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).

HSI was created in order to facilitate the use of primary sources in history education. By using the concept of historians as detectives, the site has collected several "cases" for students to examine using a pre-vetted set of related primary sources. The site describes the HSI model as having four steps:

1. Becoming a Detective—basic context and introduction of an overarching question
2. Investigating the Evidence—examining primary sources
3. Searching for Clues—answering questions which organize analysis of primary sources
4. Cracking the Case—presentation of an evidence-based conclusion and questions formed by the investigation

Site navigation is not as intuitive as it could be. Be prepared to use the "back" button frequently. That quibble aside, the site offers a good variety of cases—the March on Frankfurt, children in the Civil War, refusal to attend the Constitutional Convention, slavery in Virginia, school desegregation, the Boston Massacre, the demise of Jamestown, the dropping of the bomb on Japan, Elvis and Nixon's meeting, a genealogy case, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and Nathaniel Bacon. There is also a fictional murder/cause-of-death case which can be used to introduce students to the process and way of thinking which each of the historical cases requires.

Sponsored by Norwest Corporation, this is the companion site to the 1997 PBS documentary series Liberty: The American Revolution. The site is divided into four categories. "The Chronicle of the Revolution" provides six descriptions of key events during the Revolutionary era, such as the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Saratoga. Also offers a timeline of the Revolution and links to descriptions of related topics, a bibliography of 29 scholarly works on the Revolutionary period, and links to 45 other sites of interest. "Perspectives on Liberty" is a creative section that provides images linked to information about related places or objects. For example, a painting of a farmhouse provides information on everyday life in Revolutionary America. "Liberty, the Series" provides episode descriptions, text interviews on the making of the series, and brief, 25-word biographies of the scholars involved in creating the series. Finally, "The Road to Revolution" is an interactive trivia game with audio of specific people, speeches, and events. There are 15 images and 2 maps in this section. This site is ideal particularly for younger students who wish to learn more about America during the Revolution.

This archive contains the transcribed public papers of Albert and Vera Weisbord, American Communists active from the 1920s to the 1970s. As yet, no personal papers have been transcribed. The site contains a 500-word biographical introduction and seven volumes of Class Struggle, 1931-37, a journal that the Weisbords edited and to which Albert was the main contributor. In addition, visitors may read the preface, introduction, and a review of Albert's book, The Conquest of Power. The bulk of the material contains transcriptions of approximately 75 articles by Albert and/or Vera on topics such as "Moscow's Betrayal of the Cuban Revolution," "Feminism and Family Names," "The Struggle for Negro Emancipation," and "Unique Problems of the Spanish Revolution." Material is indexed by title within subject categories, but visitors cannot perform subject searches. This site will be useful for research on American radicalism.

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.

In October 1962 the United States and Soviet Union came very close to war over Soviet plans to place missiles on Cuban soil. A recent movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Thirteen Days, inspired the National Security Archive to make a group of declassified documents relating to the tense incident available. The site includes 17 full-text images of declassified documents, such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff's suggestions on American response to the construction of missile sites in Cuba, a CIA Intelligence Estimate, correspondence, memoranda, and a post-mortem on the crisis. Eight audio clips of White House security briefings, two of which are partially transcribed, are also available, along with 12 U-2 spyplane photographs of missile launch sites.

The site also offers a chronology of events from a characterization of relations between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in 1959, to the 13 days of crisis in October, 1962, and through 1992, when the last of five meetings on the crisis took place in Havana, Cuba.

A 1,000-word essay critical of the film Thirteen Days, a 1,500-word essay looking back on the Cold War, and excerpts from seven other documents and accounts of the crisis are also included.

The site provides the introduction (about 1,500 words) and the table of contents to The Cuban Missile Crisis, a documents reader edited by historians Lawrence Chang and Peter Kornbluh. This site is a good resource for students and teachers interested in Cold War relations.

This site is a collaborative effort between the Connecticut Historical Society, the Thomas H. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and the Mystic Seaport Museum, funded by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It offers approximately 14,000 images depicting Connecticut's history from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

The images are divided into categories: "Artifacts," "Manuscripts and Documents," Maps, Charts, and Bird's-eye Views," "Newspapers and Magazines," "Photographs, Prints, and Drawings," "Posters/Broadsides," and "Sound Recordings and Transcripts." Each image includes notes on the creator, date, and place created, medium, repository information, and a brief (40-word) description of the subject. Visitors can search the site by keyword, subject, creator, title, and date.

The site also includes four sample lesson plans for middle school classes comparing and contrasting two Connecticut families and the roles of men and women through exercises interpreting the site's images, a list of ideas for future topics, and themes for secondary-level classrooms. This site is ideal for teachers and students interested in the history of Connecticut and its communities.

One "showcase" within a multi-part exhibit that presents Soviet archival documents, this site offers three items related to Cold War politics and ideology: a 1945 telegram from Stalin to Harry Truman; a 1971 document from the Communist party's Central Committee, "Additional Measures To Expose Imperialist Policies"; and a 1962 telegram from Khrushchev to John Kennedy protesting American policy in Cuba.

The documents, available as both untranslated images and translated texts, are accompanied by a useful introduction of 1,036 words.

Visitors should consider using the site's "guided tour," which incorporates these materials within the larger exhibit.

This site provides documents, essays, and questions about the events leading up to the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 and places the events within a broader context of secession and southern independence.

There are nine chronological sections and students must make decisions at five "critical junctures," soliciting advice from official and unofficial advisors. Students can compare their choices with Lincoln's, and a commentary section challenges students to explore multiple interpretations of events. "Hotwords" provide additional information on topics throughout the simulation.

Provides over 200 references in the bibliographic section.

Well-designed activity for helping students at the high school and college level explore the issues surrounding the Civil War.

This site displays approximately 90 primary documents from the 15th century to the mid 20th century. Features eight subjects: the presidency; Congress, law, and politics; military affairs; diplomacy and foreign policy; arts and literature; science, medicine, exploration, and invention; African-American history and culture; and women's history. The collection emphasizes "prominent Americans whose lives reflect our country's evolution," including 23 presidents and figures such as Carter Woodson, Thurgood Marshall, pioneer physician Elizabeth Blackwell, Wilbur Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell.

Each subject is accompanied by a useful 100- to 400-word background essay and a link to the document's host collection. Also includes a 2,000-word essay entitled "Collecting, Preserving, and Researching History: A Peek into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division." Although limited in size, this site provides an eclectic group of documents of national interest.