Words and Deeds in American History

Image
Logo, Words and Deeds in American History
Annotation

This site displays approximately 90 primary documents from the 15th century to the mid 20th century. Features eight subjects: the presidency; Congress, law, and politics; military affairs; diplomacy and foreign policy; arts and literature; science, medicine, exploration, and invention; African-American history and culture; and women's history. The collection emphasizes "prominent Americans whose lives reflect our country's evolution," including 23 presidents and figures such as Carter Woodson, Thurgood Marshall, pioneer physician Elizabeth Blackwell, Wilbur Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell.

Each subject is accompanied by a useful 100- to 400-word background essay and a link to the document's host collection. Also includes a 2,000-word essay entitled "Collecting, Preserving, and Researching History: A Peek into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division." Although limited in size, this site provides an eclectic group of documents of national interest.

New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939

Image
Photo, New York production of "Macbeth," 1936
Annotation

Offers more than 13,000 images of items relating to the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a New Deal program designed to provide work for unemployed theater professionals. The collection contains 71 playscripts and 168 documents from the FTP's Administration Records. Extensive materials, including photographs, scripts, posters, and set and costume designs, have been selected from three significant productions: Macbeth and The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus, directed by Orson Welles, and Arthur Arent's Power, an example of the Project's innovative "Living Newspaper" series of topical plays. The site includes a 3,500-word background essay, as well as four illustrated articles about the Project. A FTP Collection finding aid describing more than 525,000 offline items may be downloaded, but is not currently searchable.

A New Deal for the Arts

Image
Oil on Canvas, Untitled Winter Scene, Ceil Rosenberg, 1934
Annotation

This exhibit, divided into five sections, presents artifacts from New Deal art programs, introduced by a 250-word essay. "Rediscovering America" discusses "artistic nationalism" and provides five photographs and five paintings of American scenes. "Celebrating the People" exhibits five paintings and one photo of people at work and two photos and three programs of celebrations of folk culture. In "Work Pays America," five posters, two paintings, and two photos document and celebrate New Deal programs.

The 11 works exhibited in "Activist Arts" make more and less subtle political arguments, including Dorothea Lange's "Children in a Democracy" and a flier for a Workers' Alliance meeting. A section on "Useful Arts" exhibits 15 pieces, including informational posters, photos of quilting lessons, and a WPA handcraft wall hanging. The exhibit is easy to navigate, although visitors must return to the home page between each section. Useful for those studying the politics, social messages, and images of the New Deal.

American Originals

Image
Photo, Original Copy of Emancipation Proclamation, NARA
Annotation

This exhibition presents 14 of the " most significant and compelling documents from the National Archives holdings." The site furnishes, in whole or part, facsimiles and in some cases transcriptions of the following documents: the July 2, 1776, resolution by the Continental Congress proclaiming independence from Great Britain; George Washington's first inaugural address; the Louisiana Purchase agreements; a casualty list of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War; a police blotter that reports the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln; an 1868 treaty with the Sioux Indians; a U.S. Navy memorandum reporting the Titanic disaster of 1912; a court verdict concerning gangster Al Capone; Eleanor Roosevelt's 1939 resignation from the Daughters of the American Revolution in protest of the group's refusal to allow singer Marian Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall because of her race; President Franklin Roosevelt's speech to the Congress requesting a declaration of war against Japan; a draft press release announcing the United States's recognition of Israel in 1948, signed by President Harry S. Truman; speech cards used by Presidents John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Ronald Reagan in 1987 for their historic visits to Berlin; President Richard Nixon's 1969 diary entry relating to his telephone conversation with Apollo 11 astronauts; and Nixon's resignation letter of 1974. The materials are accompanied by brief descriptions of 100-200 words, photographs, audio files, and links to related National Archives documents. This site exhibits national relics well, but does not investigate their historical significance and meanings.

The Lindbergh Case: The Trial of the Century

Image
Photo, Charles Lindbergh, The Lindbergh Case: The Trial of the Century
Annotation

Created by a weekly newspaper based in Flemington, New Jersey, this site is devoted the 1932 kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and the subsequent trial of a 35-year-old Bronx carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Among the few primary materials included are approximately 35 photographs related to the trial and six episodes from a 1934-35 comic strip about the crime. The site offers a summary of events and biographies of the leading characters, theories about Hauptmann's innocence, a timeline, nine recent articles from the newspaper on the case and about several "Lindbergh baby claimants." Of limited value due to the site's reliance on only one newspaper for most of its documentation.

The "Inside Lindbergh Trial" menu is defunct. Use the links located throughout the page.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Image
Logo, National Baseball Hall of Fame
Annotation

Official site of the Baseball Hall of Fame, located in Cooperstown, New York. Gives 100-word biographies on all past 253 inductees and 1,000-word essays on the four members elected in 2001. Includes four educational programs, each containing 4-5 primary source documents--cartoons, articles, letters, photographs, and advertisements--on World War II and baseball, Jackie Robinson, the Negro Leagues, and women in baseball. Provides extensive bibliographies of more than 100 titles each on Robinson, Roberto Clemente, women in baseball, sex discrimination in athletics, and the 1972 antitrust suit "Flood v. Kuhn," dealing with baseball's controversial "reserve clause." Also includes a 4,000-word essay on a leading midwest minor league team from 1901-1961; research lists dealing with baseball trivia topics; an exhibit of paraphernalia given by a collector; a "Treasures of the Hall of Fame Quiz" for visitors age 12 and under; links to 34 major and minor league ball club sites; and information about using the organization's library and research collections. A useful source of historical information on baseball players, clubs, leagues, law, and lore.

American Slave Narratives

Image
Photo, Ben Horry, American Slave Narratives
Annotation

This site contains selections from 13 interviews with former slaves conducted between 1936 and 1938 by journalists working for the New Deal Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration. Each selection is accompanied by a brief biographical sketch of the interviewee, a photograph or drawing of the interviewee taken at the time of the interview, and in one instance, an audio component. Includes guidelines for reading slave narratives, a bibliography of 16 scholarly works on the history of slavery, and 21 links to related sites in general American history, southern history, and African-American history. A useful sample of first-hand testimony on American slave experience and culture.

Children in Urban America: A Digital Archive

Image
Photo, Lester Earl Kesserling playing. . . , 1926, Children in Urban America
Annotation

This website offers more than 4,000 primary sources, including newspaper stories, photographs, statistics, oral histories, and personal narratives, related to children and childhood in urban America, specifically in the greater Milwaukee area, from 1850 to 2000. The search page is the most direct route to these sources and is accessible by clicking on the purple kite in the top, right corner of some pages. On other pages, "search entire site" in the footer is the only link. The site is organized around five sections-Work, Play and Leisure, Schooling, Health and Welfare, and "Through Children's Eyes." Each section offers a 150-word introduction, a gallery of five to 40 images, and approximately five "Special Topics" that combine a background essay (300 to 500 words) and a collection of five to ten relevant primary sources. "Special Topics" range from the Socialist Party, religion, and newsboys to National Child Health day and polio in Milwaukee County.

A section for teachers and students offers 25 possible research questions and tips for middle school, high school, and college and cover a host of topics, from games to newspaper coverage of children to the impact of technology on the lives of children. This website is useful for studying childhood and urbanization during a time when what it meant to be a child was changing rapidly.

Alaska's Digital Archive

Image
Photo, Chief Cow-Dik-Ney. . . , 1906, Case and Draper, Alaska's Digital Archive
Annotation

This website offers access to the digital collections of six Alaska universities and museums. The more than 3,700 historical images of Alaska can be browsed in their entirety or by selecting specific thematic collections organized under the two broad themes. "Alaska Native History and Cultures" has 12 collections with themes that include ceremonial life, education, native leadership and politics, making a living, and health care facilities. "Movement to Statehood" has seven collections with themes such as government, business and commerce, natural resources, transportation, and society and daily life.

Both "Alaska Native History" and "Movement to Statehood" can be browsed by region or time period. Bibliographic data accompanies each image. The user can also search the collection by phrase or keyword. Future stages of the project will add oral histories, maps, documents, and film clips in multiple formats. Alaska's Digital archive is an outstanding resource for those seeking images of Alaska's history.

A Century of Progress: The 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair

Image
Introductory graphic, A Century of Progress
Annotation

This website provides materials published for the 1933-34 World's Fair including copies of official publications, press releases, souvenir albums, guidebooks, maps, brochures, postcards, photographs, and newspaper clippings. Users can search the checklist of the Official Publications of the Century of Progress International Exposition and Its Exhibitors containing over 1,225 items, some 350 of which are available online. The checklist can also be browsed by author, title, or subject. Additionally, the site provides links to websites related to the 1933-34 World's Fair.