DC History & Local Area Studies: Home

Cultural Tourism's database of over 200 important African American sites in Washington, D.C.

Sound recordings, still & moving images, prints, maps, sheet music, written & spoken words from the Library of Congress collections. Good for primary source material.

The Art/Music Division of the D.C. Public Library's site highlights DC's African American art and culture beyond Harlem.

From 2001 to 2011, through research and policy recommendations regarding housing, health care, transportation, education, and demographic and economic trends, Brookings brought critical issues to the forefront.

Continues some of the work of Greater Washington Research.

This guide offers search strategies and overviews of resources for researching Washington, D.C., sites and structures using Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division's holdings that complement a variety of resources both within the Library of Congress and at other institutions that support the study of buildings in Washington, D.C.

Find scans of GW Washington Studies monographs and papers.

Map and outline history of movie theaters in DC.

Website highlights history, culture and happenings in DC.

Humanities Council of Washington, DC's online collection of documentary films, oral histories, and other materials of great cultural and historic significance to the District of Columbia. Many of the materials are grantee products that can be difficult or even impossible to find elsewhere. The collection consists of over 800 items, many of which are searchable in this online catalog. Most of the item pages include links to downloadable files or videos on HCTV, the Humanities Council's Youtube Channel. (HCTV link below)

Great source for:
Comprehensive Plan
District of Columbia Ward Information
Historic Landmark and District Information
Historic Preservation Review Board
Downloadable Ward Maps
Downloadable Historic District Maps
More Downloadable Maps
Interactive Maps
DC Data

(Closed for renovation- see DigDC link below) For over 100 years, the Washingtoniana Division (now part of Special Collections) of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library has collected materials relating to the history and development of Washington, DC. Collection includes books, maps, documents, photos, as well as over one million images and clippings from the Washington Star newspaper.

DigDC is the portal to selected digital collections from DC Public Library Special Collections. Find photos, maps, oral histories and more documenting the history of Washington D.C.

A coalition of organizations supporting DC voting rights & advocacy. Includes a section on DC history.

Information, history, statistics, links to Public Schools, Council, and other D.C. sites. Includes D.C. Code (laws), DC Municipal Regulations (DCMR), and real property tax records.

Lists contact information for embassies located in Washington, DC.

The Humanities Council of Washington, DC's Youtube Channel featuring documentary films, oral histories, and other materials funded by the Council.

Museum, library and exhibits on local history. Located in the original Carnegie Public Library.

Of special interest to DC studies: Genealogy & Local History Reading Room, Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room and the Geography & Map Division Also primary sources for DC: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/states/dc/index.html

As one of Howard University's major research facilities, the MSRC collects, preserves, and makes available for research a wide range of resources chronicling the Black experience. The is among the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world.

Historical information on monuments, memorials and parks under NPS jurisdiction.

Brief histories of historic neighborhoods. Neighborhood Walking Tours & Trails - Cultural Tourism DC Self-guided walking routes marked with illustrated signs that tell stories of Washington’s historic neighborhoods. Website includes information on the neighborhoods.

Project of The Urban Institute and National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership includes data on D.C. neighborhoods — population, race, ethnicity, income, poverty, employment, education, public assistance, single-parent families, low weight and teen births, income, housing, crime and more designed for community organizations.

Destination D.C. - official tourism website of Washington, D.C.

Free weekly newspaper print and online. City Paper is known for stories about the city and its surroundings, with a preference for narratives with a conflict of some sort at the center. We publish a variety of journalistic genres, including profiles, investigative pieces, polemical essays, and stories about local institutions. They don't publish op-ed material, fiction, poetry, stories about news conferences or demonstrations, or service journalism about 12 great places to get espresso after midnight. Nor are we much interested in the sort of celebrity-worshiping journalism that lards the pages of Washingtonian and Vanity Fair.

Bus, subway routes, apps and history