Please Note: when researching primary sources, we face the realities of racism, antisemitism, misogyny, ableism, and other systemic oppression in our history. In the course of your research, you may come across troubling words, images and ideas. It is important that we understand that these words, images, and ideas are part of our history. It is also important that we understand the potential of these words, images, and ideas to be upsetting, offensive, and even harmful. Enter into your research as historians, and communicate your findings respectfully and with intention.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever. You can search the archive's collections for primary sources.
America In Class: National Humanities Center
Presents an expansive collection of primary sources designed to enhance classroom study of the 1920s. Organized in five themes, each with six to eight sections. Themes are: The Age, Modernity, Machine, Prosperity, and Division.
Films, newsreels, animated cartoons, comic strips, radio broadcasts, and sound recordings are offered in addition to informational texts, fiction selections, visual art, photographs, and music selections. Nine collections of political cartoons and twenty-one collections of contemporary commentary provide unique overviews of the decade's most debated issues.
PLEASE NOTE: While this is an EXCELLENT resource for primary documents, please be aware that each subpage (not the home page) features a slideshow that scrolls through images related to the topic. These images are of primary sources from the period (photos, political cartoons, clips from articles) whose content may be offensive and even troubling. This is especially true on the subpages devoted to topics of division and racial inequities.
Christopher Newport University LibGuide of 1920's US History.
A collection of websites focused on 1920's US History.
History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web was first developed in 1998 by the American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, City University of New York, and the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, with initial funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Over the past several years, it has become a highly regarded gateway to web resources as well as a repository of first-person primary documents.
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 19 museums and the National Zoo—shaping the future by preserving our heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world. You can search the museum's collections for primary sources.
