Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection

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The U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission demonstrated in 1900 that the mosquito transmitted yellow fever. This archive is an extensive compilation of 5,500 items related to the Commission's findings. Documents span from 1850 to 1966 and include correspondence, reports, photographs, and artifacts. The site is organized into sections pertaining to six key individuals: Walter Reed, Jesse W. Lazear, Henry Rose Carter, Jefferson Randolph Kean, Albert E. Truby, and Philip S. Hench. Each section includes an introduction (800 to 1,000 words) and is searchable by date, series, subject, or keyword.

In addition, there is a 4,800-word essay entitled "United States Army Yellow Fever Commission." The Walter Reed Series (1874-1936) and the Reed Family Additions (1877-1902) comprise Reed's original letters concerning his seminal work with yellow fever in Cuba. The Jesse Lazear Series and Henry Rose Carter Series, which span from the 1860s to 1930s detail the men's involvement with the Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba and their careers in public health. The other series include personal and professional correspondence and research during the period of the Yellow Fever Commission's work in Cuba. A separate section entitled "Books" contains a first edition biography of Walter Reed and a 1941 version of Walter Reed, Doctor in Uniform, a biography for young adults. "Highlights" comprises a sampling of 30 unique documents, many of which comment on the importance of the Cuban American relationship. Those interested in exploring the history of medicine and science, social history, military history, public health policy, tropical medicine, and biomedical ethics will find this site of great interest.

University of Missouri-Columbia: Digital Library Collections

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This archive makes available varied material on English, American, and Missouri history, including speeches, pamphlets, plat books, and government documents. The collection of Daniel Webster speeches offers more than 100 items that, in addition to his addresses and speeches in Congress, include sermons, addresses, orations, and speeches in his honor, as well as some correspondence. The Fourth of July orations collection contains more than 100 items, including orations by John Quincy Adams, Charles F. Adams, and Daniel Webster. The site also offers a collection of more than 110 Missouri county plat books published in 1930, a collection of various items of Missouriana, and a group of four miscellaneous texts that includes an 80-page text on the liberty of the press published in London in 1812. The collection of 17th- to 19th-century British religious, political, and legal tracts contains more than 400 documents and pamphlets published primarily during the English Civil War. Each collection can be individually searched. For anyone researching 17th- and 18th-century transatlantic history, the political history of New England, or the history of Missouri, this is a collection worth consulting.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

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This website serves as an introduction to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL.

In addition to logistical information on visiting the library and museum (including floor plans, photographs, tips on planning school visits, exhibit information, and archival collection descriptions especially useful for researchers), the website also presents a substantial amount of digital material on Lincoln's life and times and Illinois history more generally.

New users may want to begin with an extensive timeline documenting major events in Lincoln's life. Teachers will be especially interested in the resources available in the website's Education section, which includes extensive guides to teaching the Gettysburg Address, teaching with objects, women's history, African American history, and celebrating Christmas at the White House.

The website also includes a Boys in Blue database of many Illinois soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War, as well as an oral history project documenting the lives of Illinois citizens from all walks of life. Current topics include war veterans and agriculture, with plans to include hundreds more interviews on statecraft, war and terror, family memories, and African American history.

The Pilgrims in American Culture: Thanksgiving

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Documenting the colonial experience of settlers in Plimoth, MA, this site contains several brief articles on Puritanism, traditional thanking for harvest, the Wampanoag, the formation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, Thanksgiving menu regionalism and commonality, and primary source quotations. A major focus of the site is New England Thanksgiving. A somewhat longer article focuses on the menu of the original Thanksgiving. Explore the online activity about What really happened at the First Thanksgiving? that invites you to be the historian and explore multiple perspectives.

A virtual tour of the Plimoth Plantation, which requires a free browser plug-in, allows visitors to observe the grounds as well as historical re-enactors and interpreters. Although the site has relatively few primary sources, the exhibit is useful as an introduction to New England studies.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum

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A national repository for the preservation of historical papers, audiovisual materials, and artifacts related to Dwight Eisenhower, this site presents materials relating to his life and accomplishments. This collection indexes more than 675,000 feet of motion picture film, most of which document the years Eisenhower spent as president, but does not present the film. The site indexes more than 100 audio files that cover the years 1953 to 1958. In addition, the site includes full-text transcripts of Eisenhower's presidential speeches (nearly 400 pages of speeches in PDF format), and more than 75 photographs. The site includes six paintings made by Eisenhower. For educators, the site includes three lesson plans, including World War II Spy Kit: The Great Nazi Intelligence Coup, where students analyze primary sources and play a historical "what-if" game about the United States' preparations for the D-Day invasion. The site provides access to a limited number of primary or secondary sources.

Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: A Documentary History

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Designed to document American scientist Linus Pauling's role in the early 1950s race to discover the structure of DNA, this site contains more than 800 primary sources. Some 650 documents and photographs provide an unusually frank glimpse into Pauling's life; much of the correspondence in the collection is between Pauling and other front runners in the race (Watson and Crick, for example, and Rosalind Franklin). In addition to the documents and photographs, the site includes 16 of Pauling's published papers, 15 unpublished manuscripts and notebooks, and 22 audio and video clips of Pauling. There is a thorough chronology, which details the personal and professional dimensions of Pauling's life, including his troubles with the State Department and their refusal to issue him a passport on the basis of national security. Professional rivalries and personal jealousies, as well as victories and triumphs, are all documented in correspondence and in video interviews.

Although Pauling lost the DNA race, he was eventually awarded two Nobel Prizes. In addition to a typical search feature, Linus Pauling Day-By-Day allows viewers to learn about events and to examine selected correspondence relevant to any given day, from January 1952 through December 1953.

Urban Planning, 1794-1918: An International Anthology

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This site contains the full text of the 185 primary documents, roughly a 600-page book, dealing with urban planning. Dozens of journals, conference reports, books, official documents, and other sources are easy to navigate. In addition to the key word search engine, the site includes a topical bibliography that provides more than a dozen headings, and alphabetical and chronological bibliographies. Each entry also has a link to the full text of the document. Essays discuss a broad range of issues, including surveys of the state of urban planning, discussions of how urban improvements should be made, and details of the legal issues of land use regulations. Each document includes a brief (about 1,000 words) general introduction that sets the material in historical perspective. The selections on the site include Frederick Law Olmstead's commentary on the City Beautiful movement and continue to his son's discussion of housing developments in 1919. This site will prove useful to anyone concerned with urban planning or urban history and especially valuable to those studying how urban planning developed through World War I.

Arizona State Museum

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Presenting a virtual alternative to the museum in Tucson, this site allows visitors to experience the indigenous cultures of Arizona and the greater southwest. The Online Exhibitions section offers a plethora of digital programs and resources, including Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest, With an Eye on Culture: The Photography of Helga Teiwes, and The Pottery Project: Explore the Arnold and Doris Roland Wall of Pots.

The Paths of Life section features a virtual reality tour of the exhibit that consists of 22 panoramas of the museum space with accompanying text. This presentation enables online visitors to vividly examine the origins, lifestyles, and contemporary lives of 10 Native American Indian tribes from the American Southwest and/or northern Mexico.

The With an Eye on Culture photography exhibit features more than 50 photographs, along with explanatory notes and video footage of interviews with some Native American subjects.

The Pottery Project enables vistors to virtually explore the Arizona State Museum's Wall of Pots. According to the Museum, the primary purpose of this exhibit is to "illustrate continuity and change over nearly two millennia of pottery making in the Southwest." For this reason, the Wall of Pots showcases both protohistoric and contemporary pottery. Visitors can view the collection column by column, and even explore individual shelves.

However, these are just a few examples of the resources complied by the Arizona State Museum. Younger students might enjoy the What Would Frida Wear? section, which allows users to dress a virtual paper doll of the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, in indigenous clothing and read about her life. Interested in more games like this? Pop over to the Explore Culture Online page for informative podcasts, videos, reading lists, and a ton of other engaging activities and useful information.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

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This website is dedicated to the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, presenting material on his political ideas and his life through three main sections. "The Homestead" includes a 1,000-word introductory essay with six photographs. The richest section, on the history of Coolidge, includes a chronology of his life. An archive of speeches from his time as governor of Massachusetts to his time as President is also available. They consist of 28 early speeches, 20 during his tenure as governor, 11 from him as vice-president, and 31 presidential addresses. Twenty-one essays (800 to 1400 words) include "Coolidge the Victim?" by Hendrik Booraem V and "The Day Harding Died" by Frank Greene. Also available is a compilation of Coolidge quotes arranged alphabetically from "advancement" to "xenophobia." Visitors may access 20 papers presented at a 1998 conference on Coolidge and reprinted in The New England Journal of History. The papers average 1,000 words and include topics such as Coolidge's relationship with the Northampton Irish and his presidential legacy.

Under "Ask the President," visitors could ask Jim Cooke, an actor who has played Coolidge in a one-man play since 1985, questions about the President's life. Today, the archives remain available.

Thomas Eakins: American Realist

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An exhibition of 18 works by one of America's great artists, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), with annotations of 100-300 words on each image. Eakins, known for applying Paris-learned Beaux-Arts techniques to realistic depictions of his own Philadelphia milieu, often painted persons engrossed in everyday actions: sailboats racing and oarsmen rowing on the Schuykill River; surgeons overseeing students operating on patients; a concert singer performing; a baby playing; and coach horses trotting through Fairmont Park. Although most of the images —which date from 1871-1902—are reproductions of paintings, the exhibit also includes a preparatory drawing, a photograph of the artist's anatomical casts, and two photographic studies, one influenced by the pioneer motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge. As the exhibition text notes, scholars have recently discovered that Eakins used projected photographs to create his works.

Also included are expressive portraits of Eakins' friends and contemporaries, including poet Walt Whitman, who wrote that Eakins was "not a painter, but a force"; controversial anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing; and sculptor William Rush engaged in transforming a nude model into a mythic image. Valuable for students of the history of art and for those interested in realistic depictions of late 19th-century life and culture in Philadelphia.