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Legal Research Links - U.S. Historical Information

The following links may take you to web sites not affiliated with KU's Wheat Law Library; to return to this page click your browser's "Back" button.

Choose from the following topics:

Revolutionary Period | Civil War | World War I | Great Depression & WWII | Cold War | Korean War | Vietnam War | Last Quarter of the 20th Century | Early 21st Century | Agencies | Biographical | Congress | Judiciary | Presidency | Social and Cultural | Speeches | States | General History Indexes

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Revolutionary Period

• The American Revolution site sponsored by The History Place.
• Bibliographies of the War of American Independence U.S. Army Center of Military History.
• Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention Broadsides Homepage from the Library of Congress.
• Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention.
• Map Collection and the University of Georgia.
• The Papers of John Jay is a repository of primary documents relating to one of America's early statesmen.
• A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms.

Civil War

• The American Civil War Homepage
• American Civil War Resources
• Civil War home page indexes numerous Internet resources.
• Civil War Cartoons is a paper that investigates American visual satire during the Civil War era.
• Civil War Circuit is a webring for Web sites focused on the American Civil War.
• Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society includes stereographs, photographs, posters, sketches, letters (including three from Walt Whitman), papers, and more.
• The Underground Railway: Niagara’s Freedom Trail from Canada’s Digital Collection Project is a multimedia tour of the area and its unique history.
• United States Civil War Center at Louisiana State University.
• Dred Scott site based at Washington University, St. Louis, includes court documents.
• U.S. Civil War Generals This is a concise index to the Generals who fought on both sides of the US Civil War, and has been specifically prepared for the Internet.
• Civil War Women site is being built at Duke by transcribing and scanning some of the manuscript collections which document women's experiences in the Civil War.
• Making of America is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
• The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony site presents an account of the history and selected documents and maps of this refuge for escaped slaves.

World War I

• First World War.Com provides valuable cultural, historical, and social documentation of "the Great War."
• World War I Document Archive.
• Trenches on the Web is an extensive library of Internet resources.

Great Depression and World War II

• America's Great Depression.
• A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution exhibit from the National Museum of American History (NMAH) focuses on the experiences of Japanese Americans who were placed in detention camps during World War II, and is a case study in decision-making and citizen action under the U.S. Constitution.
• American Involvement in World War II.
• A People At War Exhibit highlights the contributions of the thousands of Americans, both military and civilian, who served their country during World War II. Documents from the National Archives and Records Administration.
• Japanese American Relocation during World War II online archive.
• Donovan Collection of Nuremberg Documents. site, presented by the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, offers online access to the personal documents and papers of General William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan.
• An Interim Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act and the Japanese War Crimes Provisions of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.
• The Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings.
• Hyperwar A HYPERTEXT History of the Second World War.
• July 1942: United We Stand is a presentation of the early 1940's via magazine covers and commentary about them.
• Sliding into the Great Depression. is a chapter from J. Bradford DeLong's writings on the global economy of the 20th century.
• Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
• The Roaring '20s and the Great Depression indexes relevant web sites.
• A People at War highlights the contributions of the thousands of Americans, both military and civilian, who served their country during World War II.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Digital Archives provides online access to 10,000 digitized documents.
• World War II Timeline day by day listing of the events that occurred on all fronts during the war.
• War Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona, 1942-1946 photo essay is accompanied by brief explanations of the rationale behind the relocation effort, as well as reproductions of governmental decrees that set the effort to relocate in motion.

Cold War

• Bay of Pigs: 40 Years After.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy The Cold War.
• The Harvard Project on Cold War Studies.
• The Real Thirteen Days: the hidden history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Polciy Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath Foreign Relations Series Volume Summary.
• McCarthy Hearings The Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 1953-54), Volumes 1-5 (S. Prt. 107-84), are now available on GPO Access.
• National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books.
• The Pentagon's Spies -- NSA The latest electronic briefing book from the National Security Archive features declassified documents from 1965 to 1995.
• The Secret History of the ABM Treaty, 1969-1972 site includes 42 newly declassified documents explaining why the U.S. and the USSR agreed that the Treaty was in their best interest, and how it specifically restricts what the Bush administration can do on missile defense.

Korean War

• KoreanWar.com Useful guide outlines individual contributions by the Communist, Korean, American and U.N. Combatants.
• Korean War Maps.
• Korean War - 50th Anniversary Home page.

Vietnam War

• Investigating the Vietnam War.
• Vietnam Online was developed to accompany "Vietnam: A Television History," the television series produced by WGBH Boston.
• The Vietnam War Declassification Project To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon, the staff of the Gerald R. Ford Library reviewed for possible declassification nearly 40,000 pages of National Security Adviser files. This exhibit illustrates the wealth of material now available for research.
• Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection from the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection.

Last Quarter of the 20th Century

• The Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers and online exhibit from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
• The Pentagon Papers: Secrets, Lies, and Audiotapes is an electronic collection of material related to the Pentagon Papers.
• Deep Throat Uncovered site contains material related to the investigation conducted by Gaines and his students (from the University of Illinois) on Watergate.
• Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association Regarding Monica Lewinsky and Others is a 237-page final report filed May 18, 2001, but released March 6, 2002.

Early 21st Century

• September11.archive.org offers a searchable compilation of hundreds of sites that reported on the terrorist attacks.
• Review of the Estimates for the Impact of the September 11, 2001, Terrorists Attacks on New York Tax Revenues report reviews the tax revenue loss estimates of the New York City Office of Management and Budget and the New York State Division of Budget.
• The George W. Bush White House archival site.

Agencies

• History of the FBI Provided and maintained by staff members at the FBI, this site provides brief essays about the different periods of the organization's history.

Biographical

• Hall of Black Achievement is a repository of the significant achievements and contributions of African Americans, Cape Verdeans, and Hispanics of African descent.
• Jefferson Digital Archive offers extensive information on former US President Thomas Jefferson.
• Lincoln North: The Joseph N. Nathanson Collection of Lincolniana.
• The Thomas Jefferson Papers includes correspondence, financial account books, and manuscripts ranging in date from 1606 to

Congress

• Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation 1774-1873 is a linked set of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the 42nd Congress.
• Congress Votes database of every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991).
• Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States, published by the GPO in 1907, is useful as both an historical document and for its insights into parliamentary procedure and precedents in the House.

Judiciary

• History of Authorized Judgeships in US District Courts provides dates and legislative authority for establishment, realignment, and creation of additional judgeships for the U.S. District Courts.
• Judges of the U.S. Courts contains the service record and brief biographical information for all judges who have served on the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Circuit Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court since 1789.
• Federal Death Penalty Cases includes both qualitative and quantitative information about federal death penalty cases.
• Famous American Trials covers a wide time period from the Salem witchcraft trials to the Scope's monkey trial to the trial of O.J. Simpson.
• The Supreme Court Historical Society site includes biographical sketches of the chief and associate justices beginning in 1789 when the Court held its first session.

Presidency

• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
• American Experience: Jimmy Carter site contains coverage about the Camp David Accords and the Iranian hostage crisis, a photo gallery, and an essay of his contributions since he left the presidency.
• "I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Inaugural materials from the collections of the Library of Congress.
• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents.
• State of the Union address from January 2010 and all previous addresses.
• POTUS Presidents of the United States contains background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. Links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and other presidential sites are also included
• The Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum
• The George W. Bush White House archival site.
• The James Madison Papers organized into six series beginning with a selection of his father's letters and continuing all the way to the postwar years of his presidency.
• Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum online primary documents include selected speeches, photographs, and oral histories.
• Miller Center of Public Affairs contains a specialized collection focused on American politics and history with special attention paid to the United States Presidency.
• Nixon Tapes: Secret Recordings from the Nixon White House on Luis Echeverria and Much Much More released in August 2003 by the National Security Archive.
• The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace site offers biographical information.
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States is a searchable database. Public Papers volumes are published approximately twice a year. Volumes covering years prior and subsequent to the ones that are currently available will be added on an incremental basis.
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States databse is also available from the University of Michigan.
• Presidents of the U.S. is a comprehensive site containing background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents.
• Presidential Pardons information on the Jurist site.
• Calvin Coolidge: 30th President of the United States site contains rotating exhibits of visual material related to President Coolidge, an archive of his speeches, a chronology of his life and a research section outlining the location of various important primary materials.
• WhiteHouseTapes.org provides access to a wide range of secretly-recorded presidential telephone conversations from 1940-1973.

Social and Cultural

• American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island provides a searchable database that contains records on the 22 million passengers and ship crew members who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.
• Beginning Library Research on African American Studies contains numerous subject categories, including race/identity, press, literature, and history.
• Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920 collection of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century slave narratives.
• Encyclopedia Smithsonian on American social and cultural history.
• The Underground Railway: Niagara’s Freedom Trail from Canada’s Digital Collection Project is a multimedia tour of the area and its unique history.
• Latino/Hispanic Resources links and full text articles from the Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research.
• Index of Native American History Resources on the Internet.
• Movie Archive focuses mainly on everyday life, culture, industry, and institutions in North America in the 20th century.
• Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian photograpic images.

Speeches

• American Rhetoric.com is an online speech bank that contains over 5000 speeches, along with other recorded media events.
• Great Speeches From HistoryChannel.Com vast collection is drawn from the most famous broadcasts and recordings of the twentieth century. Real Audio needed to listen.
• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents.
• Speeches of the 1960 Presidential Campaign
• Speeches and Speechmakers links to resources maintained by the University of Iowa Communications Department.
• State of the Union address from January 2010 and all previous addresses.
• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents,
• The Inaugural Addresses of U.S. Presidents is an annotated listing of all the Presidents with their addresses.

States

• The Annexation of Hawaii: A Collection of Documents offers digitized primary documents related to the annexation of Hawaii.
• The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York contains information detailing New York's legal history.

General History Indexes

• BoondocksNet.com hosts a number of exhibits and primary document collections concerned with the history of anti-imperialism in the United States and some related topics.
• HistoryWired site from the National Museum of American History (NMAH) showcases hundreds of items from the museum's collection, many currently not on display.
• National Archives and Records Administration web site features the cornerstone documents of our government as well as many of their current and past exhibits. Recently added is Access to Archival Databases containing close to 50 million historical records, culled from 350 archival sources from 20 different federal agencies.
• American Memory - collections of primary source and archival material relating to American culture and history.
• United States History Index to a wide variety of materials.
• Free Speech Movement digital archive.
• American Originals site provides access to original documents of the United States government from 1776 to the latter half of the 20th century.
• Foreign Relations of the United States full text volumes from 1900-01 and 1903-18.
• Our Documents is an online repository of primary documents that "reflect our diversity and our unity, our past and our future, and mostly our commitment as a nation to continue to strive to 'form a more perfect union'".
• The Pentagon's Spies -- NSA The latest electronic briefing book from the National Security Archive features declassified documents from 1965 to 1995.
• Wright Air Development Center Digital Collection This resource includes scanned government technical reports created by WADC throughout the 1950's and 1960's as part of the space race.