Digital U.S. Government Documents for History Students
The intent of this guide is to present examples of online U.S. federal government
information that will be of interest to those doing historical research. To
identify other federal government information resources, including other online
government publications and/or those which are in print or microform formats,
please use the resources listed in Ways
to Search for Government Information or ask a librarian for assistance.
Jump to:
U.S. Congressional Serial Set | GPOAccess
Databases | Registry of Digitization Projects
| Agency Digital Projects | Archival
Collections |
U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State
Papers
U.S. Congressional
Serial Set and American State Papers. These two collections include hundreds
of thousands of legislative and executive agency publications. Oviatt Library's
subscription is part of Readex Corporation's Archive of Americana; it offers
full text and a variety of ways to search these two very important collections.
Select the appropriate collection for the time period of interest. Information
about each of these collections is given below.
American State Papers, 1789-1838.
American State Papers is a collection of legislative and executive documents
from 1780-1838, many originating from the important period between 1789 and
the beginning of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in 1817 .
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
Jump to: Serial
Set Content | Serial Set Examples | Related
Resources
Serial Set Content
The Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set digital collection will eventually
include the Serial Set in full-text format for 1817-1980. Check the database
for coverage, as content is still being added; coverage was 1817-1951 as of
August 2008. The database includes a Help page with tips for more effective
searching.
An
Overview of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set (PDF; use the free Adobe
Reader) provides a detailed explanation of the types of documents/reports
included in the Serial Set and for which years each is included. U.S. Congressional
Serial Set content can be summarized as:
- Numbered reports and documents from the House of Representatives and
the Senate. (Does not include Congressional debates, bills, etc. Only about
300 committee hearings are included, mostly from the 19th and early 20th
centuries).
- Presidential messages and documents sent to Congress (does not include
executive orders).
- Executive branch publications that were sent to Congress and assigned
a document number.
- Treaty documents.
Examples of Sources in the Serial Set
- The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies.
- Maps and reports from expeditions exploring the western United States.
- A compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents, 1789-1897
by James D. Richardson ...Washington, Gov't Print Off., 1896-99 (House miscellaneous
document no. 210, 53d Congress, 2d session; Oviatt Library also owns several
paper editions of this important compilation)
- The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States. (Serial
Set numbers 2584 to 2589).
- Examples from
the U.S. Congressional Serial Set provides additional examples.
Related Resources
A related useful digital project is American Memory's A
Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation, U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates,
1774-1875, which includes early congressional debates as well as documents.
GPO Access has the Congressional
Serial Set online for 1995- present. The Oviatt Library also has print
and microform holdings of various volumes of the Serial Set.
GPO Access Databases
GPO Access (U.S. Government Printing
Office), which includes a multitude of databases, is a major resource for
online United States government publications from the legislative, executive
and judicial branches. Full text dates mostly from the 1990's to the present,
with some major exceptions such as the Core
Documents of U.S. Democracy collection. (Exact online coverage in the
GPO Access databases varies for each type of material; in many cases the library
owns, in print or microform formats, materials older than what is available
online).
Examples of GPO Access databases include:
Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization
Projects
Registry of U.S. Government Publication
Digitization Projects (maintained by the U.S. Government Printing Office)
lists digitization projects (usually done by libraries, government agencies,
museums, and other non-profit institutions) that include U.S. Government publications.
Browsing is by topic category or alphabetically by title; either provides
an overview of the types of digital projects involved, an impressive and ever-expanding
list covering a wide variety of subjects. Several of the more useful projects
for history students include:
- Foreign Relations of
the United States series (1861- ), the official historical record of
major U.S. foreign policy decisions and diplomatic activity for which the
documents have been declassified and edited for publication. This University
of Wisconsin digital project includes all years of the series that have
been published. The State Department also has the
most recently released volumes of Foreign Relations of the United States
available on its website.
- Public Papers of the President
of the United States: (University of Michigan). It includes volumes
covering 1929-2000, the administrations of Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt,
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush,
and Clinton. (Note the Public Papers of the President from GPO Access includes
more recent volumes of this series). Each Public Papers volume contains
the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were
issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the specified time period.
The material is presented in chronological order, and the dates shown in
the headings are the dates of the documents or events.
- Children's
Bureau Historical Publications, 1912-1969 (Maternal and Child Health
Library, Georgetown University).
- Historical
publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (Thurgood
Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland Law School)
- Checklist
of United States Public Documents, 1789 - 1909 ( Evergreen State College).
Federal Agency Digital Publication Projects
Some federal agencies are digitizing a number of their older publications
to provide easier access. A few examples of such online collections are:
- U.S. Census Bureau has a Census
Bureau Publications page offering (among others):
- Statistical Abstract
of the United States, published annually, 1878-present. The link
to Statistical
Abstract: Earlier Editions also leads to the compilation entitled
Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970.
This Bicentennial edition was published by the Census Bureau. The more
recent Historical
Statistics of the United States (Millennial Edition, CSUN subscription)
was commercially published.
- U.S. Census
Bureau Catalog and Guide offers indexes, lists and descriptions
of Census Bureau publications from 1790-1998.
- Census
of Population and Housing data has PDF
versions of decennial census reports from 1790-present, including Census
Bulletins and many other separate publications. (Most, but not all,
decennial census published reports have been digitized thus far. The
library also owns many of these decennial census reports in paper copy
(search in the Library Catalog)
and/or in the microfilm collection cataloged as United
States decennial census publications, 1790-1960 : [microfilm edition]
[microform] / Research Publications, if the decennial census titles
of interest have not yet been digitized).
- Government Accountability Office offers all GAO
reports since 1978 and selected earlier reports. Search by keyword
or Browse by topic or date.
- Vital
Statistics of the United States (National Center for Health Statistics).
Annual reports that present detailed vital statistics data, including natality,
mortality, marriage and divorce from 1890-present.
Unpublished Federal Records and Archival Collections
Online
- U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration. While most material in the National Archive's collections
is not available in digital format, an increasing number of guides to the
collection are available online and there are very interesting full text
collections online. Examples include:
- 100 Milestone Documents
- Access to Archival Databases.
These online resouces can be browsed by topic or time period.
- 100 historical films from the National Archives, including a number
of World War II newsreels, are available online via a cooperative project
with Google. Oviatt Library has cataloged these; search in the Library
Catalog under title for "NARA streaming videos".
- Online Exhibits
- Audiovisual
Records. Many of the catalogs of audiovisual records include online
images of the photographs and pictures listed. The catalogs are generally
organized by topics, such as Pictures of Indians in the United States,
Photographs of the American West, 1861-1912, and Pictures of the Civil
War.
- Digital National
Security Archives (Oviatt Library subscription). A collection of declassified
documents considered pertinent to U.S. policy decisions.
- FBI
Electronic Reading Room. Digitized copies of FBI files about specific
people or organzations that are of interest to the public and have been
released under the Freedom of Information Act. Examples are:
- General Land Office
records (Bureau of Land Management). Information on the initial transfer
of land titles from the Federal government to individuals.
- Army Heritage Collection
Online. Use the tabs to access the Digital Documents Online portion
of this website which includes manuscripts, photographs, images of artifacts,
and digitized publications.
- American Memory (Library
of Congress). This large collection of materials, digitized from the Library
of Congress' print and manuscript collections, includes some government
documents. Examples of government records/documents/publications in American
Memory are:
Created and maintained by Mary
M. Finley
Questions or comments: mary.finley@csun.edu
Links checked: 22 August 2008
