Resources

The following are helpful links for students, historians, and history buffs. If you have suggestions for additional resources, please contact history@hawaii.edu.

Local Resources

UH Mānoa Library Collections

Learn about the UH Mānoa libraries here. Students frequently conduct research using Google Scholar, WorldCat, and JSTOR databases. The library offers research support, too.

Library staff has created a highly useful History Research Guide for students. Find out how to use digital collections and find primary sources.

Take advantage of the wonderful digitized collections which the UH libraries have created. Highlights include Hawaiian Language Newspapers; Lian Huan Hua Chinese Picture Story Books; Nuclear Diaspora: Bikini and Enewetak; and the Social Movements Collection. Visit the page to see dozens of other collections, organized by topic.

University of Hawaiʻi Archives and Manuscripts Department

Located in Hamilton Library, the archives host not only documents related to the history of the university, but also materials for most state and local representatives, making it a treasure trove of educational, political, and social history. (Some Hawaiʻi politicians have their papers archived elsewhere; Patsy Mink’s papers, for example, are held at the Library of Congress.) Highlights include their collections related to World War II, the history of different social and ethnic communities in Hawaiʻi, and materials on UH student life.

University of Hawaiʻi Museum

Curator Michael Thomas has put great online collections here, including photographs related to the history of fashion design in Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiʻi State Archives

If you’re doing research on the state of Hawaiʻi, a visit to the Hawaiʻi State Archives (either in person or via their digital collections) is not to be missed. Their reading room is open to the public, who can access a variety of one-of-a-kind historical documents. Their digital collections are also first-rate.

Other local resources of note

• Bishop Museum—Their online collection has great databases for research in Hawaiʻi and Pacific History.
• University of Hawaiʻi Museum curator Michael Thomas has put great online collections here, including photographs related to the history of fashion design in Hawaiʻi.
• Hawaiian Mission Houses
• Honolulu Museum of Art
• University of Hawaiʻi Insect Museum
• University of Hawaiʻi Center for Oral History
• Hawaiian Journal of History

National Resources

Library of Congress

For research, few institutions can beat the collections of the Library of Congress. For digitalized documents, photographs, sound files, and many other resources on US and World History. Access their digital collections or search the site by keyword. And of course, if you’re ever in the DC area, stop by in person!

National Archives

If the Library of Congress doesn’t have it, the National Archives very well might. Of special interest: archival databases with material on US foreign policy, military affairs, and genealogical information.

Smithsonian Institution

The online collections at the Smithsonian Institution are very rich and well-organized, making them easy for the student researcher to access. Their collections are particularly valuable in art, photographs, and historical artifacts.

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) has placed online hundreds of thousands of digitalized documents and artifacts for researchers. If you’re looking for a cool resource or to get ideas for future projects, their digital collection is a great starting place.

Other national/international collections:

• US Department of State—The Office of the Historian online collection is a must-visit site for any US or foreign diplomatic history research.
• American Museum of Natural History—Notable for digitalized collections of ethnographic objects from the Pacific.
• Wellcome Collection—Go to their online collections for history of science research.
• Harvard Library—Valuable research guides organized by subject.
• American Historical Association
• World History Association

History of History

Emeritus Professor Daniel W.Y. Kwok has written an account of the Department of History, from its birth to the University’s Centennial in 2006. Read History of History here.