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United States History Since 1866 (HIST144)

History 144 Syllabus Fall 2021 DESCRIPTION This introductory United States history course explores people's unique experiences in the United Stabs within regional, national and global contexb. Focusing on the period after 1-865, we will examine how racism, ethnicity, imperialism, and migration have fundamentally shaped the nation and its diversity. Key questions we will address in the class are: What forces have driven people to migrate to the United States? What factors have contributed to inequality in American society? How have black, Indigenous and people of color fought for equality and democrary? And ultimately, what or who, is an American?

Digital Archives from CWU The archives at Central Washington University was established as the repository for official and unofficial records that document the history of the university. It serves as a regional repository to preserve and promote the unique cultural history of central Washington. Here you will find digitized photographs, videos, audio recordings, and documents held by the CWU Archives and Special Collections.
Ditital Archives related to Central Washington at CWU This page highlights collaborative work between the James E. Brooks Library and the greater central Washington community. As part of Central Washington University’s ongoing mission to engage and serve our greater community, the Archives and Special Collections Department works to preserve and offer access to local history collections. Many of these collections highlight the earliest visual history of Ellensburg and Kittitas County, as seen in the collections below.
Ellensburg Heritage Ellensburg Heritage is a project of Washington Rural Heritage, a collection of historically significant materials residing in libraries, heritage institutions, and private collections throughout Washington State. The collection includes photographs, documents, and artifacts that tell the stories of Washington's small and rural communities. Ellensburg Heritage is coordinated by the Ellensburg Public Library, which works with local heritage organizations, such as the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame, to digitize and provide enhanced access to historically significant materials documenting the history of Ellensburg and communities throughout central Washington. The Ellensburg Public Library's Local History Collection and Archives consists of nearly 7,000 historical photographs covering a wide variety of subjects. The photographs in the collections have been donated to or purchased for the library. Many of the photographs are copies from Kittitas Valley residents' personal collections.
Finding Aids for CWU Archives Finding aids for CWU archives are found in Archives West, which also houses finding aids from the five pacific northwest states.
Genealogy Resources from the National Archives Genealogy Resources from the National Archives include Census, Military, Immigration (Ship Passenger Lists), Naturalization, and Land records. There are also many links and resources about how to research teh national archives.
James E. Brooks Library @CWU CWU Libraries is committed to being a full partner with students and faculty in providing transformative teaching, learning, and research. We provide a wide variety of services, resources, and programs. We seek to make our offerings even more deeply integrated with the needs of our students and the greater CWU community.
Primary Source Databases @CWU CWU libraries has subscriptions to over 100 databases with primary source documents.
Washington Rural Heritage Washington Rural Heritage provides access to digitized primary sources documenting the early culture, industry, and community life of Washington State. The collection is an ongoing project of small, rural libraries and partnering cultural institutions, guided by an initiative of the Washington State Library (WSL), Office of the Secretary of State, and funded under the provisions of the Library and Services Technology Act (LSTA) from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The initiative provides the infrastructure and training to both digitize and serve unique collections to a widespread audience.

Primary sources and citations

Archives West Archives West provides access to descriptions of primary sources in the western United States, including correspondence, diaries or photographs. Digital reproductions of the materials are available in some cases.
Library of Congress Finding Aids Finding aids provide a gateway to this wealth of Library treasures, helping you discover and navigate through the thousands of boxes and folders that house each collection. These guides provide comprehensive overviews of unique Library resources. Progressively detailed descriptions of a collection's component parts summarize the overall scope of the content, convey details about the individuals and organizations involved, and list box and folder headings. Special service conditions are noted, including terms under which the collection may be accessed or copied. Links are provided to digitized content, when available.

Primary Sources

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups are also primary sources. In the natural and social sciences, primary sources are often empirical studies—research where an experiment was performed or a direct observation was made. The results of empirical studies are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research.

Citing Archival Materials ( Physical) The document: The creator or author, specific item title, page, section, date. Box and file number: The majority of materials found in archives, that are not books, are housed in some sort of container and within the container the various items are separated for various reasons in files. Repository: This is the name of the archives.
Citing DIgitzed Primary Sources Some archives also have their own system of assigning unique identifying numbers for digital items. If a digital item has a unique number assigned to it, you should include it as the first element in your citation. This should be followed by the collection’s unique identifier and collection name. Then include the archives name, its institutional affiliation, and location. Finally include digital reference information: the DOI, if available; a general URL for the archives, such as www.universityarchives.edu, and a date accessed.

Digital collections

Remember, when searching online, to consider the trustworthiness of websites. URLs ending in .gov (government sites), .edu (sites by universities and educational institutions), and .org (sites by non-profit organizations) will usually yield the most accurate information. You can limit your search results to trustworthy domain names by adding "inurl:edu" or "inurl:gov" or "inurl:org" to your search (see below).

Using this technique, you can find many primary resources online. The following are only a sampling of the sites that offer digital collections of photos, documents, and more.

Alaska, Western Canada and United States Collection (University of Washington)
This digital collection features historic photographs documenting the geographic area of Alaska, the western United States and the Canadian provinces of Yukon Territory and British Columbia. The collection features images of Oregon, Idaho, and areas of interest in Alaska and the Yukon Territory relating to the Gold Rush of 1898-1900.

American Memory
This site by the Library of Congress contains more than 9 million manuscripts, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and pieces of music pertaining to the history of the United States.

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Yale Law School hosts this collection of primary materials dating from 4000 B.C.E. to the 21st century. Included are the full text of laws, colony charters, acts, and declarations, presidential proclamations, treaties and formal negotiations affecting the United States judiciary system and governmental foreign policy in general.

Central Washington University ScholarWorks
This is the institutional repsoitory of scholarship from Central Washington University faculty and students. It also contains collections that highlight the history, nature and culture of Central Washington University and the central Washington region. Community Projects have digitized content related to regional history including many oral history interviews in hte Suncadia collections. Within University Archives are CWU yearbooks, newspapers, newsletters, and meeting minutes, as well as photos of campus buildings and surrounding areas.

Digital Collections (University of Washington)
See these collections for thousands of photographs, maps, newspapers, posters, reports and other media on topics relevant to the Pacific Northwest.

Eric A. Hegg Photographs (University of Washington)
Photographs documenting the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes from 1897 - 1901. Images include depictions of frontier life in Dawson City, the Yukon Territory, and Skagway and Nome, Alaska.

Washington State Digital Archives
This digital archives is dedicated to the preservation of electronic records from both state and local agencies that have permanent legal, fiscal or historical value in Washington state. Archival materials include audits, death records, birth records, property records, maps, surveys, family histories, court cases, and more.

WSU Archives Digital Collections
Includes photographs, documents, and maps on the history of eastern Washington, Native Americans, and more.

United States History Since 1866 (HIST144)

Digital Primary Sources

Senior Lecturer, Archives and Special Collections

United States History Since 1866 (HIST144)

Primary sources and citations

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Digital collections