Digital Public Library of America

Discover 29,975,726 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States

Join us for DPLAfest 2019: Future Shapers, Culture Makers

Taking place in Chicago on April 17-18, 2019, DPLAfest will explore how libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural organizations across the country leverage technology to serve, inform, and empower communities.

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Online Exhibitions

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Two Hundred Years on the Erie Canal

The Show Must Go On! American Theater in the Great Depression

Staking Claims: The Gold Rush in Nineteenth-Century America

Bread and Roses Strike of 1912: Two Months in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that Changed Labor History

Primary Source Sets

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Women in the Civil War

Electrifying America

Beginnings of the American Red Cross

Texas Revolution

The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

How can I use DPLA?

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Education

Educators and students explore our Primary Source Sets to discover history and culture through primary sources and ideas for classroom use.

Family Research

Genealogists use our search tools to find free materials for their family history research projects.

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Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learners enjoy browsing by topic and viewing Online Exhibitions to learn more about their interests.

Scholarly Research

Scholarly researchers use DPLA to find open access sources from archives across the country through a single portal.

If you’re new to DPLA, these research guides will give you a head start using our site. The guides reflect a few key activities that attract visitors to DPLA, but you can explore many other interests here too.

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DPLA News

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DPLA Update Q&A
November 14, 2018
STAFF CHANGES Q: Why did DPLA eliminate six positions? A: We had to think critically about structuring the staff to ensure that we can sustain the organization in the long…
DPLA Update
November 14, 2018
For the past several months, the leadership and board of the Digital Public Library of America have been developing and refining a strategy that will enable us to build on…
DPLA Welcomes Laura DeBonis and Katherine Maher to Board of Directors
October 2, 2018
We are thrilled to announce that Katherine Maher, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, and independent consultant Laura DeBonis have joined the Digital Public Library of America’s Board of Directors.…