The New York Philharmonic Digital Archive contains materials dating back to 1842 and the original concert of New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the U.S.

Sources available include business papers, images, programs, and scores. Other source types are in planning. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to browse the collection. You can either search for specific keywords, or leave the keyword box empty and select a source type—for example "Images." This will give you a list of all of the archive images to sift through. There are then menus on the left to help you pare the search down. However, the array of choices in the menus themselves is so extensive that patience is required to navigate the collection effectively.

That said, if you have anything specific that you are looking for, or you have time to explore, this website is potentially an invaluable source for music history. Scores may be the most use in the classroom, as they essentially give you an interactive (if you're willing to teach a song) form of period text.

Taking the Mystery out of Copyright provides a very brief introduction to copyright and the history of intellectual property. If you need anything beyond the very basics, unless you are interested in the major historical milestones leading to current copyright protection, this site probably will not meet your needs. However, if all you want to do is introduce the idea of copyright to very young students, you may find the site useful.

Visitors can select one of four sections. Copyright Exposed is a short animated video set to funk music which provides the basic idea that copyright "has got your back" when you produce a creative work. Files on Record provides a timeline of intellectual property history. Each milestone is accompanied by a primary source from the Library of Congress's collections. Here, you can read a few sentences on the Licensing Act of 1662 or the 1990 Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act. Reading the Fine Print offers two- to five-sentence answers on applications of copyright—protection of ideas, copyright on items you find, copyright on the Internet, when people can use your work without asking, the right to use a small sample of another work, and the reasons for registration. Steps to Copyright informs readers on how to register copyright (make something, fill out the form, pay the appropriate fee, and send nonreturnable copies).

This website presents historical sources and teaching materials that address notions of childhood and the experiences of children and youth throughout history and around the world. Primary sources can be found in a database of 200 annotated primary sources, including objects, photographs and paintings, quantitative evidence, and texts, as well as through 50 website reviews covering all regions of the world. More than 20 reviews and more than 70 primary sources relate to North American history.

The website also includes 20 teaching case studies written by experienced educators that model strategies for using primary sources to teach the history of childhood and youth, as well as 10 teaching modules that provide historical context, strategies for teaching with sets of roughly 10 primary sources, and a lesson plan and document-based question. These teaching resources cover topics ranging from the transatlantic slave trade, to girlhood as portrayed in the novel Little Women, to children and human rights. Eight case studies relate to North American history, as do two teaching modules.

The website also includes a useful introductory essay outlining major themes in the history of childhood and youth and addressing the use of primary sources for understanding this history.

One year after the sub-prime mortgage crisis, this website presents a small collection of historical materials and information surrounding four financial crises in the 19th and early 20th century: the Panic of 1837, the Panic of 1873, the Bankers' Panic of 1907, and the Great Crash of 1929. Each section includes a brief explanation of the crisis, including causes and consequences, and between four and six primary sources, including maps, images of bank notes, title deeds, and letters. These sources highlight the complexity of crises and their increasing internationalization over time, as well as issues surrounding historical interpretation of the crises.

The website also includes sections on the Waltham Watch Company, which drew on lessons learned during the Panic of 1937 to mechanize the production of watches; and the real-estate boom of the early 1920s, which has been used recently by economists and historians to better understand current connections between real estate markets and financial crisis. Finally, a bibliography of close to 30 works on the history of these crises, links to manuscript collections, trade publications, and financial databases, give website visitors suggestions for further study.

One of the Famous American Trials sites created by Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law, this site explores the 1969-1970 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of radicals accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Linder provides a 1500-word account of the trial, which includes links to brief (100-word) explanations of specific terms and biographies of some of the key figures. The site provides a chronology of the lives of those involved in the trial from 1960 to 1998; images of two Yippie posters; a map of the key Chicago riot sites; and roughly 350-word biographies of 15 of the defendants, lawyers, and other figures in the trial. There are ten audio clips of defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses discussing various aspects of the riots and the trial. The site offers full-text versions of the indictment against the Chicago Seven, the trial manuscript, the contempt of court specifications against two of the defendants, and the appellate decision that overturned the contempt convictions and the convictions for intent to incite a riot. Additionally, there are 16 images of the riots and key figures and 14 quotations. A bibliography of 13 websites and 15 scholarly works leads to other sources for studying the Chicago Seven's trial and their lives as radical activists. This is an ideal site for researching 1960s activism and culture.

This site provides images and text about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. A timeline, from April 18 to April 23, covers major events and a facsimile of a roster lists names and addresses of those who died. There are 27 photographs of earthquake damage and 31 personal accounts, 1,200 to 8,000 words, that include Jack London's "Story of an Eyewitness." Among 67 transcriptions of articles from 1906 about the earthquake are 12 that discuss the relocation of Chinatown and the treatment of Chinese San Franscicans. There are 31 transcribed fire department reports, including an article about the reorganization of the department in the wake of the disaster, and a facsimile of the 1910 police report on the quake and fire. Army operations are discussed in 29 pieces of correspondence and navy evacuation operations are detailed in seven. In addition, a 700-word article describes the evacuation of the city by train. Engineering and scientific reports include 24 articles, letters, and reports about infrastructure issues, such as water supply and structural stability. A section about relief efforts includes a flier accusing the Red Cross of corruption and a resolution by a local plumbers union to volunteer their services. The site will be very useful for anyone interested in the earthquake and in urban and California history.

This site contains a recently-declassified study on the CIA's intelligence assessments concerning Vietnam, written by Harold P. Ford, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, and sponsored by the Center for the Study of Intelligence of the CIA, in 1997. The report assesses CIA intelligence involvement in three episodes between 1962 and 1968, and the effects of this intelligence on U.S. officials' policymaking. The first episode, from 1962 to 1963, is entitled "Distortions of Intelligence," and involves what Dr. Ford calls a "policy wish" that colored the formulation of intelligence about the positions of U.S. supported governments in former French-Indochina. The second episode, from 1963 to 1965, outlines the CIA's judgments on President Lyndon Johnson's decision to increase involvement in Vietnam. The third episode, from 1967 to 1968, examines the CIA's intelligence gathering involvement in the Order-of-Battle controversy and the Tet Offensive. Ford concludes that the CIA's input to policymaking in these three episodes constituted a "mixed picture," in which there were times when the CIA's judgment was correct but not heeded and other times when the Agency's intelligence was used but turned out to be wrong. But he asserts that CIA intelligence was generally better than that of other official contributors. The author used formerly classified CIA documents, personal interviews with participants, documents and other materials in the public domain, and the author's own experience as senior analyst of Indochina questions for the CIA. While this site is a good source for information on strategy, foreign policy, and intelligence during the Vietnam War, it is a technical report that uses the jargon of political science and foreign policy. It may be a bit difficult for high-school age students to understand or properly use this site.

This tribute to Bob Hope examines his contributions to American culture and entertainment. The site includes a short (1,000 words with 150 photographs) history of vaudeville in the United States and four essays (1,000 words each) examining vaudeville's legacy. There is a 3,000-word biography of Hope, covering most of his 70-year career, and sections that deal with each of his many careers specifically. His early radio work, his long movie career, and his many television appearances are all documented.

Of particular interest are the 26 Bob Hope caricatures in photograph, cartoon, and sculpture. The Joke File includes six pages (out of a massive collection that exceeds 85,000 pages) of Hope's seasonal material. On the Road: USO Shows documents Hope's commitment to America's armed forces by highlighting his many trips overseas to entertain American troops. Although the essays are useful in explaining the relationship of vaudeville to American culture, the strength of the site is its approximately 250 primary sources (mostly photographs and documents).

Presents 15 annotated U.S. government intelligence documents—most of which have been declassified through Freedom of Information Act requests—that illuminate various phases of the evolving U.S.-China relationship from the Cold War period to the recent past. These materials have been selected from a published microfiche collection of more than 2,000 documents. The site offers memoranda and directives on U.S. fears concerning China's weapons program; President Nixon's rapprochement in 1972; the changed U.S. policy regarding Taiwan; U.S. concerns over the sale by China to Saudi Arabia of intermediate-range ballistic missiles; human rights issues; and the resumption of a military relationship between the two powers after a falling out over Tiananmen Square. Includes a White House memo of the conversation held at the first meeting between Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong, a message by President Ford to Mao on the day of Nixon's resignation, and two biographies of Chinese officials. Valuable for those studying U.S.-China relations and the role the U.S. intelligence community has played in that history.