Making of America

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Image for Making of America
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Also see the Cornell University branch of the project here.

Together, these two websites provide more than 1.5 million pages of text in a collaborative effort to digitize more than 11,000 volumes and 100,000 journal articles from the 19th century. The websites present full-text access to 32 journals, including literary and political magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The list includes specialized journals as well, such as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, Ladies Repository, and the American Missionary. The websites also offer an abundance of novels and monographs.

A recent addition provides 249 volumes on New York City, some from the early 20th century. At present, the two collections remain separate and must be searched individually. The institutions plan to integrate their sites, however, and to include material from other major research libraries. Access to many "Making of America" texts is also available through the Library of Congress American Memory site, "The Nineteenth Century in Print".

Century of Lawmaking: Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873

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Image Century of Lawmaking for..: Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
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This comprehensive set of Congressional documents covers the nation's founding through early Reconstruction. Materials are organized into four categories: Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention; Statutes and Documents; Journals of Congress; and Debates of Congress. The site provides descriptions of 16 types of documents, including bills and resolutions, American State Papers, the U.S. Serial Set, Journals of the Continental Congress, the Congressional Globe, and the Congressional Record.

A presentation addresses the making of the Constitution that introduced an 1834 compilation of Congressional debates and proceedings and a timeline presents American history as seen in Congressional documents. Special attention is directed to Revolutionary diplomatic correspondence, Indian land cessions, the Louisiana Purchase, the Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and the electoral college.

Lost Museum

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Photo, Fejee Mermaid, Lost Museum
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P. T. Barnum's American Museum burned down under mysterious circumstances in 1865 after nearly a quarter century of patronage. The original museum tried both to entertain and educate with exhibits on natural history, American history, and reform efforts along with attractions of a sensational nature. With the exception of African Americans, who were barred from entry until the Civil War, New Yorkers of diverse ethnic, gender, and class identities mingled in the museum's shared cultural space.

Visitors to this website can explore an interactive 3D recreation of the museum or an archive of images, documents, accounts, and essays on 16 original Barnum exhibits, including the Fejee mermaid; Joice Heth, a former slave advertised as George Washington's nursemaid; "Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind; John Brown; Jefferson Davis; the Lincoln assassination; the Civil War in New York; and phrenology. The website allows visitors to immerse themselves in the popular culture of Barnum's era.

Freedmen's Bureau Online

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Logo, Freedmen's Bureau Online
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The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established by the War Department in 1865 to supervise all relief and education activities for refugees and freedmen after the Civil War. The Bureau was responsible for issuing rations, clothing, and medicine, and had custody of confiscated lands in the former Confederate states and other designated territories. This website contains an extensive collection of Freedmen's Bureau records and reports.

Included are more than 100 transcriptions of reports on murders, riots, and "outrages" (any criminal offense) that occurred in the former Confederate states from 1865 to 1868. There are also 30 links to records and indexes of labor contracts between freedmen and planters between 1865 and 1872; seven links to related sites; six links to marriage records of freedmen, 1861–1872; and more than 100 miscellaneous state record items concerning freedmen.

Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864

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library of congress title image
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Produced at the Mathew Brady studio, this collection contains more than 725 early photographs, most of them daguerreotypes. The Brady images include portraits of prominent public figures, such as President James K. Polk, Thomas Hart Benton, Thomas Cole, Horace Greeley, and the earliest known images of President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln.

In addition, the site presents daguerreotypes by African American photographers; architectural views taken around Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD; street scenes of Philadelphia, PA; early portraits by Robert Cornelius; and copies of painted portraits. A short introduction to the daguerreotype medium and a "Timeline of the Daguerrian Era" provide context for the images. A special presentation, "Mirror Images: Daguerreotypes at the Library of Congress," includes photographs from the American Colonization Society, occupational daguerreotypes, portraits, and architectural views. Useful for studying 19th-century photography and visual culture, as well as for viewing some of the earliest American photographs.

C.S.S. Pontchartrain

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From the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission website:

"Mark K. Christ of the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission tells the story of a once-feared Confederate gunboat: the C.S.S. Pontchartrain"

Why They Joined

Description

From the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission website:

"Dr. Carl Moneyhon of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock explores the motivations of the Arkansas men who enlisted in the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil War."