Throughout the Ages

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Photo, A small boy with chicks on a farm. . . , 1932, New York State Archives
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Throughout the Ages was created to meet the primary source needs of New York state K-6 history teachers. The site collection includes more than 500 photographs, letters, paintings, advertisements, and maps.

To navigate the site, choose an area of interest and subtopic (for example "leisure" under the heading "community"), and scroll to a source of interest. The source will offer a caption. In some cases, historical context, focus questions, and the correlating New York state standards will also be listed. Be sure to click on each of these section titles, as items such as resources and historical background only display once selected.

One feature to look into is the automatic handout maker. For each image, you can automatically generate a handout by selecting any or all of the following categories: caption, historical background, standards/key ideas, historical challenge, interdisciplinary connections, and resources. For some images, these will already be filled out. For others, you can type anything you want for all, some, or one of those categories. Don't worry about deleting existing text if you don't want it on your handout. It will be back the next time you load your page.

Williamson County Historical Society and Museum [IL]

Description

The Williamson County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Williamson County, Illinois. To this end, the society operates a museum of local history, housed within the 1916 jail and sheriff's residence. Rooms are set to period appearance. Settings include domestic spaces, a garment shop, a doctor's office, a country store, and a schoolroom. A military exhibit is also located on site.

The society offers period rooms, exhibits, one-hour museum tours, research library access, and research assistance. A fee is charged for research conducted on request.

Robert E. Lee Papers

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Letter, R.E. Lee to Blair Robertson, April 30, 1864, Robert E. Lee Papers
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Many people are familiar with Lee's role as Commander of the Confederate Army. However, have you ever wondered what Lee himself had to say during the war? Before or after? This website gives you a peek into the mind of this famous man by way of selected correspondence.

This website consists of a collection of more than 45 letters written by Lee to recipients as diverse as family members, Jubal Early, Pendleton, McClellan, Jefferson Davis, and the Washington College. Contents include regular correspondence, a declination to a wedding invitation, military matters such as the release of citizen hostages, comments on personal illness, and college matters—from the grounds to recognizing strong attendance records. Letters are arranged in small collections by the year that they were penned. Although this website does not include transcriptions for all of the letters, a link on the main page leads to a site with a large selection of transcribed letters written by Lee. Lee's hand is legible, though, so don't discount the originals.

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series

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Logo, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) USA Logo
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Currently provides 22 census data samples and 65 million records from 13 federal censuses covering the period 1850-1990. These data "collectively comprise our richest source of quantitative information on long-term changes in the American population." The project has applied uniform codes to previously published and newly created data samples. Rather than offering data in aggregated tabular form, the site offers data on individuals and households, allowing researchers to tailor tabulations to their specific interests. Includes data on fertility, marriage, immigration, internal migration, work, occupational structure, education, ethnicity, and household composition. Offers extensive documentation on procedures used to transform data and includes 13 links to other census-related sites. A complementary project to provide multiple data samples from every country from the 1960s to 2000 is underway. Currently this international series offers information and interpretive essays on Kenya, Vietnam, Mexico, Hungary, and Brazil. Of major importance for those doing serious research in social history, the site will probably be forbidding to novices.

HistoryWired: A Few of Our Favorite Things

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Postcard, "Chinese Actor Impersonating a Female Character," San Francisco
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An experimental presentation of 450 items in the Smithsonian Institution's American History collections, many of which are not on public display. Visitors to this virtual tour will find a map divided into regions representing broad subject categories that contain smaller rectangles standing for individual objects. Moving a mouse to a particular square results in the appearance of the name of the object, a thumbnail image, a date projected onto a timeline, and lines emanating out to relevant subject areas. Users can then click to learn more, finding a 100-200 word description, an option to zoom in closer, and often links to further information in other Smithsonian sites. Also searchable by keyword and category. Objects selected by curators "include famous, unusual, and everyday items with interesting stories to tell. They are not intended to be representative of the Museum's entire collection."

Categories reflect the wide range of the Institution's holdings, including clothing, arts/entertainment, business, science/medicine, photography, home, print/communications, transportation, military, computers, and sports. Includes audio and video items. Users can submit ratings for each object that will affect the future relative size of each square. Although innovative in design, the site may be disappointing to those searching for in-depth information about American history and culture; this is history-lite, with bells and whistles given more prominence than context and meaning.

NBER Macrohistory Database

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Logo, NBER
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This website offers historians a wealth of data on the economic history of the United States. "Data" is the main section of interest to historians. "Business Cycle Dates" in this section offers a listing of the business cycles that have occurred from 1857 to 2001 that show peaks, troughs, and the duration of the contraction, expansion, and the complete cycle. The database located under "NBER Collection" contains 58 reports under the subject headings of macro data, industry data, international trade data, individual data, hospital data, and patent data. The reports have data and statistics on such topics as inflation; social security; vital statistics on births, marriages, divorces, and deaths; manufacturing; industrial production; and the business cycle. Of particular interest under "individual data" are the Vital Statistics of the United States books for the years between 1937 and 1968. There are also links to 37 other collections of economic data. Useful resources for those studying U.S. economic and business history.

Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century

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Map, "1900 Infant Mortality"
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Through a series of maps of the world, continents, and specific countries, users can trace large-scale demographic, economic, and political trends and developments covering the twentieth century. Topics charted on these maps include changes in agricultural workforce, infant mortality rates, life expectancy, literacy, persons with telephones, systems of government, alliances, borders between countries, and political violence, including wars. While examining any one map, click on buttons to find contextual information from additional maps. The site also includes informative timelines. Created by a librarian, the atlas provides a quick and easy way to see comparative change over time on a worldwide basis. Users should be aware, however, that the categorization scheme does not necessarily reflect the views of professional historians.

Florida Heritage Collection

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Graphic, Florida Heritage Collection
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This project provides a collection of more than 280 digitized materials documenting the history of Florida from pre-contact to the present. It includes materials relating to Florida history, culture, arts, literature, and social sciences in a number of major thematic areas, including Native American and minority populations, exploration and development, tourism, natural environment, and regional interests. These materials are drawn from the archives, special collections, and libraries of the 10 state universities in the Florida system.

Items include family papers, local history books and booklets, diaries, advertising materials, and Civil War letters, business records, maps, and photographs. Many of the materials are regional or local in scope.

The site also includes an extensive (5000-word) Florida history narrative timeline from pre-contact (before 1492) to the present. A user guide and tutorial are provided, and the documents are searchable by county name, keyword, subject, author, or title. The search engine has an option for listing either electronic holdings only or all collection holdings under a particular subject. Entries in the electronic catalog include the archive in which the original is located as well as a 20-word description of the item and its contents.

Note that a few links are still under construction with no completion date indicated. The site is ideal for researching Florida's state and local history.

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.

Harrisburg's Old 8th Ward

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Photo, 418 Walnut Street
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This website is devoted solely to the study of 8th Ward from Harrisburg, PA, in the 19th century, with essays, images, maps, and directory lists. A virtual walking tour offers more than 70 pictures of 8th Ward buildings and a Then and Now tour pairs views of streets and buildings in the 19th century with views of the same areas today.

The site has three informational directories on businesses, institutions, and residents. The business directory lists businesses found in the Old 8th Ward organized by goods or services and provides the owner's name, dates of operation, and links to photographs. The institutions directory lists charitable organizations, churches, fire companies, market houses, and schools with links to photographs and a brief description. The extensive resident directory is organized by streets and lists residents with their occupation, ethnicity, years of residence, and other available information.

A guide to student research on the Old 8th Ward includes 16 scholarly essays on such topics as business and industry, churches and synagogues, newspaper accounts, politics, residents, and saloons. Additionally, there are six period maps and a miscellanea section with advertisements, newspaper articles, postcards, and real estate listings. There is no search capability. In addition to those interested in Harrisburg itself, the site is of interest to anyone studying urban development in the 19th century.