Features 141 texts relating to the culture of the American south "from the viewpoint of Southerners," during the latter half of the 19th and beginning decades of the 20th centuries, " a period of enormous change." Focusing on the voices of women, blacks, laborers, and Native Americans, the site offers a variety of documents--including ex-slave narratives, travel memoirs, personal accounts and diaries, and autobiographies, such as Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy; Late a Slave in the United States of America (1843). Includes some materials published prior to 1860. Provides a 31-title bibliography, with some resources geared toward young readers, and links to 13 related sites. Part of the University of North Carolina's digital library project, Documenting the American South, which is described further in its own History Matters entry.

This site reproduces 12 letters by soldiers at the battlefront of the Civil War between April 1861 and April 1865. The letters, written by both Union and Confederates, describe battle conditions at Fort Sumter (SC), Manassas (VA), Hilton Head (SC), Frederick (MD), Frederickburg (VA), and other important locations.

Taken from the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the letters are accompanied by illustrations and short captions.

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.

This website allows the user to search Eisenhower's presidential papers for both his first and second terms (volumes XIV through XXI of the published correspondence series). The correspondence deals with all aspects of the presidency, such as diplomacy and international relations, politics, national policy, and military affairs. The correspondence also includes Eisenhower's personal correspondence to and from family members and friends. The site is divided into first term papers, with 2,173 documents, and second term papers, with 1,782 documents. Each division is introduced by a 7,000-word essay written by the editors.

Both quick and advanced searches are available and there are three methods of browsing the papers: sequentially through "table of contents," by document number, or by subject using the "general index." Each paper is accompanied by footnotes and bibliographic references. There is also a monthly chronology available, along with bibliographies of primary and secondary sources. The site also lists 50 suggested readings and books by or about Dwight D. Eisenhower. For those researching the Eisenhower papers or his presidency, this website provides an invaluable resource.

This exhibition offers 70 color pictures taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) between 1939 and 1943. This collection "reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images. These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country's great mobilization for World War II." The collection features the work of famed photographers John Vachon, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, and Marion Post Wolcott.

All pictures in the exhibition can be viewed in large format by clicking on the image or the title in the exhibition gallery. The collection is searchable by keyword. The complete collection of FSA/OWI photographs—171,000 black-and-white images and 1,602 color images—is available on the Library of Congress website at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html. This collection is of interest to both those studying the history of American photography and those seeking images of New Deal-era America.

For historians researching New Jersey, this site's main interest will be its "state archives." "Catalog" provides access to nearly 200 pre-established searches on the archive's manuscript series, genealogical holdings, business and corporate records, cultural resources, and maps. Topics include military conflicts, society and economics, transportation, public works agencies, and photographic collections, as well as state, county, municipal, and federal government records. The other major feature consists of eight image collections with themes that include New Jersey Civil War soldiers, Spanish-American War Infantry Officers, Spanish-American War Naval Officers, Gettysburg Monuments, and views of the Morris Canal. The archives site also includes a searchable index of New Jersey Supreme Court cases, a transcription of New Jersey's 1776 constitution, and a table summarizing the holdings of the state archives. This site is a useful aid for researching the history and culture of New Jersey.

This website offers links to lesson plans, audio recordings, and video lectures related to the Antebellum, Civil War, and Gilded Age eras. There are 15 lesson plans on the Antebellum era focused on the Lincoln-Douglas debates, antislavery, Cherokee removal, slavery and the legal status of free blacks, gender roles, religion in political life, and the free-market labor vs. slave labor, "mudsill" theory debate. The nine lesson plans on the Gilded Age include such diverse topics as the WCTU and the lynching controversy, civil service reform, bimetallism, free trade, and political campaign songs. There are 145 downloadable songs organized by topic.

The site also offers access to downloadable video lectures on 12 different topics that include African Americans and race, economic development and labor, frontier settlement, law and society, religion and culture, women and gender, and political development. Most topics have 10 or more lectures available. A small site, but very useful for teaching the history of these three eras.

This website presents all known correspondence of the wife of James Madison, containing roughly 2,000 letters. Although many letters are thank-you notes or polite responses to social invitations, others offer rich insights into the personality and experiences of the First Lady, especially those exchanged with her sisters. The letters are organized into five periods: birth and youth; the years as wife of the secretary of state; the years as first lady; retirement; and widowhood. Users can search by name, date, topic, or place. A table of contents lists the letters by date, author, and recipient.

Additional features include a biographical sketch; "Crosslinks" listing all names (including nicknames, middle, and maiden) appearing in each letter, in order of appearance; a different color font to highlight unclear or missing characters or words; and a summary of the contents of each letter. Although the site is gated, a free trial option is accessible to all.

This collection of 161 maps represents the work of Jeremy Francis Gilmer, an engineer in the U.S. Army from 1839 to 1961 and a Confederate States of America Army officer during the Civil War. These hand-drawn maps represent the entire South, but Virginia and North Carolina are particularly well-represented. General maps of the eastern, central, and valley regions of Virginia are included, as are maps of the battlefields in Hanover County and at Manassas. Several drawings of rivers in Virginia suggest their importance in the War. Drawings of forts and fortifications, entrenchments, and defensive works also feature prominently, such as Forts Debray, Velasco, Quintana and Sabine in Texas, Forts Boykin, Magruder, and Monroe in Virginia, and defensive works around Weldon, Wilmington, and Halifax, North Carolina. Maps can be browsed by state or searched by keyword, and can be enlarged and zoomed in, making them useful for those interested in detailed viewing or projection in the classroom.

This website presents the stories of six Holocaust survivors—three men, three women; five born in Poland and one in Czechoslovakia—who immigrated to the United States after World War II. Visitors can either listen to the six 30-minute interviews in their entirety, or listen to interview clips surrounding six themes: "starting over," "arriving in New York," "living with the past," "speaking out," "faith, guilt, and responsibility," and "telling their children." Many of the survivors begin by talking about their experiences before the war, and proceed to explain the complexities of starting over in the United States after the war.

Each interview is interspersed with narration and accompanied by photographs and other personal memorabilia, helping visitors better contextualize the narrators' stories. Audio files and interview transcripts are downloadable, making this website's resources useful in classroom settings, as well as to a broader public interested in understanding the aftermath of the Holocaust through deeply personal accounts.