Close to 3,000 life histories from 1936–1940, compiled and transcribed by the staff of the Folklore Project, are presented here. They are part of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA). Documents represent the work of more than 300 writers from 24 states. The histories, usually between 2,000 and 15,000 words in length, take the form of narratives, dialogs, reports, and case histories. Drafts and revisions are included. A typical history may offer information on family life, education, income, occupation, political views, religion, mores, medical needs, diet, and observations on society and culture.

"Voices from the Thirties,” illustrated with photographs of the project's staff at work, interviewees, and their environment, provides contextual information on the creation of the collection. This multifaceted site offers firsthand accounts on subjects such as slavery, 19th-century American folk cultures, and the social history of the Great Depression.

This comprehensive collection presents texts by and about the major figures of American Transcendentalism, a New England intellectual movement that began in the mid-1830s and lasted into the late 1840s. The movement has had a much longer legacy, however, in American literature, philosophy, religion, and political and social reform. Some materials are available on the website; others are provided through links.

Eleven major authors are featured—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Dr. William Ellery Channing, his son William Ellery Channing, Theodore Parker, Amos Bronson Alcott, Jones Very, Christopher Cranch, Orestes Brownson, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Texts are also retrievable according to themes and genre. Resources include more than 100 selections from The Dial, a journal created by the Transcendentalist Club in 1840 that lasted for four years, and informative essays that provide an historic overview.

Offering 16 separate databases of digitized materials, this website provides firsthand accounts (diaries, letters, and memoirs) and literary efforts (poetry, drama, and fiction). Twelve databases pertain to American history and culture.

"Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment" offers primary sources documenting cultural interactions from 1534 to 1850. "The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries" draws on more than 400 sources and supplies a day-by-day chronology with links to documents. "Black Thought and Culture" furnishes monographs, speeches, essays, articles, and interviews. "North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories" covers 1840 to the present. "North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950" provides full-text letters and diaries from more than 1,000 women—totaling more than 21,000 documents and approximately 120,000 pages—written between 1675 and 1950.

Five databases present American literary writings: "Latino Literature"; "Black Drama"; "Asian American Drama"; "North American Women's Drama"; and "American Film Scripts Online." In addition, "Oral History Online" provides a reference work with links to texts, audio, and video files. While the databases include previously published documents, many also contain thousands of pages of unpublished material. In addition to keyword searching, the databases provide "semantic indexing"—extensive categorical search capabilities.