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.

After property qualifications for voting were eliminated in the 1830s, the American electorate expanded from 1.5 million to 2.4 million. As abolition, the extension of slavery, the Mexican War, and the Dred Scott decision dominated the national debate, songs, parades, and barbecues became increasingly important campaign tools to reach out to new voters. This type of political material culture is highlighted through this website, presenting 1,200 documents, more than 650 images, 100 songs, and interactive country-wide Presidential election maps for all six Presidential elections between 1840 and 1860. Detailed contextual information is available on a wide range of subjects, such as political campaigns, political parties, and major national events. Five short videos by well-known scholars address political culture, the second party system, politics as popular entertainment, and women's roles in antebellum politics. The detailed lesson plan in the "Teacher's Podium" challenges students to assess changing campaign strategies through song lyrics.

This database is the most essential collection of written materials for historical research in American history from 1801-1819. It provides full-text access to nearly 4.5 million pages of 36,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints published in the U.S. during this period. Gazetteers, almanacs, juvenile literature, chapbooks, hymnals, campaign literature, novels, slave narratives, spelling books, school readers, treaties, maps, atlases, advertisements, diaries, autobiographies, and much more are all included. Most of these materials were originally detailed in the bibliography compiled by Ralph Shaw and Richard Shoemaker. This collection, long available on microfiche, is made available here as a digital, fully searchable online database. It complements Readex's other Early American Imprints series of material from the period of 1639-1800.

This extensive website offers five projects on Abraham Lincoln's life and political career along with teacher and student resources. Each section offers essays on the persons discussed. "Mr. Lincoln's White House" explores the people and events related to the White House in Mr. Lincoln's time, including a look at nearby areas of the city, and a section on visitors' impressions of Lincoln. "Mr. Lincoln and the Founders" includes an essay on Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence, a background essay, observations by Lincoln scholars, and a bibliography. "Mr. Lincoln and Freedom," explores Lincoln and the issue of slavery. Additional topics include "Mr. Lincoln and Friends" and "Mr. Lincoln and New York."

The "Teacher Assistance" page includes links to 13 lesson plans. The site also offers a link to "Abraham Lincoln's Classroom" with resources for students and teachers, including quizzes, quotes, featured commentary, and links to maps. This site is an outstanding resource for material on teaching about Lincoln and the events of his presidency, as well as an excellent starting point for research on the Lincoln presidency and the politics and people of the Civil War era.

The cultural heritage of Maryland is readily accessible here through thousands of digitized documents, maps, and images arranged into more than 40 collections and two exhibits. Baltimore's native son and prominent early 20th-century journalist H.L. Mencken is featured through a collection of 19 portraits, artifacts, and letters. Edgar Allen Poe, who lived in Baltimore late in his life, can be glimpsed through 18 portraits, drafts, and letters. Another collection offers digital copies of primary sources from the War of 1812, including an original draft of the "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Other collections include photographs of African American life, a selection of sports-related items, photographs and watercolor paintings of old houses and churches in Queen Anne's County, vintage photographs of Baltimore streets and street cars, and a series of photographs awaiting identification from collection users. Ample historical context, including library donation information, is provided for all collections. The website's blog will be useful for those interested in library sciences, preservation, and digital archiving.

In 1851, Massachusetts passed the first law recognizing adoption as a legal and social operation. Since then, adoption has had a rich history in the United States, documented at this website through close to 200 reports, writings, letters, adoption narratives, and other documents. Users unfamiliar with adoption history might begin by exploring the detailed timeline that traces adoption history from 1851 to 2000, when Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 eliminating the process of naturalization for international adoptions. Moving on to the Topics in Adoption History section, with in-depth explanations of orphan trains, proxy adoptions, infertility, child welfare, and eugenics, will help build historical context. The Document Archive and Adoption Science sections boast documents from the late 1800s to the present by notables such as Pearl Buck, adoptees searching for information on their biological parents, and court decisions on adoption throughout the 20th century.

Comprised of 15 essays, ranging from 700 to 1,800 words, and about 120 images, this exhibit is drawn from the black history and culture collections of the Library of Congress. The materials cover four areas: colonization, abolition, migrations, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA)--a New Deal program of the 1930s. Specific subjects include Liberia and the American Colonization Society; prominent abolitionists; Western migration, homesteading, and Chicago as the "promised land" for Southern blacks; and ex-slave narratives gathered by WPA writers. No primary texts are available here, but the essays are well-illustrated with historical photos and images.

A nonprofit museum, library, and education center, the Connecticut Historical Society offers an abundance of resources through its website. Its collections document the cultural, social, political, economic, and military history of Connecticut.

Visit Online Exhibits to see resources the society currently offers online. As of July 10, 2012, the site features an exhibit on the department store G. Fox & Co., which operated in Hartford from 1847 until 1993. In Research, "Collection Highlights" features 25 artifacts pulled from the society's collections, ranging from Silly Putty to one of the flags that decorated Abraham Lincoln's box in Ford's Theatre on the day he was assassinated.

Educators will be most interested in three other resources found in Research:

• The eMuseumfeatures more than 8,000 objects from the society's collections, including "clothing, furniture, weapons, needlework, tools, household objects, photographs, paintings, prints, drawings, and more." Visitors can search by keyword or by other categories, such as culture, date, and medium. Visitors can also browse specific collections, including "Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art, and Family, 1740-1840," "G. Fox & Co.," "Kellogg Brothers Lithographs," "Tavern and Inn Signs," "West End Architecture," and "Women Photographers."
• Connecticut History Online offers more than 16,000 primary sources from Connecticut, searchable by keyword. Eleven "Journeys" introduce visitors to resources related to diversity, work and the workplace, daily life, the environment, and infrastructure. Each journey features photo essays made up of three or more images, tips for searching for related sources, and suggestions for further reading. "Classroom" provides lesson plans, classroom activities, and guidelines on using and citing primary sources and analyzing images.
• Connecticut's Civil War Monuments features essays on monuments' purpose, designs, supplies and materials, artists and materials, and dedication ceremonies, and listings of Civil War monuments by location. Each listing includes a photo of the monument and its dedication date, type, supplier, donor, and height, as well as a brief summary of its historical and artistic significance, a description of the monument, and a transcription of its lettering.

This oral history archives offers more than 1,150 transcripts of interviews about Lyndon Baines Johnson, his political career, and his presidency with more than 780 political associates, persons who served in Johnson's administration, family members, and figures in public life from the 1950s and 1960s. Interviewees from the administration include William Bundy, Ramsey Clark, Clark Clifford, Robert McNamara, Walt Rostow, Dean Rusk, Maxwell Taylor, and William Westmoreland. Interviews with politicians include Senators Dirksen, Goldwater, McGovern, Inouye, Proxmire, Stennis, and Tower. Other interviews include evangelist Billy Graham, writer David Halberstam, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins. Interview subjects range from Vietnam, political events, and civil rights to Johnson's place in history and the experience of working in the Johnson administration. Searching is limited to individual transcripts using Adobe Acrobat "binocular" button, but the archive can be browsed fairly quickly.