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Historical Documents

Ratified Indian Treaty 37: Eel River, Wyandot,Piankashaw, Kaskaskia, and Kickapoo—Vincennes, Indiana Territory, August 7, 1803

Hundreds of Native American Treaties Digitized for the First Time

The National Archives has scanned more than 300 agreements between the United States and Indigenous tribes

New fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with writing visible.

Text Found on Supposedly Blank Dead Sea Scroll Fragments

Invisible to the naked eye, researchers revealed lines of ancient script in new photographs

A broadsheet campaigned to save the house once owned by John Hancock.

How Historic Preservation Shaped the Early United States

A new book details how the young nation regarded its recent and more ancient pasts

Around half of the university's 100 "manuscript cookbooks" are now available online.

Education During Coronavirus

Dozens of Historic Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Available Online

The University of Texas San Antonio’s vast collection makes traditional Mexican and Mexican-American cooking accessible

The Evidence Room represents thousands of pages of testimony that was assembled by Robert Jan van Pelt, an architectural historian and the main expert witness in a British lawsuit brought by a Holocaust denier.

Using Art to Talk About the Holocaust in ‘The Evidence Room’

Museum staff discuss the reception of a difficult work that showed the vivid and painful documentation of a Nazi death camp

Trending Today

Help Find the Owners of More Than 100 Recovered Artworks

Stolen around Los Angeles in 1993, the paintings and antiques were recently recovered by LAPD when some were brought to an auction house

Humble lettuce, according to John Evelyn, “may safely be eaten raw in Fevers; for it allays Heat, bridles Choler, extinguishes Thirst, excites Appetite, kindly Nourishes, and above all reprelles Vapours, conciliates Sleep, mitigates Pain.”

A 17th-Century Ode to Salads Is Heading to Auction

‘Acetaria’ celebrates the healthful benefits of meatless dining

Trove of English Court Records Reveal Stories of Murder, Witchcraft, Cheese Theft

Archivists are cataloging documents from the Assizes court in the Isle of Ely, which tried serious crimes

Clare "Kitty" Weaver poses next to the first public display of her ancestor's copy of the Navajo Treaty of 1868 prior to the 150th Commemoration of its signature at Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner, N.M. in June 2018.

A Historic Treaty Has Been Returned to the Navajo

Signed in 1868, the document brought an end to the Navajo’s imprisonment on a reservation in New Mexico

Anne Frank wrote the letters between 1936 and 1941, a period predating the events of her famed diary.

Letters Anne Frank Wrote to Her Grandmother Will Be Published for the First Time

The notes are featured in a soon-to-be released volume of Frank’s collected works

A spread from one of the casebooks volumes.

Read Hundreds of Medical Case Files by Two 17th-Century Quacks

Cambridge historians have digitized 500 case notes by the notorious astrologer-physicians Simon Forman and Richard Napier

Found: Stolen Alexander Hamilton Letter

In the letter, Hamilton warns the Marquis de Lafayette about the ‘menace’ of a British fleet

Finca Vigía photographed in March 1997.

New Conservation Center to Preserve Hemingway’s Legacy in Cuba

The facility is located at Finca Vigía, the property where Hemingway lived for more than two decades and where he wrote some of his most lauded books

The royal document was signed by nine witnesses

Cool Finds

819-Year-Old Royal Charter Issued by King John Found in University Archives

A visiting historian happened upon the medieval document while conducting research in Durham, England

A letter signed by Mary and her husband, James Hepburn, which grants ground for the making of salt to London businessmen.

Newly Discovered Letters Show a Different Side of Mary, Queen of Scots

When she wasn’t embroiled in political strife and intrigue, Mary still had to deal with the daily practicalities of running a kingdom

A newly rediscovered fragment of Ibn Sīnā's Canon of Medicine

A Medieval Arabic Medical Text Was Translated Into Irish, Discovery Shows

Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine was once a core part of the European medical curriculum

Louis de Jong, founder of Dutch Institute for War Documentation, examining documents on the Holocaust.

These Pioneers Created the First Reliable Record of the Holocaust

A new exhibition at the Wiener Library profiles the earliest men and women who gathered firsthand survivor accounts, ensuring their testimony would live on

Author Charles Dickens (1812-1870) pictured with his wife, Catherine Dickens (1815-1879), and two of their daughters, seated in a horsedrawn carriage, circa 1850.

Trove of Letters Reveal Charles Dickens Tried to Lock His Wife Away in an Asylum

Catherine’s side of the breakup tale comes back with vengeance thanks to new analysis of 98 previously unseen missives

Gary Brannan, archivist, and Professor Sarah Rees Jones examine one of the archbishops' registers.

A Medieval Nun Wanted to Escape Her Convent—so She Faked Her Death

This story and others have come to light during a project to translate and digitize a series of texts about archbishops in York, England

Interior of the British Library in London

The British Library’s Dirtiest Books Have Been Digitized

The collection includes around 2,500 volumes and many, many double entendres

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