Archives, What are they and How do we use them?

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by an Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 40,000 artifacts and nearly 300,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

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.

The National Museum of the American Indian operates three facilities. The museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC, offers exhibition galleries and spaces for performances, lectures and symposia, research, and education. The George Gustav Heye Center (GGHC) in New York City houses exhibitions, research, educational activities, and performing arts programs. The Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, Maryland, houses the museum's collections as well as the conservation, repatriation, and digital imaging programs, and research facilities. The NMAI's off-site outreach efforts, often referred to as the "fourth museum," include websites, traveling exhibitions, and community programs.

Comprehensive search of the Gale primary source databases: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, County and Regional Histories & Atlases: Pennsylvania Digital Archive, Freedom Riders in the South, Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Punch Historical Archive, The Economist Historical Archive, The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, and Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.

19th Century database offers a full-text searchable collection of 500 U.S. newspapers published between 1800 and 1900. The collection features publications of all kinds, from the political party newspapers at the beginning of the nineteenth century to the mammoth dailies that shaped the nation at the century's end. Major newspapers stand alongside those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women’s rights groups, labor groups, and the Confederacy.

The Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries is a searchable index of newspapers published in the United States since 1690. This directory can help identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them. The Library of Congress does not hold all titles included in this Directory. For a detailed overview of the Directory, search tips, and FAQs, please consult the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries: A Guide for Researchers.

Catalog of archival collections, holding nearly a million collection descriptions and online archival finding aids of archival material from more than 2,500 libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives around the world.

Searchable collection of 350 digitized Pennsylvania county and regional histories and atlases published during the last quarter of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. It includes biographies, street maps, vital statistics, and views of urban and rural life. Gale.

Contains searchable full-text articles from the New York Times newspaper from 1980-present. We also have access to the New York Times through their website which covers back to 1851. Since this content is in a database you may find that it's easier to search and filter than nytimes.com. Content discovered through this database will not have images included but articles through nytimes.com will.