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The University of Iowa Archives have put online scans of Civil War diaries, including soldiers held at Andersonville Prison, with full transcriptions to make sense of that 1800s penmanship.

This site is part of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. It would be extremely useful for civil rights units. This is a nice collection of some of Eisenhower's most important correspondence during the Little Rock High School integration crisis. It is also neat to read them because they are scans of the actual typed documents and not just transcriptions. It seems more authentic when students can see the real thing. His notes, diaries, telegrams, letters and press releases really help to show how Eisenhower handled the situation. (Note: There is even an exchange of letters between Jackie Robinson and the president in which they discuss how blacks need to be patient for civil rights)

This site is presented by the Virginia Center for Digital History and the University of Virginia Library. It showcases two communities during the Civil War. One count was in the north, and one was in the south. It provides an interesting case study of life on both sides of the war. Students and teachers can use this site to compare maps, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, speeches and records in both communities. It also organizes the war into three eras: the eve of war, the war years, and the aftermath.

This site offers a plethora of primary source documents from the Civil War. From photographs to battle maps and diaries to speeches this site is a great resource for teaching students to do the real work of historians with primary sources. Instead of copying answers students can make their own, as McKenzie would say.

This site draws from a number of collections (University of California Berkeley, The California Historical Society, and hosted by the Library of Congress). It includes photos, artwork, letters, diaries, and legal documents. The documents touch on the Immigration experience for people coming to the West Coast from China as well as document many of the contributions made by Chinese Immigrants.

Similar to our own Nebraska Memories site, this site provides a wealth of information dealing with Kansas history. This includes photos, letters, diaries, government records and much more. They also have the documents organized in a number of ways including topically and by date in addition to search capabilities. This site could be especially helpful when learning about Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War and Plains settlement.

This interesting site offering many documents regarding World War I. Official papers are included but there are also diaries and memorials of every day people. In addition, the site links to other helpful World War I sites.

This site talks about the causes of the Civil War and has letters, memoirs and diaries of people that lived through the Civil War. It would give kids a better feeling about how people felt at the time the war was going on.

This cite shares differing points of views during the civil war. This site includes letters to and from family members, soldiers, slaves, women and children. It would be interesting to compare the letters to the social studies books kids use in class.

This site gives personal narratives from slaves during the Civil War and after.

This site includes diaries, autobiographies and travel accounts from ex-slaves. I would use this site in the study of the Civil War to give the students a better understanding of what the slaves thought of their situation.