Illinois Online Digital Primary Sources
Illinois Digital Archives (Illinois State Library)
The IDA is a repository for the digital collections of the Illinois State Library as well as other libraries and cultural institutions in the State of Illinois. The site provides access to digital material such as photographs, slides, glass negatives, oral histories, manuscripts and letters, federal government documents, postcards, posters, videos, newspapers, and maps.
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection (University of Illinois Library)
An impressive collection of digitized historical newspapers organized by county. Newspapers are also organized by these four topics: Illinois newspapers (general); Farm, Field, and Fireside (farm newspapers); American popular entertainment (vaudeville newspapers); and Collegiate Chronical (student newspapers).
Chicago Public Library Digital Collections
Chicago Public Library’s digital program provides access to the Library’s unique digital resources and special collections. The site supports community-based and scholarly research, documenting Chicago’s economic, political, cultural, and social life and neighborhoods. The digital collections showcase thousands of archival images, documents and artifacts.
A clearing-house or “one stop shopping” portal to digital collections maintained by scores of member organizations throughout Chicagoland. The site is very similar to the Upper Peninsula Digital Network (UPLINK) in organization and mission. Chicago Collections is a collaboration among libraries, museums, and allied organizations working together to collect, preserve, and share freely, openly, and equitably the history and culture of Chicago.
Indiana Online Digital Primary Sources
Indiana Digital Collections (Indiana State Library)
A great collection of government records, maps and plans, genealogy, and historical manuscripts documenting the history of Indiana. Easily searchable collections.
Indiana Digital Archives (Indiana Archives and Records Administration)
This site provides keyword search access to a wide variety of indexes to various archival collections. Not all items on an index are digital. Records include, but are not limited to, vital (birth, death), military, photographic, naturalization, and court records.
Digital Collections (Indiana University)
A broad and varied collection of historical manuscripts, organizational records, and material culture (artifacts). Patrons can browse the site by collection and topic or conduct keyword and subject searches.
Indiana Historical Society Digital Collections
The Indiana Historical Society’s Digital Collections provides access to more than 95,000 digital images that are available for research, with more added every week. The site provides useful browsing options and guidance. Researchers can also order high quality images.
The Indianapolis Public Library Digital Archive
This site provides access to digital images and recordings of cultural and historical interest to Indianapolis residents as well as students, researchers and others. The site provides standard search access and browsing by broad topics and specific collections. The Library offers these collections to allow free access to digital versions of increasingly valuable, fragile and hard-to-use originals.
Minnesota Online Digital Primary Sources
Minnesota State University – Mankato, Digital Collections
This website is the main portal to digital collections documenting the University’s history. The site includes publications, student activities, and photographs.
Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub (Minnesota Historical Society)
The Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub is a searchable website from the Minnesota Historical Society that makes millions of pages of Minnesota newspapers available online. The Hub contains geographically and culturally diverse newspapers published between 1849 and today.
Minnesota Reflections (Minnesota Digital Library)
Minnesota Reflections is a database of over 55,000 digitized original materials shared by cultural heritage organizations located across the state of Minnesota. These materials include images, text, audio, film, and more, with new items added on a regular basis.
Umedia (University of Minnesota)
UMedia provides open access to 165,009 digitized images, maps, manuscripts, video, audio created and maintained by the University of Minnesota.
The Minnesota Digital Law Library contains items digitized from the Minnesota State Law Library collections. They are historical in nature and shed light on the history of the Minnesota court system as well as the State Law Library.
Wisconsin Online Digital Primary Sources
This site is very similar to the Upper Peninsula Digital Network (UPLINK). Recollection Wisconsin brings together digital cultural heritage resources from Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums and historical societies and shares their metadata with the Digital Public Library of America. The site provides standard browsing and search capabilities to access hundreds of thousands of photographs, maps, letters, diaries, oral histories, artifacts and other historical resources from more than 200 Wisconsin libraries, museums and other cultural heritage institutions of all sizes.
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center (University of Wisconsin – Madison)
This site offers a remarkable and wide-ranging collection of digital manuscript collections documenting various aspects of Wisconsin history. The collections are loosely organized into a range of subjects including art, ecology, literature, history, music, natural resources, science, social sciences, the State of Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin. Digital resources include text-based materials such as books, journal series, and manuscript collections, photographic images, slides, maps, prints, posters, audio, and video.
Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Collections
A significant collection of digital primary sources arranged by collection and topic. Some important collections include the Holocaust Oral Histories, local and county histories, Senator William Proxmire papers, Wisconsin Women’s History, and Wisconsin in the Civil War.
Wisconsin Digital Archives (Wisconsin State Archives)
The Wisconsin Digital Archives is a growing collection of documents about the activities, functions, and policies of Wisconsin State Government. The collection contains state documents from 2001 to current published by the Executive and Judicial branches of Wisconsin State Government along with select legislative service agencies, government task forces, initiatives, boards, commissions, councils and special study groups.