The collections below include primary source materials in digital format, including photographs, newspaper articles, books, and audio formats.  Use these digital libraries to see history as it really happened.

Illinois | National | International

Illinois:

• Alliance Library System: “Illinois Women”
  A digital archive of material on experiences of Illinois women during the 1st century of Illinois’ statehood, with links to the National First Ladies Library and Illinois’ First Ladies sites.

• Chicago Public Library Digital Collections
  Digital collections documenting important events, people and places in the history of Chicago.

• Digital Past
  Collections of historical documents held by member libraries of the North Suburban Library System.

• Digitizing History in St. Charles
  Accesses the Illinois Digital Archives website and link to the St. Charles Public Library collection. Digitized materials include books, maps, historical documents and various materials on the history of St. Charles.

• Genosky Collection
  This local history collection of the city of Quincy, IL, highlights the Civil War and Steamboat Eras. Contains documents and photographs from 1830-1980 including a large collection of steamboat photographs.

• Illinois Alive! The Heritage and Texture of a Pivotal State During the First Century of Statehood (1818-1918) is a regional digital library of archival resources.

• Illinois Digital Archives (IDA)
  A search engine that indexes materials and information describing the history and experience of life in Illinois. Also provides links to the digitized collection of the St. Charles Public Library, and other Illinois libraries.

National:

• American Journeys
  Contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.

• American Memory
  A major component of the Library of Congress’ National Digital Library Program, it contains multimedia materials from more than 100 historical collections.

• Baldwin Project
  Seeks to make available online a comprehensive collection of resources for parents and teachers of children with an initial focus on literature for children that is in the public domain in the United States.

• California Digital Library
  Collections of digital materials held by museums, archives, and libraries throughout the state of California. Accessed through the University of California Digital Collections and Online Archive of California.

• Civil War Maps, Library of Congress
  Reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps, along with detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman's Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts-all available for the first time in one place.

• National Archives and Records Administration
  Digitized federal records that are of historical importance in the development of our country, including the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

• New York Public Library Digital Library
  Extensive digital collection of photographic and printed materials from the NYPL Research Libraries.

• Online Books Page
  Listing over 20,000 free books on the Web.

• Our Documents
  A national initiative on American history, civics, and service. Composed of “100 milestone documents” of American history from the National Archives.

• The Photography Collection
  Database of historic photographs from collections of the Denver Public Library Western History/Genealogy Dept. and the Colorado Historical Society. The collections document the history of Colorado and the American West.

• Smithsonian: Publications
  Click on Images links at the bottom of the page to view Smithsonian Photographs Online and photographs from the National Anthropological Archives.

International:

• British Library's Turning the Pages
  Gives you digital access to precious books while keeping the originals safely under glass. Virtually 'turn' the pages of Jane Austin's "History of England" or Leonardo's Notebook in a realistic way. Zoom in on the high-quality digitized images.

• Glasgow Digital Library
  A variety of images and ebooks from the University of Strathclyde, including historical pictures of people and places, the James Maxton papers and information on the Scottish Antarctic exploration during the 1900s.

• Open Library
  Created by the Internet Archive. Books are scanned and then offered in an easy-to-use interface for free reading online. If they're in the public domain, the books can be downloaded, shared and printed for free.

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updated 8/04

Copyright 2008 • St Charles Public Library, One South 6th Ave, St Charles, IL 60174 • www.stcharleslibrary.org