One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives

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Photo, Abandoned gas station, David Falconer, April 1974
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This site, based on a National Archives exhibition of historically significant photographs, commemorates 20th-century events and everyday life. The gallery features 70 photographs grouped into six chronological headings: A New Century, The Great War and the New Era, The Great Depression and the New Deal, A World in Flames (World War II), Postwar America, and Century's End. Images contained in the gallery depict events such as the first Wright brothers flight at Kitty Hawk, immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, Lyndon Johnson meeting Martin Luther King, Jr., a war protestor placing daisies into the rifle of a U.S. soldier, and Nixon's post-resignation departure from the White House, as well as images of everyday life across the nation and throughout the century. Each chronological section opens with a brief (75-100 word) introduction. A 30-50 word caption contextualizes each image and provides information on the photographer, if known.

A portfolio section contains another 48 images taken from the works of Walter Lubken, Lewis Hine, George Ackerman, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Charles Fenno Jacobs, and Danny Lyon. Each image in the portfolio is accompanied by a 5-10 word title, notes on the photographer, and the date and place the photograph was taken. All photographs are printable. This site is ideal for students and teachers of American culture, society, and historical events in the 20th century.

FDIC Historical Studies

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Lithograph, "The War of Wealth," Strobridge & Co. Lith., c. 1896
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On this site, the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) provides information about the history of deposit insurance with a special emphasis on the bank failures of the 1980s and early 1990s. More than 800 pages of text are available in PDF format. Documents include a 76-page history of deposit insurance from the 19th century to the 1990s, a chronology and bibliography of 174 books and articles about the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s, a listing of 27 government studies of deposit insurance and bank failures, annual statistical information on the banking industry beginning in 1934, and a listing of bank failures from 1991 to 2000. The site provides access to two two-volume studies about what the FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation learned from the crisis years about the causes of bank failures and how to prevent them in the future. The material is presented in a way that is accessible to non-specialists. Economic and business historians will find the site useful for primary source material, while the site's analytic material might be used in upper-level high school and college courses.

Conversations with History

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Photo, John Arquilla, Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School Monterey
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This is a collection of 107 transcribed interviews with "distinguished men and women from all over the world," about a wide range of topics. Harry Kreisler has been moderating this interview series since 1982 at the University of California at Berkeley. An additional 104 interviews are not available online.

Interviews are unedited and can be searched by interviewee, profession, topic, chronology, Berkeley faculty, and Berkeley alumni. The interviews may also be searched by keyword. Interviews are from three to 10 pages and address topics such as Africa, civil rights, Communism, ethics, free trade, human rights, and women's roles. Professions include education, diplomacy, law, journalism, psychiatry, history, policy making, and economics. Howard Zinn, Kofi Annan, and Robert MacNamara, among others, talk about everything from their own childhoods to global politics.

The "Research Galleries" present interview excerpts in text and video grouped around topics such as "China and the World," "Truth and Power," and "Women Role Models for the New Millenium." In some cases, the galleries include email conversations between interviewees, such as Alan Cranston, and high-school students. The site will be particularly useful for research in international relations.

Earliest Voices: A Gallery from the Vincent Voice Library

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Photo, William Jennings Bryan delivering the Cross of Gold speech...
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A collection of 19 audio clips of speeches recorded by seven turn-of-the-century public figures—William Jennings Bryan, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas Edison, Samuel Gompers, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Booker T. Washington. The clips last between one and seven minutes each; all but one were made between 1900 and 1920. Subjects of the speeches include politics, reform, socialism, isolationism, trusts, the gold standard, U.S. military force, labor issues, and race relations. The site includes transcripts of the speeches as well as 150-word biographies and three photographs of each speaker.

Through digitization, technicians have improved the sound quality of these recordings, some of which had become nearly inaudible. An opportunity for users to experience the oratorical powers of influential men from the early 20th century.

Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America

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Portrait, Final portrait of Alexander Hamilton
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This exhibition details the life of Alexander Hamilton. Born in the British West Indies in 1745, Hamilton served as an aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury, also under George Washington, before being killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. This site offers a short, 20-question quiz on Hamilton's life, a timeline of the important events and accomplishments of his life, and a virtual tour, narrated by Hamilton scholar Richard Brookhiser.

A document viewer allows visitors to view five documents written in Hamilton's own hand, including a love letter to his wife. A log allows visitors to see what Hamilton was doing on selected days between 1783 and his death in 1804. A set of interactive maps allows viewers to select sites in New York City and New Jersey, and learn of their significance in Hamilton's life and American history. The site offers an entertaining and substantive introduction to an influential founding father.

Connecticut History Online

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Photo, Captain George Comer of East Haddam in rigging..., 1907
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This site is a collaborative effort between the Connecticut Historical Society, the Thomas H. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and the Mystic Seaport Museum, funded by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It offers approximately 14,000 images depicting Connecticut's history from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

The images are divided into categories: "Artifacts," "Manuscripts and Documents," Maps, Charts, and Bird's-eye Views," "Newspapers and Magazines," "Photographs, Prints, and Drawings," "Posters/Broadsides," and "Sound Recordings and Transcripts." Each image includes notes on the creator, date, and place created, medium, repository information, and a brief (40-word) description of the subject. Visitors can search the site by keyword, subject, creator, title, and date.

The site also includes four sample lesson plans for middle school classes comparing and contrasting two Connecticut families and the roles of men and women through exercises interpreting the site's images, a list of ideas for future topics, and themes for secondary-level classrooms. This site is ideal for teachers and students interested in the history of Connecticut and its communities.

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

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Photo, New York production of "Macbeth," 1936
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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.

New Jersery History Partnership Project

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Portrait, Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Huntington, NJ History Partnership Project
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This project was designed to teach U.S. history through New Jersey history. Currently, materials are organized under two themes. "American Revolution" contains 10 lectures and nine lesson plans, seven images of New Jersey historic sites such as Liberty Hall and Morven, 47 primary source documents on topics such as women, African Americans, the state constitution, the Quakers, and the Lenape, seven video clips on topics such as republican motherhood, the Great Awakening, and the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and an interactive exercise on the 1776-1777 campaign in New Jersey. Lesson plan topics include revolutionary heroes, African American quest for freedom, and the Battle of Trenton. A timeline integrating U.S. and state history events from 1734 to 1807 is also included.

A less extensive thematic section "Market Revolution" offers a lecture, a lesson plan, and a video clip on New Jersey's transportation revolution, seven primary source documents that include an 1839 map of New Jersey and a map of the Morris Canal, and a timeline. Links are provided to three partner institutions, eight history centers or organizations, and 30 New Jersey history centers, organizations, or historic sites. This website provides useful resources for those teaching the 18th- or early 19th-century history of New Jersey.

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

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Introductory graphic, A Century of Progress
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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.

Virtual Museum and Archive of the SEC and Securities History

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Photo, Placing Orders, Early 1920s, Library of Congress
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This archive and virtual museum offers papers, photographs, and oral histories on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its role in U.S. and international markets from 1929 to the present. There are 742 papers, reports, letters, notes, memoranda, transcripts of Congressional subcommittee hearings, and other documents organized chronologically by decade. Also available are 761 photographs arranged alphabetically. These include portraits, group photos, and photos of important events in the history of the SEC. There are edited transcripts and audio recordings of 33 oral history interviews and seven SEC roundtable discussions (some include essays and video). An interactive timeline allows visitors to explore important events in the history of the SEC.

A galleries section combines text and images in narratives exploring themes or important periods in the SEC's history. Each includes an introductory essay by the exhibit curator and primary materials, including papers, images or video clips, and oral histories. There are edited transcripts and audio of 21 original programs broadcast from the site as well as links to 38 related websites. Search is limited to keyword searches across the entire site. This site provides useful resources for studying the history of business and is an excellent starting point for those interested in the history of the SEC or those studying the history of business, businesspeople, or corporations