American Studies (Primary Sources)

The papers include original letters received from factors, foreign and domestic agents, mainly to Ramsey Crooks, president of the Company; copies of letters sent by the Company; records of furs received from the Indians, and orders for goods to be shipped to the factors in exchange for furs.

Nothing in the history of America compares with the Civil War. The very nature of the Civil War lends itself to perpetual fascination. Individually and collectively, the publication of these regimental histories and personal narratives constitute a source of great historical value. These first-person accounts, compiled in the postwar period and early 20th Century period, chronicle the highs and lows of army life and battles from 1861 through 1865.

These generals' reports of service represent an attempt by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) to obtain more complete records of the service of the various Union generals serving in the Civil War. In 1864, the Adjutant General requested that each such general submit ". . . a succinct account of your military history . . . since March 4th, 1861." In 1872, and in later years, similar requests were made for statements of service for the remaining period of the war.

When the war broke out in 1861, the South produced hundreds of newspapers. Every town of any size boasted at least a weekly paper. Two years into the war, attrition had substantially decreased this number. By mid-1864, the number of pro-Confederate newspapers decreased dramatically; found only in the major Southern cities. Following the end of the war, the remaining pro-Confederate newspapers ceased publication or returned to reporting on state and local issues.

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, held longstanding interest in the Hollywood film industry as well as deep distrust of anyone on the political left. In August 1942 he ordered the bureau’s Los Angeles office to report on “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry.” Various FBI reports chronicled the working of major film studios such as MGM, Paramount, RKO, and Warner Brothers, and studio management and labor union power struggles. The FBI's investigation of Hollywood resulted in many thousands of pages and show a growing operation organized in the early 1940s that continued throughout the Cold War.

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, held longstanding interest in the Hollywood film industry as well as deep distrust of anyone on the political left. In August 1942 he ordered the bureau's Los Angeles office to report on Communist activities of various motion picture personalities, including actors, directors, producers, and writers. The FBI's investigation of Hollywood revealed a growing operation organized in the early 1940s, and after the Second World War the investigation evolved into a sophisticated operation. Between 1944 and 1954 agents conducted extensive surveillance of suspected Communists, "left-wingers," and "fellow travelers," and assembled information used by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in an effort to purge Hollywood of Communist influence.

Details the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of Huey Long (1893-1935), governor and senator of Louisiana, mainly during the 1920s. Documents include reports on voting fraud; correspondences regarding “Share Our Wealth Society” (1934-1935); “Our Blundering Government,” a March 1935 speech; the investigation of Louisiana officials and crime conditions in the state (July – August 1939); as well as the investigation into Long’s assassination (May- September 1939); among other records.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a nondescript couple accused in 1950 by the U.S. government of operating a Soviet spy network and giving the Soviet Union plans for the atomic bomb. The trial of the Rosenbergs, which began in March 6, 1951, became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have done to the United States.

Organized alphabetically by organization, this collection covers a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, cultural, and economic issues. It sheds light on the internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent American radical groups and their movements to change American government and society.
Included: COINTELPRO, Abbie Hoffman, Black Panther Party, Cesar Chavez & the UFW, Kent State University, Malcolm X, MIBURN, Muslim Mosque, Inc., Organization of Afro-American Unity, SDS & Weathermen, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the investigation of alleged Communist infiltration of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry. The Production Code was written in 1929 by Martin J. Quigley, an influential editor and publisher of motion picture trade periodicals, and Reverend Daniel A. Lord, a Jesuit advisor to Hollywood filmmakers. Officially accepted in 1930 by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), the precursor organization to the MPAA, the Production Code presented guidelines governing American movie production.

This collection consists of the extant files of cases from the records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts at Springfield with which Abraham Lincoln has been identified as legal counsel, and date from 1855 to 1861. The 122 case files reproduced here include civil actions brought under both statute and common law, admiralty litigation, and a few criminal cases.

The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was the most controversial and contentious program of the Work Projects Administration (WPA), an integral part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal." This bold, imaginative and wide-ranging enterprise is the key to understanding literature, culture and society in America during the Depression era.

This collection consists of the diaries, journals, and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans, and travelers. In addition, there are accounts on the development of farming and mining communities, family histories, and folklore. These accounts provide a view of the of the vast region between Lexington, Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama, which spans three and a half centuries and provides information on the social, political, economic, scientific, religious and agricultural characteristics of the region.

The Observer was a weekly newspaper published by the Command Information Division of the U.S. Military Assistance Command’s Office of Information. It was the official organ of the Military Assistance Command, and it carried official news about and for American troops in Vietnam. As such, it goes without saying that it was carefully edited to make certain it did not print news articles favorable to the communist enemy. The Military Assistance Command spread more than 80,000 weekly Observers among all points in Vietnam in which American troops were domiciled.

Western settlers created what we think of as the American West. Explorers came and went, soldiers came and went, miners and others came and went. But the settlers came to stay. For settlers, the ways of reaching a destination in the frontier country were either wretched ordeals or wondrous adventures. Fortunately, many of these men and women recorded daily events and their thoughts with such picturesque zest that some accounts of westward journeys have elements of great literature within them.

This collection on law and order documents the efforts of district attorneys from southern states to uphold federal laws in the states that fought in the Confederacy or were Border States. This publication includes their correspondence with the attorney general as well all other letters received by the attorney general from the states in question during that period, including the correspondence of marshals, judges, convicts, and concerned or aggrieved citizens.

This collection on law and order documents the efforts of district attorneys from southern states to uphold federal laws in the states that fought in the Confederacy or were Border States. This publication includes their correspondence with the attorney general as well all other letters received by the attorney general from the states in question during that period, including the correspondence of marshals, judges, convicts, and concerned or aggrieved citizens.

Spanning the years 1901-1918, this publication "devoted to the coal industry" provides a unique research opportunity. The coal industry was a major foundation for American industrialization. As a fuel source, coal provided a cheap and efficient source of power for steam engines, furnaces, and forges across America. As an economic pursuit, coal spurred innovations in technology, energy consumption, consumerism, and transportation. When mining companies brought increased sophistication to the organization of work in the mines, coal miners responded by organizing into trade unions. The influence of coal was so pervasive in America that by the advent of the twentieth century, it became a necessity of everyday life. This publication traces the expansion of the coal industry in the early twentieth century and brings to life the trials and tribulations of a burgeoning industry.

The Southern Literary Messenger enjoyed an impressive thirty-year run and was in its time the South's most important literary periodical. Avowedly a southern publication, it was also the one literary periodical published that was widely circulated and respected among a northern readership. Throughout much of its run, the journal avoided sectarian political and religious debates, but, the sectional crisis of the 1850s gave the contents of the magazine an increasingly partisan flavor. By 1860 the magazine's tone had shifted to a defiantly proslavery and pro-South stance. Scholars and students of history, journalism, and literature can discern much about how the hot-button topics of slavery and secession were presented in southern intellectual and literary culture in the early stages of the Civil War.

In time of war the duties of the State Department have always been expanded. During the War of 1812 Congress authorized the Secretary of State to issue commissions of letters of marque and reprisal to private armed vessels permitting them to "cruise against the enemies of the United States." Owners of merchant vessels filed applications for the commissions with the State Department or with collectors of customs. Also included are documents regarding privateers, permits for aliens to leave the U.S., reports from U.S. marshals on aliens and prisoners of war in their districts, reports on the impressment of seamen, and reports from the Department's "Secret Agents" on the movements of the British in the Chesapeake Bay area. The Department also had responsibility for negotiating the treaty at the end of the war.