American Revolution and Founding Era, 1765-1800

Gateway to the American Revolution.

Brief explanations of the events leading up the Revolution with supporting primary documents. Created by the Massachusetts Historical Society with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the American Revolution that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the American Revolution and a bibliography.

Official companion site to the PBS documentary series Liberty! Created by H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The home of courageous Revolutionary War hero, General Nicholas Herkimer.

In partnership with Hudson River Valley Heritage, Historic Huguenot Street is able to exhibit a growing number of their collections online.

The collections in New York Heritage represent a broad range of historical, scholarly, and cultural materials held in libraries, museums, and archives throughout the state. Collection items include photographs, letters, diaries, directories, maps, newspapers, books, and more.

The historical collections include a large array of 18th and 19th century historical materials from many subject areas, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Native American materials, New York State laws and natural history. While books make up the core collection, other primary source materials include: letters, diaries, rare manuscripts, historic photographs, illustrations, maps, broadsides, drawings and music scores.

New York’s rich heritage in the fight for independence includes bloody struggles between the Patriots and the Loyalists, and the battles that became known as the “Turning Point of the Revolution.” One-third of the Revolutionary War’s battles were fought in New York State, and George Washington said that whoever held the Hudson River and New York City controlled “the safety of America.”

In the critical months that General George Washington spent at Newburgh, he made some of his most important contributions to shaping the American republic.

The papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his personal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and correspondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families.

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Over 183,000 searchable documents, fully annotated, from the authoritative Founding Fathers Papers projects.

The complete George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 65,000 documents. This is the largest collection of original Washington documents in the world. Document types in the collection as a whole include correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries, journals, financial account books, military records, reports, and notes accumulated by Washington from 1741 through 1799.

American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity.

The Avalon Project is maintained by the Lillian Goldman Law Library of the Yale Law School. This page contains digital documents in chronological order from 1764-1783.

A living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.