The Massachusetts Historical Society has an online catalog search system, ABIGAIL. “ABIGAIL provides access to the majority of the Society’s collections of manuscript and printed materials, and–in the near future–will provide access to its entire collection, including graphics and artifacts.”

• Maps and Atlases

• Books

• Biographies

• Photographs

• Online Resources by Subject

  • Adams Family Resources

  • African Americans

  • American Revolution

  • Antislavery

  • Civil War

  • Diaries

  • Personal papers of presidents

  • Women

• Online Resources by Era

  • Colonial period
    (circa 1620-1763)

  • Era of the Revolution
    (circa 1764-1783)

  • Early National period
    (circa 1784-1820)

  • circa 1821-1860

  • Civil War (1861-1865)

  • 1866-1899

  • 1900-1949

  • 1951-present

• Manuscript Collections, hundreds of on-site collections, digital collections so far include:

  • Charles E. Briggs Letters “This collection consists primarily of letters written by Dr. Charles E. Briggs while serving as

    assistant

    surgeon with the 24th Mass. Regiment, 1862-1863, and surgeon with the 54th Mass. Regiment, 1863-1865.”

  • Richard Cary Letters, 1861-1862

  • Benjamin Colman Papers, 1641-1806

  • Rose Dabney Forbes Papers, 1902-1935

  • David Stoddard Greenough Family Papers, 1631-1859

  • Norwood Penrose Hallowell Papers, 1764-1914

  • Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, 1705-1827

  • Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, 1705-1827

  • Frederick Newman Knapp Papers, 1848-1904

  • Francis William Loring Papers, 1861-1868

  • Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women Records, 1894-1920

  • Edmund Miles Papers, 1860-1959

  • Charles F. Morse Papers, 1861-1943

  • New England Freedmen’s Aid Society Records, 1862-1878

  • Edward Burgess Peirce Letters, 1862-1871

  • Samuel Sewall Papers, 1672-1815

  • Society for the Employment of the Female Poor Trustees’ Reports, 1827-1834

  • Stephen Minot Weld Papers, 1859-1928

  • Woman’s Education Association (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1871-1935

• Photograph Collections, many on-site collections, digital collections so far include:

  • Association of Officers of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment Carte de Visite Album, ca. 1863-1875

  • 5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment Carte de Visite Album, ca. 1864-1865

  • 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Carte de Visite Album, ca. 1863-1865

  • 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Photographs, ca. 1860-1880

  • Homans Family Civil War Carte de Visite Album, ca. 1861-ca. 1866

  • Portraits of American Abolitionists, 1850-1890

  • 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment Carte de Visite Album, 1862-ca. 1865

  • Wolcott Family Civil War Carte de Visite Album, ca. 1860-1866

• Other Collections

  • Book of Sketches Made at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla., 1877