New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

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Engraving, "Capture of the Galleon," Howard Pyle, 1887
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This image resource site contains 30,000 digitized images from books and periodicals, as well as original photographs, prints, and postcards, mostly dated before 1923. There are cartoons and illustrations from the well known Harper's Weekly and Century Magazine, as well as images from the Library of Congress Prints and Photograph division. In addition many of the vibrant images of Native Americans were collected from the Department of War Indian Gallery. Covering more than 12,000 subjects, the site features images of Jamestown settlers, Pocahontas and John Smith, American presidents, 19th-century New York architecture, slave life, American and European women's costumes, streetcars and trains, and even insects and snakes.

Bibliographical information accompanies each image, and users may also save images of interest in their own "gallery" for viewing or purchase. Thumbnail sketches enlarge for full-page viewing. Searchable by keyword or by browsing a variety of indexes, the collection is a useful visual resource for teachers and researchers.

First Century of the First State University: The Creation of UNC

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Image, Original Seal of the University of North Carolina, 1893-94
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened its doors to students in 1789, becoming the first public university in the U.S. Part of the larger Documenting the American South website, this collection illuminates the first century of UNC's operation. Close to 500 primary source documents—letters, speeches, architectural drawings, account ledgers, meeting minutes, sermons, and General Assembly acts—are available, including previously unpublished materials. Topics include: Buildings, Campus, Creation and Governance, Curriculum, Faculty, Student Life, Town and Gown, The University During the Civil War and Reconstruction, and The University in the Life of the State. These broad topics, in turn, shed light on smaller dramas within the history of the university, such as the 1856 dismissal of a professor for expressing anti-slavery views to students. Contextual essays and an extensive timeline accompany these materials, rendering them accessible to specialists and generalists alike interested in the histories of the Civil War, North Carolina, and higher education in the United States.

History of the American West, 1860-1920

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More than 30,000 photographs of Colorado towns, landscapes, mining scenes, and American Indian tribes, taken between 1860 and 1920, are featured on this website. Approximately 4,000 images deal with the mining industry, including labor strikes, while 3,500 photographs depict Indian communities from more than 40 tribes west of the Mississippi River.

Special presentations include a gallery of over 40 photographs depicting the dwellings, children, and daily lives of Native American women; more than 30 images of buildings, statues, and parks in Denver built in conformance with the turn-of-the-century "City Beautiful" movement; and 20 World War II-era photographs of the Tenth Mountain Division, ski troops from Colorado who fought in Italy. Each image in these special exhibits is accompanied by a brief description. There are also biographies of three Western photographers.

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915

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Photo, Boys diving, Honolulu, American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, 1902, LoC
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This collection of 150 motion pictures produced between 1894 and 1915 deals with work, school, and leisure activities in the U.S. The films include footage of the U.S. Postal Service in 1903, cattle breeding, firefighters, ice manufacturing, logging, physical education classes, amusement parks, sporting events, and local festivals and parades. Each film is accompanied by a brief summary.

A special presentation furnishes additional information on three categories: America at school, work, and leisure. Essays of roughly 1,000-words provide context and general descriptions of films in each category, display 15 illustrative photographs, and link to related films. A 31-work bibliography provides suggestions for further reading and websites on American labor, education, and leisure.

Making of America

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Also see the Cornell University branch of the project here.

Together, these two websites provide more than 1.5 million pages of text in a collaborative effort to digitize more than 11,000 volumes and 100,000 journal articles from the 19th century. The websites present full-text access to 32 journals, including literary and political magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The list includes specialized journals as well, such as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, Ladies Repository, and the American Missionary. The websites also offer an abundance of novels and monographs.

A recent addition provides 249 volumes on New York City, some from the early 20th century. At present, the two collections remain separate and must be searched individually. The institutions plan to integrate their sites, however, and to include material from other major research libraries. Access to many "Making of America" texts is also available through the Library of Congress American Memory site, "The Nineteenth Century in Print".

First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820

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Significant European migration into the Ohio River Valley occurred from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century and this website presents approximately 15,000 pages of related materials. Resources include books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, journals, letters, legal documents, images, maps, and ledgers. The site includes a special presentation with a 6,500-word essay on contested lands, peoples and migration, empires and politics, Western life and culture, and the construction of a Western past.

Materials address encounters between Europeans and native peoples, the lives of African American slaves, the role of institutions such as churches and schools, the position of women, the thoughts of naturalists and other scientists, and activities of the migrants, including travel, land acquisition, planting, navigation of rivers, and trade. These are valuable resources for studying early American history, cross-cultural encounters, frontier history, and the construction of the nation's past.

Center for Archaeological Studies Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/14/2008 - 11:31
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Designed to showcase the work of archaeologists and their excavations at Mobile and elsewhere in Alabama, this website offers images and exhibits from several digs. Visitors can "virtually visit" archaeological sites in the town of Old Mobile, capital of the French colony of Louisiane [sic] from 1702 to 1711; the Mississippian Indian city of Bottle Creek (1100–1400); and the Indian fishing site of Dauphin Island Shell Mounds (1100–1550).

Additional sites include the French village of Port Dauphin (1702–1725); the Dog River Plantation site, home to a French-Canadian immigrant family, numerous Indians, and slaves (1720s–1848); and sites in downtown Mobile, including a Spanish colonial house (ca. 1800), an early 19th-century riverfront tavern, and antebellum cotton warehouses.

Artifacts features more than 250 images of pottery shards with accompanying descriptions. Great Links presents 30 additional websites that focus on preservation, archaeology, and Alabama history. The site also includes images and information on seven additional French colonial sites in Nova Scotia, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Core Historical Literature of Agriculture

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Currently this website presents full-text, searchable facsimiles of 1,850 monographs and 288 journal volumes related to agriculture in the U.S. All were published between 1806 and 1989. Evaluations and 4,500 core titles are detailed in the seven volume series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences. Fields of study covered include agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, forestry, nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science.

Types of materials include memoirs and transactions of early agricultural societies, newspapers, almanacs, agricultural periodicals, governmental publications, and archives of families, communities, and corporations. Users can search by author, title, subject, or keyword, then access the title page, table of contents, index, or pages of the text. These resources are valuable for studying the profound social, cultural, and economic effects of shifts in the history of American farming.

Internet Moving Images Archive

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Screencapture, Duck and Cover, U.S. Federal Civil Defense Ad., 1951, Moving...
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These resources come from a privately held collection of 20th-century American ephemeral films, produced for specific purposes and not intended for long-term survival. The website contains nearly 2,000 high-quality digital video files documenting various aspects of 20th-century American culture, society, leisure, history, industry, technology, and landscape. It includes films produced between 1927 and 1987 by and for U.S. corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. More than 80 films address Cold War issues.

Films depict ordinary people in normal daily activities such as working, dishwashing, driving, and learning proper behavior, in addition to treating such subjects as education, health, immigration, nuclear energy, social issues, and religion. The site contains an index of 403 categories. This is an important source for studying business history, advertising, cinema studies, the Cold War, and 20th-century American cultural history.

Anacostia Community Museum

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The Anacostia Community Museum is one of the nation's Smithsonian museums. According to the museum website, it exists to "to challenge perceptions, broaden perspectives, generate new knowledge, and deepen understanding about the ever-changing concepts and realities of "community.'" Initial goals focused on African American history. However, as of now, the museum endeavors to represent the concept of community from the local to international levels.

In nearly all cases on the website, content loads at the very bottom of the page, so be sure to scroll down.

For those of you not in the DC area, the museum provides two activities—collections search and online exhibits. The exhibit on Adam Francis Plummer, a slave in Maryland, is particularly of note. The exhibit includes a downloadable PDF file of Plummer's diary; essays on the Plummer family and slavery in Maryland; a glossary; and guided reading and worksheets intended for middle and high school students. "Speak to My Heart: Communities of Faith and Contemporary African American Life" includes a series of oral history transcripts.

Naturally, this being a museum, a field trip would be an optimal way to take advantage of the organization's offerings. Take a look at the museum's group tour information, current programs, and library.