History & Social Sciences

Access to Ancestry.com is available from within the Library. Contains billions of names from census records, passenger immigration lists, vital records (birth/marriage/death), war and muster lists, court/land records, images, indexes, narratives and much more.

*Remote access to Ancestry Library has ended as of 12/31/21. Ancestry Library can be accessed inside any Tacoma Public Library Branch during open hours, opens a new window. Please consider using Heritage Quest, opens a new window, as an alternative to Ancestry Library, for those who wish to do genealogical research from home.

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Outstanding research support with nearly a million biographical entries spanning history and geography. A curriculum-aligned resource with media-rich content updated daily.

From ProQuest, a free website focused on Black Freedom featuring primary source documents related to key events and people in Black American history.

Read articles from peer-reviewed journals and magazines.

A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics.

Contextual information on a wide array of subjects.  Topical content includes articles, primary sources, images, relevant web links, and more.

Offers cross-curricular content aligned to Common Core State Standards and provides stellar support for papers, projects, and presentations.  

Created specifically for middle school students, this resource combines reference content, videos, newspapers, magazines, primary sources, and more. Categories cover a range of the most-studied topics including cultures, government, people, U.S. and world history, and literature.

An integrated research experience that brings together multiple literary databases to search literary criticism plus primary sources, literary and cultural analysis, and information on influential literary figures from all eras and genres.  Microsoft and Google classroom integration.  (Formerly named "Literary Sources")

Access to scanned images of the U.S. census records, Periodical Source Index (PERSI), Freedman’s Bank Records, the U.S. Serial Set, Revolutionary War records and more!

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(K-8) Explore science, nature, culture, archaeology and space with National Geographic Kids with access to the full run of the magazine 2009 to the present.

The complete archive of National Geographic Magazine 1888-2015.  Articles, legendary photos, and over one hundred years of history through the pages of this iconic magazine.

(Grades 7 and up) All about today's hottest social issues. Research, analyze and organize a variety of data for writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.

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Indexes home construction news in Tacoma newspapers from 1883 through 1950. Lists architects, contractor and building style, if known. Indicates whether architectural plans are known to exist. Includes many photographs and indexes over 200 books related to Tacoma architecture or history. Nearly 50,000 addresses included.

An index of obituaries published in the Tacoma News Tribune / Morning News Tribune. (Microfilm of the original obituaries available at the downtown Main Library.) Complete coverage from 1980 to the present, partial coverage pre-1980..

(Grades 3-5) Combines award-winning True Books with a collection of related videos, images, and web links.

A complete overview of U.S. history covering the most-studied events, issues and current information combining documents from primary sources, periodicals and reference materials.

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Multicultural, global content supporting history research.