Founded with an initial grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Society is leading development of the National Portal to Historic Collections (NationalPortal.org), which will help uncover and digitize millions of historic photographs, documents, artworks and other artifacts now hidden in museums and historical societies across the country.

Over 500 historical institutions across the U.S. have indicated an interest in participating in the Portal, which is strongly endorsed by AASLH. A second version of the Portal has been created as a cooperative image licensing system among historical societies and museums. A working prototype of the licensing system, with images from dozens of institutions, is available at HistoricImages.org.