History Honors Colloquium
Resources for students in U-M's History Honors Colloquium: how to find background information on a topic, how to search the library catalog, how to locate primary and secondary sources in a variety of formats, and how to create and manage citations.
Finding Archival Sources at Michigan and other libraries
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ArchiveGridOver 500,000 records describing archival collections from the Research Libraries Group's Archival and Mixed Collections (AMC) file, with over 4,000 links to digitized finding aids and over 10,000 links to digital archives.
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Archives USAA database listing approximately 100,000 manuscript and other special collections at nearly 4,500 repositories in the U.S.
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WorldCatA database of catalog records from over 57,000 libraries worldwide. Includes over 62 million records describing books, periodicals, sound recordings, videos, musical scores, archival materials, maps, electronic resources, and much more, in over 400 different languages.
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National Register of ArchivesThe National Archives covers England, Wales, and the United Kingdom, and was formed by bringing together the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission. The National Register of Archives contains information on British manuscripts and historical records.
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Repositories of primary sourcesAn international list of web links compiled by a librarian at the University of Idaho.
Digital Archives
Using Subject Terms to Find Primary Sources in Library Catalog Search
You can enhance your searches in Library Catalog Search by using subject terms that describe materials according to type. If you enter your topic as a keyword (i.e., in the “all fields” field) in advanced search, you can also add subject terms that will specify a type of material related to that topic.
For example, if you are looking for diaries kept by soldiers fighting in the Civil War, you might begin by looking for "Civil War" AND "United States" in the all fields line and diaries OR personal narratives as a subject.
You can also add date ranges (e.g., 19th century) and geographic regions (Africa) as subject terms to focus in on the time period or area you are researching: e.g., biography AND “19th century” AND Norway.
Subject Terms that specify types of materials:
- archival resources
- archives
- atlases
- bibliography
- biography
- broadsides
- case studies
- charts, diagrams
- concordances
- correspondence
- diaries
- dictionaries
- encyclopedias
- handbooks, manuals, etc.
- illustrations
- indexes
- manuscripts—catalogs
- maps
- newspapers
- periodicals
- personal narratives
- photograph collections
- pictorial works
- portraits
- sermons
- sources
- speeches in Congress
- speeches, addresses, etc.
- statistics
Resources for finding Digital Materials
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Digital Public Library of AmericaThis searchable collection links to digitized materials from libraries across the United States and abroad.
The following list is just a sample of the many digital collections available.
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OAISTEROAISTER is a catalog of millions of digital materials accessible on the web. The open archive digital materials cataloged in OAISTER come from libraries worldwide. Types of materials in this catalog include digitized book and journal articles, photographic images, digital text, audio and visual files, data sets, and theses/research papers.
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HathiTrust Digital LibraryHathiTrust Digital Library is a shared digital repository that brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. HathiTrust includes a searchable database of digital materials.
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NINESNINES aims to gather the best scholarly resources on the nineteenth century and make them fully searchable. The NINES website includes a searchable database of digital scholarship and a listing of websites related to nineteenth-century materials
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Empire OnlineOver 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material related to: Cultural Contacts; Empire Writing; the Invisible Empire; Religion and Empire; Race, Class & Colonialism. Covers Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Oceania & South Asia.
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Founders OnlineThis digital collection includes the correspondence and other writings of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Published by the National Archives.
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Making of the Modern World (1450-1850)Full-text of more than 60,000 books, published from 1450-1850, with a focus on economics in the broadest sense. Topics covered include agriculture, commerce, finance, manufacturing, politics, slavery, social conditions, trade, and transportation.
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American Memory (Library of Congress)American Memory 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.
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Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online (1543-1945)A rich collection of digitized texts relating to women's history worldwide.
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Proquest Congressional Serial SetThe Serial Set contains official House and Senate reports, documents and journals. Includes the American State Papers.
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Archives UnboundIncludes a broad range of digitized microfilm collections, including records of anti-Vietnam War organizations, newspapers from Japanese-American Relocation camps, FBI documents related to the Freedom Rides, and many others.
Last Updated: Oct 23, 2025 12:28 PM
Subjects: Course Help