Photographs of the Historic American Buildings Survey: Georgia

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Developed at the same time as the better remembered Works Progress Administration and the Federal Art Project, the Historic American Buildings Survey was designed to record structures and buildings of historical and cultural importance around the United States. The staff of Georgia Tech's library has created an online archive of photographs from the Buildings survey taken around the state in the middle of the 1930s. The site features a 1,400-word introductory essay Life Initiates Art: The WPA and American Culture written by Grace Agnew that traces the role of the WPA in documenting American culture and history during the 1930s.

Containing nearly 100 photographs, the images can be viewed in a scrapbook or by browsing through a list offering individual photographs. The photographs are labeled with the name of the building, the county, and the date(s) of construction. The search engine can help locate a particular building or location, such as St. Paul's Church, an 1835 photograph of an old Medical College, the governor's mansion, and a slave market. The site also features a detailed bibliography with more than 24 sources. This site is a goldmine for those interested in Georgia history and southern architecture.

Picturing Modern America Project

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It is difficult at times for young people (and people in general) to understand the past, even the more recent past of the past century or so. It seems almost banal to observe that many aspects of life have changed dramatically, and perhaps not so banal to note that many things have in fact not changed as much as we think. This fine site contains a number of interactive exercises (drawing on the vast collections of the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress) that will help deepen students' understanding of common topics in the study of modern America from 1880 to 1920 and to build their skills in analyzing primary sources.

Teachers and student alike will appreciate the "Investigations" area, which contains exercises such as "Picturing Social Change", "Modern Women", and "Picturing Prairie Life". Through the exercises, visitors will be asked a variety of questions that draw on the visual materials contained within each thematic section, such as "What brought people to the prairie?" or "Why might people have left the prairie?". Visitors also have the opportunity to build their own exhibits by choosing their own theme or question about modern America, and through choosing their own images and documents for their exhibit.

National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center

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The highlight of the site is its Online Exhibitions section. There are currently 64 exhibits available. These include Separate is Not Equal, celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision (including audio and video files); Bon Appetit, documenting chef Julia Child's kitchen and career (including panoramic views and virtual examination of Childs's kitchen tools); and West Point, marking 200 years of military academy training.

Parents and teachers may appreciate the Kids area with hands-on history and science. Less useful for research, this site would be most useful as a virtual visit to the Museum.

WTO History Project

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Designed to provide access now and in the future to documents created by groups that protested the World Trade Organization's "Ministerial Week," held in Seattle from November 29–December 3, 1999. Offers texts of more than 80 oral histories of organizers and participants, 73 photographs, and images of 224 fliers, posters, and leaflets. Also includes 46 planning documents, 18 signs carried by protesters, two audio files, three videos, and a timeline documenting 520 events from March to December 1999. A second timeline covers the week of protests and a table with contact information for more than 1,400 organizations that opposed the meetings. Documents in the collection can be searched by keyword, organizations, and issues—labor, environment, trade, democracy, direct action, food, agriculture, health, and independent media.

The site's creators state they are "dedicated to ensuring that any account ever written of the WTO protests be attentive to the range of people who turned out, the varieties of strategies and issues they brought to the streets and the meeting rooms, and the coalitions that emerged and failed." As a result, the site will be of great value to those studying social protest movements in the late 20th century.

The Wright Brothers in Photographs

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More than 400 items, including approximately 380 photographs, on the Wright Brothers' "early inventive period documenting their experimental gliders and flight testing in both North Carolina and Ohio." Most of the materials date from 1897 to 1908. Approximately half of the photographs were taken in the Outer Banks, NC. In addition to recording the Wrights' aviation trials, these images provide "a valuable record of their home life, camp life, and the flora and fauna" of the area.

More than 70 images were taken at Le Mans, France, and approximately 25 at Fort Myer, VA. The Wrights themselves produced more than 180 photos, and fellow flight pioneer Octave Chanute shot approximately 35. The site, which promises future additions, allows browsing by date, object type, place, and creator, and is fully searchable. Primarily of interest for those studying early flight history.

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden

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An engaging exhibit geared especially to schoolchildren, this site provides images, texts, and activities to explore the history and operation of the American presidency. Organized into four sections, the exhibit displays more than 375 images of documents, paintings, photographs, buttons, posters, paraphernalia, and objects along with short texts (50–200 words in length) explaining their significance. The Foundations pertains to the prehistory of the presidency, how the Framers defined responsibilities of the office, and the basic work that the office requires. The Campaign Trail covers the election process. Life and Death in the White House looks at the domestic world of the president, life after leaving office, and assassinations. Communicating the Presidency deals with the press, the entertainment industry, and advertising.

Most impressive are the many suggested activities, lesson plans, and games designed for children of varying ages. A Teacher's Manual contains five lesson plans each for grades 4–6, 7–9, and 10–12. In addition, there are activities for younger children, including analyzing letters between children and five presidents and creating a new official seal. Provides a timeline, bibliography of 88 titles arranged according to age group and exhibit section, and annotated list of 46 links to other sites. Very useful for classroom history and civics courses.

The Barbara McClintock Papers

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Presents more than 200 items—including 51 articles, 28 lectures, 84 letters, and 35 photographs—by and about the Nobel-winning geneticist Barbara McClintock (1902–1992). Through experiments with maize in the 1920s and 1930s, McClintock discovered that genetic changes occur when chromosomes break and recombine, a process called "crossing over." In the 1950s, upon finding that genes "jump" around, she investigated the effects of transposable genetic elements.

The site includes an exhibit divided into seven chronological sections with a 4,000-word essay presenting McClintock's career highlights, accompanied by links to relevant documents and visuals. Materials in the collection can be retrieved through searches—basic and also geared to scientists—and in chronological and alphabetical listings. Valuable for serious students of genetics as well as those studying the history of American science and professional women.

Pittsburgh City Photographer

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This photographic archive contains more than 1,500 images commissioned by the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works, Division of Photography, from c1890 through 1973. "The images show Pittsburgh parks, recreation facilities, and athletic events as well as hospital exteriors and interiors, mayoral events, traffic situations, and general street scenes."

The image collection emphasizes interior and exterior photographs of familiar and historic buildings and "interesting depictions of home life, and the famous and not so famous people of Pittsburgh." Each image is accompanied by bibliographic and descriptive information. The archive can be searched by image title, date, creator, location, address, description, or subject. A useful resource for those interested in urban development, city life, and architecture.

Reston Collection Images

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This collection of more than 160 texts, maps, photographs, and sketches is focused on the people, themes, and organizations important to Reston's history as a planned community. Textual materials include deeds, certificates, promotional brochures, studies, reports, and correspondence. Maps include Reston's Master Plan, major road systems, educational facilities, and recreational areas. Photographs include Lake Anne, various physical structures, and people significant to Reston's history. Sketches are mostly of building and community plans. Subject areas include health care, education, public services, parks, recreation, transportation, and population.

The collection can be browsed by title, subject, people, or organization and it can also be searched by subject, personal name, corporate name, or title. This is a website of interest to those researching the history of Reston or of planned communities.

Washington History

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This website offers resources in Washington history through three main sections: historical records research, historical newspapers and classics in Washington history, and presentations. Historical records offers county census records, naturalization records, other miscellaneous records, and genealogical research resources, as well as searches of the state archive records and the state library catalog. The newspapers and classics feature allows visitors to search and view articles from four state newspapers dating back to 1852. Users can search the newspapers by keyword, topic, or personal name. This section also has 91 classic works on Washington history, searchable by keyword, grouped under topics of county and regional history, exploration and early travel, Native Americans, pioneer life, special collections, territorial government, and wagon trails and the Oregon Trail. Individual works can also be searched. (Newspaper articles and classics must be viewed using the DJVU plugin software, available for free download on the site.)

Additionally there is a Corps 33 bibliography of more than 35 works on the Lewis and Clark expedition. There are six presentations that allow visitors to explore Washington's territorial history through an interactive timeline featuring photographs and documents, view documents relating to World War I and profiles of Washington's soldiers, read the history and view historical photographs of cities, counties and corporations, browse a collection of historical maps of the state and the Pacific Northwest, view all 78 pages of the original Washington State Constitution and learn the history surrounding it, and explore the history of elections and voting in the state. The site also offers a collection of 96 images showing the construction and early history of the state's Legislative Building.