US Army historical document source

[Chelt]

I've just discovered the US Army Heritage Collection Online:

http://www.ahco.army.mil/site/index.jsp

The site contains a vast number of historical documents, including manuals from the whole of the 20th century, in PDF form. There are also images and personal documents. It's a bonanza for any curious reader or serious researcher, though the interface is appalling.

It's not immediately obvious how one narrows down a search to particular types of documents, periods, or collections. By way of example, here's how I searched for Coast Artillery manuals:

- Go to http://www.ahco.army.mil/site/search.jsp

- Click on the "search" button

- Click on "advanced options"

- Under "document fields," uncheck all boxes except for "Published Material"

- Click on the "save changes" button

- Under "title," enter your search terms, like "Coast".

- Press the "Submit Search" button.

- You get a listing of results.

The site presents manuals as PDFs contained within a frame. If you know how, you can save these PDFs to your hard drive. Try control-clicking on a Mac, or right-clicking under Windows.

The files contain watermarks that make them pretty much illegible. If you have a full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can select and then delete the stupid and unnecessary watermarks. (They're US Government documents, so they're in the public-freakin-domain.)

[This is a slightly expanded cross-post from the Naval Fiction Board.]

[kawaiku]

Wow very cool. Thanks for showing us this, I hadn't discovered it yet, thanks.

[undead reindeer cavalry]

unbelievably cool! :eek: thanks for sharing!

[Andreas]

Great find.

Thanks for sharing.

All the best

Andreas

[Michael Dorosh]

I've been trying to find the digital download of the Handbook on German Military Forces for a couple of weeks now. Never came across this site, though. Many thanks!

btw Chelt - saving the documents is easy, at least in my browsers. Just click the floppy disc icon in Adobe. You younglings probably don't even know what a floppy disc is, so I don't blame you for not catching this.

[ March 12, 2007, 05:37 AM: Message edited by: Michael Dorosh ]