Colonial Philadelphia through the Penn Libraries : Digital Archives

Colenda is a system for long-term preservation and access to digital assets stewarded by Penn Libraries. It is a project of the Libraries, developed using the Samvera software framework. At this time, content accessible to the public in this application is in the public domain and is therefore available for public use, or where indicated, is of undetermined copyright.

formerly the PACSCL Finding Aids Site, provides access to descriptions of more than 5,000 collections from over 200 regional institutions documenting the region's vital role in our collective history, from colonization to the present day, from the everyday citizen to some of America's best known thinkers and celebrated citizens. On this site, researchers will find catalog descriptions, or "finding aids," to collections relating to local, national, and world history; the natural and social sciences; medicine; literature; religion; art and architecture; business and industry; the performing arts; and other topics.

1728-1800 via Accessible Archives.

Online collection of over 900 newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-1900), Philadelphia Public Ledger (1836-1876) and Philadelphia North American (1839-1879) along with many other Philadelphia newspapers.

Includes digitized images of magazines and journals, many of which were published in Philadelphia.

Colonial America makes available all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series from The National Archives, UK, covering the period 1606 to 1822. CO 5 consists of the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a uniquely rich resource for all historians of the period.

The Colonial State Papers offers access to over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records with this incredible resource on Colonial History. In addition to Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals for power, this collection also covers the Caribbean and Atlantic world. It is an invaluable resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery.

This unique collection documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available for the study of American History. Module I Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859. Module II Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945

Explore manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers right up to photographs and newspapers from the mid-twentieth century. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.

*Mainly British, but relevant* Defining Gender explores the study and analysis of gender, leisure and consumer culture; one of the most vibrant areas of social, cultural and intellectual research, transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries.

showcases unique primary source material for the study of American social, cultural, and popular history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

.... Devoted to the study and understanding of the history of slavery in America and the rest of the world from the 17th century to the late 19th century. Archival collections were sourced from more than 60 libraries at institutions such as the Amistad Research Center, Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Archives, Oberlin College, Oxford University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Yale University....

Based on holdings of the law libraries of Harvard and Yale, the Library of the Bar of the City of New York and the British Library, this digitized collection contains an extensive collection of published trial transcripts, popular printed accounts of sensational trials for murder, briefs, arguments, and related information.

Contains over a hundred pamphlets and books concerning the experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States. The documents comprise an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, and other works of historical importance.

Images of over 420 separately published trial narratives from the Harvard Law School Library, including cases involving adultery, divorce, homosexuality and other actions and relationship that fell outside of current social standards.

Like JSTOR, but for images. Explore for paintings, prints, art objects, furniture, decorations, ephemera, and much more. Many items held by Penn can also be found here.

The University Archives Digital Image Collection offers an expanding database of over 5,700 digital images of items found in the collections of the University Archives and Records Center.
Delivered by the Penn Libraries, the database contains digital photographs and scans of items relating to the history of the University of Pennsylvania, prominent persons associated with the University and the history of the Philadelphia community in which the University resides.

Database compiling advertisements about runaway events and enslaved peoples' liberation efforts. "Created to control the movement of enslaved people, runaway ads ultimately preserved the details of individual lives--their personality, appearance, and life story. Taken collectively, these ads constitute a detailed, concise, and rare source of information about the experiences of enslaved people."

Created by two Penn English PhDs who specialize in the 18th Century, this blog is devoted to following, cooking, and sometimes updating actual early-modern (1600-1800) recipes taken from archival recipe books/materials. Many featured cookbooks are fully digitized and held by Kislak.