A new finite element formulation based on the relaxation type hereditary integral is presented for a time-domain analysis of isotropic, linear viscoelastic problems. The semi-discrete variational approximation and elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle are used in the theoretical development of the proposed method. In a time-stepping procedure of final, linear algebraic system equations, only a small additional computation for past history is required since the equivalent stiffness matrix is constant. The viscoelasticity matrices are derived and the stress computation algorithm is given in matrix form. The effect of time increment and Gauss point numbers on the numerical accuracy is examined. Two dimensional numerical examples of plane strain and plane stress are solved and compared with the analytical solutions to demonstrate the versatility and accuracy of the present method.