The Library of Congress has a collection of digitized multimedia titled American Memory.
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.
This is a great resource for anyone interested in history. The ability to see and hear primary sources makes history interesting and addicting.
Examples of collections:
African-American Archives
- African-American Odyssey
- By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s
- From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938
Presidential and Governmental Papers
- The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress
- George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
- Mr. Lincoln’s Virtual Library
- A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
Depression Era
- Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
- American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940
- America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945
- Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941
Turn of the Century
- Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
- Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World’s Transportation Commission, 1894-1896
- The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections
Maps
- Civil War Maps
- Mapping the National Parks
- Railroad Maps, 1828-1900
- The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789
- Map Collections: 1544-1999
Entertainment
- The Leonard Bernstein Collection, ca. 1920-1989
- The Aaron Copland Collection, ca. 1900-1990
- Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies
- Origins of American Animation
- Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements: Highlights from the Motion Picture Archives at the Library of Congress
- The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920
Women’s Suffrage
Sports
- By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s
- Baseball Cards, 1887-1914
Unidentified one-man band at the Mountain Music Festival, Asheville, North Carolina
I first came across this collection a few years ago. I was designing a wedding invitation and was looking for images of music and North Carolina. I was pleasantly suprised to find some great photos of folk musicians in the 1930s in the John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. There are also recordings om many of these musicians. I spent hours browsing through images.
If you find an image you love, you can order a reproduction from the Library of Congress. The fees are pretty reasonable.
I made some interesting discoveries in the American Memory collection this weekend. I’ll show you what I found over the next few days. In the mean time, head over to American Memory and see what treasures you can find.