Before and After the Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco

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Film still, San Francisco disaster, Am. Mutoscope Biograph Company, 1906, LoC
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Part of the Library of Congress American Memory project, this site features 26 films of San Francisco, produced from 1897 to 1916, both before and after the Great Earthquake and fire. Seventeen of the films depict life in San Francisco before the 1906 disaster, including an arrest in Chinatown, a panoramic view of the city from a balloon, and various other scenes of buildings and special attractions in the city.

Seven films describe the earthquake and fire, and two films show a rebuilt city and give a tour of the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915. Each film includes a roughly 500-word descriptive summary of the contents of the film. The site also includes a 250-word descriptive essay on pre-earthquake San Francisco and an approximately 750-word essay on America at the turn of the 20th century. A selected bibliography notes 32 scholarly works on San Francisco's earthquake.

This site is keyword searchable and contains a subject index and an alphabetical list of film titles. For those exploring San Francisco's history, urban history, or natural disasters, this is a useful site.

George Mason University Electronic Documentary History

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Photo, First graduating class, June 9, 1968
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Charts the institutional history of George Mason University from its beginnings in 1949–50 as an adult education extension of the University of Virginia located in northern Virginia, through its formal separation from UVA in 1960, to its present-day existence as a multi-campus university.

Offers more than 30 documents and nearly 50 photographs related to the history, a 400-word biography of George Mason, an annotated chronology, and a current 108-page fact book. Of interest to those studying the history of education and Virginia history.

Alaska's Digital Archive

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Photo, Chief Cow-Dik-Ney. . . , 1906, Case and Draper, Alaska's Digital Archive
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This website offers access to the digital collections of six Alaska universities and museums. The more than 3,700 historical images of Alaska can be browsed in their entirety or by selecting specific thematic collections organized under the two broad themes. "Alaska Native History and Cultures" has 12 collections with themes that include ceremonial life, education, native leadership and politics, making a living, and health care facilities. "Movement to Statehood" has seven collections with themes such as government, business and commerce, natural resources, transportation, and society and daily life.

Both "Alaska Native History" and "Movement to Statehood" can be browsed by region or time period. Bibliographic data accompanies each image. The user can also search the collection by phrase or keyword. Future stages of the project will add oral histories, maps, documents, and film clips in multiple formats. Alaska's Digital archive is an outstanding resource for those seeking images of Alaska's history.

Folkstreams

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Introductory graphic, The Angel that Stands by Me. . ., Folkstreams
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The declared mission of this film archive "is to build a national preserve of documentary films about American folk or roots culture." The archive contains more than 50 independent films and videos "depicting American folk, traditional, regional, and vernacular culture." Films include Dry Wood, a "glimpse into the life, food, and Mardi Gras celebrations of black Creoles in French Louisiana, featuring the stories and music of 'Bois Sec' Ardoin and Canray Fontenot" and New England Fiddles, presenting seven "traditional musicians as they play in their homes and at dances and contests, passing their styles to younger fiddlers, and commenting on their music."

All films are available in streaming video and can viewed with Quicktime or Realplayer. The site also provides background material on each film, explaining the subject and aesthetic importance. Transcripts are available for some films. Visitors can browse the collection by title, filmmaker, subject, region, or people. They can also search for films or search the available transcripts of films as well as essays about the films. This site should be of interest to those studying the history of American folk culture or the history of documentary film.

Florida Folklife Collection

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Photo, Tampa tobacco industry, 1920s, Florida Folklife Collection
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This extensive archive offers more than 10,300 photographs of Florida folklife from the 1930s through 2001. The archive can be browsed or searched by keyword. The site also makes available 17 interviews with folklorists and folk artists and 24 recordings of performances by Florida blues, gospel, shape-note, and folk singers. Additionally there are also 10 "voices of Florida" collections that include recordings of performances by or interviews with folk musicians, crafters, storytellers, and folklife interpreters on subjects such as children's lore, religious traditions, Seminole culture, maritime traditions, ethnic folk culture, material culture, and occupational lore. There are also 29 brief profiles of prominent Florida folklorists.

For teachers, the site offers five educational units that offer a history section with an interview, documents and audio, photographs, and lesson plans. Unit subjects include Zora Neale Hurston's 1939 recording expedition to the turpentine camps in Cross City, the history and practices of the net-making trade, the tradition of white oak basket making, and Seminole doll making. The visitor can also search the full catalog of photos and audio recordings (46,000 photographs and 5,000 audio recordings). Also available are five film clips from early Florida Folk Festivals and the Florida Folk Arts Conference. And the website provides 30 links to related websites on folklife programs and collections.

The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at UNC

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Letter, John and Ebenezer Pettigrew. . . , May 4, 1795, page 1, True and. . .
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This site offers 121 edited documents written by students at the University of North Carolina between 1795 and 1868. Documents include letters, speeches, diary excerpts, compositions, and poems. Annotated transcriptions and images of handwritten pages are provided. The collection can be explored through 15 essays divided into six chapters, each covering a different period with links to the associated primary documents. Essay titles include "Early Student Rebellions," "Slaves and Servants," "Writing in the Academy," and "The Debating Societies."

The collection can also be browsed in its entirety or by name, topic, events, organizations, places, publications, genres, or authors. The collection can be searched by keyword or advanced search. Four introductory essays offer an overview of the collection as well as short essays on the value of documentary histories and possibilities for future research. Links to 20 published sources are provided as well as a bibliography of source materials. See also Documenting the American South.

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.

Walt Whitman Archive

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Photo, Walt Whitman with Harry Stafford, Morand, c. 1878, Walt. .  site
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This site presents the work of one of America's most influential poets, bringing together the various editions of Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, as well as Whitman's notebooks, poetry manuscripts, prose essays, letters, and journal articles. It also makes available the introductions to each edition of Leaves of Grass, an extended biography of Whitman with links to short essays about Whitman's friends and historical events, and a chronology of Whitman's life from 1819 to 1892. All known contemporary reviews of the poet's work are available as well.

An image gallery contains 129 photos of Whitman from the 1840s through the 1890s. The site's searchable bibliography offers more than 200 books, essays, notes, and reviews about Whitman. Additionally, links are provided to Whitman's recently recovered notebooks from the 1850s and 1860s housed at the Library of Congress. A 36-second wax cylinder recording provides what is thought to be Whitman's voice reading four lines from the poem "America." A guide to Whitman's poetry manuscripts and a finding aid for Whitman manuscripts at individual repositories are also included. A teaching syllabus on Dickinson, Whitman, and American culture is available. An excellent resource for any scholar interested in Walt Whitman or his poetry.

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.

Performing Arts in America, 1875-1923

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Image for Performing Arts in America, 1875-1923
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A selection of more than 16,000 items relating to the performing arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is offered on this website. Materials include books, clippings, photographs, drawings, music, manuscripts, moving images, posters and lobby cards, programs, and recorded sound.

Diverse types of material on specific performers—such as Ruth St. Denis, Loie Fuller, and Isadora Duncan—have been selected to allow focused study. More than 2,400 entries are available for photographs (entries often contain multiple images) as well as 21 large format clippings scrapbooks, each with more than 100 pages. The website also presents 16 full-text books and video clips from nine early motion pictures, including a nine-minute clip featuring renowned dancer Anna Pavlowa in Lois Weber's The Dumb Girl of Portici (1914).