Women of Valor

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This site introduces Emma Goldman—an immigrant, an advocate of free love, a promoter of birth control, and an anarchist. The designers have done a splendid job in tying the many facets of Goldman's public life together into one set of interrelated narratives. An "Introduction" is divided into 13 thematically coherent sections, such as Early Years, Anarchism, Use of Violence, and Deportation. Each runs approximately 500 words. A Timeline is useful for placing Goldman into historical and cultural context.

There are several dozen artifacts, including the full text of two books, six cartoons, four historical documents, an analytical essay, two personal letters, 12 news clippings, and 16 photographs. The information is well documented, and includes a detailed bibliography.

The care that the producers took in explaining potentially confusing or problematic terms (like feminism and suffrage) makes the site particularly appropriate for high school and undergraduate students. Although not a comprehensive archive, this site nonetheless provides an informative introduction to Goldman and her role in American history.

The Story of Virginia

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This attractive website offers a presentation on the history of Virginia from prehistoric times to the present with essays, images, and teaching resources. There are 10 chapters: the first Virginians; the settlement of colonial Virginia; Virginia's society before 1775; Virginians in the American Revolution; Virginians as Southerners, Confederates, and New Southerners; Virginians in the 20th century; the struggles of African American and female Virginians for equality; and a final chapter on images of Virginia in popular culture. Each chapter has an essay featuring images of relevant items in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society.

The "resource bank" collects all 95 images from the chapters of people, documents, places, and objects. Additionally, the site offers a teacher's guide for each chapter listing the standards of learning, a summary of key points, classroom activities and lesson plans, links to related websites, and information on tours, outreach programs, and hands-on-history programs.

An excellent introduction to the history of Virginia and its people with useful resources for class projects and classroom instruction.

San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

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This collection of 30,000 historical photographs contains scenes of San Francisco from 1850 to the present and includes views of streets, buildings, and neighborhoods, as well as photographs of famous San Francisco personalities. Visitors can search for photographs by neighborhoods using the interactive map, one of the site's most engaging options. There are also miniature tours of such locales as the Barbary Coast, Nob Hill, and Telegraph Hill.

The San Francisco neighborhoods are searchable through a list of subjects, which includes monuments, nightclubs, orphanages, parks, and stadiums.

There are several specialized collections, such as the James A. Scott Collection featuring 27 pairs of "before-and-after" images of the city with the photographer's notes and comments.

A photo morgue of the daily newspaper, San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, dating from the 1920s to 1965, completes the site.

Presidents of the United States - POTUS

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A reference resource for basic information about the U.S. Presidents. Each president's page includes election results; cabinet members; a list of notable events during term of office; and historical documents, such as inauguration speeches, proclamations, and significant public addresses.

The site provides links to sites about important events and biographies of family and cabinet members. Audio files are available for presidents from Grover Cleveland to George W. Bush. Links to two to 10 internet biographies and one to 13 related sites are provided.

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

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In the past decade new media and new technologies have begun to transform even the ancient discipline of history. CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web challenge historians to rethink the ways that they research, write, present, and teach about the past. The Center for History and New Media (CHNM) was established in the fall of 1994 to contribute to and reflect upon this transformation and challenge. The Center produces historical works in new media, tests the effectiveness of these products in the classroom, and reflects critically on the promises and pitfalls of new media in historical practice. The Center's resources are designed to benefit professional historians, high school teachers, and students of history.

Includes links to more than 1,000 history departments around the world; and a wide variety of teaching, scholarly, and exhibition resources—online databases, informative sites, and software. For example, Declaration: Interpreting the Declaration of Independence by Translation provides translations of the American Declaration of Independence into French, German, Polish, Russian, and Spanish, along with commentaries on the practice and problems of translating documents.

With the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York (ASHP/CML), CHNM produces History Matters, a resource site for teachers and students of American history.

Rare Map Collection

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A collection of more than 800 maps dating from 1544 to 1939 of mostly North American locations, with an emphasis on 19th-century Georgia. Organized into nine chronological and topical divisions—New World; Colonial America; Revolutionary America; Revolutionary Georgia; Union and Expansion; American Civil War; Frontier to New South; Savannah and the Coast; and Transportation.

Includes maps of battles, American Indian nations, railroads, and roads. Useful especially for those studying military history and the development of the South.

A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers

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This curriculum addresses labor politics and economics from the colonial period to the present day. Conceived and written by James D. Brown, Jr, "in cooperation with teachers from the metro Chicago area and local union members," it is divided into 11 chronological sections, each comprised of several elements: a 100–200-word overview; an inventory of major themes, episodes, and concepts; and a feature entitled "Integrating Labor History into Effective Teaching of the Period." This last portion recommends questions and lessons for students, and, for several sections, provides primary source materials. Thus "The Growth of a New Nation" outlines a lesson that asks students to compare Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence with an 1829 essay by George H. Evans—a founder of New York's Working Man's Party—entitled "The Working Men's Declaration of Independence."

The 11 sections emphasize gains achieved by organized labor and invite teachers to "highlight the stark contrast between today's working environment and the relationship between workers and owners of the past." Includes a list of 44 "Significant People in America's Labor History"; a 16-title bibliography; a link to an international news desk providing daily stories dealing with labor groups and issues; and additional material on Illinois labor history.

Some sections of the curriculum are thinner than others. More curiously, the site does not furnish any primary documents from the 20th century, and generally relies more on lists of events and issues than the sort of narrative prose that can enliven the past.

Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research

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This gateway website was created by English professor Alan Liu. It contains over 70 pages of links to humanities-related resources on the internet and provides a guide to online resources in 26 subject categories, including anthropology, legal studies, history, women and gender, and minority studies.

Each link is subdivided. For example, the Minority Studies link is divided into 11 subcategories, including African American, Chicano Latino Hispanic, and Native American history. The History category is subdivided into 19 sections, such as Family History, Military History, and national and regional categories like North America, with subheadings for Canada and United States. The United States history subheading contains over 500 links to primary documents from all periods of American history.

This site contains both primary and secondary resources, and there is a History Teaching Resources link that provides resources for teachers of World History, syllabi for women and gender-related courses, and a guide to using historical places as teaching tools. The site is easy to navigate and contains a keyword search engine.

Pluralism and Unity

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Presents a wide array of materials that explore "the struggle between these two visions" of pluralism and unity in early 20th-century American thought and life. Arranged into six major sections: The Idea of Pluralism; The Idea of Internationalism; Culture and Pluralism; Labor and Pluralism; Race and Pluralism; and Gender and Pluralism.

The site links to major sites on such topics as ethics, politics, culture, sociology, anthropology, religion, economics, imperialism, hegemony, world systems theory, the League of Nations, Jim Crow laws, eugenics, the Niagara Movement, NAACP, KKK, unions, strikes, modernism, the genteel tradition, localism, and ragtime.

Outlines the perspectives of important public figures including William James, Eugene Debs, Randolph Bourne, Daniel DeLeon, John Dewey, Jane Addams, Horace Kallen, Scott Nearing, Max Eastman, William Cowper Brann, Madison Grant, W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Charles S. Peirce, Margaret Mead, Woodrow Wilson, John Reed, and Irving Berlin.

Although many of the site's direct links to texts by these figures are no longer operable, users can access sites containing important writings through the "Concepts" section of each of the six major parts. Also includes 12 audio components and dozens of photographs.

For its inclusion of links to many extremely useful sites from a variety of perspectives, this site will be valuable to those studying early 20th-century American ideas and debates and their resonance throughout later times.

The Internet African-American History Challenge

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Features illustrated biographical sketches, each approximately 400 words in length, of 12 notable 19th-century African Americans—Alexander Crummell, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Tubman, Henry McNeal Turner, John Mercer Langston, Mary Elizabeth Bowser, Mary Church Terrell, Mary Ann Shadd, Nat Turner, Richard Allen, and Sojourner Truth.

Includes three interactive quizzes, based on information contained in the biographies, divided into three levels of difficulty.

Also provides guidelines for classroom use, including directions for setting up an "online grade book." The site's creators plan to add sketches and quizzes on notable 20th-century African Americans.

This user-friendly site is a useful tool for introducing African American history to young students.