Internet Sources & Maps

Although we have tried to be broadly inclusive in our selection of general sources on this topic, this listing is not comprehensive. Many state libraries or historical societies often have important collections not found anywhere else. Since they are interested in digitizing materials and other content important in telling the story of their state it may be helpful to visit the websites.

Some of the entries include primary sources (digitized or transcribed) while others have both primary sources as well as other resources, particularly those that teach history. Some entries are likely to be places that would be good for research from this time period even though there may not be a large trove of digitized content available on-line.

1492: An Ongoing Voyage
This Library of Congress online exhibition includes online resources related to both pre- and post-contact America, as well as to the Mediterranean world at the same time.
1619 Project External
This project began in 2019 and was to mark the 400th anniversary of a ship carrying African slaves that arrived near Point Comfort, in the English colony of Virginia in August 1619 that essentially began the Transatlantic slave trade.
Adverts 250 Project External
This is a project from Carl Robert Keyes, associate professor of history at Assumption College, explores the history of advertising in eighteenth-century America. It features a daily image of an advertisement published in a colonial newspaper 250 years ago that day and often includes longer posts that analyze individual advertisements in greater detail, highlight other marketing items from the period, and slave advertisements as well.
American Philosophical Society Center for Digital Scholarship External
There are Digital Collections and the Open Data Initiative. The Digital Library houses approximately 160,000 items, including audio, video, text, images, and datasets. Includes a number of items from Benjamin Franklin and includes many items related to his shop and the Post Office from before the revolution.
Archives Portal Europe (APEnet Project) External
This is a free web-based system where users can search across the holdings of 63 institutions with finding aids to archival material. These finding aids may include links to digitization versions of the materials at the institutions' own websites. As of 2017, the project's consortium consists of twelve national archives/national archive administrations and five associate members many of whom are national libraries such as the British Library. (To identify the members go to the directory which also provides links to their web pages and/or other contact information).
Avalon Project (Yale University Law School) External
This site includes transcripts related to American history and development. It includes Colonial Charters (by colony), grants, and other related documents. There is also an area related to American History beginning in the 15th century.
British Library External
The Library's Americas and Oceania Collections blog is a good source for small topics but can be helpful in finding more resources with the collections.
Business History Centers External
This is a collection compiled by the Business History Conference of some of the libraries, universities, and organizations around the world that focus on the study of business history. Many have resources as well as offering a network of people who study the development of business around the world.
Colonial North America at Harvard Library External
The materials in this project were digitized and is part of an ongoing, multi-year project. that when complete, will include approximately 650,000 digitized pages of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th- and 18th-century North America.
Company of London External
This is an online project that presents some of Ferrar family papers in Magdalene College, Cambridge with some contents pulled from The Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington, D.C., 1906-35) which the Library holds. Contents include digitized copies of manuscripts and other printed material. There are also digitized images of paintings and maps as well as a number of explanatory essays that will be of assistance to researchers.
Constitution Society External
The site includes links as well as transcripts of primary documents that are relevant for those studying the U.S. Constitution and the formation of American politics, culture, and ideals but it does include material from the Colonial period.
Digital History External
This is a project created by a group that includes the National Endowment of the Humanities, the National Park Service, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and others. History is presented by historical era including pre-Colonial and Colonial time periods. Each section has an overview as well as a "textbook," documents, events, people, images etc. This is geared towards students and teachers so there is a resource section for teachers as well as a quiz.
EH.net External
The website is owned and operated by the Economic History Association with the support of other sponsoring organizations like the Business History Conference. The Encyclopedia entries include articles like: "Money in the American Colonies," "Colonial U.S. Credit," "Credit in the Colonial American Economy," "Dutch Economy in the "Golden Age" (16th-17th Centuries), "Mercantilism" and other topics related to the economic history of the United States. The bibliographies for the articles and reviews can be helpful in finding major works and articles on the topics.
Enslaved External
Includes short biographical sketches about people associated with the historical slave trade–both prominent figures and also those lesser known including enslaved people, slave owners, and slave traders. Many of the profiles are not colonial era but there are colonial era individuals included. Each entry includes a short bibliography and possibly sources for more information.
Founding.com External
This is a project of the Claremont Institute and leans heavily on material related to the founding of the United States. They are transcriptions of British documents including: excerpts from the Navigation Acts, 1660-1696; the Currency Act, 1764; the Sugar Act, 1764; the Quartering Act, 1765; the Stamp Act, 1765; Examination of Dr. Benjamin Franklin in the House of Commons, 1766; The Declaratory Act, 1766; The Townshend Act, 1767; and other acts until 1775.
FRASER (Federal Reserve)
Also look to the various Federal Reserve banks that have their own publications. For example:
Cleveland branch has "Paper Money and Inflation in Colonial America" External
Colonial Statistics External from Historical Statistics of the United States Bicentennial edition.
Colonial and Precolonial External from Historical Statistics of the United States Bicentennial edition.
Georgian Papers Programme External
This project began in 2015, to digitize the extensive collection of Georgian papers, held in the Royal Archives and Royal Library at Windsor Castle and is a partnership between the Royal Archives, the Royal Library and King’s College London, and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture and William & Mary .
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History External
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education. They have developed an array of programs for schools, teachers, and students. The site includes a number of primary sources as well as information and essays about history presented by era including Colonization & Settlement (1585-1763) and the American Revolution (1763-1783).
Access to some of these resources and some tools may require users to create an account.
Global Price & Income History Group External
This site is hosted by the Institute of Governmental Affairs (UC Davis) and looks at prices, income, and economic well-being prior to 1950. While a large number of the data sets that are included are outside of the time period of this guide, the area American Incomes ca 1650-1870 is particularly useful. There is also a lot of useful data for this time period in the Global Prices and Income database.
Hakluyt Society External
The Hakluyt Society was founded in 1846 to educate and inform those interested in the study of exploration and travel, exploratory voyages, and geographical discovery. It seeks to publish primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material. Helpful sections include the Hakluyt's Navigations (census of copies) and Exploration Links.
Historic New Orleans Collection External
This collection is dedicated to preserving the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South and is a good resource for those studying the French colonial activities in North America included a collection of over 200 items related to John Law (Mississippi Company, Company of the West, then as the Company of the Indies) and the establishment of New Orleans. The majority of its collection is not online although they do have digital items of interest.
Internet Library of Early Journals (eLib [Electronic Libraries] Programme) External
This is a joint project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Oxford and aimed to digitize substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals. It includes titles like the Annual Register started in 1758, Gentleman's Magazine started in 1731, and other material.
Leslie Brock Center for the Study of Colonial Currency External
The site was created by Professor Emeritus Leslie V. Brock with the purpose to aid study of American Colonial currency. Contains transcription of Contemporary Writings, Pamphlets, and articles including the oft referenced Brock piece "Colonial Currency, Prices, and Exchange Rates."
Louisiana Digital Library (Louisiana State Library) External
The State Library External is a good resource for those looking to study the French colonial activities in North America. The majority of its collection is not online though they do have a fair amount of digital items that may be of interest a good entry point is the Louisiana Digital Library.
"Money in the American Colonies"
This is an article in eh.net by Ron Michener, University of Virginia.
National Archives of the UK External
The National Archives of the UK contains primary sources related to its activities in the colonies including material from various British government departments. There are a few related finding aids that may be of assistance in understanding the more relevant records though material may also be in other record groups.
America and the West Indies in the Calendar of State Papers Colonial 1573-1739 External
American and West Indian colonies before 1782 External
Colonies and dependencies: further research External
American Revolution External
Records held by other archives External
New Bedford Whaling Museum External
This museum focuses on understanding whaling in the New Bedford area. There is a Research Library and Archival Collections with books, manuscripts, maps, etc. Their manuscript collection includes: Rotch Family Papers, 1764-1947; Bennett Family Papers, 1765-1908; Taber Family Papers, 1712-1901; White Family Papers, 1746-1916; Business Records Collection, 1712-1946; etc.
New Jersey: History of Printing and Publishing
This guide was created by staff in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division and incudes resources related to history of printing in the state. This does include the colonial period but also more modern times out of scope for this Business guide. Of particular note is the History tab with information on Notable New Jersey Printers and Publishers.
New Netherland Institute External
Created in 1986 as the Friends of the New Netherland Project its goal is to cast light on America’s Dutch roots. It is also making available digitized versions of translations and transcriptions of documents relating to New Netherland. There are also guides like "A Guide to Dutch Manuscripts Relating to New Netherland" which is a catalog of primary source material located in repositories throughout the United States as well as some digitized Collections of the New York State Archives and the New York State Library.
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and CultureExternal
he institute is located at the College of William and Mary and is responsible for publishing William & Mary Quarterly as well as books. They have a "Doing History" podcast series that covers topics about early American history and how historians work. The Octo External is their blog where they bring together "the best online work discussing early American history and culture" with links to a series of blogs including The Junto and Adverts250 which is an "Exploration of Advertising in Colonial America 250 Years Ago This Week" as well as others (see the Octo Archive).
Prices and Wages by Decade External
This University of Missouri Libraries guide links to government documents and primary sources listing retail prices for products and services for each decade back to the 1700s.
Slavery and the British transatlantic slave trade - British National Archives
his guide for an overview of records held at The National Archives that shed light on the slave trade, slavery and unfree labour in the British Caribbean and North American colonies. Other records of interest are Colonial Office (CO), Board of Trade (BT), Chancery (C), Admiralty records (ADM) and Treasury records (T).
Smuggling and the American Revolution External
This was Episode 161 of the podcast Doing History Series at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. It features Fabrício Prado, Christian Koot, and Wim Klooster discussing smuggling in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World. A related post in the Institutes's Uncommon Sense blog by Eugene R.H. Tesdahl "Smuggling, the American Revolution, and the Riverine Highway" (November 21, 2017) expands on the podcast theme and was an outgrowth of his article "The Riverine Highway: Women Smugglers between New York and New France, 1701-1754," Journal of Early American History.
State Library of Virginia External
The State Library collect and has digitize many items related to colonial Virginia. Including the Virginia Colonial Records Project.
State and Local Historical Societies, Archives, and Libraries External
http://www.publiclibraries.com/state_library.htm External
Historical societies, archives, and libraries are excellent resources for getting a very local perspective on the Colonial time period – particularly for those towns and areas were established long before the Revolution. Many have local histories, artifacts, and manuscript collections that aren't available anywhere else. While we have put in a few historical societies and archive collections specifically as stand-ins for French colonial activities, we couldn't include every state and every local historical society that may have useful collections. This is a list of many of those historical societies.
Voyages, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Emory University) External
This website is an online database full of information on almost 35,000 slaving expeditions covering the 16th - 19th Centuries and provides information about vessels, enslaved peoples, slave traders and owners, and trading routes.
Worlds of Change: Colonial North America at Harvard Library External
This digital collection cover colonial America from the Harvard Library.

Colonies in America: Commerce, Business, and the Economy

Internet Sources & Maps