Historical Documents

Resources in this category:

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html

"A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation consists of a linked set of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875. It includes the Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-89); the Letters of Delegates to Congress (1774-89); the Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, or Farrand's Records," and more.

Articles of Confederation, 1781
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1776-1800/constitution/confart...

Here is the first constitution of the U.S. that tried to bring the colonial states into a loose confederation.

Chris De Witt's Berlin Wall Web Page
http://www.appropriatesoftware.com/BerlinWall/welcome.html

Chris De Witt's Berlin Wall Web Pages are a great resource to students of history who want to learn more about Berlin's divided past. This web site guides visitors on a virtual tour of Berlin's past and present with loads of photos and essays about the city. The site provides its visitors a more intimate look into a city with a significant role in world history.

The Emancipation Proclamation
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/index.html

President Lincoln's famous proclamation: see the original document and read a full text transcription. This monumental work from the Civil War declares all slaves free in the rebellious South, and allows black men to enter the U.S. military.

Fourth World Documentation Project
http://www.cwis.org/fwdp/fwdp.html

"Our goal is to present the online community with the greatest possible access to Fourth World documents and resources. The Fourth World Documentation Project is an online library of texts which record and preserve our peoples' struggles to regain their rightful place in the international community."

Magna Carta
http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna.html

Here you can view an image of the whole manuscript of the Magna Carta and read a translation. This document first challenged the kings supreme power of the monarch and was able to curtail it.

Marxists Internet Archive
http://www.marxists.org/

Read brief biographies of and articles by famous Marxist leaders from around the world, including Marx, Engels, Eugene V. Debs, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Trotsky, and others. There are also general sections on Marxist history.

Medieval English Towns
http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/towns.html

"Historical information about English cities and towns in the Middle Ages, with emphasis on medieval boroughs of East Anglia and on social, political and constitutional history. Includes primary material."

National Archives Online Exhibit Hall
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/

Multimedia features from our nation's past! The National Archives publishes historic documents like the Louisiana Purchase, Nixon's resignation letter, posters from World War II, Portrait of Black Chicago (a photo exhibit), and lots more!

The National Security Archive
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

"The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)." View selected documents at this site on topics ranging from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Nixon-Elvis meeting.

The Oyez Project
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage

"The OYEZ Project contains many hundreds of hours of audio materials..." and "...dozens of panoramic images of the Supreme Court Building. The Project provides abstracts and other materials for leading cases in constitutional law decided by the Supreme Court of the United States." Cases are searchable by citation, title, subject or date.

Thomas Jefferson Papers
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/

"The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents. This is the largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world. Document types in the collection as a whole include correspondence, commonplace books, financial account books, and manuscript volumes. The collection is organized into nine series or groupings, ranging in date from 1606 to 1827."

Treaty of Westphalia
http://fletcher.tufts.edu/multi/texts/historical/westphalia....

Also referred to as "Peace of Westphalia," the document regarded as beginning the nation-state system by needing to formalize the institutionalization of diplomacy.