e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia

Image
Photo, Deck of playing cards from the S.S. Avalon, Michael Keller, e-WV
Annotation

Take some time on this guide to all things West Virginia. This website offers a plethora of articles from "Abolitionism" to "John Zontini." To aid your search, you can sort through articles by topical category, alphabetical order, selecting "random article," or running a keyword search for specific interests. Your search will return media as well as text results, nicely sorted into separate categories. Articles are brief, but cross-referenced; and they also include citations and images, when available and appropriate.

The encyclopedia also includes larger sets of information and images referred to as exhibits. Topics include steamboats, John Henry, the Kanawha County Textbook Controversy, the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, coal mining, historic preservation, the Swiss community of Helvetia, the Greenbrier resort, and labor. A similar feature offers a handful of historical West Virginia maps.

Want something more interactive? Try the thematic 10-question quizzes, forums, or interactive maps and timelines.

Do History: Martha Ballard's Diary Online

Image
Annotation

This interactive case study explores the 18th-century diary of midwife Martha Ballard and the construction of two late 20th-century historical studies based on the diary: historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book A Midwife's Tale and Laurie Kahn-Leavitt's PBS film by the same name.

The site provides facsimile and transcribed full-text versions of the 1,400-page diary. An archive offers images of more than 50 documents on such topics as Ballard's life, domestic life, law and justice, finance and commerce, geography and surveying, midwifery and birth, medical information, religion, and Maine history. Also included are five maps, present-day images of Augusta and Hallowell, ME, and a timeline tracing Maine's history, the history of science and medicine, and a history of Ballard and Hallowell. The site offers suggestions on using primary sources to conduct research, including essays on reading 18th-century writing and probate records, searching for deeds, and exploring graveyards. A bibliography offers nearly 150 scholarly works and nearly 50 websites.

Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

Image
Image, Hal-hal-tlos-tsot or "Lawyer," Gustav Sohon, 1855, Kate and Sue McBeth
Annotation

Presenting full-text letters and diaries, this website focuses on the lives and careers of Kate and Sue McBeth, missionaries and teachers among the Nez Perce Indians during the last quarter of the 19th century. Government documents and images pertaining to the tribe's history accompany these materials. Sue McBeth established a successful theological seminary for Nez Perce men, collected and organized a Nez Perce/English dictionary, and wrote journal articles. Kate McBeth provided literacy education for Nez Perce women, taught Euro-American domestic skills, and directed a Sabbath school and mission society.

Divided into five sections, materials include more than 150 letters, a diary, a journal, five treaties, more than 70 commission and agency reports and legislative actions, excerpts from a history of the Nez Perce, and 19 biographies. Six maps and approximately 100 images, including 13 illustrations depicting the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty negotiations, are also available.

Accessible Archives

Image
Image, Godey's Lady's Book, Accessible Archives
Annotation

These eight databases present more than 176,000 articles from 18th- and 19th-century newspapers, magazines, books, and genealogical records. Much of the material comes from Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states.

Godey’s Lady’s Book (1830–1880), one of the most popular 19th-century publications, furnished middle- and upper-class American women with fiction, fashion illustrations, and editorials. The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728–1800), a Philadelphia newspaper, is described as the New York Times of the 18th century. The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective includes major articles from the Charleston Mercury, the New York Herald, and the Richmond Enquirer. African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century includes runs from six newspapers published in New York, Washington, DC, and Toronto between 1827 and 1876. American County Histories to 1900 provides 60 volumes covering the local history of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue: Chester County 1809–1870 has been partially digitized, with 25,000 records available. The Pennsylvania Newspaper Record: Delaware County 1819–1870 addresses industrialization in a rural area settled by Quaker farmers.

Ad*Access

Image
Image, Timken Roller Bearing Company ad supporting war bonds, 1943, Ad*Access
Annotation

Images of more than 7,000 advertisements printed primarily in newspapers and magazines in the United States from 1911 to 1955 appear on this well-developed site. The material is drawn from a collection of one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies, the J. Walter Thompson Company.

Advertisements are divided into five main subjects areas: Radio (including radios, radio parts, and programs); television (including television sets and programs); transportation (including airlines, rental cars, buses, trains, and ships); beauty and hygiene (including cosmetics, soaps, and shaving supplies); and World War II (U.S. Government-related, such as V-mail and bond drives). Ads are searchable by keyword, type of illustration, and special features. A timeline from 1915 to 1955 provides general context. "About Ad Access" furnishes an overview of advertising history, as well as a bibliography and list of advertising repositories.

Probing the Past

Image
Logo, Probing the Past
Annotation

Presenting 325 probate inventories, this website provides a unique window into daily life in Virginia and Maryland between 1740 and 1810. In this time period, county courts appointed appraisers, local men, to visit an estate after its owner died, list what was there, and estimate its value. These listings, called probate records or inventories, can be analyzed to illuminate a family's routines, rituals, and social relations, as well as a region's economy and connection to larger markets. These inventories are a sample from the region at this time, picked to be representative of the furnishings in George Mason's Gunston Hall. They are all digitized, transcribed, and searchable.

For a general overview, the inventories can be browsed by decade and county—including York, Norfolk, Richmond, and Fairfax counties in Virginia. For more detailed information on the role of material culture in colonial life, the site's Interpreting section presents interviews with two scholars who use probate records to discuss topics such as slavery and slave life, credit and debt, and women and property ownership. Three detailed lesson plans, written by Virginia teachers, are also available, providing suggestions for incorporating these rich sources into classroom learning.

Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Image
Annotation

Selected materials by and about the "birth control pioneer" Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) are provided here. A link to a companion site offers approximately 200 documents dealing with The Woman Rebel, Sanger's 1914 radical feminist monthly, for which she was indicted and tried for violation of federal obscenity laws.

The project plans to digitize more than 600 of Sanger's speeches and articles. At present, there are 25 transcribed speeches, 182 newspaper articles from 1911–1921, four public statements, a letter written by Sanger in 1915, and more than 50 articles from the Margaret Sanger Papers Project Newsletter, some of which contain primary source materials. There are plans to add to items regularly. Materials also include 27 links to sites offering Sanger writings, a biographical essay, and a bibliography. Links to collections of images and an MP3 file of Margaret Sanger's 1953 "This I Believe" speech are also available.

The Insanity Retrial of Mary Lincoln

Description

In 1875, Mary Todd Lincoln's son, Robert Lincoln, petitioned to have his mother institutionalized for insanity. Mary Lincoln was declared insane and subsequently detained in Bellevue Sanatorium for four months. One year later, Mary Lincoln underwent another trial; however, this one proved more beneficial to the widow, as she received a formal declaration of sanity and the restoration of control over her assets.

Now, over a century later, various Mary Lincoln historians, legal experts, and mental health professionals have been assembled to discuss the question of Mary Todd Lincoln's insanity. This roundtable examination of Mary's mental state has been broken up amongst two panels—one which focuses on historic interpretations and other other on modern perspectives. Join these two panels as they examine this infamous case of insanity, its ramifications, and its modern interpretations.

Labor and Trade in Colonial America

Question

Who really did the work in colonial America?

Textbook Excerpt

When textbooks discuss colonial labor, they most often refer to male labor outside the physical structure of the home. This work occurred on the farm, in warehouses, and on ships and docks, creating goods to be sold either locally or as part of the "triangle trade," a network of trade routes across the Atlantic Ocean. Women, if mentioned at all, are only given a supporting role, and the labor divisions in Native communities are almost never discussed.

Source Excerpt

By framing labor as a predominantly white male occupation, textbooks are missing the complex history of labor in colonial America. Women were an integral part of the survival of most families, and also contributed to the economy as well. Native communities had divisions of labor, but their labor patterns differed from those of the colonists, and were discounted, affecting how colonists treated Native Americans.

Historian Excerpt

An analysis of the sources highlights the variety of work that made the colonial economy successful, as well as the rigid rules that specified the rights of women, slaves, and indentured servants. The sources also highlight the role of colonial labor as it pertained to international trade, and the importance of even the smallest farm on the trade routes that were so vital to the economic health and viability of the colonies.

Abstract

When textbooks discuss colonial labor practices, they most often talk about male work done outside the home. Labor is associated with creating goods for market, allowing men to participate in the "triangle trade"—a network of trade relationships in which raw materials flowed from the Americas to Europe, manufactured goods moved from Europe to Africa, and enslaved Africans were shipped back to the Americas.

This framing, however, misses key topics by:

  • overlooking female labor as central, not peripheral, to the survival of familial and colonial economies;
  • ignoring the different patterns of labor that existed in Native communities; and
  • oversimplifying the complex web of international trade relationships that wove together the Atlantic world.

Flint Sit-Down Strike

Image
Photo, Genora Johnson with a very..., c. 1936-1937, Flint Sit-Down Strike
Annotation

This rich, multimedia resource provides an introduction to "the greatest strike in American history." The six-week occupation of the General Motors plant at Flint, Michigan, in 1936–37, was led by the recently-formed United Auto Workers. Using the new tactic of remaining in the plant rather than picketing outside, the strikers stopped production and won many demands.

The site begins with a short introductory essay and a small bibliography and webography. The three main sections—organization, strike, and aftermath—provide nearly 100 audio interviews recorded between 1978 and 1984 with former strikers recalling work conditions prior to the strike, experiences during the sit-in, the hostile reaction of Flint residents, the role of the Women's Auxiliary, and conditions following the strike. Each section includes a narrative essay. In addition the site presents slideshows, an audio timeline, and a Flash-generated strike map with textual and audio links.