This site features primary documents related to the 19th-century desegregation of the Boston and Nantucket, MA school systems. It includes a timeline with links to 71 expandable and downloadable primary sources. The documents consist of census records, maps, reports of the local school committees, and articles from William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator. The site also contains a bibliography with more than 30 items. Designed to develop student critical thinking skills, materials encourage middle and high students to understand different points of view. For example, students can study petitions from those supporting desegregation and petitions from those in opposition. In addition students will better understand the relationship between Massachusetts' early desegregation cases and the 20th-century Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

Complete with primary sources and lesson plans, the site not only offers useful curriculum for lessons in America's long march to free and integrated public education but helps students identify how contemporary debates about education parallel the 19th-century Massachusetts desegregation cases.

A collaborative effort between students and faculty at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, this site includes two sections. In the first, a timeline from 1888 to 1899 provides, for each year, snapshots of major national events, personalities, and statistics as well as excursions to approximately 30 additional links, background essays, images, quotations, bibliographies, and other material. The second, "Bowling Green, Ohio: A Tour of the Crystal City," contains 27 photographs; a month-by-month timeline covering town events during the years 1892-97; a 19,000-word essay written in 1897 on Bowling Green's "early history"; and essays ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 words on specific topics. No search engine, but the site may be browsed by year. Useful both as a general overview of the period and as a local history resource.

This site offers two exhibits featuring the photography of Camilo Jose Vergara that document decay and renewal in the "post-industrial" cities of Camden, NJ, and Richmond, CA, since the 1970s. The collection of more than 450 photographs explores the transformation of these cities' urban landscapes through the erosion of their "late 19th and early 20th-century architectural grandeur" through "their subsequent neglect and abandonment" to "scattered efforts at renewal." The site has an essay by Vergara that explains his work and introduces the two collections. The Camden exhibit has a large collection of photographs, organized into 24 themed galleries, and an introductory essay by Howard Gillette placing the photographs in a historical context. The Richmond exhibit is somewhat smaller, with 10 themed galleries.

The collection of photographs can be browsed by theme or by using the site's interactive city maps. Some of the themes are geographic; some are tours surveying an area of the city. Other themes group images sharing similar characteristics such as post-industrial, churches, and people. Additionally, some of the images are linked to views of the subject at different periods to show change over time. The site also has a feature allowing visitors to post comments on the photographs. This site is of interest to anyone researching urban history in the 20th century or these two cities specifically.

Offering more than 10,000 documents pertaining to Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, this website presents documents that include approximately 6,000 pieces of formerly-classified correspondence, reports, and memoranda. Topics include the Atlantic Charter; the United Nations; the Departments of War, Treasury, and State; and the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb.

The site also offers 1,000 documents pertaining to U.S.-Vatican relations during World War II, 2,000 documents concerning U.S.-German relations, and full texts of 30 "fireside chats." An exhibit examines "The Special Relationship" between Winston Churchill and Roosevelt and the emergence of an Anglo-American alliance. A mini-multimedia showcase contains one video clip of Roosevelt walking and 11 audio clips of speeches. The site also provides information on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Depression, and includes more than 2,000 photographs.

On September 14, 1901, American anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley, propelling Theodore Roosevelt onto the U.S. political stage and, some historians would argue, making way for political modernization. Through hundreds of documents and images—including book chapters, newspaper articles and columns, sermons, poetry, and government documents—this website explores the McKinley assassination alongside U.S. politics and culture before and after.

Topics include turn-of-the-century journalism, race relations, anarchism, women's roles, the death penalty, international relations, and the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, where McKinley was shot. A good place to begin is the "Quotes About" section, which provides short excerpts from a variety of sources that serve to familiarize users with conflicting views of McKinley, Czolgosz, Roosevelt, the assassination, Czolgosz's trial, and anarchism in the United States. All documents are keyword searchable and indexed by date, author, title, type, named persons, and source. An extensive bibliography provides suggestions for further reading.

This site focuses on an abrupt change in U.S. policy toward Cuba in 1963. The site includes an audio file of a conversation (3.5 minutes) between Kennedy and his national Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, that took place 17 days before Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy and Bundy discussed taking a softer approach toward Fidel Castro and Cuba, and Kennedy agreed to have secret talks with Castro under the right circumstances. Castro claimed to be open to the idea as well.

The site includes several other supporting items, including eight recently declassified top-secret documents and memoranda supporting and setting up talks between Kennedy and Castro.

The documents indicate that Kennedy saw little advantage in continuing the hard line stance of the U.S. against Castro and Cuba, and believed that a softer approach held strategic value in normalizing relations between the two countries. The papers make it equally clear that Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, retracted Kennedy's offer.

This site offers three CIA briefing papers and a transcript of a message from Castro to Kennedy. A mini-scorecard allows visitors to track the key figures in the talks. This site allows researchers, students, and teachers access to previously unavailable material, and would be a useful resource for Cold War studies.

This website is devoted to the life, work, and memory of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the U.S. Of primary interest to historians and teachers are the "Historical Resources and Education" and "Public Programs" sections of the website, which shed light on important events in early 1960s political history, including the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the Peace Corps, the space program, and the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Users unfamiliar with the history of the Kennedy White House might begin with the "Timeline," which puts events important to the Kennedy administration in a larger political and cultural context, or "Biographies and Profiles," which presents a Kennedy family tree and profiles of early 1960s notables such as Fidel Castro, Robert McNamara, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. "White House Diary" further familiarizes users with Kennedy's day-to-day activities as President.

The website also includes hundreds of historical sources including speeches, photographs, telegrams, correspondence, eulogies for Bobby Kennedy, JFK, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (all accessible through an Advanced Search feature), and transcripts of more than 170 oral interviews with notables such as John Kenneth Galbraith (Harvard University economic professor and Ambassador to India), Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, singer Harry Belafonte, and President Gerald Ford. In some cases, the original audio files of speeches are also included. Several lesson plans designed for elementary, middle, and high school students use materials from this archive to address topics such as Kennedy's inaugural address, the Cuban missile crisis, and the civil rights movement.

This well-designed website, companion to the PBS documentary, offers a wide variety of secondary material on the Carter presidency. "People and Places" offers short profiles of Carter, his wife Rosalynn, his brother Billy, Carter's White House staff (collectively known as "The Georgia Mafia"), Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O_Neill, and Vice-President Walter Mondale.

It also offers short essays on key events of Carter's presidency, including the election of 1976, the Egyptian-Israeli peace talks at Camp David, the Iranian hostage crisis, Carter's July 1979 "Crisis of Confidence" speech, and the election of 1980. Many of the essays link to special features, such as the extensive media coverage of the Iranian hostage crisis and the text of the "Crisis of Confidence" speech. "Teacher's Guide" offers nine suggestions for classroom learning activities in four categories: economics, civics, history, and geography. The site also includes a detailed chronology of Carter's life and a small photo gallery with 16 images. This site provides a useful overview of Carter's life and the political and diplomatic history of his presidency.

Part of the Library of Congress American Memory site, this online archive draws from two Library of Congress collections on the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. The Abraham Lincoln Papers in the Library's Manuscript Division contain over 20,000 items, over 2000 of which are contained on this site. Items include correspondence, speeches, and reports accumulated primarily during Lincoln's presidency (1860-1865). The documents are accompanied by annotated descriptions (roughly 150 words) composed by the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College. The papers are in chronological order and are keyword searchable. The second collection highlighted in this exhibit is "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song," over 200 sheet music compositions that represent the popular music of the Civil War era. These pieces are drawn from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection in the Library's Rare Book and Special Collection division. The sheet music is searchable by title, composer, and subject. The site also offers links to other Library of Congress sources on Lincoln, including a photograph gallery of 16 images of the Lincoln family and other political figures of the Civil War era; over 50 Civil War maps; and a link to lesson plans for the entire American Memory Collection, including eight Civil War lesson plans appropriate for elementary and secondary students. This site is ideal for researching Lincoln's presidency and popular culture of the Civil War era.

Homepage for Mt. Vernon Estate and Gardens, George Washington's Virginia estate, this site offers valuable sources for researching the life and home of the first U.S. President. An exhibit contains more than 50 images of furniture, art, documents, and other Mount Vernon household objects. Each image is accompanied by a 150-word description of the artifact and its location or significance to the estate. A virtual tour of Mt. Vernon's mansion takes visitors through every room with a photograph and 350-word description of the room and its furnishings. An archaeology section describes digs at eight sites on the estate, a 500-word description of a current excavation of Washington's distillery, and a 1500-word essay on the Mt. Vernon mansion's restoration beginning in 1858. An Educational Resources section offers a fifth-grade lesson plan, complete with trivia about Washington, excerpts from his Rules on Civility, and anecdotes from his military career and presidency; a 2000-word essay on Washington's attitude toward slavery and information on his slaves' lives, including links to a facsimile copy of Washington's 1798 slave census and 18 images of paintings and artifacts depicting the everyday lives of Mt. Vernon's slaves. This site is ideal for researching Washington's life and home, and it could also be useful for those studying material culture and archaeology.