As genealogists and historians, we strive to know more about our ancestors and other subject people. It is imperative, especially as family historians that we research and understand the locales, surroundings, and events that occurred during their lifetimes.
While we constantly look for new records, we must also research history. There are an ever-increasing number of Free Online Archives and Digital Collections that can assist us in our quest. You will find an abundance of historical information Plus genealogical records.
Alabama
- Alabama Department of Archives and History
- Alabama Department of Archives and History Digital Collections
- Alabama Maps
- Alabama Mosaic
- Auburn University Digital Library
- Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections
- Encyclopedia of Alabama
- University of Alabama Special Collections
Alaska
- Alaska Digital Archives
- Alaska State Library
- Alaska, Western Canada and United States Collection (University of Washington Libraries)
- SLED: Statewide Library Electronic Doorway
Arizona
- Arizona Archives Online
- Arizona Memory Project
- Arizona State University Libraries Online Collections
- Digital Arizona Library
- Northern Arizona University – Colorado Plateau Digital Collections
- Through Our Parents’ Eyes: History & Culture of Southern Arizona
- University of Arizona Digital Collections
Arkansas
- Arkansas Digital Archives
- Arkansas State Library Digital Collections
- Central Arkansas Library System Digital Collections
- The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies/Arkansas Studies Institute
- The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
- University of Arkansas Libraries Digital Collections
California
- Anne T. Kent California Room (Marin County Free Library)
- California Digital Archives
- California Digital Library (CDL)
- California Revealed
- California State Library Online Resources
- California State Library, San Francisco Sutro Library
- Calisphere
- Los Angeles Public Library, Collections and Resources
- Online Archive of California
- Sacramento History Online
- San Fernando Valley History Digital Library
- University of Southern California Digital Library
Colorado
- Colorado Encyclopedia Digital Collections
- Colorado State Archives
- Colorado Virtual Library
- Denver Public Library Digital Collections
- History Colorado Archives
Connecticut
- Connecticut Digital Archive
- Connecticut History Illustrated
- Connecticut History Online
- Connecticut State Library Digital Collections
- ConnecticutHistory.org
- Yale University Digital Collections
Delaware
- Delaware Collections Gateway
- Delaware Digital Archives
- Delaware Public Archives
- University of Delaware Digital Collections
Florida
- Central Florida Memory Digital Collections
- Florida Memory
- Publication of Archival Library & Museum Materials (PALMM)
- University of Florida Digital Collections
- University of South Florida Digital Collections
Georgia
- Digital Library of Georgia
- Georgia Historic Books
- Georgia State University Digital Collections
- Georgia’s Virtual Vault
- The New Georgia Encyclopedia
- University of Georgia Digital Collections
Hawaii
- Hawaii State Archives Digital Collections
- Ulukau Hawaii Electronic Library
- University of Hawaii at Manoa Digital Collections
- University of Hawaii eVols Digital Repository
Idaho
- Digital Atlas of Idaho
- Digital Collections from the Idaho State Archives and Research Center.
- Idaho State Archives
- Idaho State Archives Digital Collections
- Idaho State Historical Society
- Stacks, The Idaho Digital Repository
- University of Idaho Special Collections & Archives
Illinois
- Chicago Public Library Digital Collections
- Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930 (Northwestern University)
- Illinois Digital Archives
- Illinois Periodicals Online
- Illinois State Archives Databases
- Northern Illinois University Digital Library
Indiana
- Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
- Ball State University Digital Media Repository
- Indiana Digital Archives
- Indiana Historical Society – Digital Image Collections
- Indiana Hosted Digital Collections
- Indiana Memory
- Indiana State Library, Collections
- Indiana University Digital Collections
Iowa
- Iowa Digital Library
- Iowa Heritage Digital Collections
- Iowa State Historical Society Digital Archives
- Iowa State University Digital Collections
Kansas
- Kansas Historical Society State Archives
- Kansas Memory
- Kansas University Digital Collections
- The Kansas Collection
Kentucky
Louisiana
- Historic New Orleans Collection
- LDMA (Louisiana Digital Media Archive)
- Louisiana Digital Library
- LSU Digital Collections
- Resources for Research in New Orleans
- Tulane University Digital Library
Maine
- Digital Maine Repository
- Maine Historical Society
- Maine Memory Network
- University of Maine Special Collections
Maryland
- Archives of Maryland Online
- Digital Maryland
- Maryland Center for History and Culture
- Maryland State Archives
- Maryland State Archives Online Exhibits
- WHILBR: Western Maryland’s Historical Library
Massachusetts
- American Centuries…view from New England
- Boston College Digitized Collections
- Digital Commonwealth
- Massachusetts Archives – Digital Records
- Massachusetts Historical Society – Digital Collections
- Massachusetts Libraries – Digital Collections
Michigan
- Archives of Michigan
- Michigan County Histories and Atlases
- Michiganology
- The Making of Ann Arbor
- The Making of Modern Michigan
- University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library
- Virtual Motor City
Minnesota
- Minnesota Digital Library
- Minnesota Historical Society
- Minnesota People Records
- MNopedia
- University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy
Mississippi
- Mississippi Department of Archives and History Collections
- Mississippi Digital Archives
- Mississippi Digital Library
- Mississippi History Resources
- University of Southern Mississippi Digial Collections
Missouri
- Missouri Digital Heritage
- Missouri State Archives
- Missouri Valley Special Collections
- Missouriana Digital Text Collection
- University of Missouri Digital Library
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
- Nevada Cooperative Libraries Automated Network Digital Collections
- ONE-Online Nevada Encyclopedia
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas Digital Collections
- University of Nevada, Reno Digital Archive
New Hampshire
- New Hampshire Archives
- New Hampshire History Network
- University of New Hampshire Library – Internet Archive
- University of New Hampshire Library Digital Collections
New Jersey
- New Jersey Digital Highway
- New Jersey State Archives Collections
- New Jersey State Library Digital Collections
- Princeton University Library – Digital Collections and Initiatives
- The Rutgers Oral History Archives
- West Jersey History Project
New Mexico
- New Mexico Archives Online
- New Mexico Digital Collections
- New Mexico History State Records Center & Archives
- New Mexico State Library Digital Collections
- University of New Mexico Digital Repository
New York
- Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
- Hudson River Valley Heritage
- New York Heritage Digital Collections
- New York Public Library Digital Collections
- New York Public Library Digital Projects
- New York State Archives Digital Collections
- New York State Historical Literature (Cornell University)
- New York State Library Collections
- Syracuse University Library Digital Collections
- U.S. Military Academy Digital Collection
North Carolina
- Davidson College Digital Collections
- Digital Durham
- DigitalNC – North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
- East Carolina University Digital Collections
- NCpedia
- North Carolina Digital Collections
- North Carolina State Archives
- University of North Carolina Digital Collections
North Dakota
- Digital Horizons
- North Dakota State Archives
- North Dakota State University Digital Collections
- State Historical Society of North Dakota
Ohio
- Akron-Summit County Public Library Archival Collections
- Cleveland Public Library Digital Gallery
- Greater Cincinnati Memory Project
- Ohio History Central
- Ohio Memory
- State Library of Ohio Collections
- The Cleveland Memory Project
- The Digital Shoebox Project: Historical Treasures of Southeastern Ohio
- The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Oklahoma
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
- Oklahoma Digital Prairie
- Oklahoma Historical Society
- Oklahoma State Archives
- The Gateway to Oklahoma History
- University of Oklahoma Western History Collections
Oregon
- Oregon Blue Book
- Oregon Digital
- Oregon History Project
- Oregon Multicultural Archives
- Oregon State Archives
- Salem Online History
- Southern Oregon Digital Archives
- State Library of Oregon Digital Collections
- The Oregon Encyclopedia
Pennsylvania
- Archives Records Information Access System (Pennsylvania State Archives)
- Chronicles: The Annals of Dickinson College
- Digital Collections at the State Library of Pennsylvania
- Historic Pittsburgh
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania Digital Library
- Penn in the Age of Franklin, 1740-1790
- Pennsylvania State Archives
- PhillyHistory.org
- POWER Library: Pennsylvania’s Electronic Library
Rhode Island
- Brown University Library Collections
- Providence Public Library Digital Collections
- Rhode Island State Digital Archives
South Carolina
- Lowcountry Digital Library
- SCIWAY
- South Carolina Department of Archives and History Digital Collections
- South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Archives
- South Carolina Digital Library
- South Carolina Encyclopedia
- University of South Carolina Digital Collections
South Dakota
Tennessee
- Archives of Appalachia
- Digital Library of Tennessee
- Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project
- Tennessee Virtual Archive
- The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture
- Volunteer Voices
Texas
- East Texas Digital Archives
- Preservation Houston: Museum of Houston
- Texas State Library and Archives Commission
- The Handbook of Texas Online
- The Portal to Texas History
Utah
- BYU Library Digital Collections
- University of Utah Digital Collections
- Utah Division of State History Digital Collections
- Utah History Encyclopedia
- Utah State Digital Archives
- Utah State University Digital History Collections
- Utah’s Online Library
Vermont
- Middlebury College Digital Collections
- University of Vermont Libraries Digital Collections
- Vermont Folklife Center
- Vermont Historical Society
Virginia
- Encyclopedia Virginia
- Old Dominion University Libraries Digital Collections
- The Library of Virginia
- Virginia Commonwealth University Digital Collections
- Virginia Memory
- Virginia Tech Image Base
- Virtual Jamestown
- VMI Digital Collections
Washington
- Central Washington University Archives and Special Collections
- Digital Collections (Everett Public Library)
- HistoryLink.org: The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
- University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections
- Washington State Archives – Digital Archives
- Washington State Library Digital Collections and Resources
- Washington State University Libraries Digital Collections
West Virginia
- e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia
- West Virginia Division of Culture and History
- West Virginia University Libraries Digital Collections
Wisconsin
- Dictionary of Wisconsin History
- Digital Collections (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Libraries)
- Online Collections at the Wisconsin Historical Society
- Recollection Wisconsin
- The State of Wisconsin Collection
- University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
- Wisconsin Electronic Reader
- Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles
- Wisconsin Pioneer Experience
Wyoming
- University of Wyoming Libraries–Digital Collections
- Wyoming State Archives Digital Collections
- Wyoming State Library Digital Collection Suite
Multi-state
- A Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University (HBCU)
- American Indians of the Pacific Northwest (University of Washington Libraries)
- Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive
- Digital Commons Collections
- Digital Library of Appalachia
- Digital Public Library of America
- Documenting the American South
- Library of Congress Digital Collections
- Mountain West Digital Library
- National Archives Online Exhibits
- Northwest Digital Heritage
- PastPerfectOnline Collections
- Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910
- Plains to Peak Collective
- Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection (Pacific Lutheran University)
- Smithsonian Digital Library
- Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive
- Western Waters Digital Library
One reply on “320 Top Free Online Archives and Digital Collections for Historians and Genealogists”
“University of Oregon Historic Newspapers Collection” is a very good resource.
From the website …
Welcome
Welcome to Historic Oregon Newspapers. On this site you can search and access complete content for historic Oregon newspapers that have been digitized as part of the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP). This full-text searchable database contains almost 2,000,000 pages from Oregon newspapers dated 1846 – 2021, and we are continually adding new titles.