The Library of Congress Digital Collections are large and growing. Currently, there are over 1,000 unique collections. You should definitely incorporate this massive set of collections into your genealogy research. They are divided into 15 different topics (the number of collections is in brackets):
- African American History [22]
- American History [213]
- Art & Architecture [56]
- Geography & Places [32]
- Government, Law & Politics [164]
- Literature & Poetry [17]
- Local History & Folklife [66]
- Performing Arts [106]
- Religion & Philosophy [19]
- Science & Technology [26]
- Social & Business History [43]
- Sports & Recreation [10]
- War & Military [87]
- Women’s History [16]
- World Cultures & History [141]
You can see all the specific collections by selecting a topic. You can also drill down by Original Format, Online Format, Date, and Location. There are several other drill-down criteria.
The main original formats are:
- Photo, Print, Drawing
- Manuscript/Mixed Material
- Periodical
- Book/Printed Material
- Legislation
- Newspaper
- Notated Music
- Web Page
- Personal Narrative
- Map
- Audio Recording
- Web Archive
There are currently over 3.2 million items in the collections. There is plenty of material to search and discover. The Library of Congress holds another 22 million items yet to be digitized, so there is a lot to discover online in the future.
There are three topics that are quite useful, although many of them might have pertinent information that can assist us.
On the surface, Local History & Folklife, War & Military, and Geography & Places are where I started, to see what might advance my research.
The collections with many different types of maps are quite helpful and extensive.
Take a look at the list of these digital collections. You may find some real gems that can assist you in your research.
Go to LOC Digital Collections to examine the contents.
