Virtual Reference Desk

Recommend a Website

How we select an External Website

African-American History

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938

This site "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) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress and includes more than 200 photographs from the Prints and Photographs Division that are now made available to the public for the first time." Be sure to browse the "Special Presentations" area on the main page. Also, try clicking on "keywords" and seraching Kentucky.

The African-American Mosaic: a Library of Congress Resource Guide for the study of Black History and Culture

This guide is the first library-wide resource guide to the Library of Congress African-American collections. This is an excellent source of information for exploring the early years of African Americans experiences in the United States.

Buffalo Soldiers on the Western Frontier

In July, 1866, Congress passed legislation establishing two cavalry and four infantry regiments (later consolidated to two) whose enlisted composition was to be made up of African-Americans. The mounted regiments were the 9th and 10th Cavalries, soon nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers by the Cheyenne and Comanche.

African-American Pamphlets Collection

The collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture, from the early 19th through the early 20th centuries.

Black History Museum.

This site, developed by the Afro-American Newspaper, contains a strong foundation to study African American history. This History Museum contains information ranging from the Tuskegee Airmen to the Million Man March.

The New York Public Library Digital Schomburg Images of African Americans

"At this web site you will find various types of visual images on the African American experience that are contained in the Photographs and Prints Division of the Schomburg Center as well as other selected units of the Research Libraries of The New York Public Library."

American History-Primary Sources

The Avalon Project

The Avalon Project is dedicated to providing access via the World Wide Web to primary source materials in the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.

Douglass: Archives of American Public Address

This site is an electronic archive of American oratory and related documents. It is intended to serve general scholarship and courses in American rhetorical history at Northwestern University.

National Archives and Records and Administration

NARA is an independent Federal agency that helps preserve our nation's history by overseeing the management of all Federal records.

American Memory Collection

This site is a highly specialized collection of digitized Americana from the Library of Congress collection. Collections at The American Memory Collection may be viewed by browsing a list of Subject Headings or by Searching for items across all collections.

Archives of American Public Address

This site contains an electronic fulltext archive of American oratory and related documents. In addition, this site can be searched by speaker, title or date. This is an excellent site to look for primary materials.

World War II Poster Collection

"The Government Publications Department at Northwestern University Library has a comprehensive collection of over 300 posters issued by the US Federal agencies from the onset of war through 1945."

Abraham Lincoln Pages

This site contains "digital images of approximately 20,000 primary historical documents from Lincoln's presidential years. It includes general correspondence, notes drafts of speeches, and more." This is an excellent site for anyone doing research on Abraham Lincoln.

Making of America (MOA)

"Making of America is a digital library of primary sources in American social history form the antebellum period through reconstruction." This is a very impressive site.

Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multimedia Archive

This site contains an electronic collection of primary resources in multiple formats (text, images, film clips, etc.). There are three "modes" to finding information at this site. Browse provides access to all primary resources. The "Interpret Mode" includes an interactive time line, virtual exhibits, and lesson plans. The "Search Mode" allows searching of all the primary resources at once. This superior site is designed for anyone doing research on slavery in United States.

Kentucky History

Kentucky Historical Society

The Kentucky Historical Society is a state agency and nonprofit membership organization that reaches across the commonwealth to collect oral histories, promote folk life traditions and more.

Kentucky Information Page

This site provides the most direct and quickest access to information about Kentucky. This is a good site to begin your research.

Filson Club Historical Society

The Filson Club has the distinction of being the oldest historical society in the state of Kentucky. This is their official website.

Kentucky History

This is an un-annotated collection of sites created by the University of Louisville Library.

Greater Cincinnati Memory Project

Created by the Greater Cincinnati Library Consortium, this project includes historic pre-1940's images from seven participating libraries and museums.

Local History Index

"The Lexington Public Library's Local History Index is a very selective index to newspaper articles pertaining to significant people, places, events, churches, businesses and organizations in Lexington and Fayette County. In recent years some articles relating to key issues in the state of Kentucky, such as strip mining, hazardous waste and state government have been included as well."

Camp Breckinridge Museum and Arts Center

This is a new museum in Union County in Western Kentucky. The news button has a virtual tour of the facility and the murals button has pictures of the murals painted by a German prisoner-of-war interned at the camp. The news stories about the dedication ceremony do carry some historical information like the fact that German prisoners-of-war and some Italian POWs were interned at Camp Breckinridge during World War II. Several other military installations in the United States were POW camps for Allied prisoners from Europe and Africa.

Kentucky History

Military History

Documents in Military History

A collection of primary source material on military history from ancient to modern times.

Women's History

African-American Women: Online Archival Collections

This collection features scanned pages and texts of the writings of African-American women. Includes the memoirs of Elizabeth Johnson Harris (1867-1942), an 1857 letter from Vilet Lester, a slave on a North Carolina plantation, and several letters from Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson, slaves on the estate of David Campbell, a governor of Virginia.

National Women's History Project

This site maintains the clearinghouse for U.S. women's history information, issues a seasonal catalog of women's history posters, books and materials, produces videos, posters, guides, and supplies for school and workplace, conducts in-service training for school teachers, coordinates the Women's History Network, a national participant organization, provides consulting services for publishers, media producers, and journalists.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830 - 1930

At this web site, access is provided to a collection of primary documents related to women and social movements in the United States.

First Ladies of the United States

This site is a virtual library that provides information on the lives of America's first ladies

Medieval Feminist Index (MFI)

MFI covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in book about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.

last updated: 4/3/01