Family reunions reconnect people with their shared history – a history encompassing life’s milestones, travels, and the influence of regional, national and global events. Names and dates form a portion of a family tree. A family’s story unfolds with the addition of photographs, diaries, memorabilia, and maps describing the locations and events that shaped the lives of family members. Below is a brief selection of the resources available to assist the researcher in recreating the stories that define and shape a family tree.

~ Groups ~

The African-American Experience in Ohio: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society, 1850-1920
Texts and images describing the history of black Ohio from 1850 to 1920, a story of slavery and freedom, segregation and integration, religion and politics, migrations and restrictions, harmony and discord, and struggles and successes.

The Chinese in California, 1850 - 1925
Images and texts describing the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California and the specific contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries.

Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian: Photographic Images
Photographs and text portraying the traditional customs and lifeways of eighty Indian tribes, organized by tribes and culture areas.

Omaha Indian Music
Recordings of songs and speeches and photographs from the 1890s and 1980s.

~ Places ~

Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present
Images documenting achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies including examples as diverse as the Pueblo of Acoma, houses, windmills, one-room schools, the Golden Gate Bridge, and buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Map Collections, 1500-2004
Maps grouped in seven categories: Cities & Towns, Conservation and Environment, Cultural Landscapes, Discovery & Exploration, General, Military Battles & Campaigns, and Transportation & Communication.

Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910
Texts portraying the states through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works.

~ Society & Culture ~

American Life Histories: Manuscripts From the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1940

Life histories of individuals throughout the United States describing family education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous observations.

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
Proclamations, advertisements, blank forms, programs, election tickets, catalogs, clippings, timetables, and menus capturing the everyday activities of ordinary people who participated in the events of nation-building and experienced the growth of the nation from the American Revolution through the Industrial Revolution up to present day

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938
Photographs of former slaves and sound recordings of first-person accounts of slavery.

"California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900

Texts and illustrations describing the pioneer experience; encounters between Anglo-Americans and the diverse peoples who had preceded them; the transformation of the land; and the growth of communities and cities.

California Gold: Northern California Folk Music From the Thirties

Sound recordings, photographs, drawings, and written documents from a variety of European ethnic and English- and Spanish-speaking communities in Northern California.

The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925
Texts documenting how the black community adapted evangelical Christianity, making it a metaphor for freedom, community, and personal survival.

First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
Diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives of not only prominent individuals, but also of relatively inaccessible populations: women, African Americans, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans.

Hispano Music & Culture from the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection
Sound recordings and texts documenting the religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Books, 1850-1877
Texts primarily comprised of poetry and the themes of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals, 1850-1877
Twenty-three popular periodicals including literary and political magazines.

The Northern Great Plains: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F. A. Pazantak Collections; 1880-1920
Photographs of rural and small town life at the turn of the century, featuring images of sod homes, farms, farm machinery, and one-room schools.

"Now What a Time": Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943

Sound recordings, primarily blues and gospel songs, and related documentation from the folk festival at Fort Valley State College (now Fort Valley State University), Fort Valley, Georgia.

Southern Mosiac: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip

Texts, photographs, and sound recordings representing a broad spectrum of traditional musical styles, including ballads, blues, children's songs, cowboy songs, fiddle tunes, field hollers, lullabies, play-party songs, religious dramas, spirituals, and work songs

~ Wars ~

(see Map Collections for maps of the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and the World War II Normandy Invasion)

America From the Great Depression to World War II, 1935-1945
Photographs documenting rural life and the negative impact of the Great Depression, farm mechanization, the Dust Bowl, and the mobilization effort for World War II.

Civil War Treasures from the New York Historical Society, 1861-1865
Recruiting posters for New York City regiments of volunteers; stereographic views documenting the mustering of soldiers and of popular support for the Union in New York City; photography showing the war's impact, both in the north and south; and drawings and writings by ordinary soldiers on both sides.

The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
Correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries, journals, financial account books, military records, reports, and notes accumulated by Washington from 1741 through 1799.

“Suffering Under a Great Injustice”: Ansel Adams’s Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar, 1943
Portraits, views of daily life, agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities of the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II.

Digital Resources from the Library of Congress