Children in Urban America: A Digital Archive

Image
Photo, Lester Earl Kesserling playing. . . , 1926, Children in Urban America
Annotation

This website offers more than 4,000 primary sources, including newspaper stories, photographs, statistics, oral histories, and personal narratives, related to children and childhood in urban America, specifically in the greater Milwaukee area, from 1850 to 2000. The search page is the most direct route to these sources and is accessible by clicking on the purple kite in the top, right corner of some pages. On other pages, "search entire site" in the footer is the only link. The site is organized around five sections-Work, Play and Leisure, Schooling, Health and Welfare, and "Through Children's Eyes." Each section offers a 150-word introduction, a gallery of five to 40 images, and approximately five "Special Topics" that combine a background essay (300 to 500 words) and a collection of five to ten relevant primary sources. "Special Topics" range from the Socialist Party, religion, and newsboys to National Child Health day and polio in Milwaukee County.

A section for teachers and students offers 25 possible research questions and tips for middle school, high school, and college and cover a host of topics, from games to newspaper coverage of children to the impact of technology on the lives of children. This website is useful for studying childhood and urbanization during a time when what it meant to be a child was changing rapidly.

Alaska's Digital Archive

Image
Photo, Chief Cow-Dik-Ney. . . , 1906, Case and Draper, Alaska's Digital Archive
Annotation

This website offers access to the digital collections of six Alaska universities and museums. The more than 3,700 historical images of Alaska can be browsed in their entirety or by selecting specific thematic collections organized under the two broad themes. "Alaska Native History and Cultures" has 12 collections with themes that include ceremonial life, education, native leadership and politics, making a living, and health care facilities. "Movement to Statehood" has seven collections with themes such as government, business and commerce, natural resources, transportation, and society and daily life.

Both "Alaska Native History" and "Movement to Statehood" can be browsed by region or time period. Bibliographic data accompanies each image. The user can also search the collection by phrase or keyword. Future stages of the project will add oral histories, maps, documents, and film clips in multiple formats. Alaska's Digital archive is an outstanding resource for those seeking images of Alaska's history.

Folkstreams

Image
Introductory graphic, The Angel that Stands by Me. . ., Folkstreams
Annotation

The declared mission of this film archive "is to build a national preserve of documentary films about American folk or roots culture." The archive contains more than 50 independent films and videos "depicting American folk, traditional, regional, and vernacular culture." Films include Dry Wood, a "glimpse into the life, food, and Mardi Gras celebrations of black Creoles in French Louisiana, featuring the stories and music of 'Bois Sec' Ardoin and Canray Fontenot" and New England Fiddles, presenting seven "traditional musicians as they play in their homes and at dances and contests, passing their styles to younger fiddlers, and commenting on their music."

All films are available in streaming video and can viewed with Quicktime or Realplayer. The site also provides background material on each film, explaining the subject and aesthetic importance. Transcripts are available for some films. Visitors can browse the collection by title, filmmaker, subject, region, or people. They can also search for films or search the available transcripts of films as well as essays about the films. This site should be of interest to those studying the history of American folk culture or the history of documentary film.

Medicine in the Americas, 1619-1914

Image
Logo, Medicine in the Americas 1610-1914: a Digital Library
Annotation

This small "digital library" offers a collection of eight historical medical books related to the development of medicine in the U.S. PDF files of the original documents are accompanied by a transcription and a brief description. Additionally, most of the documents have a link to a "historical note" with a more detailed description of the document. The text of the documents is searchable. The eight medical works are Clara Barton's 1878 pamphlet on the Red Cross; Thomas N. Chase's 1903 Atlanta University conference report on the mortality of African Americans in cities; Benjamin Coleman's observations on smallpox inoculation, written during the 1721 Boston smallpox epidemic; an 1825 description by Robert Waln, Jr., of the Friends Asylum near Philadelphia, the first private hospital in the United States entirely dedicated to the treatment of mental illness; William T. G. Morton's 1847 work on producing anesthesia by the inhalation of sulphuric ether; L. Emmett Holt's 1894 book on the care and feeding of children; Benjamin Rush's 1808 pamphlet on medical care for U.S. Army soldiers; and the text of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act that led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.

Madison: Celebrating 150 Years

Image
Photo, Irene Castle in Uniform, WWI or later, Madison: Celebrating 150 Years
Annotation

In 2006, Madison, WI, celebrated the 150th anniversary of its incorporation as a city. To mark the occasion, this website features 6,952 images, several articles and documents, maps and information on Madison's buildings, and links to virtual exhibits, entreating users to investigate Madison's past. This diverse collection of materials highlights both the experiences of the American Indian groups that had lived in the Madison area for many thousands of years, as well as those of the Yankee, English, Irish, German and Scandinavian settlers who began to arrive in 1837.

Visitors can view a map of American Indian village and mound sites, built for burial and ceremonial purposes, which are still visible around the city today. Also available are the recollections of George W. Stoner, one of the first settlers to arrive in Madison, through which one can learn about the construction of the city's first buildings and businesses, its first election, and its first suicide. Moving into the 20th century, visitors can also learn of the Federal Government's attempts to enforce Prohibition in Madison, which one official described as "queen of the bootleggers." This website is useful for those interested not only in Wisconsin history, but also in the history of urbanization in the United States more generally.

Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia 1876

Image
Image for Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia 1876
Annotation

The International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, unofficially known as the Centennial Exhibition, was held in Philadelphia in 1876 and was attended by more than nine million people. This website presents 1,500 images, including photographs, lithographs, engravings, maps, scrapbooks, and albums, searchable by keyword or subject, on this event.

"Exhibition Facts" provides statistics, a summary of the fair's significance, photographs of buildings erected by foreign nations, and images of sheet music. A timeline traces the fair's lifespan from the 1871 Act of Congress that created its planning commission to the removal of exhibits in December 1876. A bibliography lists more than 130 related works and 17 websites. "Tours" features an interactive map of the fairgrounds. "Centennial Schoolhouse" offers activities, including excerpts from a 17-year-old boy's diary. This website provides revealing images of the event that introduced America "as a new industrial world power."

AIDS at 20

Image
Image for AIDS at 20
Annotation

A 1981 reference to an unusual pneumonia in Los Angeles, California, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention marked the beginning of public discussion of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, known as AIDS. More than 350 selected New York Times articles from 1981 to 2001 related to the AIDS epidemic are available on this website. Materials also include nine articles specifically related to the course of the epidemic's devastation in Africa.

There are nine videos, six multimedia presentations, five fact sheets, and four in-depth reports on such subjects as HIV medications, AIDS in New York City, HIV and teens, women and AIDS, the Federal response to the crisis, and the history of AIDS. The in-depth reports cover a diverse range of people affected by AIDS, including those of different ethnic backgrounds, and cover a wide range of locations within the U.S., including rural and urban areas.

Anti-Saloon League, 1893-1933

Image
Image for Anti-Saloon League, 1893-1933
Annotation

These printed materials are representative of the public campaigns of the Anti-Saloon League from 1893 to 1933. A six-page history of the League and the Temperance movement and six biographical essays of movement leaders provide context. Facsimiles of 89 fliers produced by the League advocate temperance with arguments that include the effect of alcohol on puppies and German Emperor William II's opinion of drinking. A periodical section reproduces three covers, three sample articles, and one complete 1912 issue of American Patriot, a temperance magazine, and one cover of American Issue.

Other material includes 14 wet and dry maps of the U.S. produced by the League, three temperance anthems, transcriptions of nine anti-alcohol stories, and 12 pro-temperance cartoons. In addition, six entries from the Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem, published between 1925 and 1930, offer the Temperance perspective on communion wine, whiskey production, and alcohol use in China.

U.S. Fire Administration

Article Body

The United States Fire Administration is a division within the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It exists specifically to assist in the prevention of and response to fire.

So, what does the USFA website have to do with teaching history? Narrowly speaking, not a great deal. However, the service does provide a statistics page. While the statistics are decidedly recent, remember that what has just happened gives students an excellent frame of reference for "living," that is, really absorbing, historical knowledge by relating it to what they know.

QuickStats offers a few major points on fire injuries, deaths, and losses from 2003 to 2008. Other pages offer information on fire locations (outdoor, residential, etc.), states with the most fire-related deaths, and wildfires.

Try using this information to put past disasters in perspective or even to discuss firefighting methods in the past versus today (particularly great for localized urban histories). An example would be that the number of people who died in the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire ( or the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire) was 4% of the number of civilians killed in fires in 2008 (and more than the total number of firefighters killed in the line of duty). 4% in one fire (essentially like 1 student in a class of 25)!

Federal Highway Administration

Article Body

The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the Department of Transportation. The administration's overall goal, according to their website, is to "improve mobility on our nation's highways." Priorities include reduction of traffic congestion, environmental awareness, and roadway safety.

The primary feature of FHWA web resources available to educators is a wide variety of statistical data. Using the information offered will require preparation, as lessons or activities will need to be built around the offered information. Possibilities include asking your students to look at older and recent statistics and make suggestions for the differences between the two data sets. How has U.S. daily life and technology changed in ways which support altered transportation trends?

Two sources which would be optimal for the above suggested activity include Traffic Volume Trends, which date from 1970 through 2009, and the National Household Travel Survey. The latter includes vehicle occupancy, public transportation availability, household travel, mode of transportation, characteristics of drivers with licenses, and more. The years covered are 1969, 1977, 1983, 1990, 1995, and 2001.

Other options exist to find articles and data which fit your classroom's needs. These include the National Transportation Library, the FHWA's Publications and Products page, and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.