Connecticut Digital Archive

The Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA) is part of the Digital Preservation Repository Program at the University of Connecticut. Institutions from across the state participate in the program and upload their digitized collection to the CTDA. Among its collections are the Newspapers of Connecticut, which features several 19th century newspapers from across the program’s participating institutions. Other Collections are usually organized by institution. Those which feature early American materials include the Barnum Museum, the Bridgeport History Center, the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, the Hartford Medical Society, the Hartford Public Library, the Litchfield Historical Society, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, the Stanley-Whitman House, the Town of Woodbridge, the University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Connecticut Historical Society Digital Catalog

The Connecticut Historical Society has digitized several of its early American collections. Its Graphics Collection and its Connecticut Images Collection consist of thousands of digitized broadsides, imprints, lithographs, photographs, and portraits, many of which are from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are also dozens of Manuscript Collections, many of which relate to early America. Among these are the American Revolution Collection, the Charlotte and Samuel Cowles Correspondence, 1833-1841, 1846, the Connecticut Soldiers’ Orphan Home Records, Volume 1, 1865-1875, the Connecticut Soldiers’ Orphan Home Records, Volume 2, 1866-1875, the French and Indian War Collection, 1743-1763, the George Washington Letters, 1776-1799, the Governor Thomas Fitch Papers, the Haiti Collection, 1796-1888, the John Trumbull (artist) Papers, the Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. Papers, 1753-1832, the Jonathan Trumbull Sr. Papers, 1637-1789, the Joseph Trumbull Papers, the Letters of Joseph O. Cross, 1864-1865, the Mary Tilden Documents, 1732-1733, the Oliver Wolcott Jr. Papers, the Oliver Wolcott Sr. Papers, the Punderson Family Papers, 1751-1889, the Rev. Samuel Parris Sermons, 1689-1695, the Samson Occom Papers, the Silas Deane Papers, and the Williams Family Papers. Several other collections of single letters, account books, and family papers are also available in the Manuscript Collections.

Connecticut State Library Digital Collections

The Connecticut State Library is home to a terrific collection of early Connecticut records, many of which have been digitized. Its holdings are especially rich in colonial and state records, including the Founding Documents of Connecticut. The Courts collections cover over a dozen individual cases, while the Samuel Wyllys Papers consist of 88 documents related to various cases of assault, drunkenness, theft, and witchcraft. A collection of Portraits provides digitized images of Connecticut state officials dating back to the 1840s. Other materials digitized by the State Library include various Account Books, Diaries and Journals, the Chauncey Hosford War of 1812 Papers, a collection of Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, the Newspapers of Connecticut, and the Personal and Family Vital Records. The Digital Collections are also home to Treasures of Connecticut Libraries, a joint project between the Connecticut State Library and the Library Connection Consortium that provides digital access to partnering institutions’ materials.

Digital Collections at the Beinecke Library

The Digital Collections at Beinecke Library provides digital access to some the Beinecke Library’s most cherished collections, including many related to the early Americas. Several photographic collections offer a glimpse of the 19th century, such as the Carl Mautz Collection of Cartes-De-Visite Photographs, Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh’s Photographs and Drawings of the Colorado River Region, the Mammoth Plate Photographs of the North American West, the Photographs of Indians Selected from the Collection in the Possession of the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, and the Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection. Early American art, music, and poetry can be found in the Cary Playing Card Database, the Franz R. and Kathryn M. Stenzel Collection of western American Art, the Frederick R. Koch Collection, 1640-1983, the Illustrations of American Indians, and the Walt Whitman Collection. Those researching early American cartography may find the collection of Early American Maps and the Lewis and Clark Expedition Maps, ca. 1803-1810 of interest. African American history is richly detailed in the Amos Beman Scrapbooks, 1830-1858, the manuscript memoir of Austin Reed, The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict, or the Inmate of a Gloomy Prison, the Drawings of the Amistad Prisoners, New Haven, the Federal Writers’ Project Negro Group Papers, 1927-1940, the manuscript novels Hannah Crafts, The Bondwoman’s Narrative and Savannah, or, the Form of a Servant, and the Walter O. Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers. Materials related to abolition and slavery may be found in the Bourne Family Papers, 1793-1919 and the Thomas Thistlewood Papers. Sources on Native Americans are available in the Kilpatrick Collection of Cherokee Manuscripts and the Richard Henry Pratt Papers. Westward expansion is documented in the Joseph Goldsborough Bruff Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks. Women’s history resources are abundant in the Edith Wharton Collection. Other materials important to early American history include the Jonathan Edwards Collection, the Codex Reese, and the Yale Tocqueville Manuscripts, ca. 1802-1840.

Mystic Seaport Museum Digital Library

The Mystic Seaport Museum specializes in the maritime history of Connecticut. Its Digital Library contains an extensive amount of Yacht Registers, Ship Registers, and Imprints. Many of the Museum’s Manuscript Collections, especially its 18th and 19th century holdings, have also been digitized, as well as dozens of Individual Items.

Trinity College Digital Repository

The Trinity College Digital Repository contains various early American sources. Much of these materials are held by the Watkinson Library, which houses the rare books and special collections of Trinity College. Highlights include the John James Audubon Letters and the Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) Correspondence and Related Documents.