Search Examples
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.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowContains 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.
- Historical New York Times This link opens in a new windowThe Historical NYT is an online digital reproduction of the New York Times, including photographs and advertisements.
- HeinOnline AcademicHeinOnline Academic is a full-text research collection offering U.S. federal publications such as the U.S. Code, Federal Register, treaties and agreements, U.S. and state appellate court opinions, federal legislative histories, presidential documents; a collection of legal classics; and constitutions of the world
- HarpWeek (1857-1871) This link opens in a new windowRead 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.
- African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle provides nearly 1,400 fully searchable printed works essential for understanding the African-American struggle for identity from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 4, 1853-1865 This link opens in a new windowThe AAS Historical Periodicals Collection provides digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1853-1865, documenting the life of Americas people.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 5, 1866-1912 This link opens in a new windowThe AAS Historical Periodicals Collection provides digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1866-1912, documenting the life of Americas people.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowBrowse digital image reproductions of articles and ads from The Sunday Times (London, England) for the years 1822-2006. The newspaper is reproduced from cover to cover in pdf formatted files. Note: Does not include the content found in the Sunday Times Digital Archive.
HST 4650: U.S. Civil War -- Online Civil War/Reconstruction primary source documents on the web
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.
- Valley of the Shadow project: Two Communities in the American Civil WarFrom 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.
- Making of America Civil War documentsContains 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 & ReconstructionIncludes photographs, a diary, newspapers and more from institutions and organizations all around Georgia.
- Documenting the American SouthFrom UNC. Large collection of all kinds of documents; searching is better than browsing.
- University of South Carolina Reconstruction RecordsThis 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 MapsAround 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.
- The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies.Officially titled, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, the Official Records are compiled in 127 volumes, plus a General Index and accompanying Atlas.
- Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.Records of the War of the Rebellion include copies of naval correspondence (reports, letters, telegrams, and general orders) from both the Union and Confederate Navies discussing their operations.
- Rose O'Neal Greenhow Papers, 1861-1864Letters 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, 1859-1898The 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 LettersThese letters provide a rare firsthand glimpse into the lives of enslaved African American women.
- Alice Williamson Diary, 1864Transcription 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 CongressThe 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.
- Richmond Daily Dispatch 1860-1865From the University of Richmond. "Using the transcriptions of Richmond's non-partisan newspaper and other contextual documents as guides, discover how dramatically the city, and thus the people and fortunes of the south, changed during the course of the war."
- Virginia Memory James I Robertson Civil War Sesquicentennial Legacy CollectionThe James I. Robertson Jr. Civil War Sesquicentennial Legacy Collection documents the people of our nation and commonwealth during the Civil War era as told through letters, diaries, photographs, and other manuscripts held in private collections.
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938The collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA).
Published print primary sources
These links go to the OhioLINK catalog. Check the bibliographic record to see if Wright State's Dunbar Library owns a copy before you request it through OhioLINK..
Civil War primary sources at WSU Special Collections & Archives
- Collections relevant to the Civil Waravailable by visiting Special Collections & Archives, Dunbar Library, 4th floor. Scroll down to those collections that say "linear feet" not "reels."
- Selected materialsfrom 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.
Reference eBooks
American Eras: Civil War and Reconstruction (1860-1877) by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781414498348Publication Date: 2013-06-01Includes essays on events, publications, lifestyles and individuals important to the Civil War and Reconstruction Era in U.S. history
American Civil War: the Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection [6 Volumes] by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781851096824Publication Date: 2013-09-30Features comprehensive coverage of the American Civil War, including significant battles and skirmishes, important civilian and military figures, weaponry, and government relations with Native Americans. The entries also address the events that led to the conflict, the international diplomacy of the war, the rise of the Republican Party, the impact of slavery, the secession crisis, the complex challenges of the war's aftermath, and more.
