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FamilySearch.org for free, Ancestry.com for a fee -- both indispensible in documenting people in specific places. Ancestry.com now has live-text searchable agricultural census returns for farmers in the United States in 1870 and 1880.

Libraries at “land-grant” universities created by the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act, have led the effort to identify, digitize and make broadly available agricultural publications. To access the open source websites (which are available without charge to the general public) go to your state’s land-grant university website. For southern and western states, check the digital resources in your state’s 1890 land-grant (the traditionally African American universities so designated by the Second Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1890), and the libraries of the 29 Native American colleges recognized as 1994 tribal land-grants by the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act of 1994.

Cornell University created “Core Historical Literature of Agriculture” (CHLA), an electronic collection of agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science, forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science. Scholars have selected the titles in this collection for their historical importance. Their evaluations and 4,500 core titles are detailed in the seven volume series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor.  Online holdings continue to grow. Late 2010 statistics indicated the following quantity online: Pages: 1,011,930 Books: 2,047 (2,116 Volumes) Journals: 12 (510 Volumes), all available at: http://chla.library.cornell.edu/

Cornell University created “Home Economics Archives: Research, Tradition, History” (HEARTH), an electronic collection of books and journals in home economics from 1850-1950.  Online holdings continue to grow. Mid 2011 statistics indicated the following quantity online: Pages: 769,479 Books: 1174 (1236 Volumes) Journals: 15 (421 Volumes), all available at: http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/

The University of Illinois has digitized and created a live-text searchable open source database of farm journals from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The project materialized around the belief that farm newspapers played a key role in the modernization of rural America. To understand that process, readers needed more access to the holdings of critical farm newspapers. “The Farm, Field and Fireside Collection” contains historically significant United States farm weeklies. To access the site go to: University of Illinois’ website: www.illinois.edu and search within the site for “Farm, Field and Fireside.” Digitized collections include:

–        Berkshire World and Cornbelt Stockman (1910-1926)

–        Better Farming (1913-1925)

–        Farmers' Review (1879-1918)

–        Farmers Voice (1898-1913)

–        Farmer's Wife (1906-1939)

–        Farm, Field and Fireside (1884-1906)

–        Farm, Field and Stockman (1885-1887)

–        Farm Home (1899-1920)

–        Farm Press (1906-1913)

–        Illinois Farmer (1856-1864)

–        Lancaster Farming (1955-1981)

–        Prairie Farmer (1841-1923)

The Illinois State Museum’s Audio-Barn won the Oral History Association’s 2010 Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award for an oral history collection its collection and open-source access to more than 130 interviews of Illinois farm families and others involved in agriculture. The museum developed the site to help others learn about historic relationships between humans and the landscape, culture and economics of rural and farm life. The collection represents the range of farming practices across Illinois including different crop cultures and farm management strategies. The Illinois State Museum partnered with several institutions including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, to collect and share the interviews via an open source website. A major grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services partially funded the work. The team of experts identified best practices to collect and preserve information which they also share on the site. The “audio barn” contains transcriptions as well as audio and video recordings: http://avbarn.museum.state.il.us/

Sanborn Maps were created by the Sanborn Map Company which operated for nearly 100 years, starting in1867. Public libraries or local historical societies across the nation have these maps in their collections but 660,000 have been digitized by ProQuest Information and Learning and made available through academic and public libraries. The maps contain invaluable information about buildings in cities, towns and neighborhoods across the United States which makes them worth the effort to locate and study. The large-scale maps include footprints of each building, the construction materials, the location of windows and doors, and the function of structures on a property (both residential and commercial). For additional information consult http://sanborn.umi.com/