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Published print primary sources

Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Sources

These links go to the OhioLINK catalog. Check to see if Wright State has the book here before you request it.

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources

Civil War primary sources at WSU Special Collections & Archives

Collections relevant to the Civil War
available by visiting Special Collections & Archives, Dunbar Library, 4th floor. Scroll down to those collections that say "linear feet" not "reels."
Selected materials
from various Civil War Collections held by the Special Collections & Archives that were digitized and deposited in CORE Scholar especially for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the American Civil War.

HST 4650: U.S. Civil War -- Online Civil War/Reconstruction primary source documents on the free web

Valley of the Shadow project
From UVA. A digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

These are just starting places--there are many great online collections of Civil War and Reconstruction documents.

To find more, Google digital [or some version of this word] collections [your topic keywords] site:.edu.

You can also try site:.org (this would capture those by historical societies, for example) but remember that .org sites may be of poor quality--be sure to check who is sponsoring the website and what they are all about!

Site:.gov will include U.S. government sites, including our national archives, Smithsonian institutions, and government departments.

Making of America Civil War documents
Contains the War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies.
Digital Library of Georgia: Civil War & Reconstruction
Includes photographs, a diary, newspapers and more from institutions and organizations all around Georgia.
Documenting the American South
From UNC. Large collection of all kinds of documents; searching is better than browsing.
University of South Carolina Reconstruction documents
This collection brings together the surviving records from the Reconstruction University, including scholarship lists, room and board lists, and faculty correspondence.
Library of Congress: Civil War Maps
Around 2000 maps! The maps, charts, and atlases depict battles, troop positions and movements, engagements, and fortifications. Also included are reconnaissance maps, sketch maps, coastal charts, and theater of war maps.
Rose O'Neal Greenhow Papers, 1861-1864
Letters from Greenhow, a Confederate spy, to Jefferson Davis, Alexander Boteler, and others, regarding war activities. Also several newspaper articles describing her imprisonment in 1861 and her death in 1864.
Sarah E. Thompson Papers, 1859-1898
The materials in this collection center around the murder of Thompson's husband, her intelligence work for the Union army which led to the defeat of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, and her subsequent post-war struggles against poverty, largely as a single mother.
Hannah Valentine, Lethe Jackson, and Vilet Lester Letters
These letters provide a rare firsthand glimpse into the lives of enslaved African American women.
Alice Williamson Diary, 1864
Transcription and scanned image from diary of a 16 year old rebel girl living in Gallatin, Tennessee during Union occupation of the area.
Abraham Lincoln Papers - Library of Congress
The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online.

Online primary source collections through WSU subscription

All the resources below are available only in the Dunbar Library or off-campus by authenticating with your campus login (w number) and password.

Unlike the websites in the box above, these are only for Wright State students--we pay lots of money for subscriptions to these.

Historical New York Times
The Historical NYT is an online digital reproduction of the New York Times, including photographs and advertisements.
HarpWeek (1857-1871)
Read the full-text of Harper's Weekly (1857-1912), the leading American illustrated magazine of the period. Covers political, military, social and cultural issues. Search by section: subjects, illustrations, literature, and advertising.
Afro-Americana Imprints 1535-1922
An important collection of Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922 useful to African-American studies. Includes a wide range of archival materials including books, pamphlets and broadsides. Coverage includes the West's discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World; the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; and descriptions of African American life -- slave and free.
American Periodicals
Contains page images of historic American magazines, journals and newspapers. These resources illustrate the development of American culture, politics and society from the mid-eighteenth century through 1900.