Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

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Scott and Bowne, Chemists, The FL Agriculturist, Dec 6, 1905, p. 790, LoC
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This website serves as a comprehensive resource for information on newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present. Its digital content comprises more than 680,000 individual newspaper page images drawn from close to 100 newspapers published in California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, between 1880 and 1910. Large cities are well-represented (for example, Washington D.C., and New York), as are medium-sized cities (Richmond, VA, and Louisville, KY) and smaller towns (Berea, KY).

This content is fully keyword searchable, and search terms appear highlighted on each newspaper page. Newspaper pages can then be zoomed for detailed viewing and downloaded in high-quality .jpg or .pdf format. By 2011, the website plans to include newspaper page images dating back to 1836. The website also provides basic publication information about more than 11,500 newspapers published from 1690 to the present. This information includes date, place, and frequency of publication, as well as holdings information for researchers interested in visiting the libraries where these newspapers are kept. The database can be searched by keyword, language, ethnic audience, or labor focus (from "agricultural industries" to "woodworkers").

Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles Collection

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From Historic Picture Tells of Father. . . , Sheboygan Press, 1918, WHS
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This extensive archive assembles some 16,000 historical and biographical articles preserved in scrapbooks at the Wisconsin Historical Society in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The primary focus of the collection is the people and communities of Wisconsin. Most of the articles were published between 1860 and 1940 in hundreds of local Wisconsin newspapers. Together the articles contain more than 50,000 pages, all of which are available in the archive. Articles are displayed as page images, but transcripts are not provided. Visitors can search the collection by keyword or search by dropdown menus of counties, newspapers, or topics. Topics include agriculture, architecture, education, government and politics, Indians and Native Peoples, industry, and transportation. Full-text searching of the articles is not possible. An excellent resource for researching the social, cultural, and political history of Wisconsin and its people.

Historic Pittsburgh

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Photo, Charles Hart Spencer. . . , 1905, Spencer family, Historic Pittsburgh
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This site offers an extensive archive of material on the history and culture of Pittsburgh, including full-text published works, maps, images, and census records, as well as archival finding aids. The full-text collection, covering the colonial period through World War I, presents more than 500 books on Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania history, including manuscripts, reports, dictionaries, diaries, and periodicals. The collection can be browsed by author, genre, date published, or categories such as culture and society or people and personalities. It can also be searched by keyword or bibliographic information including author, title, and subject. The map collection offers visitors the ability to search and view 1,122 plates from 26 volumes of Hopkins Real Estate maps (1872 ñ 1939) and the 1914 Warrantee Atlas of Allegheny County. The more than 8,000 images can be browse by time period (1860s to 1980s), location, collection, or through four thematic presentations focused on work, play, home life, and personalities.

Also available are searchable U.S. census schedules for Pittsburgh from 1850 to 1880 and for Allegheny City from 1850 to 1870 and archival finding aids to 700 archival collections. Additionally, there is a timeline of Pittsburgh history from 1750 to 2000 and two lesson plans for teachers based on the material in the site's collections, one on using census data and one on using the map collections. A useful resource with a variety of primary source material for anyone researching the social or cultural history of Pittsburgh.

Silicon Valley History Online

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Photo, Thin film, Intel Corporation, 2003, Silicon Valley History Online
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This small archive provides more than 850 images from the mid-18th century to the present of the Santa Clara Valley in California. Browse the archive or view images through six thematic groupings: agriculture (91 images); education (147 images); people (467 images); technology (182 items); transportation (125 items); and urban life (78 items). There is some overlap between the collections. Keyword and advanced searches are also available. There are seven lesson plans on the history of the Santa Clara Valley, primarily for high school. Topics include the 1906 earthquake, the history of technology, urban development, the Ohlone Indians, women in Santa Clara County, and transportation.

Western History Photography Collection

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Photo, Black cowboy and horse, c. 1890-1920, Western History Collection
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This combined archive and exhibit contains more than 100,000 images, including photographs, broadsides, posters, maps, advertisements, and other documents. There is a keyword search but no feature for browsing the entire collection. Many of the images can be browsed, however, through nine "galleries," or thematic collections of selected images. "Scenic Rails of the West" is a large exhibit with seven image galleries that include towns, touring, railroads, native culture, and national parks. The "Photos West Classics" gallery is also large and includes the most frequently requested images. Topics include children, saloons, trails and covered wagons, famous Westerners, famous Native Americans, Wild West shows, and Western life. Other galleries include "Railroads," "Building Histories," and "Native American Women." All images are accompanied by a descriptive catalog record and are available for purchase. A learning page (accessed through "news") offers 18 lessons. This website is a valuable source of images on Western figures, culture, environment, politics, and economic development. Teachers of the American West will also find valuable instructional resources.

Encyclopedia of Chicago, Historical Sources

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Photo, Children standing in front. . . , 1917, Encyclopedia of Chicago
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This archive brings together more than 1,300 images on a wide array of topics related to Chicago, its people, and its culture. The material in the collection spans both the 19th and 20th centuries and includes photographs, advertisements, broadsides, maps, letters, newspaper articles, illustrations, and engravings. The photographs include aerial views of the Chicago cityscape, Chicago places, Chicago industries and workers performing their trades, historic photographs, Chicago events, and photographs of Chicago's people. The more than 100 maps can be browsed separately. Each item is cross-referenced to related items in the collection and many of the images are accompanied by explanatory text. The images can be enlarged and there are features for rotation and magnification.

Additionally, the site offers interpretive essays on the Plan of Chicago of 1909, "one of the most noted documents in the history of city planning" and the importance of water in Chicago's history. Other special features are a biographical dictionary, a dictionary of leading Chicago businesses from 1820-2000, and a presentation on how Chicagoans remember their history with images and brief interpretations. In addition, the entire contents of Encyclopedia of Chicago can be searched. A useful resource on the history of Chicago or urban history.

Turning Points in Wisconsin History

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Photo, Arthur M. Vinje, April 4, 1947
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This website allows visitors to explore the history of Wisconsin through essays, primary source documents, lesson plans, and maps. The main feature is 53 presentations grouped under 10 overall topics: early native peoples; early explorers, traders, and settlers; territory to statehood; immigration and settlement; Civil War era; mining, lumber, and agriculture; Progressive Era; 20th-century wars and conflicts; prosperity, depression, industrialization, and urbanization; and response to 20th-century change. Each topic offers four or more presentations with a short introductory essay; primary sources available on the site; primary sources available elsewhere; and related links.

Documents available on the site include more than 140 books, tracts, pamphlets, or papers; more than 100 images; more than 260 articles; and more than 35 manuscripts. The site also offers 95 reference maps. There are more than 45 elementary and 36 secondary lesson plans searchable by keyword, grade level, and/or topic. The advanced search allows visitors to search by fields such as agriculture, intellectual life, and politics; or by keyword, education level, topic, presentation, or type of document. Additionally, there is a tutorial on using primary documents. This website is a good starting point for teaching or researching Wisconsin or the mid-Western region.

Minnesota Maps Online

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Map, 1874, Alfred Theodore Andreas, Minnesota Maps Online
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This site allows the visitor to search and view Minnesota's original public land survey plats created by the U.S. Surveyor General's Office during the years 1848 to 1907 and the later General Land Office and Bureau of Land Management maps of the state. The collection includes more than 3,500 original land survey maps; an 1873 map book of Hennepin County; late-19th-century plat books of Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, and Winona counties; and an 1871 illustrated historical atlas of Minnesota. Browse all the maps and plats or search the collection by county, township/range, or keyword. The advanced search feature allows the researcher to search the collection by title, subject, description, creator, publisher, date, source, or coverage. A useful resource for those researching the social, economic, environmental, or political history of Minnesota and its counties and towns.

Automobile in American Life and Society

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Hartford Auto-Jack advertisement, 1911, Automobile in American. . . site
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This website was designed as an academic resource for courses focused on the automobile and the automobile industry. Each section—design, environment, gender, labor, and race—has a short introduction and two illustrated scholarly essays (often including annotated bibliographies). The complete text of each essay can be viewed in a separate window and each essay is accompanied by a student and teacher resources section with one or more questions for reading, discussion, writing, and research, as well as questions making connections between the essays. "Design" also offers a list of 110 "automotive oral histories" available in the Benson Ford research center, but only 17 are available on the site. Visitors can search the site by keyword but no advanced search is available. This site is a useful resource for students and educators studying the role of the automobile in American culture and society.

Lawrence Denny Lindsley Photographs

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Photo, Victor Denny and Lawrence Lindsley. . . , 1901, Lawrence Denny. . . site
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This website presents 472 black and white photographs taken by Lawrence D. Lindsley, grandson of Seattle pioneer David Denny. Born in 1878, Lindsley began taking photographs as a child, and eventually joined a photography studio in Seattle in 1903. He continued taking photographs until his death in 1974, though most of the photographs here date from the 1880s through the 1920s. In addition to photography, Lindsley held a variety of jobs in Washington State—mining, hunting, and guiding wilderness expeditions—activities all well-documented here.

The collection is especially rich in photographs of the landscape, wildlife and settlements of Mount Rainier, Grand Coulee, Lake Chelan, the Olympic Peninsula, and Old Gold Creek. Lindsley also photographed sites around King County, revealing a Seattle that had not yet experienced the urbanization of the early-20th century. A long list of subject headings reveals that Lindsley also frequently photographed family members and friends, producing images useful for examining turn-of-the-century portraiture.