Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

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Photo, Central Public Library Rotunda, December 30, 2005, Night Owl City, Flickr
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This vast collection of more than 275,000 digitized images sheds light on many aspects of 20th-century life in Los Angeles, especially the entertainment industry, politics and public issues, and suburban life. The collection is especially strong in images depicting the growth of LA from the turn of the century through its growth spurt between 1920 and 1939, including a series of promotional images designed to attract Midwesterners and east coast businesses to "the City with Promise."

The sheer quantity of photographs—including churches, municipal buildings, streets, and homes—allows users to track the evolution and growth of LA neighborhoods, making this collection especially useful for urban history courses. The collection also includes more than 10,000 photographs drawn from the family albums of a diverse group of Los Angeles residents.

Images can be accessed through a keyword search and limited by date range, though browsing is not yet available. In addition, users can add images to a "personal list" which can then be sorted by author, title, or call number and emailed/printed.

PhilaPlace

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Photo, Former City Hall, Germantown, Philadelphia, 2009, eli.pousson
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A project of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, PhilaPlace explores the history of two neighborhoods in Philadelphia—Old Southwark and the Greater Northern Liberties—historically home to immigrants and the working class. Using an interactive map and more than 1,240 primary sources and audio and video clips, visitors to the site may navigate the neighborhoods and learn more about their development from 1875 to the present day.

Visitors may navigate the interactive map using filters found under two tabs to the left of the map: "Places" and "Streets."

Under "Places," click on marked points of interest to bring up photographs or audio or video clips describing the history of the location. These points of interest may be filtered by 14 topics (such as "Food & Foodways," "Education & Schools," and "Health") or by contributor (the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, its partners, or visitors to the site). The map may be set to show the city's streets in 1875, 1895, 1934, 1962, or the present day—note that points of interests from all time periods appear on all maps. Two virtual tours through the points of interest are available, one for Greater Northern Liberties/Lower North and South Philadelphia.

Under "Streets," visitors can view demographics for four streets—S. 4th St., S. 9th St., I-95, and Wallace Street—from 1880-1930. Buildings on each street are color-coded to show land use, the number of residents per building, and the ethnicity and occupation of each building's residents.

Collections allows visitors to search the more than 1,240 primary sources and audio and video clips available on the site. Filter them by topic, neighborhood, type, or contributor.

The site's blog presents mini-features on certain locations, notifications of updates, and information on professional development and other PhilaPlace-related events. Educators provides a timeline for each of the neighborhoods and four suggested lesson plan/activities, while My PhilaPlace lets visitors create free accounts and save favorite materials to them—or create their own up-to-25-stop city tour. The Add a Story feature allows visitors to tag locations on the maps with their own short descriptions or memories (up to 600 words long), and accompany them with an image or audio or video clip.

Attractive, interactive, and accessible, PhilaPlace may appeal to Pennsylvania educators looking for a tool to help students explore urban history.

Trial of The Chicago Seven

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Photo, The Chicago Seven
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One of the Famous American Trials sites created by Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law, this site explores the 1969-1970 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of radicals accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Linder provides a 1500-word account of the trial, which includes links to brief (100-word) explanations of specific terms and biographies of some of the key figures. The site provides a chronology of the lives of those involved in the trial from 1960 to 1998; images of two Yippie posters; a map of the key Chicago riot sites; and roughly 350-word biographies of 15 of the defendants, lawyers, and other figures in the trial. There are ten audio clips of defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses discussing various aspects of the riots and the trial. The site offers full-text versions of the indictment against the Chicago Seven, the trial manuscript, the contempt of court specifications against two of the defendants, and the appellate decision that overturned the contempt convictions and the convictions for intent to incite a riot. Additionally, there are 16 images of the riots and key figures and 14 quotations. A bibliography of 13 websites and 15 scholarly works leads to other sources for studying the Chicago Seven's trial and their lives as radical activists. This is an ideal site for researching 1960s activism and culture.

Museum of the City of San Francisco: The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire

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Logo, Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
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This site provides images and text about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. A timeline, from April 18 to April 23, covers major events and a facsimile of a roster lists names and addresses of those who died. There are 27 photographs of earthquake damage and 31 personal accounts, 1,200 to 8,000 words, that include Jack London's "Story of an Eyewitness." Among 67 transcriptions of articles from 1906 about the earthquake are 12 that discuss the relocation of Chinatown and the treatment of Chinese San Franscicans. There are 31 transcribed fire department reports, including an article about the reorganization of the department in the wake of the disaster, and a facsimile of the 1910 police report on the quake and fire. Army operations are discussed in 29 pieces of correspondence and navy evacuation operations are detailed in seven. In addition, a 700-word article describes the evacuation of the city by train. Engineering and scientific reports include 24 articles, letters, and reports about infrastructure issues, such as water supply and structural stability. A section about relief efforts includes a flier accusing the Red Cross of corruption and a resolution by a local plumbers union to volunteer their services. The site will be very useful for anyone interested in the earthquake and in urban and California history.

Civil War Maps

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Map, The Battle of Gettysburg
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Presents approximately 2,240 Civil War maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks. The materials, primarily Union and Confederate "reconnaissance, sketch, coastal, and theater-of-war maps which depict troop activities and fortifications," also include commercially-produced maps. Provides 210 maps and three atlases belonging to General William Tecumseh Sherman, and 341 maps and sketchbooks prepared by Confederate topographical engineer Major Jedediah Hotchkiss. A "Special Presentation" offers a 10,000-word essay illustrated with 17 photographs and maps on the history of mapping the war. Maps can be viewed with the Library of Congress's excellent map viewing software. Very useful for Civil War specialists and those interested in historical geography.

Material History of American Religion Project

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Logo, The Material History of American Religion Project
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In 1996, eight historians of religion and three advisors embarked on a five-year project to illuminate ways that material culture and economic history can be used in the study of American religion, a discipline traditionally dominated by ideas. The site presents annotated photographs of 39 objects, including an evangelical coffee bar, chewing gum packed with biblical verses, artwork in a family Bible, and a church stick used to awaken sleeping congregants. Thirty-eight documents from the 1850s to the 1960s, range from an 1854 book steward report for the African Methodist Episcopal Church to a chain e-mail from the 1990s. The site also includes 23 essays and interviews by the project's participants on such eclectic subjects as "Material Christianity," religious architecture, how Catholic practice has shaped children's experiences, the role of costume in the Salvation Army, how to practice economic history of religion, and "what makes a Jewish home Jewish." Includes eight issues of the project's newsletter; a bibliography of 22 titles; and links to 18 related sites. This site will be especially valuable to university students interested in evaluating the value of material culture scholarship in religious studies, students of economic history curious about applying their discipline to non-traditional fields of inquiry, and scholars within the field of material culture and the broad discipline of American cultural history.

Death of the Dream: Farmhouses in the Heartland

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Photo, Midwestern Farmhouse
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This website is a companion to the one-hour Public Broadcasting System documentary Death of the Dream: Farmhouses in the Heartland, produced by Chuck Olsen of Twin Cities Public Television. The film and website were inspired by photographer and essayist William Gabler's book of the same title, and depict the first settlements, rise, flourishing, and decline of the farm houses of the midwestern prairie. The Homes on the Prairie section includes a lengthy (roughly 1500-word) narrative about the history of the settlement and rural culture that developed in the midwest, along with descriptions and 15 images of the different kinds of architecture found on the prairie. The Literary Collection category provides 13 links to poems, essays, and excerpts from novels that capture the character of the midwest farm life. Another section offers a virtual tour of a classic "L" shaped farmhouse, from the porch to the kitchen, parlor, and bedrooms. The site also contains a bibliography of five scholarly books on the midwest and rural farm life, links to seven websites on similar topics, and a bibliography of ten essays and photographic essay works about rural midwestern life. Though this site provides no primary documents, it is a good site for gathering general information on the midwest, rural life, and vernacular architecture.

Hagley Digital Archives

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Logo, Hagley Digital Archives
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With a focus on business history and its connections to larger cultural, social, and political trends, the Hagley archive presents digital images on a range of topics, including "industrial processes; commercial landscapes; marketing and advertising; transportation facilities and methods; development of information technology; and, the social and cultural aspects of work and leisure." Pictured are bridges, dams, coalmines, and the testing and manufacturing of gunpowder and explosives, nylon, steel, railroads, automobiles, and airplanes. Also included are images of historic buildings, homes, and gardens in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

There are some images of advertisements, packaging, company brochures, trade catalogs, pamphlets, internal documents, letters, and other ephemera from various industrial enterprises. It includes, for example—under "nylon"—not only shots of machinery, product samples and images of the stages of melting and forming polymers, but also such treasures as ads and publicity shots of women modeling nylon stockings and swimsuits (including "Miss Chemistry" at the 1939 New York World's Fair), and news photos of the riotous early sales of nylon stockings.

Other topics include the early development and use of computers by Univac, IBM, and Remington Rand, aerial photos of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard; automobiles; Lukens Steel Company; ship building; and coal mining.

Finding Precedent: The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

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Portrait, Andrew Johnson
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This archive provides material from Harper's Weekly relating to the 1868 impeachment of Andrew Johnson, including 90 editorials by George William Curtis and 47 articles by other writers. There are 27 political cartoons, 17 by Thomas Nast, and 47 additional illustrations of people and events. The site provides biographical essays (300-500 words) and portraits of 28 major figures in the impeachment. John Adler, Harper's publisher, wrote five essays (100-600 words) to introduce visitors to the site and the political issues affecting the impeachment. There are 24 sections on the arguments involved in the hearings. Within each section, there are between five and 100 articles from Harper's discussing issues such as conspiracy, moral judgment, the New Orleans riot, partisanship, statesmanship, and the tenure of office act. Articles and editorials are also arranged chronologically. An "Impeachment Simulation Game" is provided for use in the classroom. This site is easy to navigate and will be a useful resource for anyone researching Johnson's impeachment or late 19th century politics.

Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942

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Photo, Fisherman in Key West
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From 1937 to 1942, members of the Florida Writers Project, the Florida Music Project, and the Joint Center on Folk Arts of the Works Project Administration documented the wide variety of cultures throughout Florida through the folk songs and folk tales of the African-American, Arabic, Bahamian, British-American, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, and Slavic peoples living in Florida. The American Memory Project at the Library of Congress now offers a selection of the multiformat ethnographic field collection that represents these diverse cultures. The online exhibit includes 376 sound recordings of folk songs such as blues, fishing boat and railroad gang work songs, children's songs, dance music, and religious music. Each recording includes descriptive information on the duration of the sound clip, where the piece was performed and the performers involved, brief (10-15 words) special notes about the piece, ethnic group(s) represented, language(s) in which the piece was performed, instrumentation, and when and where the piece was created.

The collection also includes 24 "life history" interviews of Floridians from specific ethnic backgrounds, 65 images and transcripts of correspondence, two recording logs, and 25 transcriptions of song texts. Two 2000-word essays on Florida folklife and the Works Project Administration in Florida help to contextualize the online exhibit. Also included are a bibliography of over 120 scholarly works, a list of 18 related websites, and a 1000-word guide to the ethnic and language groups of Florida. Visitors can browse this site by performer, audio or manuscript title, and geographic location. For those interested in folk life and culture, Florida history, and the variety of WPA projects during the New Deal, this easily navigable site is a good resource.