U.S. History

"The home of the U.S. Government's open data. Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more."

Webpage giving information on the presidents and examples of their speeches from The Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history and strives to apply the lessons of history to the nation’s most pressing contemporary governance challenges.

The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. We do not intend to mount only static text but rather to add value to the text by linking to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text.

Beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774, America's national legislative bodies have kept records of their proceedings. The records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress make up a rich documentary history of the construction of the nation and the development of the federal government and its role in the national life. These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government.

Books on the law formed a major part of the holdings of the Library of Congress from its beginning. In 1832, Congress established the Law Library of Congress as a separate department of the Library. It houses one of the most complete collections of U.S. Congressional documents in their original format. In order to make these records more easily accessible to students, scholars, and interested citizens, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation brings together online the records and acts of Congress from the Continental

Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Printing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC's Congressional Research Service.

Congress.gov is usually updated the morning after a session adjourns. Consult Coverage Dates for Legislative Information for the specific update schedules and start date for each collection.

"ConSource is building the preeminent online resource for constitutional research and education. Continually expanding in scope, it provides free public access to what is fast becoming the world’s most comprehensive online library of source documents related to the U.S. Constitution."

The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian and printed volumes are available from the Government Printing Office.
FRUS begins with the administration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861. There are two cumulative indexes covering 1861-1899 and 1900-1918. The organization of FRUS is generally chronological, but the dates of the volumes do not necessarily reflect the dates of documentary history. For example, the volumes for 1900-1918 do not include the records dealing with World War I or the Russian Revolution. Each volume has a subject and author index. There is also typically a table of sources and abbreviations at the beginning of each volume.

The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.

A growing number of primary source materials relating to U.S. foreign relations are available online. The Office of the Historian maintains this list as a resource for the public and will continue to update it as more resources are made available.

Declassified Document Collections
Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom of Information Electronic Reading Room
Department of Defense, Freedom of Information Electronic Reading Room
Department of State, Freedom of Information Electronic Reading Room
National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Books
Department of State Telegrams
National Archives and Records Administration, Access to Archival Databases
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
University of California at Santa Barbara American Presidency Project
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Documents and Archive
Ford Presidency Materials
Ford Library Electronic Resources
Nixon Presidency Materials

This guide is designed to help American University users find the public and private papers—published and unpublished, print format or electronic—of U.S. presidents, It includes their letters, communiques (many previously classified), speeches, remarks and statements. This guide generally does not include books written by the presidents. While many of the resources are only available to users at American University, many others are freely available to everyone.

The American Presidency Project is the only online resource that has consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database:

• The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913)
• The Public Papers of the Presidents:
Hoover to G.W. Bush (1929-2007)
& Obama (2010-Book I)
• The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:
Carter - G.W. Bush (1977-2009)
• The Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents:
Obama (2009-2012)

• Our archives also contain thousands of other documents such as party platforms, candidates' remarks, Statements of Administration Policy, documents released by the Office of the Press Secretary, and election debates: