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USAHEC Educators' Toolbox: Research at the USAHEC

USAHEC's source toolbox for educators

The USAHEC holds the Army's archives!

Our education team is here to help you find exactly what you need for your classroom.

We conserve, protect, and make available countless items, including diaries and journals from Soldiers on-the-ground, letters written home, surveys from every era of Army history, and the papers of senior officers down to the memoirs and day-to-day recollections from the newest private.

Do your own research in the Army's collections:

Our online collections are easy to access, but the details are important.

While our digitized collections contain thousands of items, they represent only a very small percentage of the millions of items we hold onsite. After exploring our digital collections, you may decide to make a trip here to the USAHEC to find more material in person. Researching our collections on-site opens the entirety of our collection to you. In fact, we have staff members ready to offer direct support for lesson plan development.

Resources available to researchers include:

  • Over half a million books supporting the development of strategic leaders, the study of landpower, and military history
  • Extensive Unit history collection
  • Rare book collection, including titles from the original War Department Library
  • 52 series of U.S. Army doctrinal, training, and administrative publications
  • Personal papers of noteworthy Soldiers including those of Nelson Miles, Tasker Bliss, Matthew B. Ridgway, Eric Shinseki, J. Lawton Collins, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., Margaret Craighill, Gordon Sullivan, and most post-World War II U.S. Army Chiefs of Staff
  • Diaries, letters, and photographs of American soldiers from the Mexican-American War onward.
  • Over 250 general officer oral history transcripts
  • Veteran surveys from the Spanish-American War to the Cold War
  • Curricular archives of the U.S. Army War College from 1907 onward

Remember! When you navigate to the digital collections, search keywords relevant to your needs. Remember, however, that the search function is very specific: if you search "armored vehicles," you may not get material on "tanks." Be sure to take multiple avenues in your searches.​

Ask us for help!

We can help you with your next lesson plans by helping you find primary sources and offering advice.

The USAHEC Education Team can spend one-on-one time with teachers here at the USAHEC or over the phone and email.  Simply email our team with your name, school, and what subjects you are looking for, and we can get started.