DSL LegalLinks - U.S. Government Resources

Dickinson Legal Research Resources: DSL LegalLinks

U.S. Government Resources:
History

See more about this topic in the Dickinson Legal Research Resources:
DSL LegalLinks: Legal History
Anglo-American Legal History Research Guide and Biblography

Access to Archival Database (AAD)
http://www.archives.gov/aad: This site, offered by the National Archives and Records Administration, provides a searchable database of historic electronic records created by more than 20 federal agencies on a wide range of topics.
African American Mosaic
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html: The Mosaic site presents a "Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture". Topics covered include colonization, abolition, and migration.
After the Day of Infamy
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml: Over 200 recorded "Man-on-the-Street" interviews following the attack on Pearl Harbor are documented on this Library of Congress web site.
America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awlhtml: Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures. Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service, cattle breeding, fire fighters, logging, amusement parks, parades, boxing, football, and other sporting events.
American Battle Monuments Commission
http://www.abmc.gov/home.php: The Commission was established to honor the accomplishments of the American Armed Forces through the establishment and maintenance of military burial grounds and other memorial monuments.
American Memory - Historical Collections for the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html: This Library of Congress web site is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/pehome.html: This collection from the Library of Congress is a repository of Americana containing more than 28,000 items dating from the seventeenth century. Among other materials, the collection contains posters, playbills, song sheets, proclamations, petitions, propaganda, ballots, menus, and business cards.
American Women
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml: A gateway to the Library of Congress resources in the field of American women's history.
Army Nurse Corps Historical Collection
http://history.amedd.army.mil/ANCWebsite/anchhome.html: This collection from the Office of Medical History offers a wealth of information regarding the U.S. Army Nurse Corps history.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp: This site provides brief biographical data on members of Congress from 1774 to the present. Users can search by name, position, state, party or Congress. The site also provides biographies on past and present Presidents and Vice Presidents.
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw: This Library of Congress online collection offers the records of the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress (1774-1875), including the Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1789), the Letters of Delegates to Congress (1774-1789), the Journals of the House of Representatives (1789-1875) and the Senate (1789-1875), the debates of Congress as published in the Annals of Congress (1789-1824), the Congressional Record, and selected documents and reports from the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.
The Charters of Freedom
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html: This National Archives and Records Administration exhibit examines the nation's foremost historical documents and gives an in-depth look into the making and impact of the Charters of Freedom.
Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayhome.html: After Chicago police killed several striking workers in May of 1886, anarchist and socialist labor leaders organized a meeting of workingmen near Chicago's Haymarket Square. The leaders denounced the police attack and urged workers to fight for improved labor conditions. Near the end of this meeting, the police arrived and a melee ensued in which several police officers and civilians were killed or wounded. This event became known as the Haymarket Affair and remains a momentous and controversial event in Chicago's history.
CivilWar@Smithsonian
http://civilwar.si.edu: The site from the National Portrait Gallery is dedicated to examining the Civil War through the Smithsonian Institution's extensive collections.
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission: Battle Summaries
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/tvii.htm: The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission was established by public law on November 28, 1990, because of national concern over the increasing loss of Civil War sites. This site provides summaries of Civil War battles, listed either by state or by campaign.
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/: The Clinton Presidential Library's mission is to preserve the Presidential records, personal and donated papers, and memorabilia of the Clinton Administration.
Core Documents of U.S. Democracy
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/coredocs.html: GPO Access presents authentic online versions of various democratic core documents, which include both current and historical publications.
Department of Energy Historical Films Videoclips
http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/films/testfilms.aspx: This site provides video clips of Department of Energy Historical Films on nuclear weapons test. The films have been declassified and made available to the public for the first time. The full-length films may be ordered from the Coordination and Information Center for $10 per VHS video.
The Dust Bowl
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?ID=300#LESSON2: Thousands of settlers came to the Southern Plains and subsequently plowed millions of acres of grassland. When a severe drought hit the Midwestern and southern plains in the summer of 1931, dust storms began to plague the area. The catastrophic eight-year drought that followed led observers to rename the region "The Dust Bowl." This site provides complete lesson plans on the Dust Bowl for grades 3-5.
Federal Election Commission: History of the Voting System Standards Program
http://www.fec.gov/pages/vsshst.htm: The FEC's history of the VSS program is outlined at this web site.
Federal Judges Biographical Database
http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj: This site contains the service record and biographical information of 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.
First Person Narratives of the American South
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncuhtml/fpnashome.html: This compilation of printed texts from the libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill documents the culture of the nineteenth-century American South from the viewpoint of Southerners. It includes the diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives of not only prominent individuals, but also of relatively inaccessible populations: women, African Americans, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans.
Frederick Douglas Papers
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml: This site presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and became an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher.
Government Information Connection - Cybercemetery
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/: The "Cybercemetery" site provides permanent public access to electronic Web sites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions.
Great Images in NASA (GRIN)
http://grin.hq.nasa.gov: A collection of over a thousand images of significant historical interest from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Greek Medicine
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/index.html: The National Library of Medicine provides an overview of the medical theories of Greek physicians such as Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen.
History of the FBI
http://www.fbi.gov/fbihistory.htm: This site provides a history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from its inception in 1908 to the present.
History of the Federal Judiciary
http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf: This webpage, part of the Federal Judicial Center's web site, presents basic information about the history of the federal courts. Links are grouped into topical areas including Judges of the United States Courts, Courts of the Federal Judiciary, Judicial Administration & Organization, Landmark Judicial Legislation, Judicial History News, and Courthouse Photograph Exhibit. This site also includes links to other sites related to the history of the federal courts.
History of the U.S. Capitol
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/capitol/index.html: This document, sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate, provides a chronicle of design, construction, and politics of the U.S. Capitol.
Independent Counsel Investigations
http://icreport.access.gpo.gov: Final reports of select independent counsel investigations.
Juneteenth
http://www.juneteenth.com/: The Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln in 1863 only ended slavery in states which had not seceded from the Union. Slavery continued in the State of Texas two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger issued an order to proclaim America's remaining slaves free. Called "Juneteenth," this date marks the oldest African-American holiday in the United States.
Library of Congress Map Collections: 1500-[present]
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html: The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress has converted a fraction of its collection into digital form and organized the maps according to seven major categories, which may be simultaneously searched.
Links to the Past
http://www.nps.gov/history/: Links to the Past, maintained by the Cultural Resources web team of the National Park Service, provides access to information about America's history and culture. The links are arranged in broad categories: Explore America's Past, Use Tools for Learning, Find Grants and Assistance, and See What's New. The "current feature" focuses on a specific topic for the month. Information can be located by key word search or choosing a subject from the subject list.
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site
http://www.nps.gov/malu: Biological information and historical site details are listed on this National Park Service page.
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/mussmhtml/mussmhome.html: These two collections, American Sheet Music 1820-1860 and American Sheet Music 1870-1885, contain historical sheet music registered for copyright.
National American Indian Heritage Month
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/feature/indian: The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the history and culture of American Indians during National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. As part of the observance, this site showcases historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park units that recognize the events, the designs and achievements, and the ways of life of American Indians. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov/index.html: The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent federal agency that preserves the nation's history and defines Americans as a people by overseeing the management of all federal records.
National Hispanic Heritage Month
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/hispanic/: The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to help foster the general public's awareness, understanding, and appreciation for Hispanic culture during National Hispanic Heritage Month.
National Register of Historic Places
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/: Created by the National Historic Preservation Act, the Register is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our cultural resources.
National Security Archive
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv: The National Security Archive, a non-governmental and non-profit institute, was founded by a group of journalists and scholars. The Archive, located at George Washington University, operates as a research institute on international affairs and as a library collecting and publishing declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Collections can be searched by keyword or by subject area.
Normandy
http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/normandy/nor-pam.htm: An online brochure from the U.S. Army that details the significance of the Normandy Invasion during World World II.
Office of Coast Survey's Historical Map & Chart Collection
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/ctp/abstract.htm: A vast collection of maps and charts from the late 1700s to present day, including nautical charts, hydrographic surveys, topographic surveys, geodetic surveys, city plans and Civil War battle maps.
Office of Medical History
http://history.amedd.army.mil/default_index2.html: The OMH provides historical information to support the men and women of the U.S. Army Medical Department and Army Medical Command.
Our Documents
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/index.php?flash=true&: The Our Documents initiative is a cooperative effort among National History Day, The National Archives and Records Administration, and the USA Freedom Corps to encourage discussion and the significance of the nation's 100 milestone documents of American history.
Our Shared History: African American Heritage
http://www.nps.gov/history/aahistory/: Provides links to exciting and innovative sites related to African American heritage available across the National Park Service web site.
Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/picturing-the-century.html: The web site, based on an exhibition at the National Archives, Washington, DC March 12, 1999-July 4, 2001, commemorates the end of the 20th century with a selection of photographs from the vast and varied holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Presidential Libraries
http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/index.html: The Presidential Library system is made up of ten Presidential Libraries, and also includes the Nixon Presidential Materials Staff and the William J. Clinton Presidential Materials Project. This nationwide network of libraries is administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), located in College Park, MD. These are not traditional libraries, but rather repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and other historical materials of U.S. Presidents since Herbert Hoover. When a President leaves office, NARA establishes a Presidential project until a new Presidential library is built and transferred to the Government.
Presidents
http://www.browsetopics.gov/: Links and related information on the topic of presidents are available from the Library/Government Documents site at Oklahoma State University.
Profiles in Science
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov: A site from the National Library of Medicine that celebrates twentieth-century leaders in biomedical research and public health.
Reclaiming the Everglades
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/everglades/: Provides a balanced view of the history of the region and offers different perspectives on the "reclamation" of the Everglades.
Slave Narratives Collection
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 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 of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Teaching with Historic Places
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/: This is a program of the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, which provides a variety of products and services designed to bring historic places into the classroom.
U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
http://www.uscg.mil/history/: Provides links to information on the history of the U.S.
U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/browse.html: GPO Access offers a listing of annotations of cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court that interpret the Constitution, and also provides the text of the Constitution, amendments, and proposed amendments. Users may search by keyword or download portions of the text.
The Wayback Machine
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php: Enter in an archived URL and the Wayback Machine takes you back to the site as if it were still in current use. Browse over 40 million sites archived from 1996 up to the present.
Woman Suffrage

Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawshome.html
This American Memory collection, from the Library of Congress, is a 167-item subset of the larger National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. The materials contain books, pamphlets, memorials, scrapbooks, and proceedings from the meetings of various women's organizations, all documenting the suffrage fight.

Votes for Women Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html
A set of 38 images relating to woman suffrage from various files and collections in the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
Women in the United States
http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2007/February/20070226171718ajesrom0.6366846.html: A website focused on woman of the United States that includes, among other things, information on women's rights, Women's History Month, and domestic violence. This site is part of the International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State.
The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames: The work of Charles and Ray Eames gave shape to America’s twentieth century and embraced the era’s visionary concept of modern design as an agent of social change, elevating it to a national agenda.

This page was last updated: 03/20/2008
Please send questions, comments, and requests for additional information to
Cecily Giardina, chg3@psu.edu