Manufacturers' Catalogs from the First Decade of American Automobiles

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Image, Men and women watching the horse. . . , 1909, Taking the Wheel site
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This collection allows the visitor to explore the early history of the American automobile through images from 69 manufacturer's catalogs published in 1909. There are more than 800 total images. In each catalog, clicking on "view image details" brings up a larger version of the selected image with full bibliographic data. Clicking on "enlarge image" brings up a new window with an even larger image where the visitor can read all the details of the catalog picture. Of particular interest are a 27-page Ford catalog with a price list of parts for the company's Model N, R, and S cars; a similar catalog from the E.R. Thomas Motor Company; a Studebaker catalog of "electric pleasure vehicles" featuring a description of the Model 22f Electric Coupe, a car "for evening social engagements, for use in inclement weather in the summer and for winter use, a comfortable and stylish vehicle"; a catalog describing Packard Motor Car Company's "Packard Truck," with images of the truck delivering various types of goods; and a 17-page instruction book on the "Matheson six-cylinder car" with detailed technical diagrams of the car's engine, transmission, and controls. Besides its interest to those researching the history of the automobile, this collection is also a useful resource for those researching the history of advertising, consumer culture, or science and technology in the early 20th century.

California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties

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Photo, John Stone playing fiddle, 1939
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This site features 35 hours of folk and popular music sound recordings from several European, Slavic, Middle Eastern, and English- and Spanish-speaking communities. The Work Projects Administration California Folk Music Project collected these 817 songs, in 12 languages and representing 185 musicians, in Northern California between 1938 and 1940. The collection also includes 168 photographs of musicians, 45 scale drawings and sketches of instruments, and numerous written documents, including ethnographic field reports and notes, song transcriptions, published articles, and project correspondence.

Organized by folk music collector Sidney Robertson Cowell, sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley, and cosponsored by the Archive of the American Folk Song, this was one of the earliest ethnographic field projects to document folk and popular music of such diverse origin in one region. In addition to folk music of indigenous and immigrant groups, the collection includes popular songs from the Gold Rush and Barbary Coast eras, medicine show tunes, and ragtime numbers. In addition, short essays describe the California Folk Music Project and the ethnographic work of Sidney Robertson Cowell. This collection is an excellent resource for learning about ethnographic research practices as well as about cultures of various California ethnic groups.

New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

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Engraving, "Capture of the Galleon," Howard Pyle, 1887
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This image resource site contains 30,000 digitized images from books and periodicals, as well as original photographs, prints, and postcards, mostly dated before 1923. There are cartoons and illustrations from the well known Harper's Weekly and Century Magazine, as well as images from the Library of Congress Prints and Photograph division. In addition many of the vibrant images of Native Americans were collected from the Department of War Indian Gallery. Covering more than 12,000 subjects, the site features images of Jamestown settlers, Pocahontas and John Smith, American presidents, 19th-century New York architecture, slave life, American and European women's costumes, streetcars and trains, and even insects and snakes.

Bibliographical information accompanies each image, and users may also save images of interest in their own "gallery" for viewing or purchase. Thumbnail sketches enlarge for full-page viewing. Searchable by keyword or by browsing a variety of indexes, the collection is a useful visual resource for teachers and researchers.

Alabama Maps

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Image, "Typus Orbis Terrarum" Matthais Quad,1596
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This site contains more than 3,500 scanned and digitized maps divided into two indexes—historical and contemporary. The historical maps index contains several sections. The most voluminous section, "Alabama," is divided into time periods, geological features, Alabama counties, rivers, and state highways. Another section indexes 13 other southeastern states, including Texas, the Carolinas, and Florida. There are also maps of the Western Hemisphere, North America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, some dating before 1700.

An especially valuable feature of the historical index is the "Special Topics" which contains maps of the Civil War, including the battles in Gettysburg and Antietam, railroad routes, and ten Native American maps, mostly illustrating the boundaries of Cherokee territories. The contemporary map index is divided into eighteen themes, including education, housing, politics, federal expenditures, climate, and recreation. There are more than 100 world maps of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the South Pacific. Users will also find links to the University of Alabama's Department of Geography and the publications of the Cartographic Laboratory. Created for educators and the business community, this is valuable resource for those researching the history of Alabama or contemporary themes in Alabama, the United States, and the world.

Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920

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Image for Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
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These 9,000 advertising items and publications date from 1850 to 1920. Selected items illustrate the rise of consumer culture in America and the development of a professionalized advertising industry.

Images are grouped into 11 categories: advertising ephemera (trade cards, calendars, almanacs, postcards); broadsides for placement on walls, fences, and buildings; advertising cookbooks from food companies and appliance manufacturers; early advertising agency publications created to promote the concepts and methods of the industry; promotional literature from the nation's oldest advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson; early Kodak print advertisements; Lever Brothers Lux (soap) advertisements; R.C. Maxwell advertising company images; outdoor advertising; scrapbooks; and tobacco ads.

Each category contains a brief overview, and each image is accompanied by production information. The site, searchable by keyword or ad content, includes a timeline on the history of advertising from the 1850s to 1920. This easy-to-use collection is ideal for researching consumer culture and marketing strategies.

Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia 1876

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Image for Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia 1876
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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."

Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls

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Image for Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls
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More than 2,300 covers of American "dime novels," and their British counterparts, the "penny dreadfuls," are available on this website. In addition, the full text of nine books and a series entitled Secret Service (1899–1912) are available.

The site offers "guided tours" with images and essays of approximately 1,500 words on print processes and dime novel covers. The full-text selections include stories featuring such heroes as Nick Carter, Buffalo Bill, Jesse James, Deadwood Dick, Fred Fearnot, and Calamity Jane. A full-text search is available only for those affiliated with Stanford University.

The site provides basic information on each title and indexes books according to subject, genre, setting, intended audience age and gender, and type of graphic material. Subject indexing of cover iconography is especially valuable. Listings are organized according to depictions of ethnicity/nationality, occupation, types of places, types of sports and recreations, types of violence, and types of gestures and actions classified according to gender of character portrayed.

Performing Arts in America, 1875-1923

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Image for Performing Arts in America, 1875-1923
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A selection of more than 16,000 items relating to the performing arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is offered on this website. Materials include books, clippings, photographs, drawings, music, manuscripts, moving images, posters and lobby cards, programs, and recorded sound.

Diverse types of material on specific performers—such as Ruth St. Denis, Loie Fuller, and Isadora Duncan—have been selected to allow focused study. More than 2,400 entries are available for photographs (entries often contain multiple images) as well as 21 large format clippings scrapbooks, each with more than 100 pages. The website also presents 16 full-text books and video clips from nine early motion pictures, including a nine-minute clip featuring renowned dancer Anna Pavlowa in Lois Weber's The Dumb Girl of Portici (1914).

Nineteenth-century California Sheet Music

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Image for Nineteenth-Century California Sheet Music
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These scanned images come from more than 2,700 pieces of sheet music published between 1852 and 1900 in California. The website also includes more than 800 illustrated covers, 48 audio selections, eight video clips of singers, and a handful of programs, posters, playbills, periodicals, catalogs, broadsheets, books on music, and maps. More than 350 items contain advertising.

Explanatory essays of 1,000 to 2,000 words in length provide general information on music from more than a dozen ethnic cultures, and with reference to specific topics, including buildings, composers, dance, disasters, gender, mining, performers, politics, product ads, railroads, and sports. Provides 14 links to additional sheet music collections and reference sources. These resources are valuable to those studying popular culture, California history, music history, advertising, and depictions of ethnicity, gender, and race in 19th-century America.

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915

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Photo, Boys diving, Honolulu, American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, 1902, LoC
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This collection of 150 motion pictures produced between 1894 and 1915 deals with work, school, and leisure activities in the U.S. The films include footage of the U.S. Postal Service in 1903, cattle breeding, firefighters, ice manufacturing, logging, physical education classes, amusement parks, sporting events, and local festivals and parades. Each film is accompanied by a brief summary.

A special presentation furnishes additional information on three categories: America at school, work, and leisure. Essays of roughly 1,000-words provide context and general descriptions of films in each category, display 15 illustrative photographs, and link to related films. A 31-work bibliography provides suggestions for further reading and websites on American labor, education, and leisure.