The internet is creating new and exciting possibilities for historical research. Many organizations are digitizing historical collections and providing them, free of charge, online.

This kind of availability and accessibility of historical sources makes historical research faster, cheaper and easier. Historians can access documentation quickly and search collections more efficiently than ever before. With online sources, they can perform their research without taking costly trips to distant archives or by incurring large copying fees. They can also consult a wider variety of sources, from a wider variety of locations, which provides for a richer perspective on historical events.

Below are some links to online historical sources.

International

Academicinfo is an education resource centre with online resources related to a wide variety of topics.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization maintains a listing of online digitization projects and other resources related to a range of subjects from all over the world.

Project Gutenberg is the largest online store of electronic books. Contains a searchable index.

Google Books is a great source of online material. By clicking on "Advanced Book Search" you can set your query to bring back older full text books.

The Internet Modern History Sourcebook includes links to full text primary sources related to a variety of themes and time periods.

World History Sources is provided by George Mason University. The site contains links to sources on wide range of periods and topics. Also includes teaching and learning resources.

United States

Northwestern University maintains an online digital library containing sources related to a varietys of subjects, but mostly concerned with American history. Note, some parts of digial library are restricted to Northwestern students.

The University of Tennessee digital collections include documents related to the history of Tenessee, backissues of academic journals, and historic photograph collections.

The Library of Congress has digitized and made available online collections of documents, maps, newspapers and other material related to the history of the United States.

American State Papers at the Library of Congress is comprised of digitized thirty-eight volumes of documents related to United States government operations between 1789 and 1838.

Africa

The Stanford University library hosts this page containing links to archival collections related to African history, including the papers of the African National Congress. Note: not all the collections listed here are digitized.

Australia

Australian Dictionary of Biography. Includes bibliographical citations for the persons listed.

Australian Dictionary of Biography. Contains over 300 documents related to Australian history and literature.

Journals of early Australian explorers. Contains exerpts from the journals of Europeans who wrote about their experiences in Australia.

Australian Journals Online. Fully searchable and contains full text of jounal articles.

National Archives of Australia. Includes indexes of collections, online exhibits and some online historical documents.

Canada

Canada Thesis search. Contains a directory of Master's and Doctoral thesis written in Canada. Some are available in PDF format.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Entries includes references to primary and secondary sources for major Canadian historical figures.

National Archives of Canada. Some document collections are available online, including military enlistment records, images and special projects.

Europe

European History Sources is a site maintained by the University of Washington. The page contains links to sources related to the history of western Europe.

New Zealand

National Library of New Zealand. Contains digitized document collections, newspapers and oral Maori histories.

New Zealand electronic text centre. Contains a sporadic collection of digitized documents.

The University of Auckland library. Contains online collections are historic photographs of New Zealand and Polynesia.

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Contains biographical entries and bibliographies for personalities.

United Kingdom

The Oxford Text Archive. Digitized books online. Access to some text is restricted.

British History. Contains links to many digitized collections, including the state papers of the Tudors.