Encyclopedia of Chicago, Historical Sources

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Photo, Children standing in front. . . , 1917, Encyclopedia of Chicago
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This archive brings together more than 1,300 images on a wide array of topics related to Chicago, its people, and its culture. The material in the collection spans both the 19th and 20th centuries and includes photographs, advertisements, broadsides, maps, letters, newspaper articles, illustrations, and engravings. The photographs include aerial views of the Chicago cityscape, Chicago places, Chicago industries and workers performing their trades, historic photographs, Chicago events, and photographs of Chicago's people. The more than 100 maps can be browsed separately. Each item is cross-referenced to related items in the collection and many of the images are accompanied by explanatory text. The images can be enlarged and there are features for rotation and magnification.

Additionally, the site offers interpretive essays on the Plan of Chicago of 1909, "one of the most noted documents in the history of city planning" and the importance of water in Chicago's history. Other special features are a biographical dictionary, a dictionary of leading Chicago businesses from 1820-2000, and a presentation on how Chicagoans remember their history with images and brief interpretations. In addition, the entire contents of Encyclopedia of Chicago can be searched. A useful resource on the history of Chicago or urban history.

Turning Points in Wisconsin History

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Photo, Arthur M. Vinje, April 4, 1947
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This website allows visitors to explore the history of Wisconsin through essays, primary source documents, lesson plans, and maps. The main feature is 53 presentations grouped under 10 overall topics: early native peoples; early explorers, traders, and settlers; territory to statehood; immigration and settlement; Civil War era; mining, lumber, and agriculture; Progressive Era; 20th-century wars and conflicts; prosperity, depression, industrialization, and urbanization; and response to 20th-century change. Each topic offers four or more presentations with a short introductory essay; primary sources available on the site; primary sources available elsewhere; and related links.

Documents available on the site include more than 140 books, tracts, pamphlets, or papers; more than 100 images; more than 260 articles; and more than 35 manuscripts. The site also offers 95 reference maps. There are more than 45 elementary and 36 secondary lesson plans searchable by keyword, grade level, and/or topic. The advanced search allows visitors to search by fields such as agriculture, intellectual life, and politics; or by keyword, education level, topic, presentation, or type of document. Additionally, there is a tutorial on using primary documents. This website is a good starting point for teaching or researching Wisconsin or the mid-Western region.

Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills: Gold and Gold Mining in Georgia, 1830s-1940s

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Photo, Two men searching for gold in a sluice flume, Thar's Gold in. . . site
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This website examines gold mining in Georgia's Lumpkin County from the late 1830s through the early 1940s with 90 primary sources, including letters, memoranda, photographs, picture postcards, and selected legal, financial, and promotional documents, including company prospectuses. The main concentration is the period between Reconstruction and the turn of the 20th century. Subjects include account collection, companies, leases, machinery, mineral rights, operations and techniques, and ore handling. An essay on Georgia gold mining history with links to primary documents discusses the Georgia Gold Rush, the "Great Intrusion" and Cherokee Removal, the U.S. branch mint in Dahlonega, gold mining in Georgia during the second half of the 19th century, the Second Georgia Gold Rush, 20th-century gold mining activity, and gold tourism. "Players and Places" provides brief descriptions of the people and places involved. "Suggested Readings" lists 38 related books, articles, and web essays as well as 14 mining company prospectuses and reports available at various archives and libraries. There is also a list of related archival collections.

Tennessee Documentary History Collection, 1796-1850

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Map, Introductory graphic, 1796-1850, Tennessee Documentary History. . . site
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This archive assembles more than 1,600 primary sources, including letters, family papers, reports, and images, relating to the history of antebellum Tennessee. Visitors can browse the archive by collection or author, or they can use the simple keyword search or a variety of advanced searches to locate specific documents. Included in the collections are 142 letters, reports, and other documents, including the correspondence of Cherokee chiefs and officials such as John Ross. The archive also includes letters of such antebellum Tennessee figures as Sam Houston, James K. Polk, John Sevier, and Andrew Jackson, as well as letters to and from 12 antebellum Tennessee governors. The archive offers 79 images, many of various aspects of Cherokee village life in the mid-18th century. Though primarily focused on an audience of K-12 teachers of Tennessee history, academic historians and researchers in antebellum political and social history will also find this material useful.

Stephen Foster's Sketchbook

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Sketch, Over the Calm. . . , 1851, Stephen Foster, Stephen Foster's. . . site
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This website makes available the full contents of the sketchbook of 19th-century American composer Stephen Foster. It contains handwritten drafts of 64 Foster songs, including some that were never published. Selecting "Song List" brings up the full list of songs contained in the sketchbook and clicking on the links takes the visitor to the pages with the draft of the song. Clicking on the thumbnail image of the page brings up a transcript, a larger image, and bibliographic data. Drafts of several of Foster's most popular songs appear here including "Old Folks Home" (or "Way Down Under the Swanee River"), "My Old Kentucky Home," and "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair." The unpublished songs are indicated in brackets. The visitor can browse all 250 page images individually or search by keyword. A useful resource for those researching Foster or the history of 19th-century American music and culture.

Automobile in American Life and Society

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Hartford Auto-Jack advertisement, 1911, Automobile in American. . . site
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This website was designed as an academic resource for courses focused on the automobile and the automobile industry. Each section—design, environment, gender, labor, and race—has a short introduction and two illustrated scholarly essays (often including annotated bibliographies). The complete text of each essay can be viewed in a separate window and each essay is accompanied by a student and teacher resources section with one or more questions for reading, discussion, writing, and research, as well as questions making connections between the essays. "Design" also offers a list of 110 "automotive oral histories" available in the Benson Ford research center, but only 17 are available on the site. Visitors can search the site by keyword but no advanced search is available. This site is a useful resource for students and educators studying the role of the automobile in American culture and society.

Madison: Celebrating 150 Years

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Photo, Irene Castle in Uniform, WWI or later, Madison: Celebrating 150 Years
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In 2006, Madison, WI, celebrated the 150th anniversary of its incorporation as a city. To mark the occasion, this website features 6,952 images, several articles and documents, maps and information on Madison's buildings, and links to virtual exhibits, entreating users to investigate Madison's past. This diverse collection of materials highlights both the experiences of the American Indian groups that had lived in the Madison area for many thousands of years, as well as those of the Yankee, English, Irish, German and Scandinavian settlers who began to arrive in 1837.

Visitors can view a map of American Indian village and mound sites, built for burial and ceremonial purposes, which are still visible around the city today. Also available are the recollections of George W. Stoner, one of the first settlers to arrive in Madison, through which one can learn about the construction of the city's first buildings and businesses, its first election, and its first suicide. Moving into the 20th century, visitors can also learn of the Federal Government's attempts to enforce Prohibition in Madison, which one official described as "queen of the bootleggers." This website is useful for those interested not only in Wisconsin history, but also in the history of urbanization in the United States more generally.

The Dick Thornburgh Papers

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Photo, Thornburgh with wooden spoon, 1966, The Dick Thornburgh. . . site
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Dick Thornburgh served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and Attorney General from 1988 to 1991, under Ronald Reagan and George Bush. He also served as Undersecretary General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1993 after an unsuccessful bid to fill John Heinz's vacated U.S. Senate in 1991. He is currently a practicing lawyer in Washington, DC. This website presents 5,115 documents from his personal papers, including executive orders, news releases, op-eds, reports, speeches, testimony, and transcripts. It also includes 488 photographs, 31 audio clips, and 55 video clips. These materials shed light on many prominent events in late-20th century U.S. political history and international relations. For example, a search for "Three Mile Island," the nuclear power plant near Harrisburg that experienced a partial meltdown in 1979, calls up more than 300 items, including photographs of Thornburgh at the site and op-eds written by Thornburg designed to quell public fear.

First Century of the First State University: The Creation of UNC

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Image, Original Seal of the University of North Carolina, 1893-94
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened its doors to students in 1789, becoming the first public university in the U.S. Part of the larger Documenting the American South website, this collection illuminates the first century of UNC's operation. Close to 500 primary source documents—letters, speeches, architectural drawings, account ledgers, meeting minutes, sermons, and General Assembly acts—are available, including previously unpublished materials. Topics include: Buildings, Campus, Creation and Governance, Curriculum, Faculty, Student Life, Town and Gown, The University During the Civil War and Reconstruction, and The University in the Life of the State. These broad topics, in turn, shed light on smaller dramas within the history of the university, such as the 1856 dismissal of a professor for expressing anti-slavery views to students. Contextual essays and an extensive timeline accompany these materials, rendering them accessible to specialists and generalists alike interested in the histories of the Civil War, North Carolina, and higher education in the United States.

National Security Archive: The Pentagon Papers

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Image, detail from U.S. Supreme Court brief for the Washington Post, 1970
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A collection of textual and audio documents concerning "arguably the most important Supreme Court case ever on freedom of the press." The case revolved around the 1971 decision to lift prior restraint orders instigated by the Nixon Administration to prohibit publication of the government's secret historical collection of documents labeled "United States-Vietnam Relations 1945-1967." These quickly became known to the world as the "Pentagon Papers." Includes 10 recently released audio files and transcripts of Nixon Administration telephone conversations and meetings; Supreme Court briefs (including some material originally kept secret) and opinions; audio files and transcripts of oral arguments before the Court; appellate court documents; and excerpts from memoirs by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and H. R. Haldeman. Also provides a 4,500-word commentary on the documents. Valuable for those studying American political and legal history and the Vietnam War.