Research Guides: History: Personal Accounts

Letters and Diaries

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
This collection contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Spans more than 400 years of personal writings, bringing together the voices of women from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

Civil War in Words and Deeds
Regimental histories and personal narratives, compiled in the postwar period and early 20th Century period, chronicle the highs and lows of army life from 1861 through 1865.

Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Contains personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The collection is drawn entirely from the extensive holdings of the American Antiquarian Society.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to personal narratives including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories. Materials date from 1784 – 2004.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to letters and diaries of over 1,325 North American women. Materials date from colonial times - 1950.
Women's Issues and Identities This link opens in a new window
Provides access to diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, journals and more. Focus is on the 19th and 20th centuries and the issues that have affected women, societal contributions, social status, and women's movements. Content is from 1775 to present.

Oral Histories

Oral History Online This link opens in a new window
Oral History Online provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. The collections include full text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life.

Oral History Collection at Musselman Library/Special Collections & College Archives
A collection of oral histories documenting Gettysburg College, World War II and the Vietnam War, and the Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary. Browse by theme or by last name of interviewee.

MUSCAT Plus

You can also locate published personal narratives in MUSCAT Plus, the library catalog, using a keyword or subject search.

Using a keyword search, you can add an event, person, place, or other detail AND any of the words below.

-- diaries

-- correspondence

-- sources

-- personal narratives

-- interviews

-- documents

Once you're looking at a title, look at the subjects at the bottom of the record. Clicking on the subject with your term will retrieve related titles.

Ex: United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives