LibGuides: Government Documents Resources: History, Arts, and Culture

Databases

American State Papers, 1789-1838 This link opens in a new window
Digitized legislative and executive documents of the first 14 U.S. Congresses. Cross-search this & other Readex historical collections with Readex AllSearch .

Hathi Trust Digital Library

Historic Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Search or browse these primary sources by year (1972 - ) or topic. Documents range from presidential speeches and international agreements to U.S. Supreme Court decisions, governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.

Historical Abstracts
Citations & abstracts for articles on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).

House and Senate Journals, Series I, 1789-1817 This link opens in a new window
Journals of the first 14 Congresses of the United States. Cross-search this & other Readex historical collections with Readex AllSearch .
Senate Executive Journals, 1789-1980 This link opens in a new window
Search full-text senate proceedings from 1789-1980. Cross-search this & other Readex historical collections with Readex AllSearch .
U.S. Serial Set Maps (1799-1999) This link opens in a new window
Browse or search by date, locations, issuing body, personal names (such as Jeremiah Dixon, Dwight Eisenhower, Ulysses Grant), or subjects (such as Israel-Arab War (1948-1949), Bull Run, Military vehicles, etc.). Cross-search this & other Readex historical collections with Readex AllSearch .
U.S. Congressional Serial Sets I and II, 1817-1994 This link opens in a new window
Documents, journals, and reports of the Senate and House of Representatives. Cross-search this & other Readex historical collections with Readex AllSearch .

The FBI's Freedom of Information Act Reading Room
Here you can learn all about FBI records—including how to find records already released and how to request unreleased records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or the Privacy Act. You can also find other information that will help you understand these records and the work of the FBI.

Research Guides for History, Arts, & Culture

History databases -- Primary Sources (Jane Hutton)

History (Tara Wink)

Diversity (Mame Purce)

Art (Rachel McMullin)

Government Resources for Libraries

Find a Local Public Library
Enter your zip code and find the public library closest to you.
Find Your State Library
State Libraries are regional depositories of government documents and thus collect 100% of the material that the Government Printing Office publishes. It is the responsibility of regional libraries to retain a copy of all government publications received and provide services such as interlibrary loan and reference to selective depository libraries it serves.
Find Other Government Documents Depositories in Your Area
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, the research arm of Congress, and the largest library in the world. It is also home to the U.S. Copyright Office.
National Archives and Records Administration
Research your family history, military records, or a variety of other topics. They are the nation’s record keeper and preserve documents with legal and historical value.
Presidential Libraries
The Presidential Libraries are archives and museums that bring together the documents and artifacts of a President and his administration.
Federal Library and Information Network
Find more federal libraries around the world.

History

Below are links to various resources on American history through USA.gov

American History
Find an A-Z list of American history topics and resources on the U.S. Constitution, Liberty Bell, flag, and more.
Genealogy and Family History
Find Census, immigration, and military records, and record-finding aids for genealogists and family historians.
National Register of Historic Places
from the National Park Service

Art & Architecture

National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art has one of the finest art collections in the world. It was created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of financier, public servant, and art collector Andrew W. Mellon in 1937.
Built in America
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. dministered since 1933 through cooperative agreements with the National Park Service, the Library of Congress, and the private sector, ongoing programs of the National Park Service have recorded America's built environment in multiformat surveys comprising more than 556,900 measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than 38,600 historic structures and sites dating from Pre-Columbian times to the twentieth century.
Art & Architecture Exhibits of the US Senate
The Senate maintains over 70 paintings created by some of America's preeminent artists, commemorating many of the great persons and events of our national history.
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities.
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
All 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions (American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have state arts agencies. Visit NASAA's state arts agency directory to learn more about your own state arts agency.
Architect of the Capitol
The Architect of the Capitol preserves the Capitol facilities and grounds while providing Congress with safe, comfortable, efficient, and modern office environments. The AOC is responsible for the vigilant stewardship of more than 30 buildings and leased spaces located both on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and in remote facilities.
Art in Architecture & Fine Arts
Architecture/Fine Arts Division is responsible for the commissioning and care of all artworks in the GSA's Fine Arts Collection. The Art in Architecture Program commissions American artists to create publicly scaled and permanently installed artworks for federal buildings nationwide.
Grants and Assistance for the Arts
Apply for grants through the NEA website.

American Culture and Ethnic Groups

American Folklife Center
The collections in the Center's Archive of Folk Culture include folk cultural material from all fifty states, as well as United States trusts, territories, and the District of Columbia. The Center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in the Library of Congress in 1928, and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world.
The Prelinger Archives (sound and film)
Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 5,000 digitized and videotape titles (all originally derived from film) and a large collection of home movies, amateur and industrial films acquired since 2002. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere.
Smithsonian Folkways
The nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institute
National Park Service
The national park system comprises 401 areas covering more than 84 million acres in every state (except Delaware), the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These areas include national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House.
Local Legacies: Celebrating Community Roots
The Local Legacies project was initiated by members of Congress and individuals across the nation to commemorate the Library of Congress Bicentennial and to celebrate America's richly diverse culture. For more than a year, Local Legacies teams documented the creative arts, crafts, and customs representing traditional community life; signature events such as festivals and parades; how communities observe local and national historical events; and the occupations that define a community's life. More than three-fourths of Congress and 4,000 Americans have been a part of this once-in-a-lifetime project.
Cultural Resources from the Natural Resources Conservation Service
Cultural Resources are evidence of past human activity. These may include pioneer homes, buildings or old roads; structures with unique architecture; prehistoric village sites; historic or prehistoric artifacts or objects; rock inscription; human burial sites; earthworks, such as battlefield entrenchments, prehistoric canals, or mounds. These nonrenewable resources often yield unique information about past societies and environments, and provide answers for modern day social and conservation problems. Although many have been discovered and protected, there are numerous forgotten, undiscovered, or unprotected cultural resources in rural America.

African American

Black History Resources
Teaching resources from the Smithsonian Institution.
National Museum of African-American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the African American experience, what it means to their lives, and how it helped us shape this nation.
Bureau of Labor Statistics on African Americans in the U.S.
Presented here are BLS data that provide an economic snapshot of African Americans in the United States today.
African American History collections from the Library of Congress
70 collections of multimedia resources about African American history, from the colonial period to the present

Latino American

GobiernoUSA.gov
USA.gov site in Spanish
Hispanic Reading Room (Library of Congress)
The Hispanic Reading Room serves as the primary access point for research relating to those parts of the world encompassing the geographical areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Iberia; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the U.S., and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
American Latino Heritage Projects
This website highlights projects undertaken by National Park Service parks and programs as part of the Service’s commitment to telling the American Latino story. Projects vary from increased interpretation, collaboration with community organizations, and the production of scholarly documentation.

Asian American

Asian Reading Room (Library of Congress)
The Asian Reading Room is the primary public access point for researchers seeking to use the Asian collections of the Library of Congress in the many languages of Asia. The reading room covers the area from the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. With over 2.8 million books, periodicals and newspapers, a large number of manuscripts, and electronic media, the collections are the most comprehensive sources of Asian language materials outside of Asia.
Asian-Pacific Heritage Month (May)
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America’s history and are instrumental in its future success.
Asian-American Health Statistics
Demographics and health statistics from the Center of Disease Control.

Native American

Federal Websites For and About American Indians
Links provided by Oklahoma Department of Libraries U.S. Government Information Division.
Gateway to Native American Resources from the US government
Find contact information for state, local, and tribal governments.
The National Museum of the American Indian
A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.
Native Americans in the US Military
Native American Heritage (National Archives)
The National Archives holds information about American Indians who maintained their ties to Federally-recognized Tribes (1830-1970). Most records are arranged by tribe.
Native American Health links
Every racial or ethnic group has specific health concerns.
On this page, you'll find links to health issues that affect Native Americans.
Native American Heritage Month (November)
Information on Native American Heritage Month

Technician

Regina Braidotti

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Contact:

Francis Harvey Green Library
West Chester University
25 W. Rosedale Ave.
West Chester, PA 19383