Archives provide entry to a history of treasures that document people, places, and events. In addition to physical archives, many open-access archives are available, ranging in topics from government and historical documents found at the National Archives, to code making and breaking in the Cryptology ePrint Archives, and historical children’s books available via the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. Below are just a select few of the many archives available online.
Photo from: Internet Archives – Cookery Book
Love Food? Let’s get cooking! Cookbooks are windows into history that document daily life and provide snapshots of regional and cultural identify at a particular moment in time. Recently 10,000 vintage recipe books have been digitized and can be found in the Internet Archive’s Cookbook and Home Economic Collection. Page through one of Europe’s oldest cookery books dating back to 1475, or Scientific farming made easy from 1865. With over 45,000 menus dating from the 1840s to the present, The New York Public Library’s restaurant menu collection is one of the largest in the world, used by historians, chefs, novelists and everyday food enthusiasts.
The Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection provides access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women during the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Also documented are other social causes of the 19th and early 20th centuries such as anti-slavery, anti-lynching, education reform, civil rights, and the racism that was experienced within the Suffrage Movement itself. The New York Public Radio Archives & Preservation collection contains sonic artifacts focusing on African American history. The Brothers in Arms: The Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection spans from 1773 to 1987, with a large part of the collection dating from the Civil War Period. This collection consists of correspondences, enlistment and discharge papers, miscellaneous military reports.
The IU East Archives contains a diverse collection of local histories including the LGBTQ+ Archives, LGBTQ+ Oral Histories, Women’s Oral Histories, African American Oral Histories, and the IU Bicentennial Oral Histories. The Student Newspaper Collection provides insight into campus life. From student clubs, campus events, athletics, and faculty and staff bios, The Howler (2008-2017), The Pioneer Press (1995-1996), and the New Voice document IU East history from the students’ perspectives. All the newspapers have been digitized and will be available online in the near future. For questions about the IU East Campus archives, contact archivist Jesse Whitton. Want to explore more online archives? Ask Us! iueref@iue.edu or click here:
