Research
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Check out our 2027 list of topic ideas!
Filter by time period, local/national/global history, and a variety of themes.
The best way to begin your research is to check out local libraries, archives, historical societies, and museums near you!
Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society is proud to be the sponsor of Massachusetts History Day.
History Source - Drawn from MHS collections, our primary source sets promote learning in U.S. history and civics and are supported by teaching activities and guiding questions
ABIGAIL - Online library catalog of the MHS
- Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Related to African American History
- Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Related to Disability History
- Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Related to Native American History
- Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Related to the History of Sexuality
Indigenous Educational Resources
Massachusetts Libraries, Archives, & Museums
American Ancestors by New England Genealogical Society
Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard
Harvard Countway Library's Center for the History of Medicine
Harvard Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum
Museum of African American History
Old North Church & Historic Site
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library
Tsongas Industrial History Center
UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History
Digital Archives
Africa Online Digital Archive - Open access digital library of African cultural heritage materials created by Michigan State University in collaboration with museums, archives, scholars, and communities around the world
American Archive of Public Broadcasting - Home to over 260,000 digitized public broadcasting programs and original materials spanning more than 70 years of history across the United States and its territories.
- Celebrating 250 Years of American Stories - A collection of historic broadcasts, firsthand accounts, and cultural reflections
Avalon Project - Digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government from ancient history to the 21st century
Digital Library of the Caribbean - Open access to Caribbean cultural, historical, scientific and research materials held in archives, libraries, museums, private collections, and other institutions of memory and preservation
Digital Public Library of America - Millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience
Digital Transgender Archives - Online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world on transgender history
EuroDocs - European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated, in addition to video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation
International Encyclopedia of the First World War - Largest digital English-language reference work on the First World War
Internet History Sourcebooks Project - Collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts that cover a wide variety of topics including Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history, as well as women's history and LGBT studies
Library of Congress - Largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections
- Chronicling America - Millions of newspaper pages from nearly every state and territory in the United States published through 1963
Medieval Digital Resources - Curated database of peer-reviewed digital materials for the study of the Middle Ages
National Archives - Archives of the United States
Slave Voyages - Records about the origins and forced transportation of more than twelve million African peoples across the Atlantic and within the Americas
South Asia Open Archives (SOAA) - Contains over 30,000 digitized print items from the late-eighteenth into the twenty-first century
Umbra - Digitization of African American materials across University of Minnesota collections