UWM Libraries Research and Course Guides: History Research Methods: Find Government Documents

Find Government Document

This video created by Boston College Libraries shows different strategies for searching ProQuest Congressional.

ProQuest Congressional
ProQuest Congressional provides access to historical and current Congressional information and publications on all aspects of legislation dealing with life and public policy. Topics include scientific undertakings, historical events, social welfare, economic conditions, communication policies, and an endless array of other subjects.
The database indexes and provides full-text for Congressional Committee Prints, House and Senate Documents and Reports (Congressional Serial Set), Hearings, and Legislative Histories. It also provides member and committee information and political news, as well as access to the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, and the Congressional Record (1985-present).

Bills-Find different drafts of laws
Hearings- Find expert testimony related to the policy before it went to vote
CRS Reports- Find the research materials about policies and laws provided to congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS)
Congressional Record- Find floor debates and other documents related to congressional session
Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (under "more")- Find presidential communications and orders

HeritageQuest Online
To browse collection by record type, Click on "search" in the upper left, then review groups of records. Includes

Reports of the Immigration Commission (Dillingham Commission Reports) by United States. Immigration Commission (1907-1910)
Call Number: JV6415 .A3
Publication Date: 1911
[v. 1-2] Abstracts of reports of the Immigration Commission.--[v. 3] Statistical review of immigration, 1820-1910.--[v. 4] Emigration conditions in Europe.--[v. 5] Dictionary of races of peoples.--[v. 6-25] Immigrants in industries.--[v.26-27] Immigrants in cities.--[v.28] Occupations of the first and second generation of immigrants in the United States. Fecundity of immigrant women.--[v.29-33] The children of immigrants in schools.--[v. 34-35] Immigrants as charity seekers.--[v. 36] Immigration and crime.--[v. 37] Steerage conditions. Importation and harboring of women for immoral purposes. Immigrant homes and aid societies. Immigrant banks.--[v. 38] Changes in bodily form of descendants of immigrants.--[v. 39] Federal immigration legislation. Digest of immigration decisions. Steerage legislation, 1819-1908. State immigration and alien law.--[v. 40] The immigration situation in other countries.--[v. 41] Statements and recommendations submitted by societies and organizations interested in the subject of immigration.

U.S. Declassified Documents Online (Gale Primary Sources)
U.S. Declassified Documents Online provides immediate access to a broad range of previously classified federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The collection brings together over 700,000 of the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies in a single, easily searchable database.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Using Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), you can search across millions of digitized primary sources from American libraries and museums including the Library of Congress, National Archives, and UWM Digital Collections. This is a great resource for finding primary sources related to American History.

To find NARA records, click on "Browse by Partner" at the very top of the page, then select "National Archives and Records Administration". Search across NARA records using the search box in the upper right of the screen.

Digital National Security Archives (DNSA)
Click on "Documents" in the main navigation to search for materials. Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents.
Wilson Center Digital Archive (International Documents)
Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains declassified historical materials from archives around the world, much of it in English translation.

Homeland Security Digital Library
The Homeland Security Digital Library provides quick access to important U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources such as theses and reports from various universities, organizations and local and state agencies. The resources are reviewed and selected by a team of homeland security researchers and organized in a unique homeland security taxonomy.

Presidential Library Multisearch
National Archives search of presidential libraries websites