Film critic Michael Sragow discusses the work of director Victor Fleming (1889-1949), who directed films across genres, including Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

From the Lemelson Center website:

"Andy Bozanic talks about his research, supported by a fellowship from the Lemelson Center, on the history of the acoustic guitar. In this podcast, Bozanic explains how the unique qualities of the acoustic guitar—its portability, affordability, and adaptability to different styles of music—brought it into the mainstream of American music in the 20th century."

Missouri 8th-grade history teacher Eric Langhorst describes his visit to the Museum of Nebraska Major League Baseball in St. Paul, NE, while also relating several baseball history stories.

Historian, blogger, and author Gil Troy, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, talks about his experiences as a historian blogging during the 2008 presidential election. He discusses his views on the role historians should play when contributing or responding to the media, providing studied, nonpredictive information and analysis, even in the face of demands for sound bites and snap judgments.

Douglas Brinkley and Donald L. Miller look at the U.S. from 1913 to 1929, focusing on the rise of the automobile. The presentation begins with the career of Henry Ford and examines mass production and the development of competition to match Ford, before continuing to Los Angeles and its growth as transportation took off; the movie industry; and the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

From the Maine Humanities Council website:

"Before he was the leader of a nation torn apart by a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was a young man growing up during tumultuous times in Illinois. In the first presentation of the [Maine Humanities Council's] Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium, historian Bruce Chadwick explained Lincoln's rise to power from his first unsuccessful race for the state legislature to his election as President."

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"Like photography today, photography during the Civil War had many functions, from private to public. The session, led by Shannon Thomas Perich, will examine a variety of Civil War-related photography from the Photographic History Collection with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of how photography was incorporated into everyday lives, and how we value those photographs today as historical objects. Objects will include the 1860 Rutgers college yearbook that belonged to Texan George McNeel; Alexander Gardner's Sketchbook of the War; glass-plate negatives by Brady's studio of Lincoln's Cabinet; the portrait of a Union washerwoman; and Lincoln portraits incorporated into cartes-de-visite albums."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"In this online workshop, Museum Educator Jeff Meade uses images on United States postage stamps to create topical stamp collections based on the theme of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War history. Postage stamps contain a vast array of images commemorating President Lincoln, important Civil War figures and moments of history relating to the tumultuous Civil War era.

Teachers in Meade's workshop create virtual stamp collections available in the Postal Museum's on-line digital collection. This digital collection, named Arago, contains images of every U.S. stamp as well as nearly thirteen thousand objects from the Postal Operations collection. The Arago website allows users to create their own collections of digital images which can then be sorted into particular topics. Combining real stamp collecting with the images found in Arago provides teachers excellent opportunities to engage students in new and creative ways, with an emphasis on visual thinking strategies. Participants of the workshop build their own Arago collections based on suggested Civil War themes . . ."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"In this online session, Smithsonian historian Pamela M. Henson examines how the public first heard of President Abraham Lincoln's death and how Lincoln's death was portrayed in popular images. Participants . . . view and listen to the diary of Mary Henry, daughter of Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, as she describes her own reactions and the stories she heard about Lincoln's last moments. Participants . . . compare her diary with news accounts of the assassination, and popular paintings and lithographs of the deathbed scene to uncover what Lincoln's death meant to the American public. Participants . . . also learn how to evaluate primary and secondary sources in a variety of media—a diary, newspapers and visual images, analyze the symbolic meanings attached to important events, and draw conclusions about Lincoln's role in 19th century American ideas. The session will be of interest to teachers and students of history at any level and will be of particular interest to those interested in popular responses to important historical events. The confusion, misinformation, and symbolism surrounding this national trauma can be used to teach students how to critically evaluate information in their own lives."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

Richard Miller reads two 1922 San Francisco Chronicle articles on the public reaction to and perception of flappers.