Diverse historical research resources now available

Indigenous, First Nations, Native Americans

• Native American tribal histories : Official record of encounters between Indigenous peoples and American Territorial officials as chronicled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
• Indigenous Peoples of North America Part 2: Indian Rights Association Digital Archive : The Indian Rights Association, 1882-1986, provides a near complete record of the efforts of the first organization to address Native American interests and rights. This collection includes the incoming and outgoing correspondence, organizational records, and printed materials produced by both the Indian Rights Association and other American Indian and Indian rights-related organizations.
• Meriam Report On Indian Administration And The Survey Of Conditions Of The Indians In The US : This collection comprises two sets of documents that helped the response to 40 years of failed Native American policies. The first is the full text of the report entitled The Problem of Indian Administration, better known as the Meriam Report. The second comprises the 41-part report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs detailing the conditions of life and the effects of policies and programs enacted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Native Americans. Both of these collections provide unique documentary insights into many major tribes: Sioux, Navaho, Quapaw, Chickasaw, Apache, Pueblo, Ute, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kickapoo, Klamath, and many others.
• War Department and Indian Affairs, 1800-1824 : From 1789 until the Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in 1824, Indian affairs were under the direct control of the Secretary of War. This collection consists of the letters received by and letters sent to the War Department.
• American Indian Correspondence: Presbyterian Historical Society Collection of Missionaries’ Letters, 1833-1893 : “We must teach them to think, feel, act, and work. We must form their whole character—all their religious, moral, intellectual, social and industrial habits. This is the work to be done.” Thus states a nineteenth-century Presbyterian missionary to the Indians describing his task. He was convinced that their only hope of survival was to abandon the past and accept Christianity and civilization. His striking words come from the American Indian Correspondence, a collection of almost 14,000 letters written by those who served as Presbyterian missionaries to the American Indians during the years from 1833 to 1893.
• Indian Trade In The Southeastern Spanish Borderlands: Papers Of Panton, Leslie & Company : Comprising the papers of the Panton, Leslie & Co., a trading firm, this collection is the most complete ethnographic collection available for the study of the American Indians of the Southeast. More than 8,000 legal, political and diplomatic documents recording the company’s operations for over half a century have been selected and organized for this collection.

Blacks and African-Americans

• African history and culture, 1540-1921 : This collection covers the history of Africa and its diverse people over nearly 400 years with more than 1,300 books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera. It is compiled by the curators of the extraordinary Afro-Americana Imprints collection.
• Black authors: 1556-1922 : Created from the renowned holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Black Authors, 1556-1922, is the most complete and compelling collection of its kind. It offers more than 550 fully catalogued and searchable works by black authors from the Americas, Europe and Africa, expertly compiled by the curators of Afro-Americana Imprints collection, the largest existing collection of its kind. Found within are wide-ranging genres, including personal narratives, autobiographies, histories, expedition reports, military reports, novels, essays, poems and musical compositions.
• African American periodicals, 1825-1995 : More than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
• Black life in America : Comprehensive coverage of the African American experience from earliest times to today. Sourced from nearly 20,000 American and global newspapers from 1704 to the present, including over 400 African American newspapers. Provides full-text searching as well as access to content by Topic, Event, and Eras in African American History. Updated daily.
• Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League : Booker T. Washington, founder of the National Negro Business League, believed that solutions to the problem of racial discrimination were primarily economic, and that bringing African Americans into the middle class was the key. In 1900, he established the League “to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro,” and headed it until his death. This collection comprises the National Negro Business League files in Part III of the Booker T. Washington Papers in the possession of the Library of Congress.
• African American newspapers : Middlebury has expanded its access to this collection which now includes Series I and II — all 280 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection, which includes papers from more than 35 states, features many rare and historically significant 19th-century titles. 

Hispanic

• Hispanic life in America : Comprehensive coverage of the Hispanic American experience from earliest times to today. Sourced from nearly 17,500 American and global newspapers, including almost 450 Hispanic American newspapers. Provides full-text searching as well as access to content by Topic, Event, and Eras in Hispanic American History. Updated daily.
• Hispanic American newspapers, 1808-1980 : This collection represents the single largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. The distinctive collection features hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including many long scattered and forgotten titles published in the 19th century. It is based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project,” a national research effort directed by Nicolás Kanellos, Brown Foundation Professor of  Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston.  

Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II

• Japanese American Internment: Records of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library : With the support of officials at all levels of the federal government, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the U.S. military broad powers to ban any citizen from a wide coastal area stretching from the state of Washington to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. This collection consists of the documents from The Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Small Collections, “Japanese American Internment Collections,” in the custody of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.
• Final Accountability Rosters Of Evacuees: Japanese-American Relocation Centers, 1944-1946 : One of the darker chapters in American history and one of the lesser discussed events of World War II was the forced internment, during the war, of an important segment of the American population-persons of Japanese descent. This collection provides demographic information on the “evacuees” resident at the various relocation camps.
• Personal Justice Denied: Public Hearings Of The Commission On Wartime Relocation & Internment, 1981 : The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was established by act of Congress in 1980. Between July and December 1981, the CWRIC held 20 days of public hearings in Seattle, WA; Alaska; Washington, D.C; New York, New York; Chicago, Ill Cambridge, MA; and, San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA. This publication consists of the testimony and documents from more than 750 witnesses: Japanese Americans and Aleuts who had lived through the events of WWII, former government officials who ran the internment program, public figures, internees, organizations such as the Japanese American Citizens League, interested citizens, historians, and other professionals who had studied the subjects of the Commission’s inquiry.

Ethnic American newspapers from the Balch collection, 1799-1971 : Featuring more than 130 fully searchable newspapers in 10 languages from 25 states—including many rare 19th-century titles—this online collection provides extensive coverage of many of the most influential ethnic groups in U.S. history. With an emphasis on Americans of Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak and Welsh descent, this unique resource will enable students and scholars to explore often-overlooked aspects of this nation’s history, politics and culture.

Immigrations, migrations, and refugees: global perspectives, 1941-1996 Translated and English-language radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, government documents and books providing global insight on immigration in the mid-to-late 20th century.