Women Artists of the American West

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This online archive features images of photographs taken by women that represent the holdings of the Women in Photography Archives located in Arcata, CA. Most of the photographs in the collection are the work of women photographers who were active between 1850 and 1997 and had some connection with the American West, particularly California.

The archive contains 17 separate collections, arranged according to four main themes: Community, Identity, Spirituality, and Locality. Each of these categories features relevant essays composed by art historians, curators, and artists. As a whole, the site offers the works and biographies of approximately 180 artists and photographers.

For educators, the site also offers a comprehensive eight-week syllabus that covers the website's four main themes.

Although navigating the website can take some getting used to, it is worth the effort. The site is a valuable resource for often lesser-know perspectives on the American West.

Picturing Modern America Project

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It is difficult at times for young people (and people in general) to understand the past, even the more recent past of the past century or so. It seems almost banal to observe that many aspects of life have changed dramatically, and perhaps not so banal to note that many things have in fact not changed as much as we think. This fine site contains a number of interactive exercises (drawing on the vast collections of the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress) that will help deepen students' understanding of common topics in the study of modern America from 1880 to 1920 and to build their skills in analyzing primary sources.

Teachers and student alike will appreciate the "Investigations" area, which contains exercises such as "Picturing Social Change", "Modern Women", and "Picturing Prairie Life". Through the exercises, visitors will be asked a variety of questions that draw on the visual materials contained within each thematic section, such as "What brought people to the prairie?" or "Why might people have left the prairie?". Visitors also have the opportunity to build their own exhibits by choosing their own theme or question about modern America, and through choosing their own images and documents for their exhibit.

Woman's Legal History Biography Project

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The three sections of this website focus on women lawyers in the U.S. and women's legal history. The Women's Lawyers Index offers more than 700 listings of female lawyers in U.S. history, each with links to biographical information, collected papers and archival material (if available), and articles, as well as a bibliography. The content of these sections is uneven, though, some having far more entries than others.

The Clara Shortridge Foltz section primarily consists of 13 articles by Babcock on Foltz, the first female lawyer on the Pacific Coast. It focuses on the relation of early women lawyers to suffrage and other reform movements.

"Research Resources" provides 23 links to other websites on women lawyers and women's legal history, as well as over 50 links to historiographical articles, articles from periodicals and legal journals, and general interest articles. A bibliography lists 38 books and 18 articles dealing with women's legal history. This site is a useful launching point for researching female lawyers and women's legal history.

The Pill

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Designed as a companion to the PBS film, this site documents the development of the birth control pill and its effect on women's health. The site offers a synopsis of the film (approximately 1,000 words) and about a dozen primary sources, including letters between birth control pill researchers. The site also includes a timeline that documents references to birth control as far back in history as Biblical Genesis.

A Gallery showcases approximately 15 birth control pill package designs. People and Events introduces visitors to the researchers (including Margaret Sanger) who dedicated years to the project, as well as milestones in the pill's development. Special Features uses a Flash presentation to demonstrate how the pill works to prevent pregnancy, explores the many shifts in sexual attitudes that have been attributed to the pill, and asks viewers to participate in an online poll.

A Teacher's Guide features lesson plans in geography, civics, history, and society, and presents challenging exercises for students. For example, one exercise asks students to survey the effect geography had on sexual attitudes by comparing laws about contraception from state to state in 1960.

Although the site is not a comprehensive archive, the primary sources and multimedia exhibits make it valuable, especially for research into birth control and women's issues.

Women Working, 1800-1930

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This site offers textual and visual historical resources for teaching, learning, and researching the history of women working in the United States. It currently includes almost 3,500 digitized books, 7,500 manuscript pages, and 1,200 photographs. Holdings include letters, diaries, scrapbooks, magazines, catalogs, photographs, books, and pamphlets (both non-fiction and fiction).

Visitors may browse through the "New Additions" area, look through materials by topic (such as home labor, arts, or business), search catalog keywords, or perform a full text search.

American Memory Learning Page

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Designed to provide support for elementary, middle, and high school history teachers, this site makes the entire American Memory collection at the Library of Congress available for classroom learning. Using the more than 7 million digital sources available through American Memory's 100 collections, the creators have written and collected 140 lesson plans for teaching American history. Organized chronologically and thematically, the lesson plans are detailed suggestions for classroom activities. Each has a recommended age group and uses primary sources collected by students or teachers from American Memory.

Especially useful are the included guides on using primary sources, using American Memory resources, and using digital or Internet sources in the classroom. A "Professional Development" section offers online workshops and tutorials to improve teachers' digital literacy. An excellent resource for the classroom, this site would be useful to both student and teacher.

Women of Valor

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This site introduces Emma Goldman—an immigrant, an advocate of free love, a promoter of birth control, and an anarchist. The designers have done a splendid job in tying the many facets of Goldman's public life together into one set of interrelated narratives. An "Introduction" is divided into 13 thematically coherent sections, such as Early Years, Anarchism, Use of Violence, and Deportation. Each runs approximately 500 words. A Timeline is useful for placing Goldman into historical and cultural context.

There are several dozen artifacts, including the full text of two books, six cartoons, four historical documents, an analytical essay, two personal letters, 12 news clippings, and 16 photographs. The information is well documented, and includes a detailed bibliography.

The care that the producers took in explaining potentially confusing or problematic terms (like feminism and suffrage) makes the site particularly appropriate for high school and undergraduate students. Although not a comprehensive archive, this site nonetheless provides an informative introduction to Goldman and her role in American history.

TUPPERWARE!

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This site explores the invention and rise of Tupperware products in the 1950s, as well as its impact on women's issues, and its connection to the 20th-century consumer culture revolution. The site focuses on Earl Tupper, the inventor of Tupperware, and Brownie Wise, the woman who created the Tupperware party concept and built a Tupperware empire. Included are short (500-word) biographies of each.

In the Gallery, visitors can see 12 of Tupper's invention notebooks to examine some of his inventions that were not as successful as Tupperware, like his no-drip ice cream cone and his necktie shaper.

The Teacher's Guide offers two learning activities in each of four academic areas: civics, economics, geography, and history. A timeline spans from the 1850s to 2003 and includes events such as the invention of plastic.

Primary Sources includes transcripts of interviews with Tupper and Wise, six video clips from the late 1950s and early 1960s (documenting the annual Tupperware Homecoming Jubilees, which were large gatherings of Tupperware dealers), as well as excerpts from the first Tupperware handbook. Also included are six documents, including a 1960s training manual, How to Sell Tupperware, and a collection of Wise's Aphorisms.

Visitors can share their experiences with Tupperware, either as consumers or as Tupperware dealers, in the Share Your Story section.

Finally, the site features an interview with a noted historian of women's issues who discusses the realities of married women's employment in the 1950s, as well as the impact Tupperware had on women's opportunities.

The Story of Virginia

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This attractive website offers a presentation on the history of Virginia from prehistoric times to the present with essays, images, and teaching resources. There are 10 chapters: the first Virginians; the settlement of colonial Virginia; Virginia's society before 1775; Virginians in the American Revolution; Virginians as Southerners, Confederates, and New Southerners; Virginians in the 20th century; the struggles of African American and female Virginians for equality; and a final chapter on images of Virginia in popular culture. Each chapter has an essay featuring images of relevant items in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society.

The "resource bank" collects all 95 images from the chapters of people, documents, places, and objects. Additionally, the site offers a teacher's guide for each chapter listing the standards of learning, a summary of key points, classroom activities and lesson plans, links to related websites, and information on tours, outreach programs, and hands-on-history programs.

An excellent introduction to the history of Virginia and its people with useful resources for class projects and classroom instruction.

Adams Family Papers

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This website offers images and transcription for 1,198 letters in the correspondence between John and Abigail Adams, 51 files from the Diary of John Adams, and 108 files from the Autobiography of John Adams. The correspondence and the diary span the late 18th to early 19th centuries. The correspondence includes such diverse topics as the Continental Congress, European diplomacy, family matters, and the Revolutionary War. In addition to the daily diary entries, The Diary contains financial accounts, copies of letters, drafts of essays, and notes on books and legal cases. John Adam's autobiography is a retrospective narrative of his life up to 1780.

The user can search, browse each collection, or browse all documents by date. Additionally, the site offers a lesson plan based on the correspondence between John and Abigail Adams targeted to the middle school level. Six links are provided to related websites. The website is useful for researching or teaching John and Abigail Adams, particularly those interested in their family life.