Available to Visitors of the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah
Online Historical Resources
This section lists websites and databases that are useful in providing some context to Church history but are also useful in a broader study of history. The resources in this list require paid subscriptions. On-site visitors to the Church History Library are provided complimentary access to the following on the library’s computers. The Church does not maintain or control these sites and is not responsible for their content.
America: History and Life
This EBSCO site is considered by many historians to be the definitive database of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
American Ancestors
This site, created by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, focuses on early American records. It includes databases covering Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
A product of Alexander Street, a ProQuest company, this database includes over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, and memoirs from the Civil War.
American Civil War Collection, 1860–1922
From the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society, this NewsBank database includes 13,000 print items from throughout the US Civil War and several decades afterwards.
America’s Historical Newspapers
This NewsBank database includes thousands of newspapers published throughout the United States from the late 17th century into the early 20th century.
African American Newspapers, 1827–1998
This NewsBank database offers access to periodicals published by and for African Americans, including over 350 newspapers from several states.
British Library Newspapers
This website contains full runs of 48 newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent 19th-century Britain.
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718–1876
This NewsBank database offers access to over 140 18th- and 19th-century newspapers from 22 Caribbean islands.
Findmypast
This database specializes in the United Kingdom and its historical colonies. Collections unique to this database include British newspaper archives from England, Wales, and Scotland; parish records from across England and Wales, dating back to 1538; British army records from 1760 to 1915; passenger lists of ships leaving the UK between 1890 and 1960; and Irish court records.
Fold3
This site focuses on providing access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.
The Genealogist
This database contains digital English records, including census records, parish records, court and criminal records, directories, and landowner records.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808–1980
This NewsBank database, based on research efforts by the University of Houston, offers access to hundreds of newspapers published by Hispanic communities in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Historical Abstracts
An EBSCO site, this is an abstracts resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
Images of the American Civil War
This site contains photographs, posters, and ephemera from the Civil War. It currently holds over 12,200 images. This database is hosted by Alexander Street.
JSTOR
This digital library provides access to many academic journals, books, and primary sources.
Newspapers.com
Newspapers.com, now owned by Ancestry.com, is the largest online newspaper archive. It holds over 750 million scanned pages from more than 23,500 newspapers, many of which have long since ceased publication.
Most of the available newspapers were published in the United States, but there are many international publications featured, as well.
Paper Trail
Paper Trail contains journals and histories of pioneers who headed west to Oregon, California, Utah, and Montana. You can search for diaries, letters, remembrances, and newspaper articles. The preliminary searches can be done for free, but a subscription is required to access reports and surveys. On-site patrons may inquire at the reference desk for more information. This website is a service of the Oregon-California Trails Association.
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online
This is an enormous collection that allows students, scholars, and online researchers to experience the past through thousands of private writings and personal narratives. More than 8,000 individual writers are represented in the collection, and the materials provide windows into history dating from 1675 to the present. This collection is a product of Alexander Street, a ProQuest company.
Women and Social Movements in the United States
This resource, hosted by Alexander Street, is for students and scholars of US history and US women’s history. It focuses on the history of women in social movements in the US between 1600 and 2000.