that all of us are scrambling to figure out how to teach and research from home.