Map Collections: 1500-2003

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Image, Historia general..., Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, c. 1601-1615, LoC.
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This large collection of maps from the 16th century to the present day focuses on Americana and cartographic treasures.

Materials are organized into seven thematic categories—Cities and Towns, Conservation and Environment, Discovery and Exploration, Cultural Landscapes, Military Battles and Campaigns, Transportation and Communication, and General Maps. Sections include five special presentations.

Users may download maps or zoom in to view details. Seventeen specific map collections contained within this larger site that are of particular importance for the study of American history include "Discovery and Exploration," "The American Revolution and Its Era," "Railroad Maps, 1828–1900," "American Colonization Society Collection: Maps of Liberia, 1830–1870," "Panoramic Maps, 1847–1929," "Civil War Maps," and "Mapping the National Parks."

Odden's Bookmarks: The Fascinating World of Maps and Mapping

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Logo, Universiteit Utrecht
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A gateway to more than 14,000 sites on and about cartography and geography. Allows searching by keyword and browsing by countries and categories—including maps and atlases, collections, societies, departments, government cartography, libraries, and literature. Provides links to 585 sites that offer historical maps and atlases. Valuable for those studying cartography and geography, and useful for others as an easy-to-use reference source.

From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America

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Postcard, A Happy New Year, 1910-1920, Hebrew Publishing Company, LoC
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An exhibition on Jewish life in America emphasizing the themes of accommodation, assertion, adaptation, and acculturation. The website features more than 200 illustrations, portraits, and images of books and documents from Library of Congress collections. The website offers an explanatory overview of the exhibition and four brief electronic exhibits focused that help to tell a part of the Jewish story in America from 1654 to the present. Some of the items highlighted by the exhibition include the first book printed in the English settlements of America, The Bay Psalm Book printed in 1640, the first published American Jewish sermon, and a hand-drawn plaque from c. 1942 with dual Hebrew prayers for Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. A small bibliography lists 10 books plus six books for children. The site provides an introduction to the Library of Congress collections and is useful for teaching about the history of Jewish life in America.

Jewish American History on the Web

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Portrait, Israel Baer Kursheedt
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This privately maintained site offers a wide range of material on 19th-century Jewish history, including articles, documents, and religious essays. It makes available the text of The Occident and American Jewish Advocate from 1843 to 1850. The articles are searchable and visitors can browse the article indexes for each year. "Library" contains more than 60 essays and documents on Jews and Judaism, including an 1863 Catechism for Jewish Children. Additionally, the site offers the complete text of the 1845 Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine; more than 50 articles on Jews in the Civil War, including some first-hand accounts of events and extracts from personal diaries; and several articles on Jews in the Old West. There are more than 450 links to other sites on Jewish history, Jews, and Judaism. A site of interest to those studying the history of Judaism and the Jewish people in 19th-century America.

A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life

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Oil on canvas, Mary Olivia Lucas Harby. . . , c. 1830, A Portion of the People
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This exhibit tells "the story of Southern Jewish settlers and their descendants from the late 1600s through the 21st century." It currently consists of two presentations, each with more than 50 pages presenting an image from the exhibit's collection with accompanying explanatory text. Images include portraits, maps, historical documents, photographs of Jewish ritual books and religious and cultural objects, paintings and photographs of synagogues, and photographs of Jewish businesses. "First Families" explores the period from the 1600s to the 1820s through more than 50 images and "This Happy Land" explores the antebellum and Civil War years through more than 90 images. (The presentation "Pledging Allegiance," recounting the story of Jewish migration to the South in the first half of the 20th century, is under construction.) Visitors can listen to six interviews featuring voices from the past (transcripts are available). Additionally, a photographic essay with more than 40 photographs, "Palmetto Jews" by Bill Aron, examines Jewish life in South Carolina over the past 50 years. There is no site search capability.

President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home [DC]

Description

Located in Washington, DC, the Cottage served as the summer home of President Lincoln and his family during the Civil War. The Lincolns lived in the cottage between June and November of 1862, 1863, and 1864. Beginning in 1851 the campus surrounding the structure was used as a home for disabled veterans, and it continues to serve that purpose.

The cottage offers a visitor center with exhibits, guided tours, and educational programs. Educational programs include interactive tours for K-12 students, off-site programs for 6th -12th-grade students, and on-site professional development workshops for educators. Pre- and post-visit activities are offered online for all student tours. Off-site program topics include Lincoln's commute and the controversy and debate surrounding emancipation.

Note that school tours require at least three weeks advance notice.

John Brown's Raid

Question

Did Northerners all respond the same way to Brown's infamous raid? Southerners?

Textbook Excerpt

Textbooks present the response to John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry as polarized according to geographic sections, with Southerners condemning Brown as a dangerous fanatic and many Northerners supporting his bold and violent strike against slavery. That portrayal reaffirms the deep and growing sectional divide and depicts a nation barreling towards secession and war.

Source Excerpt

As one of the most riveting events of the antebellum era, Brown’s raid precipitated passionate responses in newspapers, sermons, and political speeches. Those sources provide a compelling glimpse into a vast nation’s complicated responses to the captivating moment in time.

Historian Excerpt

Historians detect more variation in the responses to Brown’s raid, and more nuance even among Northerners and Southerners. In particular, the raid provoked deep and complicated reactions in the North, ranging from celebration to political censure. Those responses reveal a country deeply divided over the institution of slavery, but far from uniform in thought.

Abstract

Textbooks present John Brown’s abortive raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 as a polarizing event in the growing sectional rift between North and South, unifying opinion in both regions. In fact, the initial response to the raid was more nuanced than it is often portrayed—particularly in the North, where different reactions revealed a complex and multifaceted society struggling with the implications of Brown’s actions.

Hinckley Fire Museum

Description

On September 1, 1894, an incredible fire raged in East Central Minnesota. In only four hours, over 300,000 acres -- 480 square miles -- of Minnesota lay in smoldering ruins.

Come visit the Hinckley Fire Museum to find out what happened, who lived, and who died.

The St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Depot, rebuilt immediately after the fire, houses a range of exhibits and features a dramatic mural of the fire, painted by artist Cliff Letty.

Please note that the museum is open May through mid-October

People's Contest: A Civil War Era Digital Archiving Project

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This site exists to provide both digitized resources and information on physical collections related to the Pennsylvania Civil War era home front. The precise range of dates covered runs from the 1851 Christiana Riot through the end of Reconstruction in 1874.

If you live in Pennsylvania, a major feature of interest should be the collection location page. Here, you can search collections by keyword, subject, geographic location, genre, name, theme, demographic, or repository. This tool allows researchers and educators to locate collections near them or most relevant to their research interests. Try finding the Civil War collections nearest you, and contacting the repository for access or further information.

Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition, History

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Photo, Dishes, Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition, History
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This site offers books and journals related to the science of home economics. Its goal is to document the rise of home economics to a profession, beginning around the middle of the 19th century, and to correct an academic marginalization of the field.

Primarily focused on the years from 1850 through 1925, the site contains digitized texts of 934 books and 218 journal volumes, totaling almost 400,000 pages. Visitors may use the search engine, or look through the Subject index, or browse alphabetically by author, title, or year of publication.

Topics range from Child Care to Housekeeping to Retail. Each entry includes a 500- to 750-word essay, two or three images, a very detailed bibliography (available as a PDF file), and a list of possible subtopics. This is an outstanding site full of primary sources and a great resource for researchers, students, and teachers.