Navigating TC's Archives and Special Collections

While the library provides access to several archival databases, researchers should not limit themselves to primary sources generated or held by Teachers College, but will benefit by accessing the vast network of available digital resources, including but not limited to:

• Academic Commons - Columbia University's online repository, where current faculty, students, and staff can deposit the results of their scholarly work and research. Select Archival Catalogs  The following sources will help you explore the holdings outside of Teachers College and Columbia University.
• Access to Archival Databases (AAD) System - Index to records for files from the National Archives.
• Accessible Archives - Searchable collection of U.S. history resources, including the Pennsylvania Gazette, the Civil War coverage of three newspapers, Godey's Lady's Book, a group of African-American and abolitionist newspapers, and selections from several 19th century Delaware Valley newspapers.
• American Indian Histories and Cultures - A wide-ranging digital resource that presents a unique insight into interactions between Indigenous Peoples in North America and European colonists from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid- to late-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library’s extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection; one of the strongest archival collections on histories of Indigenous Peoples in North America in the world.
• Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution - The largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States.
• Black Abolitionist Papers - Makes accessible primary sources created African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. Content includes letters, speeches, editorials, articles, sermons, and essays.
• Border and Migration Studies Online - This collection of primary source documents, archives, films, and ephemera relate to significant border areas and events from the 19th to 21st centuries. It offers historical context and resources, from both personal and institutional perspectives, to the growing fields of border(land) studies and migration studies, as well as history, law, politics, diplomacy, area and global studies, anthropology, medicine, the arts, and more. Includes text, video, and images. Materials in the collection are organized around fundamental themes of Border Identities, Border Enforcement and Control, Border Disputes, Border Criminologies, Maritime Borders, Human Trafficking, Sea Migration, Undocumented and Unauthorized Migration, and Global Governance of Migration.
• Digital Library of the Caribbean- This resource provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. Sources include photographs, maps, newspapers, legal materials, and more.
• Digital Public Library of America - A portal to the digitized collections of various institutions across the nation, including millions of photographs, documents, books, audio materials, and moving images.
• Gale Primary Sources - Provides an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search multiple Gale collections including Eighteenth Century and Nineteenth Century collections, Making of Modern Law, and other Archives products and to discover and analyze content in new ways.
• Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs - Covers years 1543-1945, bulk is 1880-1920, with monographs and serials from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and continental Europe. The collection is especially rich in women's journals, scholarly medical and sociological studies, and housekeeping and advice manuals.
• HistoryPin - A digital, user-generated archive of historical photos, videos, audio recordings and personal recollections
• Library of Congress Online Search - This platform allows users to search across digitized materials from the Library of Congress.
• The Internet Archive -  A public non-profit collection that archives internet content and webpages for easy searching.
• Manuscript women's letters and diaries : from the American Antiquarian Society, 1750-1950 - Previously unpublished letters and diaries of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century.
• The New York Public Library has also has digitized more than 180,000 images for the public domain. Digital collections include prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video and more.
  • If you have a New York Public Library Card, you also have access to digital archives databases either remotely or at NYPL's research libraries.
• North American immigrant letters, diaries, and oral histories - Provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants.
• Public Health Archives : Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970 - documents the rise of the twentieth-century public health system in the United States through correspondence, reports, pamphlets, ephemera, and more. For scholars in the fields of American history, American studies, history of science and medicine, public health studies, sociology, political science, psychology, and economics, it documents through primary sources that record the evolution and impact of public health legislation, policies, and campaigns at the local, national, and federal levels, opening for researchers a new window on the roles played by key organizations and individuals to advance public health practices and outcomes.
• Smithsonian's Online Collections includes digitized images, art objects, and more from the millions of items in the Smithsonian's various collections.
• Umbra Search consists of hundreds of thousands digitized materials related to African American history from over 1,000 libraries and archives across the country.
• Women and social movements in the United States, 1600-2000 -  a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. The collection currently includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors.

Through Columbia University Libraries catalog, CLIO, you can also find hundreds of online databases with digitized archival and primary source materials.