Research Guides: HART 268: Telling Bryn Mawr Histories: Archives & Digitized Records

Finding Aid Portals

These portals allow researchers to search across multiple archival collections simultaneously, consolidating finding aids to help surface material that might otherwise be overlooked. Although many archives are part of these systems, they are not comprehensive lists of archival institutions.

If you are researching individual persons: Local archives may hold an individuals vital records. Vital records are records like birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, wills, etc. Although census records and vital records contain some of the same information, vital records are created by local authorities, not the federal government. These records may be available via Ancestry.com, but could also reside in local archives that haven't prioritized digitization.

ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
ArchiveGrid includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.

Philadelphia Area Archives Research Portal
This Philadelphia Area Archival Research Portal (PAARP) provides access to descriptions of more than 5,000 collections from over 200 regional institutions documenting the region's vital role in our collective history, from colonization to the present day, from the everyday citizen to some of America's best known thinkers and celebrated citizens. On this site, researchers will find catalog descriptions, or "finding aids," to collections relating to local, national, and world history; the natural and social sciences; medicine; literature; religion; art and architecture; business and industry; the performing arts; and other topics.

Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia This link opens in a new window
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is a civic project to increase understanding of Philadelphia and its surrounding regions. In addition to information about the Philadelphia region, the encyclopedia also provides researchers with links to historical societies and archives broken down by county.

Digitized Collections

Below are a selection of databases holding digitized primary source material covering the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many archives have also digitized their own material outside of collaborative databases and projects. Refer to the "Finding Aid Portals" section of this guide for help discovering archival collections.

County and regional histories & atlases: Pennsylvania
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Originally compiled and produced by publishers and subscriptions agents for area residents and patrons, the histories are difficult-to-find materials. Included in this collection on Pennsylvania are 15 cities and regions covered in 283 titles. These titles comprise tables and lists of vital statistics, military service records, municipal and county officers, chronologies, portraits of individuals and views of urban and rural life not found anywhere else. The atlases provide additional information on land use and settlement patterns and scarce early town and city plans.
Archives Unbound
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Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) This link opens in a new window
The DPLA allows you to search millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Each record links to the original object on the library or other content provider's website.
HathiTrust
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HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges are members of HathiTrust. Click on "Log In" and select your college for full access.
Historic American Buildings Survey This link opens in a new window
Begun in 1933, this collection documents 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. This online presentation of the HABS/HAER/HALS collections includes digitized images of measured drawings, black-and-white photographs, color transparencies, photo captions, written history pages, and supplemental materials.
Internet Archive This link opens in a new window
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that is building an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. The Internet Archive includes more than 300,000 texts, as well as audio, moving images, software and archived web pages. A good source for books printed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including many travel accounts.
Manuscript women's letters and diaries
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Manuscript Women’s Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society 1750-1950 brings together 105,000 pages of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts, extensively indexed and online for the first time. The collection is drawn entirely from the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society.
OAIster This link opens in a new window
Serves as a search portal to open access digital collections and resources such as electronic books, online journals, audio files, images, and movies from a wide variety of research, library, and scholarly institutions.
PhillyHistory.org
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Provides online access to over 50,000 photographs from the collections of the Philadelphia Department of Records. Also provides digital access to the Philadelphia historical streets index and the Philadelphia historical photograph index.
Women & Social Movements in the United States: 1600-2000
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This resource provides documents pertaining to women and social movements. Includes document projects that interpret and present documents to address a question or a scholarly debate. Also includes images, a dictionary of social movements, a chronology and teaching tools. Covers the 17th century to the 21st century.