Find Historical Speeches and Discourse
- Alexander Street Video (Harvard Login)Vast library of streaming video resources, including documentaries, interviews, lectures, recordings of performances, and news footage. Use the advanced search to search for a particular speaker/performer or to search the full text of a transcript.
- American Presidency ProjectOnline archive containing over 100,000 documents related to the study of the American presidency, including presidential debates, speeches, state of the union addresses, etc.
- American Rhetoric Online Speech BankOnline Speech Bank is a database of and index to 5000+ full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two. Also has short audio and video clips of speeches. Full text, audio, and video database of the 100 most significant American political speeches of the 20th century.
- British Political SpeechOffers transcripts of speeches given by leaders of Britain's major political parties from c.1895-c.2018.
- Commission on Presidential DebatesIncludes transcripts from the presidential debates, history of the debates, and a voter education section.
- Guardian: Great Speeches of the 20th CenturyThe Guardian and Observer's unique series of the best speeches of the last century.
- Speeches at the United NationsCatalog of speeches held before the United Nations dating back to 1946; most transcripts are available from the UN Digital Library.
- Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1954-2012Produced by the American Museum of the Moving Image this site showcases presidential campaign commercials by election year and issues addressed.
- Miller Center at University of VirginiaThe Scripps Library and Multimedia Archive serves as a research facility for scholars of U.S. public policy. The Library's multimedia archive includes more than 2,500 hours of secret White House recordings, hundreds of presidential oral history interviews, audio and video recordings of Miller Center Forums, and documents related to the executive branch of American government.
- Oral Histories OnlineAn index to oral history collections, with links to interview-level bibliographic records and to full-text materials, audio files and visual files where these are available. Interviews are searchable by narrator and person discussed.
- Political Speech ArchiveOffers selected speeches by British politicians; focus on more recent speeches, with select historic examples.
- Presidential Recordings Digital EditionOnline portal for annotated transcripts of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon White House tapes published by the Presidential Recordings Program (PRP).
- Say It Plain, Say it LoudPublic speech making has played a powerful role in the long struggle by African Americans for equal rights. This collection, for the ear and the eye, highlights speeches by an eclectic mix of Black leaders.
- UN Peacekeeping - Speeches & StatementsLatest press releases, speeches, and statements from senior officials on UN Peacekeeping.
- Vital Speeches of the Day (Harvard Login)Monthly publication of text of speeches on wide range of political topics.
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- The History Makers Video Archive (Harvard Login)An African American oral video history archive assembled by The HistoryMakers, a national non-profit 501(c)(3) educational institution committed to preserving, developing and providing access to an internationally recognized archival collection of thousands of African American video oral histories.
The archive contains interviews of African Americans who have made a significant contribution in the area of American life or culture, or who have been associated with a particular movement or organization that is important in the African American community.