Explore the history of native peoples from the 16th to the 20th century. Covers American Indian tribes and supporting organizations. (Coverage: 1500-present) Learn more about this database.
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gale’s digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
Lenape Country by Jean R. SoderlundIn 1631, when the Dutch tried to develop plantation agriculture in the Delaware Valley, the Lenape Indians destroyed the colony of Swanendael and killed its residents. The Natives and Dutch quickly negotiated peace, avoiding an extended war through diplomacy and trade. The Lenapes preserved their political sovereignty for the next fifty years as Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, and English colonists settled the Delaware Valley. The European outposts did not approach the size and strength of those in Virginia, New England, and New Netherland. Even after thousands of Quakers arrived in West New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the late 1670s and '80s, the region successfully avoided war for another seventy-five years. Lenape Country is a sweeping narrative history of the multiethnic society of the Delaware Valley in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. After Swanendael, the Natives, Swedes, and Finns avoided war by focusing on trade and forging strategic alliances in such events as the Dutch conquest, the Mercurius affair, the Long Swede conspiracy, and English attempts to seize land. Drawing on a wide range of sources, author Jean R. Soderlund demonstrates that the hallmarks of Delaware Valley society--commitment to personal freedom, religious liberty, peaceful resolution of conflict, and opposition to hierarchical government--began in the Delaware Valley not with Quaker ideals or the leadership of William Penn but with the Lenape Indians, whose culture played a key role in shaping Delaware Valley society. The first comprehensive account of the Lenape Indians and their encounters with European settlers before Pennsylvania's founding, Lenape Country places Native culture at the center of this part of North America.
Brandywine Valley Cultural Treasures by James S. WamsleyHundreds of photographs highlight a tour of the historic Brandywine Valley region of Pennsylvania and Delaware, featuring journeys to the famed Brandywine River Museum, the Longwood Gardens, and other notable museums, estates, and garden landmarks.
From the sandstone ridges and shale valleys of western Maryland to the sand dunes and tidal estuaries on Delaware's coast, the geologic features of the Mid-Atlantic region include a diverse array of rocks and landforms assembled during more than 1 billion years of geologic history. The book's introduction presents an overview of the geologic history of Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., and 35 road guides discuss the landforms and rocks visible from a car window, along bike paths, and at nearby waysides and parks.
Part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources. SEARCH the National Register Database for research and documentation.
Maintained by the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, this site provides non-confidential locations and information on Delaware's historic properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places and as National Historic Landmarks, both programs of the National Park Service.