Map Collections: 1500-2003

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Image, Historia general..., Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, c. 1601-1615, LoC.
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This large collection of maps from the 16th century to the present day focuses on Americana and cartographic treasures.

Materials are organized into seven thematic categories—Cities and Towns, Conservation and Environment, Discovery and Exploration, Cultural Landscapes, Military Battles and Campaigns, Transportation and Communication, and General Maps. Sections include five special presentations.

Users may download maps or zoom in to view details. Seventeen specific map collections contained within this larger site that are of particular importance for the study of American history include "Discovery and Exploration," "The American Revolution and Its Era," "Railroad Maps, 1828–1900," "American Colonization Society Collection: Maps of Liberia, 1830–1870," "Panoramic Maps, 1847–1929," "Civil War Maps," and "Mapping the National Parks."

Hannah Arendt Papers

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Graphic, The Hannah Arendt Papers
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Due to copyright restrictions, only a small portion of the more than 25,000 digitized items from the Hannah Arendt papers can be viewed outside of three locations. Visitors who are not at the Library of Congress, New School University in New York City, or Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany, may, however, view almost all of the collection's documents relating to the Adolph Eichmann trial and Arendt's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem. Material in this collection includes correspondence with holocaust survivors, minutes of the trial, Arendt's notes, and positive and negative reviews of the book. About one quarter of Arendt's general correspondence from 1938 to 1975, arranged alphabetically by correspondent, is available. Visitors may access eight folders of notes, lectures, fiction, and poetry from the 1920s and 1940s and all of Arendt's appointment books from 1972 to 1975. All material is in facsimile, much of it in German. Most of a collection of lecture notes, correspondence with students, and royalty statements for Arendt's books from 1949 to 1975 is available offline. Nearly half of a collection of drafts of Arendt's books, On Revolution and Between Past and Future may also be accessed from any location. Although limited, the site will be interesting for research on Arendt, modern Europe, and philosophy.

Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution

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Photo, Sonia Pressman Fuentes receiving EOCP Award, Jewish Women and. . .
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This exhibit explores the contributions of Jewish women in Feminism's "Second Wave" during which Jewish women helped work "to transform American society and Jewish life in America." It offers a collection of images, a timeline, and six thematic essays. The interactive timeline using the exhibit images allows the visitor to follow the role of Jewish women in the resurgence of the feminist movement from the 1960s through the end of the 20th century. The thematic essays—"Foremothers," "From Silence to Voice," "Setting the Feminist Agenda," "The Personal is Political," "Feminism is Judaism," and "Confronting Power"—combine images, audio clips, and statements from prominent Jewish feminists, as well as short biographies of the feminists. The visitor can search the entire collection of more than 90 objects and stories from Jewish feminists used in the essays or browse the collection by person, format, topic, or date. A useful resource for researching Jewish women or the history of the feminist movement.

Abigail Adams Birthplace

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The Abigail Adams Birthplace preserves the home in which Abigail Adams (1744-1818), First Lady, was born. Abigail married John Adams, second President of the United States, whom she considered her "dearest friend," in 1764. Adams often looked to his wife for political and intellectual advice and discussion. Abigail Adams promoted women's rights and was a staunch abolitionist. One of her sons, John Quincy Adams, would grow up to become the sixth President.

The site offers tours.

Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

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Image, Witchcraft at Salem Village, 1876, Salem Witch Trials
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This website presents a valuable collection of resources for examining the Salem Witch trials of 1692. There are full-text versions of the three-volume, verbatim Salem Witch trial transcripts, an extensive 17th-century narrative of the trials, and full-text pamphlets and excerpts of sermons by Cotton Mather, Robert Calef, and Thomas Maule. The site also offers four full-text rare books written in the late 17th and early 18th centuries about the witchcraft scare. Descriptions and images of key players in the trials are presented as well.

Access is provided to more than 500 documents from the collections of the Essex County Court Archives and the Essex Institute Collection, and roughly 100 primary documents housed in other archives. There are also seven maps of Salem and nearby villages. Basic information on the history of Salem/Danvers is complemented by eight related images and a brief description of 14 historical sites in Danvers.

Liberty Rhetoric and 19th-Century American Women

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Print, Early 19th Century Woman
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Prepared by Catherine Lavender, Professor of History at the College of Staten Island, this site teaches students about 19th-century women's use of "liberty rhetoric,"—the way of speaking about the relationship between the citizen and the state—to argue for their own liberties. The site focuses on three topics. The first section offers seven documents, two poems, and three images depicting origins of liberty rhetoric in the Revolutionary tradition. The second section provides nine documents and five images tracing the operations of the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the liberty rhetoric that the female mill workers used during their strikes in 1834 and 1836.

This section also offers a Lowell Girl Pictorial Gallery with ten images of Lowell and the working lives of the young women who flocked to the mill town to experience some measure of autonomy and to earn money in the mills. The third section provides the text of the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments and compares it to the Declaration of Independence as an expression of liberty rhetoric.

Also provides five links to other sites, including the Library of Congress National American Women's Suffrage Association Collection and the Rochester University Susan B. Anthony Center's History of the Suffrage Movement. This site is easily navigable and provides high-quality primary document case studies on these three events in women's history.

Jo Freeman.com

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Photo, "The tour bus," Million Mom March, Jo Freeman, 2004
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A collection of articles and photographs by Jo Freeman, feminist activist, analyst, reporter, and political consultant from the 1960s to the present-day. Offers more than 70 articles—most of which have been published previously—arranged in 13 categories. These include the feminist movement; women's political history; women, law, and public policy; and social protest in the 1960s. Freeman, who worked on the Senator Alan Cranston 's campaign staff during his 1984 run for president, also offers her diary that reveals day-to-day details of campaign life. Freeman's recent writings for Senior Women Web offer her perspectives on current issues.

Also includes more than 40 photographs taken by Freeman at the Democratic conventions of 1964 and 1968; the 1966 "March against Fear," led by James Meredith; Eugene McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign; and flags displayed at Brooklyn locations in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks. A 2,300-word biographical essay by historian Jennifer Scanlon provides a cogent summary of Freeman's public life and thought. The site is word-searchable and provides 30 links to politically-oriented sites. Of interest to those studying U.S. women's history and political activism since the 1960s.

Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World

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Logo, Gifts of Speech
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Charting changes in women's rhetoric in the public realm from 1848 to the present is possible through this archive of more than 400 speeches by influential, contemporary women. These include prominent female politicians and scientists, as well as popular culture figures. There is an emphasis on the United States (particularly after 1900), including speeches from women as diverse as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Mary Church Terrell, Marie Curie, Helen Keller, Emma Goldman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Friedan, and Ayn Rand. A nearly complete list of Nobel lectures by women laureates provides access to acceptance speeches.

The search function is particularly useful for pulling speeches from a diverse collection into common subject groups. It also allows for the study of the language of women's public debate by following changes in the use of particular metaphors or idioms, such as the concept "motherhood."

Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement

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Logo, Documents From the Women's Liberation
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A collection of more than 50 documents--including journal and newspaper articles, speeches, papers, manifestoes, essays, press releases, a minute book, organization statements, songs, and poems—concerning the women's liberation movement, with a focus on U.S. activity in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Organized into eight subject headings—General and Theoretical; Medical and Reproductive Rights; Music; Organizations and Activism; Sexuality and Lesbian Feminism; Socialist Feminism; Women of Color; and Women's Work and Roles—and searchable by keyword. Includes five related links. Selected primarily by Duke University professor Anne Valk, with assistance from Rosalyn Baxandall (SUNY, Old Westbury) and Linda Gordon (University of Wisconsin, Madison). Useful for those studying women's history and late 20th-century radical movements.

Dickinson Electronic Archives

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Image, Introductory graphic, Dickinson Electronic Archives
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This website on Emily Dickinson's work assembles a diverse array of material on Dickinson and her relatives. Access to the archive of correspondence is restricted, but more than 50 items from the writings of Susan Dickinson are available, as well as a notebook written by Edward Dickinson. Also included is a biography of Susan Dickinson. Responses to Dickson's poetry includes "A Poets' Corner of Responses to Dickinson's Legacy" which offers more than 30 short essays by poets discussing Emily Dickinson's poetry, some with audio. Additionally, there are five articles on various aspects of Dickinson's poetry and links to five other articles. Teaching Resources includes links to more than 30 websites on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and 19th-century American culture, as well as links to websites of seven courses that utilized the Dickinson archives.

The site is searchable by keyword, but there is no advanced search feature. Links to 12 related sites are provided, as well as brief descriptions and links to four other related sites with biographical and critical materials. Despite the restriction on Dickinson's correspondence, this site is a good starting point for research on Emily Dickinson and her poetry.