New Jersey Public Records and Archives

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For historians researching New Jersey, this site's main interest will be its "state archives." "Catalog" provides access to nearly 200 pre-established searches on the archive's manuscript series, genealogical holdings, business and corporate records, cultural resources, and maps. Topics include military conflicts, society and economics, transportation, public works agencies, and photographic collections, as well as state, county, municipal, and federal government records. The other major feature consists of eight image collections with themes that include New Jersey Civil War soldiers, Spanish-American War Infantry Officers, Spanish-American War Naval Officers, Gettysburg Monuments, and views of the Morris Canal. The archives site also includes a searchable index of New Jersey Supreme Court cases, a transcription of New Jersey's 1776 constitution, and a table summarizing the holdings of the state archives. This site is a useful aid for researching the history and culture of New Jersey.

Teaching Future Historians: U.S. History Lesson Plans Using Primary Documents

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This website offers links to lesson plans, audio recordings, and video lectures related to the Antebellum, Civil War, and Gilded Age eras. There are 15 lesson plans on the Antebellum era focused on the Lincoln-Douglas debates, antislavery, Cherokee removal, slavery and the legal status of free blacks, gender roles, religion in political life, and the free-market labor vs. slave labor, "mudsill" theory debate. The nine lesson plans on the Gilded Age include such diverse topics as the WCTU and the lynching controversy, civil service reform, bimetallism, free trade, and political campaign songs. There are 145 downloadable songs organized by topic.

The site also offers access to downloadable video lectures on 12 different topics that include African Americans and race, economic development and labor, frontier settlement, law and society, religion and culture, women and gender, and political development. Most topics have 10 or more lectures available. A small site, but very useful for teaching the history of these three eras.

Illinois During the Gilded Age

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Focused on the Gilded Age in Illinois, this website offers 287 primary source documents. These include political speeches, pamphlets, songs, audio recordings, and maps that deal with such issues as politics, farming, law, labor, religion, and economic development. Visitors can browse all 287 items or search by author, title, date, theme, or genre. Visitors can search text documents, images, or audio files separately. The site also offers 26 video lectures from college professors interpreting the major issues of the period. Lecture topics include John Dewey, Dwight Moody, Chicago Gilded Age culture, women's suffrage, government and reform, the People's Party, William Jennings Bryan, William Mckinley, and the election of 1896.

The site can also be explored through eight historical themes, each with an interpretive essay, a bibliography, a search feature for related primary documents, and a list of related video lectures. The themes are: economic development and labor, labor, law and society, political development, race and ethnicity, religion and culture, settlement and immigration, and women's experience and gender roles. In addition, eight essays cover important periods: 1866-1868 (war's aftermath), 1869-1872 (the Chicago Fire), 1873-1876 (the Panic of 1873), 1877 (The Great Strike), 1878-1884 (Immigration, Labor, and Politics), 1884-1891 (Haymarket and Hull House), 1892-1895 (1893 Chicago's World Fair), and 1896 (The Cross of Gold). The "Teacher's Parlor" has nine lesson plans, including the WCTU and the lynching controversy, civil service reform, bimetallism, and free trade.

Historic Missouri Newspaper Project

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This website provides a searchable archive of 14 historic Missouri newspapers. The newspapers available are The Columbia Missourian (1929, 1966-1985), Palladium (April 1907), the The Missouri Republican (July 1865), the St. Louis Christian Advicate (1857-1858, 1860, 1866-1870, 1874-1879), the St. Louis Globe Democrat (1875), the Daily Evening Herald (1835), The Far West (1836), the Liberty Weekly Tribune (1846-1848, 1850-1883), The Liberty Banner (March 1844, one issue), The Phelps County New Era (1875-1880), The Rolla Express (1860-1863, 1865, 1868, 1872-1873), The Rolla New era (1880-1897), the M.S.U. Independent (1894-1905), and The Hannibal Courier (October 1935; January and August 1988).

For many of the newspapers only several months of the years indicated are available. The full text of all available newspaper issues is searchable, and a range of keyword search options are offered. The user can search an individual publication or all newspapers in the archive. All content can be searched or the user can limit the search to articles, pictures, or advertisements. Newspapers are displayed by page and a rollover feature highlights individual articles that can then be read in a separate window. This archive is a useful resource for those researching the history of Missouri in the mid-to-late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Wright on the Web

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This website offers "a virtual look at the works of Frank Lloyd Wright" through more than 170 images of the buildings he designed and short overviews of each period of his career. There are seven presentations: "The Early Years," "Prairie Style," "Non-Residential Works, 1900-1920," "The Twenties," "The Thirties," "The Forties," and "The Fifties." Each presentation includes a brief overview and images of the buildings he designed in that period. Most of the images are available through links to other websites. Additionally, the site includes a feature on 17 buildings by Wright that have been designated by the American Institute of Architects as examples of his architectural contribution to American culture. The site also offers links to more than 50 collections, directories, and miscellaneous resources on Wright and his architectural works. There is no search capability available, but the site is a good starting point for exploring the history of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.

The Great Seattle Fire

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This website offers 150 photographs documenting the aftermath of the "Great Seattle Fire" that occurred on June 6, 1889. The collection is introduced by a short essay relating the main events of the fire along with statistics on the estimated damage it caused to the city. Each photograph is accompanied by a short description and full bibliographic data including date of the photograph, the photographer (if known), and a subject cross-reference list. Visitors can browse through all 150 photographs, search by keyword, or use the advanced search feature to search for title, subject, description, creator, publisher, contributors, date, type, format, or source. The site also offers links to five other related collections of photographs of Seattle and Washington State in the mid-to-late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Besides those specifically interested in the Great Fire, this collection of photos is a useful resource for persons researching the history of the urban West in the 19th century or the history of Seattle.

Travel, Tourism, and Urban Growth in Greater Miami: A Digital Archive

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This site uses essays, a detailed timeline, and an image gallery to examine the growth of Miami and the history of its travel and tourism industry. An essay by Project Director Bachin provides an introduction to the website. The site has seven main thematic sections: advertising, architecture, environment, land use, migration, tourism, and transportation. Each section is introduced by a short three-to-five page essay and features a chronology and an annotated bibliography. There is also a searchable image gallery with more than 590 subjects, many with multiple images. The visitor can browse the gallery by subject, location, resource (such as aerial views, photographs, or postcards), or collection.

The site also offers an overall chronology (1823-2000), divided into sections for 1800s to WWI, WWI to 1930s, WWII to the 1950s, and the 1960s to the 1990s. The chronology can also be viewed by 18 themes such as civil rights, the Great Depression, hurricanes, land use, migration, and tourism. The overall annotated bibliography lists more than 90 books, links to 16 related websites, and 14 related archives. This site offers outstanding resources for those teaching or researching the history of Miami and South Florida and should also be of interest to anyone working on 20th-century urban and business history.

Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage

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The cultural heritage of Maryland is readily accessible here through thousands of digitized documents, maps, and images arranged into more than 40 collections and two exhibits. Baltimore's native son and prominent early 20th-century journalist H.L. Mencken is featured through a collection of 19 portraits, artifacts, and letters. Edgar Allen Poe, who lived in Baltimore late in his life, can be glimpsed through 18 portraits, drafts, and letters. Another collection offers digital copies of primary sources from the War of 1812, including an original draft of the "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Other collections include photographs of African American life, a selection of sports-related items, photographs and watercolor paintings of old houses and churches in Queen Anne's County, vintage photographs of Baltimore streets and street cars, and a series of photographs awaiting identification from collection users. Ample historical context, including library donation information, is provided for all collections. The website's blog will be useful for those interested in library sciences, preservation, and digital archiving.

The Adoption History Project

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In 1851, Massachusetts passed the first law recognizing adoption as a legal and social operation. Since then, adoption has had a rich history in the United States, documented at this website through close to 200 reports, writings, letters, adoption narratives, and other documents. Users unfamiliar with adoption history might begin by exploring the detailed timeline that traces adoption history from 1851 to 2000, when Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 eliminating the process of naturalization for international adoptions. Moving on to the Topics in Adoption History section, with in-depth explanations of orphan trains, proxy adoptions, infertility, child welfare, and eugenics, will help build historical context. The Document Archive and Adoption Science sections boast documents from the late 1800s to the present by notables such as Pearl Buck, adoptees searching for information on their biological parents, and court decisions on adoption throughout the 20th century.

Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

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The creation of the Center for Dewey Studies, this site is devoted to the work of philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1952). It includes the tables of contents for each of the 37 volumes of The Collected Works of John Dewey; a chronology of Dewey's life and work, updated on a continuing basis with new information derived from his correspondence and other sources; a short annotated reading list; an extensive, updated bibliography of titles about Dewey; and information on editorial projects currently underway. The site also includes a short audio clip of Dewey reading an essay and links to the Southern Illinois University_s Morris Library's Special Collections site, where seven Dewey-related collections are housed. The Center for Dewey Studies was established in 1961 and has since "become the international focal point for research on Dewey's life and work."