Industrial Supremacy

Description

Donald L. Miller, with Stephen Ambrose, Virginia Scharff, Waldo E. Martin, Jr., Pauline Maier, Louis P. Masur, and Douglas Brinkley, examines U.S. history from 1875 to 1906. The presentation looks at the rise of industry, including Chicago's meatpacking industry; transportation developments to support industry; Andrew Carnegie and the steel business; the unsanitary and harsh conditions of work in many factories; and the development of the skyscraper.

America at the Centennial

Description

Donald L. Miller, with Pauline Maier; Waldo E. Martin, Jr.; Virginia Scharff; Louis P. Masur; and Douglas Brinkley, discusses the social environment at the bicentennial of the United States, 1876. Using the 1876 World Exposition as a hub, the presentation examines issues including the situations of Native Americans, women, and African Americans following the Civil War; the emphasis on industrialism and progress; and the trend towards individualism and self-improvement.

Public and Private Photography During the Civil War

Description

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"Like photography today, photography during the Civil War had many functions, from private to public. The session, led by Shannon Thomas Perich, will examine a variety of Civil War-related photography from the Photographic History Collection with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of how photography was incorporated into everyday lives, and how we value those photographs today as historical objects. Objects will include the 1860 Rutgers college yearbook that belonged to Texan George McNeel; Alexander Gardner's Sketchbook of the War; glass-plate negatives by Brady's studio of Lincoln's Cabinet; the portrait of a Union washerwoman; and Lincoln portraits incorporated into cartes-de-visite albums."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

Stamp Stories: Philatelic Images of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War

Description

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"In this online workshop, Museum Educator Jeff Meade uses images on United States postage stamps to create topical stamp collections based on the theme of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War history. Postage stamps contain a vast array of images commemorating President Lincoln, important Civil War figures and moments of history relating to the tumultuous Civil War era.

Teachers in Meade's workshop create virtual stamp collections available in the Postal Museum's on-line digital collection. This digital collection, named Arago, contains images of every U.S. stamp as well as nearly thirteen thousand objects from the Postal Operations collection. The Arago website allows users to create their own collections of digital images which can then be sorted into particular topics. Combining real stamp collecting with the images found in Arago provides teachers excellent opportunities to engage students in new and creative ways, with an emphasis on visual thinking strategies. Participants of the workshop build their own Arago collections based on suggested Civil War themes . . ."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

The Industrial Revolution

Description

Donald L. Miller and Louis P. Masur follow the growth of American capitalism and industry from 1776 to 1861. They look at Samuel Slater's introduction of factories to the U.S.; the textile factory community of Lowell; transportation development and the creation of the Erie Canal; and the growth of Chicago, including quality of life and pollution issues it faced and its integration into the country's rail system.

The Coming of Independence

Description

Donald L. Miller, with Pauline Maier and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., follow American history from the end of the French and Indian War through the American Revolution. On the way, they look at taxation and the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Thomas Paine's Common Sense and its effects, the Declaration of Independence, and the war itself.

Now It Can Be Told: The Unknown Irving Berlin

Description

From the Library of Congress Webcasts website:

"The Music Division of the Library of Congress and the American Musicological Society, in joint partnership, presented the third in a series of lectures highlighting musicological research conducted in the division's collections. Jeffrey Magee presented 'Now It Can Be Told: The Unknown Irving Berlin.'

After Jerome Kern famously pronounced that 'Irving Berlin is American music' in 1925, Berlin continued for several decades more to define many of America's most distinctive musical idioms, from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway to Hollywood. Berlin's death 20 years ago at the age of 101 accelerated an ever-expanding cottage industry of commentary, reflection and scholarship on a legendary figure.

In an effort to amplify patterns in Berlin's stage and screen career, the talk will aim to draw connections among unknown (or little-known) materials—including songs, scripts, 'plot treatments,' and other notable documents—and Berlin's better-known work."

Although the video may appear broken, please be aware that it loads slowly, and will eventually start.

Volcanic Pottery

Description

This podcast from the Kansas Museum of History looks at James Dryden, ceramics manufacturer in the 1950s, who cornered the market on souvenir pottery until the highway bypassed his location and Dryden moved his operation out-of-state.