Provides nearly 1,500 images of 280 architecturally significant American buildings from the colonial era to the present, compiled by Professor Jeffery Howe for classroom use. Images are arranged according to period, location, architect, building type, and style. The site offers examples of houses, churches, public buildings, commercial buildings, and skyscrapers. It includes images from three World's Fairs, as well as sections on urban planning and comparative materials. Professor Howe also has digitized images and text from two mid-19th century books on design and ornament. Although image annotations are minimal, in conjunction with other materials, the images in this site will be useful to those studying American architectural history and urban history.

In conjunction with the Russian State Library in Moscow, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, and the Rasmuson Library of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, the Library of Congress has digitized more than 2,500 items, comprising approximately 70,000 images, and provided transcriptions and commentaries in English and Russian to offer a comparative history of American and Russian expansion through frontier territories in each nation's continent. The site presents an overview of expansion into Siberia and the American West in six sections: Exploration, Colonization, Development, Alaska, Frontiers and National Identity, and Mutual Perceptions. Each section contains from two to 11 modules that call attention to similarities and differences between the two histories with regard to subjects such as migration—forced and otherwise, missionaries, religious flight, mining, railroads, agriculture, cities, popular culture, and tourism, and even compares Cossacks with cowboys.

The site offers more than 40 complete books, including manuals, handbooks, fiction, and travelers accounts; 77 maps and one atlas; 438 items from the Russian-Ukrainian Pamphlet and Brochure Collection; materials from six complete manuscript collections, regarding exploration, trade, and commercial activities; four tour-of-the-century films; 125 newspaper articles; 11 dime novel covers; five photographic collections; and one sound recording of a Russian folk song. Provides a 500-title bibliography and links to 30 related sites. Valuable for those studying the American West and Russian history and investigating ways to explore frontiers of comparative histories in order to expand beyond limits of national history narratives. Listen to the audio review: .

Supplies links to 22 full-text works of American literature, 180 pieces of recorded music, and 14 motion pictures from the years 1890 through 1929. In addition to the literary texts, the site includes thousands of links to more than 100 literary figures from this period and listings in decade-by-decade timelines for significant other works (texts not provided). Music and songs accessible in RealPlayer format include performances by Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, John Philip Sousa, Bert Williams, Nora Bayes, Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Billy Murray, Joe Venuti, Helen Kane, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, Al Jolson, and a youthful Bing Crosby. A 1908 talk on "Unlawful Trusts" by presidential candidate William H. Taft is also included. Most of the films provided were produced between 1897 and 1906. While this site is still under construction, it presently offers a good variety of sounds, sights, and texts from these four decades.

An experimental presentation of 450 items in the Smithsonian Institution's American History collections, many of which are not on public display. Visitors to this virtual tour will find a map divided into regions representing broad subject categories that contain smaller rectangles standing for individual objects. Moving a mouse to a particular square results in the appearance of the name of the object, a thumbnail image, a date projected onto a timeline, and lines emanating out to relevant subject areas. Users can then click to learn more, finding a 100-200 word description, an option to zoom in closer, and often links to further information in other Smithsonian sites. Also searchable by keyword and category. Objects selected by curators "include famous, unusual, and everyday items with interesting stories to tell. They are not intended to be representative of the Museum's entire collection."

Categories reflect the wide range of the Institution's holdings, including clothing, arts/entertainment, business, science/medicine, photography, home, print/communications, transportation, military, computers, and sports. Includes audio and video items. Users can submit ratings for each object that will affect the future relative size of each square. Although innovative in design, the site may be disappointing to those searching for in-depth information about American history and culture; this is history-lite, with bells and whistles given more prominence than context and meaning.

This companion site to a National Museum of American History exhibit explores the most famous work of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge's photographic studies of motion have been interpreted as scientific models, but the proofs included in the five exhibit sections suggest a more complex blending of art and science. "Capturing the Moment" tells the story of the commission by California Governor Leland Stanford to study the hooves on a galloping horse and Muybridge's resulting fame. "Muybridge in Motion" traces the University of Pennsylvania study of animal and human locomotion. "From Proof to Print" outlines the process and artistic nature of motion photography. "Sequences and Structures" describes the scientific principles of motion and sequential structure. "Epilogue" discusses Muybridge's influence on late-19th century visual culture and invites visitor comments.

Each section offers a 750-word introductory essay and 10-12 images illustrating the scientific and artistic elements in Muybridge's work. The site also offers five links to related sites and a five-work bibliography. A disclaimer notifies parents and teachers that many subjects were photographed nude or semi-nude. This is an interesting site for those researching the place of photography in American science and culture.

This website offers historians a wealth of data on the economic history of the United States. "Data" is the main section of interest to historians. "Business Cycle Dates" in this section offers a listing of the business cycles that have occurred from 1857 to 2001 that show peaks, troughs, and the duration of the contraction, expansion, and the complete cycle. The database located under "NBER Collection" contains 58 reports under the subject headings of macro data, industry data, international trade data, individual data, hospital data, and patent data. The reports have data and statistics on such topics as inflation; social security; vital statistics on births, marriages, divorces, and deaths; manufacturing; industrial production; and the business cycle. Of particular interest under "individual data" are the Vital Statistics of the United States books for the years between 1937 and 1968. There are also links to 37 other collections of economic data. Useful resources for those studying U.S. economic and business history.

This website provides full-text access to 22 academic history journals, including major titles, such as the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History, and smaller journals, such as the Journal of Social History, the Western Historical Quarterly, and the Journal of World History. Available journals include current issues and coverage from the recent past, going back as far as 1999, in PDF and HTML format. The website offers keyword and Boolean searching as well as advanced searching by type of article. There are four additional resources, including conference proceedings, the Booker T. Washington Papers, and Historical Map Collections. Articles in the American Historical Review are available for free without a subscription; reviews are available only by subscription.

Harper's Weekly was the leading illustrated American periodical between 1857 and 1872. This site allows all registered users free access to an online archive of 40,000 advertisements that appeared in Harper's Weekly. Without registering, visitors have access to 33 ads divided into seven categories, such as foreign travel and insurance. Two of the most compelling categories are "Civil War products," featuring ads for metallic artificial legs and bulletproof vests and "consumer goods," including advertisements for appliances, packaged goods, and pest killers. Although the ads include text and images, a 100-word introduction provides the only historical context for the advertisements on this site. For those studying 19th-century advertising and consumer culture, the site will be of interest.

Before the phonograph, America learned the latest music fads from printed song sheets. These single printed sheets, often beautifully illustrated, included lyrics only and were sung to familiar tunes like "Yankee Doodle." The lyrics and illustrations on these song sheets offer a unique perspective on the political, social, and cultural life of the time.

This American Memory collection offers the 4,291 song sheets from the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collection Division, spanning the years from 1800 through the 1880s, but primarily from the 1850s to the 1870s. Each item offers an image of the song sheet, publication and repository information, and a transcription of the lyrics.

The site also includes a 2,000-word essay on the history of song sheets, links to six related American Memory collections, and a bibliography of more than 70 related scholarly works, approximately 20 of which are for younger readers. The site is keyword searchable and can be browsed by subject, title, composer name, and publisher. For those interested in how 19th-century American politics and society were interpreted in popular culture, this is a useful site.

This American Memory project, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and Duke University, provides a window on American culture between 1850 and 1920 by offering more than 3,000 pieces of sheet music from Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. These musical pieces represent American history and culture through a variety of music types including minstrel, protest, sentimental, patriotic, and political songs, bel canto, spirituals, dance music, vaudeville, and musical pieces.

The collection is particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, Confederate imprints, and Civil War music and includes a large collection of piano marches, opera excerpts, waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles as well.

In addition to the music and lyrics, each item includes an image of sheet music cover illustrations, which provide further perspective on contemporary ideas about politics, patriotism, race, religion, and sentiment. Descriptive remarks, including notes on the composer, publication information, repository, and a transcription of lyrics accompany each item.

The site also offers a 750-word essay; a link to Duke University's home page for sheet music collections; a 1,000-word essay that defines sheet music as a cultural medium and outlines the history of music publishing in the U.S.; a bibliography of more than 150 works on the history of sheet music, composers, musicians, and performers in the U.S.; and links to five other American Memory collections with related materials.

The site is searchable by keyword and browseable by composer name and subject. Students and teachers researching American cultural history or the cultural significance of music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries will find this site useful.