History Commons A-Z Database Descriptions and URLs
This article provides ready-to-use, concise descriptions for History Commons and its modules—ideal for adding to your library’s A-Z database lists, discovery tools, subject guides, or promotional materials.
History Commons (main platform)
A comprehensive digital research platform providing access to primary-source collections spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe and North America. Features exclusive, previously undigitized content including newspapers, magazines, books, government documents, manuscripts, personal accounts, and images. Supports advanced searching capabilities across multiple collections with tools for close examination of historical documents, including thumbnail previews and high-resolution zoom features. Essential for researchers in history, political science, sociology, gender studies, and cultural studies.
Important Tip
In your A-Z lists, Learning Management Systems, research guides, and other locations where users discover resources, It’s important to list both the platform (the Commons) and the individual module.
For example, on the Policy Commons platform, the Public Health and Social Care module offers specialized content that focuses on healthcare policy, social services, and community health initiatives. If you list only Policy Commons, users searching for public health-specific resources may miss the Public Health and Social Care collection. By featuring both the platform and the collection (the module), you increase discoverability of subject-specific content.
For example, on the Policy Commons platform, the Public Health and Social Care module offers specialized content that focuses on healthcare policy, social services, and community health initiatives. If you list only Policy Commons, users searching for public health-specific resources may miss the Public Health and Social Care collection. By featuring both the platform and the collection (the module), you increase discoverability of subject-specific content.
Social Justice and Culture Series
Refugees, Migration & Borders Social Justice and Culture
Digarchive preserving personal narratives, blogs, podcasts, videos, and organizational records documenting refugee experiences and migration from the Cold War to present-day displacements. Contains content from over 1,000 organizations across 100 countries, including nonprofit, religious, and governmental sources capturing firsthand accounts often absent from mainstream coverage. Features over 100,000 indexed items and 200,000 permanently archived pages, including content from organizations that have ceased operation due to funding loss, political pressure, or censorship.
Indigenous Peoples Social Justice and Culture
Digital platform amplifying Indigenous voices through over 100,000 unique pieces of content including blogs, magazines, videos, podcasts, and newspapers from more than 1,000 Indigenous-led organizations worldwide. Focuses on new media channels to capture contemporary Indigenous discourse with emphasis on at-risk content from regions where censorship, political instability, or systemic oppression threaten cultural preservation. Provides authentic perspectives on Indigenous lived experiences, traditions, and activism through firsthand narratives, rather than filtered institutional perspectives.
LGBTQ+ Social Justice and Culture
A comprehensive digital collection indexing, capturing, and preserving LGBTQ+ new media, including websites, zines, online magazines, videos, podcasts, blogs, and other social media from 1980 to the present. Documents content from over 1,000 LGBTQ+ organizations across more than 100 countries, with particular attention to materials from oppressive regions where content is most at risk. Features both indexed open-access materials and a permanent archive of over 200,000 pages, including content from inactive organizations and defunct websites.
North American Collections
African American Newspapers
A digital collection of African American newspapers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing insight into African American communities, culture, and civil rights movements. Features the full runs of historically significant publications with content rekeyed to 99% accuracy. Essential primary-source materials for researchers studying African American history, civil rights, racial justice, journalism, and American cultural history.
African American Newspapers in the South
Provides rare documentation of the African American experience in the segregated South from 1870 to 1926, through sixteen full-run digital newspapers. Features firsthand reporting, editorials, and advertisements that address discrimination, civil rights, community development, and daily life. A valuable resource for researchers studying Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, African American business development, and community activism in the post-Civil War South.
Women's Magazines and Newspapers
An award-winning collection preserving the writings of America's influential women activists, authors, editors, and publishers from 1830 to 1913. Includes the full runs of nine historically significant publications featuring articles by major historical figures like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Essential for research on women's suffrage, gender studies, women's rights activism, and nineteenth-century American social history.
America in World War I: Military Camp Newspapers
A collection of newspapers published at American military training camps during World War I, offering unique perspectives on military life and wartime experiences. Documents the daily activities, concerns, and attitudes of American soldiers as they prepared for and participated in the war. Valuable primary sources for researchers studying military history, World War I, American society during wartime, American influences abroad (including topics such as sports and jazz), and early twentieth-century journalism.
American County Histories
A comprehensive collection of county histories from across the United States, providing detailed local historical information from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Documents the development of American communities with information on local government, businesses, notable residents, and regional events. Essential resource for researchers studying local history, genealogy, American settlement patterns, and regional development.
The Civil War Collection
Primary-source materials documenting the American Civil War (1861–1865) through newspapers, government documents, and contemporary accounts. Provides perspectives from both Union and Confederate sources on military campaigns, political developments, and social impacts of the conflict. Valuable for researchers studying American military history, nineteenth-century politics, slavery and emancipation, and sectional conflict.
Colonial Newspapers
A collection of newspapers from the American Colonial period, offering insights into life, politics, and commerce during the formative years of American society. Features publications from various colonies with content on colonial governance, economic development, and relations with Indigenous populations. Essential primary sources for researchers studying early American history, Colonial development, and the foundations of American political thought.
Frank Leslie's Weekly
A digital archive of Frank Leslie's Weekly (1855–1922), one of America's first illustrated newspapers and an influential voice in American public opinion. Features news stories, illustrations, and commentary on major events in American history from the Civil War through World War I. A valuable visual and textual resource for researchers studying American culture, politics, visual communication, and social change across nearly seven decades.
American Inventor
A collection documenting American innovation and technological development through patents, technical publications, and inventor biographies from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Illustrates the evolution of American industry and the impact of technological change on society and economy. A valuable resource for researchers studying the history of technology, American economic development, and innovation culture.
Native Americans in History
A primary-source collection documenting Native American history and culture through both Indigenous perspectives and government records. Features materials on tribal governance, treaties, cultural practices, and Native American– government relations across multiple eras. An essential resource for researchers studying Indigenous history, American expansion, federal Indian policy, and Native American resistance and resilience.
European Collections
Cold War Eastern Europe
A digital collection of 1.4 million pages of previously undigitized files presenting views from behind the Iron Curtain through correspondence, reports, and materials sent from 1946 to 1982 to the UK Foreign Office. Features declassified documents covering every Eastern Bloc country throughout almost the entire Cold War period, with over 80 percent of materials written in English. Invaluable for researchers studying Cold War history, communism, Soviet politics, international relations, and Eastern European social history.
Weimar and Nazi Germany
The only English-language digital archive covering Germany from 1918 to 1939, documenting the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany through more than 600,000 pages of declassified files. Features Foreign Office and British Embassy reports, correspondence, memoranda, and newspaper cuttings focused on hyperinflation, political extremism, and Nazi governance. An essential primary resource for researchers studying twentieth-century European history, fascism, interwar politics, and the origins of World War II.
Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War
A digital collection of British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1936 to 1953, focusing on World War II intelligence operations and early Cold War strategy. Features files from the Permanent Undersecretary's Department (PUSD), the liaison point between the Foreign Office and British intelligence services. Valuable resource for researchers studying intelligence history, military strategy, international diplomacy, and twentieth-century conflicts.
British Society, 1939-1951
Documents British civilian life during World War II and the immediate post-war period, through previously undigitized files from eleven government departments and associated advertisements and propaganda. Features witness accounts from often underrepresented groups, including women, children, and refugees, on topics such as food rationing, civilian morale, and economic challenges. Essential for researchers studying home-front history, wartime social policy, propaganda, and mid-twentieth-century British society.
Global Studies Collections
African History and Culture
A digital repository hosting hundreds of thousands of cultural artifacts curated from thousands of select collections worldwide. Features high-quality books, magazines, comics, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, and ephemera. An invaluable resource for researchers studying African history, colonialism, independence movements, cultural development, and contemporary African societies.
Canadian History and Culture
A digital resource covering Canadian history from 1919 to 1970 through newspapers, magazines, periodicals, newsletters, and official documents. Highlights significant events, social changes, and political developments that shaped the nation throughout much of the twentieth century. Essential for researchers studying Canadian politics, social movements, cultural development, and international relations.
South Asian History and Culture
The largest full-text digital repository of quality South Asian historical materials, providing centralized access to hundreds of thousands of documents from hundreds of organizations. Features books, magazines, reports, historical journals, newspapers, letters, diaries, and multimedia materials covering the diverse histories and cultures of South Asian countries. A comprehensive resource for researchers studying South Asian history, politics, culture, independence movements, and regional development.
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