An exhibit devoted to William Grant Still (1895-1978), "the first African-American composer to have a symphony performed by an American orchestra." Includes annotations on more than 100 documents relating to his life and work, such as articles by Still, correspondence, scores, audio clips, programs, photographs, newspaper reviews, and testimonials. Also provides a complete discography, bibliography of 80 titles, and timeline of the "cultural connections" fostered by Still and his music. Of value to those with a specific interest in Still's life, work, and cultural milieu, and to students of 20th-century classical music and the experience of African-American artists in general.

These materials were collected for a study on the attitudes, backgrounds, goals, and experiences of volunteers participating in a 1965 Southern Christian Leadership Conference voter registration effort. Resources include questionnaires submitted prior to and following the project, as well as a follow-up survey conducted in 1982.

Participants were queried about why they volunteered, what they expected, their attitudes regarding race and politics, images they held of the South, expectations they had regarding the African American community, personal memories and effects of their participation, and subsequent attitudes regarding civil rights, violence, and social change. These resources offer insight into the Civil Rights Movement and some sociological aspects of American reformers.

Anytime you write a letter, you use the ZIP code. What is that code, and when did people start using it? More importantly for the postal service, how do you get an entire country's population to memorize and add a seemingly random string of numbers to their addresses?

The answer, in the 1960s, was Mr. Zip, a jaunty cartoon postman, designed to make the new ZIP code cause memorable and approachable.

This website discusses the ways in which Mr. Zip was deployed as an educational and advertising device. The majority of the content consists of an essay divided into smaller, more manageable subpages. However, sprinkled throughout, you'll find Mr. Zip comics; merchandise, such as board games and lunchboxes; promotional materials; PSA videos; a memo; photographs; and postage stamps.

This video describes what each number of the ZIP code represents, which could be a hook if you decide to introduce Mr. ZIP in the classroom. Ultimately, the content is not likely to be of direct use in the classroom but may be of more interest as trivia or to flesh out background knowledge for related lessons.

This collection presents 1,395 photographs by the American photographer, music and dance critic, and novelist Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964). The site consists primarily of studio portraits of celebrities, most of whom were involved in the arts, including actors, such as Marlon Brando and Paul Robeson; artists, such as Marc Chagall and Frida Kahlo; novelists, such as Theodore Dreiser and Willa Cather; singers, such as Ethel Waters and Billie Holiday; publishers, such as Alfred A. Knopf and Bennett Cerf; cultural critics, such as H. L. Mencken and Gilbert Seldes; and figures from the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston.

More than 80 photographs capture Massachusetts and Maine landscapes and seascapes; others include eastern locations and New Mexico. Many photographs of actors present them in character roles. Searchable by keyword and arranged into subject and occupational indexes, this collection also includes a nine-title bibliography and background essay of 800 words on Van Vechten's life and work. A valuable collection for the documentation of the mid-20th-century art scene.

Featuring texts by and about Martin Luther King Jr., this regularly updated website currently contains more than 1,400 speeches, sermons, and other writings, mostly taken from five volumes covering the period from 1929 to 1968. (These are listed in the Published Documents section under Papers.)

In addition, sixteen chapters of materials published in 1998 as The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. are available. The website presents important sermons and speeches from later periods, including "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," the March on Washington address, the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and “Beyond Vietnam.” Additional materials include an interactive chronology of King's life, two biographical essay, over twenty audio files of recorded speeches and sermons, and twelve articles on King. More than thirty photographs complete the website.

The King Papers Project is valuable for studying King's views and discourse on civil rights, race relations, nonviolence, education, peace, and other political, religious, and philosophical topics.

This archive of 1,500 photographs taken by Teenie Harris, photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, "one of the largest and most influential Black newspapers in the country," documents African American urban life in Pittsburgh from the 1930s to the 1960s. This is a sample of the 80,000 images that make up the full collection. Many of the images have not been identified and the site's authors ask assistance (a submission form accompanies each image).

Visitors can browse the collection through 15 galleries of 100 images each. They can also comment on images and view the comments of others. Following the link to the Teenie Harris image collection in the Historic Pittsburgh Images Collections at the University of Pittsburgh allows visitors to browse the 541 images that have been identified with full captions. The site also offers a chronology of Harris's life. This site is useful for researching the history of Pittsburgh and its African American community as well as urban history or African American history in general.

Four guided investigations designed to teach students how to read primary sources and construct historical narratives lie at the heart of this website. Topics are: the Spanish-American War, the Scopes Trial, Social Security, and Rosa Parks. Each topic includes a short introductory video, a timeline of events, a central question, and extension activities. For example, the Rosa Parks investigation poses the question: "Why did the boycott of Montgomery's buses succeed?"

After completing a simple login, students read annotated documents—including letters written by the boycott organizers, a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. and an interview with a woman working in Montgomery—and answer guiding questions, and draw on their responses to answer the question. The website also includes a useful introduction to the idea of historical thinking.

Especially since the 1950s, civil rights litigation has done much to influence government institutions. This website presents at least partial information on 2,243 injunctive civil rights cases (those seeking policy change and not money). These cases are divided by category. "Jail Conditions" and "Prison Conditions" contain the most cases, with roughly 550 each. "Immigration" and "Juvenile Institutions" also include more than 150 each. Other categories include: "Mental Health Institutions," "Mental Retardation Institutions," "Child Welfare," "Nursing Home Cases," "Policing Cases," "Public Housing," "Equal Employment," and "School Desegregation," among others.

A good place to begin is the "Featured Cases" section on the website's homepage, which highlights cases from the collection that are being litigated currently and/or that are particularly relevant to current events. Cases are fully searchable by name, type, issue, district, circuit, state, causes of action, attorney organization, and people involved in the case. In addition, links to 141 case studies written by law students, professors, journalists, and policy advocates provide in-depth information on a specific case or issue, such as the Urban Institute's "Baseline Assessment of Public Housing Desegregation Cases." New material is added regularly.

Developed primarily to support a PBS film, this website uses Twain's writings to illustrate his life. An interactive scrapbook, similar to the one patented by Twain, is the centerpiece of the site and provides access to nine chapters of his life. Each chapter is illustrated by period photograph—the scrapbook includes about 100 photographs—and Twain's personal observations. Excerpts of about 15 letters written by Twain are included, as are some 25 news clippings of his lectures, travels, and public appearances. Visitors can also see approximately 20 drawings from first editions of some of Twain's books. The scrapbook offers about 25 audio clips of actors—most notably Hal Holbrook—reading Twain's writings and 15 video clips of the Mississippi River and other sites important to Twain's work. An accompanying chronology lists the events of Twain's life, and Classroom Activities offers five lesson ideas for introducing middle- and high-school students to Twain and his place in American history.

The site asks for sponsorship pledges and markets the video and soundtrack, but overall this site is well designed and offers valuable material for investigating Mark Twain in historical context.

More than 300 U.S. government publications from World War II have been digitized for this site, an ongoing project that plans to add another 200 documents.

Materials include pamphlets and books emphasizing home front issues, such as air raids, preservation, child labor, and victory farms. All materials are searchable by title, author, subject, and keyword. Browsing is also available.

A companion collection of photographs, the "Melvin C. Shaffer Collection," depicts the home front situation in Germany, North Africa, Italy, and Southern France from 1943 to 1945. Shaffer was a U.S. Army medical photographer assigned to document the medical history of the war through major campaigns. Shafer took the photographs on this site—totaling approximately 340—unofficially with the goal of recording the war's impact on civilians.