Library of Congress Puts Thousands of Historic Books Online

"Nearly 60,000 books prized by historians, writers and genealogists, many too old and fragile to be safely handled, have been digitally scanned as part of the first-ever mass book-digitization project of the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC), the world’s largest library. Anyone who wants to learn about the early history of the United States, or track the history of their own families, can read and download these books for free."

Read more of the Library of Congress announcement for all the details.

Access the archives:  http://www.archive.org/details/library_of_congress
Thanks to Terri Carlson for sharing this information.