Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and naval strategist, made many voyages to the Americas in the late 16th century and circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1580. This collection of important primary and secondary materials about Drake's voyages in the Americas offers 60 items in various languages, including manuscripts, books, maps, medals, and portraits.

Assembled by Hans Peter Kraus, a 20th-century collector, the main presentation is Kraus's pictorial biography of Drake. The essay also features an extensive seven-part introduction by scholars David W. Waters and Dr. Richard Boulind. A timeline presents Drake's voyages with links to documents. "The Actors and Their Stage" highlights material on the key people in Drake's life, places from his voyages, and images of Drake's ship, the Golden Hind, and Armada battles.

Diaries documenting the westward treks of 45 men and four women during the period of the California Gold Rush and the westward migration of Mormonism are presented in this site. Although most of these travelers took either the California or Mormon trails, a few diaries provide accounts describing life on trails to Oregon and Montana.

The diaries are complemented by 82 photographs and illustrations in addition to 43 maps, including an interactive map displaying trails, cities, rivers, and landmarks. There are seven published guides, two essays on the Mormon and California trails, brief biographies of most of the diarists, and a list of suggested readings. This is an excellent collection of materials that documents 49 individual perspectives on a movement that encompassed an estimated 500,000 people.

These 11 exhibits address the history of California and San Francisco. Topics include the Gold Rush of 1849; earthquakes of 1906 and 1989; the history of the city's fire department; construction of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges; and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. These exhibits provide timelines and links to more than 200 primary documents and images, including newspaper articles, diary entries, oral histories, photographs, political cartoons, and engravings. Two exhibits are hyperlinked chronologies pertaining to San Francisco during World War II and the rock music scene in the city from 1965 to 1969.

Documents can be accessed according to subject, with more than 25 documents listed on the Chinese-American community, fairs and expositions, and labor issues. The site also contains more than 150 biographies of prominent San Franciscans.

This archive records the histories of people affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), including more than 150,000 stories and more than 40,000 emails from around the world. The site is constantly growing and the sources are viewable through galleries. Items include still images, with photographs, digital art, and artwork; moving images, with video files and digital animations; documents, including flyers, reports, and articles; and stories, emails, and voicemails.

The supporting information is strong as well. The FAQ section includes numerous links with information about the chronology and a timeline, including flight paths and building collapses; information about hijackers, victims, and rescuers; memorials and rebuilding efforts; and the 9/11 Commission Report. Visitors are invited to submit their own recollections.

This expansive archive of American history and culture features more than nine million items dating from 1490 to the present. Currently this site includes material from 120 collections, some from libraries and archives around the world.

Strengths include the early republic, with documents and papers on the Continental Congress, U.S. Congress, early Virginia religious petitions, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson; the Civil War, including Abraham Lincoln's papers and Mathew Brady photographs; and exploration and settlement of the West. Collections offer papers of inventors, such as Alexander Graham Bell, Emile Berliner, Samuel F. B. Morse, and the Wright Brothers; and composers, such as Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland.

The site also features New Deal-era documentation projects, such as Farm Security Administration photographs, Federal Writers' Project life histories, the Historic American Buildings Survey, and the Library's own "Man on the Street" interviews following the Pearl Harbor attack. Entertainment history is amply represented with collections on the American Variety Stage, Federal Theatre Project, early cinema, and early sound recordings. African American history, ethnic history, women's history, folk music, sheet music, maps, and photography also are well documented.

Digitized images from materials not included in specific American Memory sites may be searched using the Library's Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, where users can browse images by topic or search the Library's holdings.

Created to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake, this exhibit and archive features an extensive collection of primary source material, an interactive map, and a 360-degree view of the damage to the city. The primary sources include thousands of images and text files available, offering more than 8,000 photographs, 500 cityscapes, and 500 letters, as well as a host of additional resources, such as broadsides, oral history texts, periodical articles, photomechanical prints, reports, and stereographs. Visitors can browse the archive by genre or subject or search by keyword, subject, genre, or geographic location.

The exhibit has five galleries, each with several text/photograph displays: San Francisco before the fire; the earthquake; the fire, including a map showing burned districts; the story of refugees and survivors; and reconstruction. The interactive map divides San Francisco into 10 regions, each of which can be browsed or searched for images taken in that region. It also includes 11 aerial cityscape views. The 360-degree panoramic view of San Francisco shortly after the disaster is composed of 11 separate photographs taken from the roof of the Fairmont Hotel.

This collection presents the complete run—from February 8, 1918 to June 13, 1919—of the "official newspaper" of the U.S. Army fighting forces during World War I. The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were formed in May 1917 following U.S. entrance into the war. Stars and Stripes was created by order of the AEF supreme commander, General John J. Pershing, to strengthen morale and promote unity among soldiers. Professionals from the newspaper industry joined the staff, including a few well-known journalists. At its peak, the weekly newspaper reached more than half a million soldiers, providing news of the war, sports reports, cartoons, news from home, and poetry.

A special presentation includes essays on the newspaper's contents, staff, advertising, military censorship, the American Expeditionary Forces, and the role women played in the war effort. Search the full text or browse individual issues.

Interactive exhibitions and resources address the Holocaust and related subjects. The site is composed of five sections: education, research, history, remembrance, and conscience.

"Education" introduces the subject of the Holocaust and provides extensive bibliographies. "Research" contains a survivor registry and an international directory of activities relating to Holocaust-era assets. Searchable catalogs pertaining to the Museum's collections and library are easy to navigate to find artworks, artifacts, documents, photographs, films, videos, oral histories, and music. "History" includes the Holocaust Learning Center, with images, essays, and documents on 75 subjects, such as anti-Semitism, refugees, pogroms, extermination camps, and resistance. "Committee on Conscience" contains information on current genocidal practices in Sudan.

This massive, searchable archive compares two Shenandoah Valley counties during the Civil War period—Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA. These two counties were divided by 200 miles and the institution of slavery. Thousands of pages of maps, images, letters, diaries, and newspapers, in addition to church, agricultural, military, and public records provide data, experiences, and perspectives from the eve of the war until its aftermath. The site furnishes timelines, bibliographies, and other materials intended to foster research into the Civil War and the lives of those affected by it. The website includes a section on John Brown and one entitled "Memory of the War," presenting postwar writings on battles, the lives of soldiers, reunions, obituaries and tributes, and politics.

This collection of more than 1,230 images depicts the enslavement of Africans, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and slave life in the New World. Images are arranged in 18 categories, including pre-Colonial Africa, capture of slaves, maps, slave ships, plantation scenes, physical punishment, music, free people of color, family life, religion, marketing, and emancipation.

Many of the images are from 17th- and 18th-century books and travel accounts, but some are taken from sketches within slave narratives, Harper's Weekly, and Monthly Magazine. Reference information and brief comments, often an excerpt from original captions, accompany each image. Although there is no interpretation or discussion of historical relevance, these images are valuable for learning about representations of slavery in American slave societies, especially in the Caribbean and Latin America.