Family Heirlooms and Artifacts

Family heirloom artifacts are wonderful sources of information for genealogists and family historians. Quilts, musical instruments, uniforms, and medals are just a few examples of the types of family artifacts that create wonderful opportunities for research that can lead to fascinating discoveries about your ancestors. The History & Genealogy Department has several great reference books and resources for those researching family heirlooms. These resources cover everything from guides on organizing family heirloom collections and identifying objects to books containing advice on how to analyze and interpret artifacts.

Educator Resources

Design and conduct a research project to analyze an artifact for historical insight into a group of people and their community.

Artifact Research Project

Featured Books in Our Collection

Catalog Search
The Archaeology of the North American Fur Trade book cover

The Archaeology of the North American Fur Trade

Michael S. Nassaney

Architecture and Artifacts of the Pennsylvania Germans book cover

Architecture and Artifacts of the Pennsylvania Germans

Cynthia G. Falk

The Architecture of Maritz and Young

The Architecture of Maritz and Young

Kevin Amsler

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History book cover

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History

Katherine Scott Sturdevant

Building the British Atlantic World book cover

Building the British Atlantic World

Discovering the History of Your House book cover

Discovering the History of Your House

Betsy J. Green

Dressed for the Photographer book cover

Dressed for the Photographer

Joan L. Severa

Everyday Life in Colonial America book cover

Everyday Life in Colonial America, 1607-1783

Dale Taylor

Fortress America book cover

Fortress America

J. E. Kaufmann

Gimbel's Illustrated Nineteen Fifteen Fashion Catalog book cover

Gimbel's Illustrated Nineteen Fifteen Fashion Catalog

Gimbel Brothers Staff

Handbook of Material Culture book cover

Handbook of Material Culture

Hidden in Plain View book cover

Hidden in Plain View

Jacqueline L. Tobin

Hidden in Plain View book cover

A History of Fort Sumter

M. Patrick Hendrix

The Lives in Objects book cover

The Lives in Objects

Jessica Yirush Stern

Military Uniforms Visual Encyclopedia book cover

Military Uniforms Visual Encyclopedia

Chris McNab

Rag Paper Manufacture in the United States, 1801-1900 book cover

Rag Paper Manufacture in the United States, 1801-1900

A. J. Valente

The Telegraph book cover

The Telegraph

Lewis Coe

Town House book cover

Town House

Bernard L. Herman

Tracing Your Trade and Craftsmen Ancestors book cover

Tracing Your Trade and Craftsmen Ancestors

Adéle Emm

Uniforms of the German Soldier book cover

Uniforms of the German Soldier

Alejandro M. De Quesada

What Objects Mean book cover

What Objects Mean

Arthur Asa Berger

Women's and Children's Fashions of 1917 book cover

Women's and Children's Fashions of 1917

Perry, Dame and Co. Staff

Featured Resources

AAS Historical Periodicals Collection

Digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912.

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

African American History Online

Covers the people and events in African American history from the 1400's to the present.

Adult Programs, Teen Programs
Subscription Database

Ancestry Library Edition

Get access to a large number of databases of interest to genealogists and historians. In library use only.

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

Fire Insurance Maps Online (FIMo)

Find high definition, color fire insurance maps, real estate atlases, plat books, and other historical maps for Missouri and Illinois.

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

Fold3

Provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos and personal documents of the men and women who served. Library card required to use.

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

Historical Newspapers: U.S. Major Dailies

Full text coverage of several national daily newspapers, including Chicago Daily Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. [Proquest]

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

Historical St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Searchable full text and full image articles from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper from 1874-2003. [ProQuest]

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

NewspaperARCHIVE.com

Newspaper Archive is a large historical newspaper database containing tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1759 to present.

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

Newspapers.com

Database offering more than 10,000 digitized newspaper titles for the U.S., Canada, Australia, Ireland, the British Isles and Panama.

Adult Programs
Subscription Database

Women's Studies

Discover manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals and more that demonstrate the foundation of women's struggles and triumphs. [Gale Primary Sources]

Adult Programs, Teen Programs
Subscription Database

World History

Collection of primary sources, reference works, and scholarly journals providing materials for the study of World History. [Gale in Context]

Subscription Database