The Delaware Public Archives stores records for the state of Delaware and for local governments. The Delaware Public Archives has census materials, vital statistics including birth, death, and marriage records; tax assessments, probate/estate records, land deeds, and military records.

[su_heading size=”24″]Online Collections[/su_heading]

• 100 Stories – Explore the history of the First State through photographs, maps, construction drawings, currency notes, original legislation, and more. Celebrate the first hundred years of service by the Delaware Public Archives, 1905-2005!
• Annual Reports for State Agencies – The Delaware Annual Reports Collection provides an on-line repository into which state agencies can place their annual and biennial reports, as called for in a 2014 update of the Delaware Freedom of Information Act.
• Audio Selections – Listen to historic audio clips of interviews and radio broadcasts concerning service in WWII, desegregation, recycling, and baseball.
• Civil War – Explore the history of Delawareans during the American Civil War through photographs, diaries, letters, service records, legislation, newspapers, and more.
  • The Civil War in Delaware
    • Writings & Papers
    • Soldiers’ Portraits
    • Civil War & Archives
• Document Collection – View some of Delaware’s most prized documents, including:
  • Beers’ Atlas 1868 – The Beers’ Atlas is a part of the Delaware Public Archives State Map Collection. This is a hand-colored book of detailed maps of the entire state of Delaware. There are individual maps for each of the hundreds and there are separate maps for specific towns and cities including Wilmington, Dover, Newark, Georgetown, Milford, New Castle, Milton, Smyrna, Camden, and Felton.
  • Civil War Diary of Cyrus Forwood
  • Delaware State Constitutions
  • Delaware Turnpike Scrapbooks
  • Frankford Colored School Scrapbook
  • Joseph Barker’s “Negro Ledger Book” 1801-1811
  • Kent County Naturalizations
  • Kent County Pauper Books
  • Oaths of Allegiance
  • Peninsular News and Advertiser
  • Register of Births and Deaths in Kent County
  • Vietnam Mailbag Records
  • World War II Memorial Volume
  • Becoming the First State: Delaware’s Road to Ratification
  • The 17th Century Through the Documents of the Archives
  • Civil War Records
  • Coroner’s Report
  • Delaware Laws of 1829
  • Legislative Rosters
  • New Castle County Naturalizations
  • Rev. Joseph Brown Turner Collection
  • Slavery Papers
  • State Reports Collection Educational Directories
  • State Reports Collection State Manuals
  • State Reports Collection Sussex County Voter Register
• eBooks and PDF Documents – Titles from our Heritage collection in PDF format.

• • • African American Education in Delaware – A History Through Photographs: 1865-1930
      by: Bradley Skelcher, Ph.D. PDF 7.3 MB
    • Beneath Thy Guiding Hand: A History of Women at the University of Delawareby: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 9 MB
    • Brandywine Village
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 6 MB
    • Captain Thomas Macdonough: Delaware Born Hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain
      by: Virgina Mason Burdick PDF 1.1 MB 
    • Caesar Rodney Patriot: Delaware’s Hero For All Times and All Seasons
      by: William P. Frank  PDF 2.6 MB 
    • The Churches of Delaware
      by: Frank Zebley PDF 20 MB 
    • Corporate Capital Wilmington in the Twentieth Century
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 23 MB 
    • Delaware: A Bicentennial History
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 2 MB
    • Delaware Archives – Military
      by: Delaware Public Archives 
      • Volume I PDF 29 MB
      • Volume II PDF 19 MB
      • Volume III PDF 27 MB
      • Volume IV PDF 29 MB 
      • Volume V PDF 32 MB
    • Delaware During the Civil War – A Political History
      by: Harold Bell Hancock PDF 2.34 MB
    • Delaware School District Organization and Boundaries [1974]
      by: Roger C. Mowrey PDF 40 MB
    • Delaware, The First State
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 4.71 MB
    • Delaware Tercentenary Program
      1938 Delaware Tercentenary Official Program PDF 3.7 MB
    • Delaware Tercentenary Almanack & Historical Repository 
      by: Christopher L. Ward PDF 3.5 MB
    • Delaware Tercentenary Publications
      1938 Delaware Tercentenary Commission Publications PDF 3.2 MB
    • Democracy in Delaware: The Story of the First State’s General Assembly
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 2 MB
    • The Dutch & Swedes on the Delaware 1609-64
      by: Christopher Ward PDF 1.53 MB
    • East of the Mason-Dixon Line: A History of the Delaware Boundaries
      by: Roger E. Nathan PDF 4.17 MB
    • Familiar Relations: The duPonts and the University of Delaware
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 25.1 MB
    • Federal Justice in the First State: A History of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 21.1 MB
    • A History of African Americans of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore
      by: Carol C. Marks, Editor PDF 5.33 MB
    • The History of Sussex Countyby: Dick Carter PDF 48 MB
    • Historic Houses and Buildings of Delaware
      by: Harold Donaldson Everlein and Cortlandt V.D. Hubbard PDF 75.3 MB
    • Honest John Williams: U.S. Senator from Delaware
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 3.08 MB
    • House Research Guide
      by: New Castle County Department of Planning – Historic Preservation Section PDF 768 KB
    • In Our Midst: Delaware Vignettes in Pictures and Prose
      by: Roger Martin PDF 18.7 MB
    • The Journals of the Reverend Lewis Wheeler Wells, Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, and the Photograph Album of Leila Parker Burton Harthack of Millsboro, Delaware 
      by: Richard B. Carter PDF 17 MB
    • Laws of Delaware
      Compiled by the Delaware General Assembly
      Listing of all Books 
    • Man and Nature in Delaware: An Environmental History of the First State
      by: William H. Williams PDF 3.51 MB
    • A Photographic Survey of Indian River Community
      by: A Compilation of the Nanticoke Indian Heritage Project PDF 6 MB
    • Swedes on the Delaware: 1638-1664
      by: Amandus Johnson, Ph. D. PDF 4.36 MB
    • Troubled in Mind: J. Saunders Redding’s Early Years in Wilmington, Delaware
      by: J. Saunders Redding PDF 899 KB
    • Wilmington: A Pictorial History
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 64 MB
    • Wilmington, Delaware: Portrait of an Industrial City, 1830-1910
      by: Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker PDF 4.75 MB
    • World War II Memorial Volume
      by: Public Archives Commission PDF 12 MB
    • WPA Church Records Index
      PDF 11 MB
    • Ye Town of St. Georges: Buildings and Homes
      by: Gladys B. Lester
      • Volume I – The Nuttal-Sutton Home
        PDF 3.62 MB
      • Volume II – The Steamboat Hotel
        PDF 11.2 MB
      • Volume III – Wm. Goforths’s Three Acre Plot
        PDF 6.84 MB
      • Volume IV – Jubart “1744” Plot Plan
        PDF 41.1 MB
      • Volume V – “Mill Sand” Below Delaware Street
        PDF 38.9 MB

• Governors of Delaware: Executive Orders – The complete collection of executive orders issued by Governors of Delaware. From the first executive order signed by Governor McCullen in 1939 to the most recent by Governor Carney, this collection is more than a repository of documents.
• Maps – Historical maps of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic region, ranging from 1688 to the 20th Century.
  • Untitled 1688
  • Untitled 1769
  • Wilmington 1772
  • Delaware Bay 1776
  • Untitled 1781
  • Untitled 1796
  • Delaware and Maryland 1799
  • Delaware 1796, 1801
  • Delaware 1804
  • Delaware Bay Area 1809, 1812
  • Delaware – 1813, 1817
  • Delaware – 1819
  • Delaware circa1820
  • Delaware and Various Other States 1830
  • United States Railroads and Canals 1835
  • Delaware and Various Other States (Includes Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) 1835
  • Delaware and Various Other States 1841
  • Delaware Bay Area – 1847
  • Untitled 1875
  • Delaware 1885
  • Delaware Highways 1914
  • Wilmington – unknown date
  • Military Maps – unknown date
  • Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Unknown Date
  • Untitled Unknown Date
• Photograph Collections – Complete collections from our vast archives that include Delaware in World War II, The Jackson and Sharp Collection, Board of Agriculture, Board of Education, and The George and Irene Caley Postcard Collection to name a few. Our complete online collections showcase some of the finest imagery depicting the history of the Diamond State.
• Photograph Exhibits – Browse through our photograph exhibits to visit Delaware’s cities and towns and view Delaware’s past.
• Photo Order Instruction – Order photographs from our collection.
• Then and Now Gallery – Photographs that compare Delaware locations from different eras.
• Town and City Histories – Histories of each town in Delaware and a list of records for that town at the Digital Public Archives.
• Civil War Diary of Cyrus Forwood
• Delaware in World War II
• Board of Agriculture Glass Negative Collection
• Jackson and Sharp Collection
• Historical and Cultural Affairs Photograph Collection
• Vietnam Mailbag Records
• Fort Delaware, Fort DuPont, and Fort Mott Glass Negative Collection
• Woodside Glass Negative Collection
• Keilson Collection
• State Reports Collection
• Insurance Evaluation Report
• Project Delaware
• Record of Delawareans Who Died in World War II
• Delaware’s Role in World War II
• Board of Education Photograph Collection
• Frank R. Zebley Collection, Churches of Delaware Photograph Collection
• Postcard Collection
• Frank R. Zebley Collection, Along the Brandywine Photograph Collection

[su_heading size=”24″]Onsite Collections[/su_heading]

• Online Guide to the Collections
• Maps and Surveys
• Photographs
• Preservation
• Records Management
• Research Room
• Sussex County Historical Markers