Online Resources What is this? Our online resources are sets of digitized items which have been organized either around a common topic, such as the American Revolution, or to highlight a specific collection, such as the papers of Thomas Jefferson.

Era: circa 1821-1860 | Pick a different topic

Early Photographs

Online Feature  Early Photographs
Online presentation of early photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and stereoviews) depicting people and places.
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Full title: Early Photographs from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Browse online presentations of early photographs from the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS). These images include portraits taken by some of Boston's most notable photographers as well as depictions of locations in and around Boston.

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Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865

Online Feature  Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865
Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865, features important manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts from the Massachusetts Historical Society's collections that convey how Boston became a center of the national antislavery movement.
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Full title: Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865

The Massachusetts Historical Society holds many important manuscripts, photographs and artifacts that relate to the abolitionist movement in Boston. This website includes a range of materials from the first antislavery tract published in America, The Selling of Joseph by Samuel Sewall, (printed in New England in 1700) to a broadsheet with William Nell's tribute in December 1865 to last issue of The Liberator (the country's leading abolitionist newspaper).

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Antislavery Images

Digital Collection  Antislavery Images
Online displays of photographs, paintings, and other visual materials illustrating the role of Massachusetts in the national debate over slavery.
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Full title: Images of the Antislavery Movement in Massachusetts

This website presents digital images of 840 visual materials from the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society that illustrate the role of Massachusetts in the national debate over slavery. Included are photographs, paintings, sculptures, engravings, artifacts, banners, and broadsides that were central to the debate and the formation of the antislavery movement.

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Timeline Relating to the Adams Family

Web Resource 
Chronology of key events in the lives of members of the Adams family from 1735 until 1889.

Diaries of John Quincy Adams

Digital Collection  Diaries of John Quincy Adams
Images of all the pages (over 14,000) within 51 volumes of John Quincy Adams's diary, ranging in date from 1779 to 1848.
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Full title: The Diaries of John Quincy Adams: A Digital Collection

This digital collection presents images of the 51 volumes of John Quincy Adams' diary in the Adams Family Papers. Adams began keeping his diary in 1779 at the age of twelve and continued until shortly before his death in 1848. There are over 14,000 pages within these diaries and a date search tool is available.

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Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture (available in the MHS reading room)

Subscription Database  Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture (available in the MHS reading room)
This digital resource features some manuscript and printed sources from the MHS related to the expansion, accessibility, and affordability of mass tourism.
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Full title: Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture: The History of Tourism

This digital resource presents primary sources on the rise of mass tourism from 1850 and the 1980s. Printed sources and manuscripts from the Massachusetts Historical Society as well as other repositories are included. Published by Adam Matthew, this resource is available to researchers who visit the MHS library in person. It is also available at many college and university libraries.

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China, America and the Pacific (available in the MHS reading room)

Subscription Database  China, America and the Pacific (available in the MHS reading room)
Many MHS collections on the China trade are included in this digital resource published by Adam Matthew that provides access to primary source materials about the trading and cultural relationships between China, America and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
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Full title: China, America and the Pacific (an Adam Matthew digital resource)

This digital resource containing collections from the Massachusetts Historical Society as well as content from other repositories explores the cultural and trading relationships that emerged between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. This resource, published by Adam Matthew, is available to researchers who visit the MHS in person and use our reading room. It is also available in many college and university libraries.

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