A More Perfect Union

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Photo, Tule Lake renunciant, November 23, 1945
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Based on a 1987 Smithsonian exhibition, this site allows visitors to click and drag through sections of text, music, personal accounts, and images that tell stories of the forced—and ultimately determined to be unconstitutional—internment during World War II of 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. Also provides searching capabilities to retrieve images of more than 800 artifacts relating to the lives of those interned.

Sections in the narrative cover immigration, removal, internment, loyalty, service, and justice. Provides a 5,000-word audio file of interview excerpts; 6,400-word accompanying text from the 1994 traveling exhibition; annotated timeline; 72-title bibliography; 20 links to related sites; and two classroom activities. Also invites visitors to share their responses and to read those of others. Of value to students of Asian American history, the homefront during World War II, and constitutional issues.

Maryland Historical Society Collections Online

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Painted tin hat shield, Maryland Historical Society, 1940.23.1
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The Maryland Historical Society owns millions of objects which could be key to bringing history to life for your class. A growing number of these items can be found in their digital collections.

The collections can be searched by title, creator, individual collection, or subject. At the time of writing, there are nine collections—the American Civil War; War of 1812; Paintings; African American History; Women's History; Mining the Museum (items on exhibit); Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an architect known for design the U.S. Capitol and the Baltimore Basilica; and works on paper. Artifacts include photographic images, engravings, broadsides, handwritten documents, a flag, a shadowbox, a knife, sketches, clothing, paintings, swords, a shield, a canteen, and more.

The original handwritten version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" may be of particular interest.

Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

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Image for Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920
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These published works, manuscripts, images, and motion picture footage address the formation of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage. Materials include 62 books and pamphlets, 140 Federal statutes and Congressional resolutions, 34 additional legislative documents, and excerpts from the Congressional Globe and the Congressional Record. An additional 360 presidential proclamations, 170 prints and photographs, two historic manuscripts, and two motion pictures are available.

Materials include Alfred Bierstadt paintings, period travel literature, a photographic record of Yosemite, and Congressional acts regarding conservation and the establishment of national parks. An annotated chronology discusses events in the development of the conservation movement with links to pertinent documents and images.

Harvesting the River

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Color offset lithograph, "Whistling In," Bartlett Kassabaum, 1980
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Presents a narrative in exhibit format—with hyperlinks to archival documents and photographs—on the cultural and economic life of the people who came to the Central Illinois River region from 1875 to 1950. Organized into three sections on the harvesting of fish, waterfowl, mussels, and natural ice; transportation by boat, railroad, and plank roads; and the settlement and development of six area river towns. The site delivers oral histories (audio and video), as well as illustrations and photographs. It may serve as a useful introduction to those studying this particular region and regional history in general.

National Park Service: Links to the Past

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Image, History & Culture, http://www.nps.gov/history/.
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Visitors to this site are invited to explore historical aspects of the roughly 200 National Park Service locations designated important to U.S. history and prehistory. Materials are organized by "cultural resource subjects," including archeology, architecture and engineers, cultural groups, cultural landscapes, historic buildings, mapping, maritime and military history, and "cultural resource programs," such as the American Indian Liaison Program and Heritage Preservation Services.

Visitors can search for information on more than 2.5 million Civil War soldiers and sailors; more than 71,000 properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places; and approximately 240,000 reports on federal archaeological projects in the National Archaeological Database. National Register Travel Itineraries provide historic guides to 18 cities and communities. The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom contains information on 51 sites of importance and on slavery and antislavery efforts.

Also of interest are bibliographies on the African American west and public history, and full-text publications on the Antiquities Act of 1906 and the promotion of the city of Seattle during the gold rush era. The homepage—"History and Culture"—presents several topical, comprehensive historical exhibits including the "Eisenhower Virtual Museum."

From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America

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Postcard, A Happy New Year, 1910-1920, Hebrew Publishing Company, LoC
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An exhibition on Jewish life in America emphasizing the themes of accommodation, assertion, adaptation, and acculturation. The website features more than 200 illustrations, portraits, and images of books and documents from Library of Congress collections. The website offers an explanatory overview of the exhibition and four brief electronic exhibits focused that help to tell a part of the Jewish story in America from 1654 to the present. Some of the items highlighted by the exhibition include the first book printed in the English settlements of America, The Bay Psalm Book printed in 1640, the first published American Jewish sermon, and a hand-drawn plaque from c. 1942 with dual Hebrew prayers for Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. A small bibliography lists 10 books plus six books for children. The site provides an introduction to the Library of Congress collections and is useful for teaching about the history of Jewish life in America.

Jews in America: Our Story

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Image, Announcement for a Purim Ball..., New York, 1881, Jews in America
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The history of Jews in America from the 17th century to the present is explored in this website through essays, images, video presentations, and interactive timelines. Eight sections focus on particular time periods: 1654–1776; 1777–1829; 1830–1880; 1881–1919; 1920–1939; 1940–1948; 1949–1967; and 1968–present. Each section has short topical essays discussing the world events, politics, and daily life of the period, video and audio presentations, an image gallery, and books for further reading.

A number of sections also have "featured artifacts" that examine a particular cultural artifact, such as a Colonial-era book of prayers or a Civil War photo album, in greater detail. Each thumbnail is accompanied by a description and a full-sized image. The 590 images in the collection can also be viewed in a separate gallery.

Jewish American History on the Web

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Portrait, Israel Baer Kursheedt
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This privately maintained site offers a wide range of material on 19th-century Jewish history, including articles, documents, and religious essays. It makes available the text of The Occident and American Jewish Advocate from 1843 to 1850. The articles are searchable and visitors can browse the article indexes for each year. "Library" contains more than 60 essays and documents on Jews and Judaism, including an 1863 Catechism for Jewish Children. Additionally, the site offers the complete text of the 1845 Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine; more than 50 articles on Jews in the Civil War, including some first-hand accounts of events and extracts from personal diaries; and several articles on Jews in the Old West. There are more than 450 links to other sites on Jewish history, Jews, and Judaism. A site of interest to those studying the history of Judaism and the Jewish people in 19th-century America.

Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution

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Photo, Sonia Pressman Fuentes receiving EOCP Award, Jewish Women and. . .
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This exhibit explores the contributions of Jewish women in Feminism's "Second Wave" during which Jewish women helped work "to transform American society and Jewish life in America." It offers a collection of images, a timeline, and six thematic essays. The interactive timeline using the exhibit images allows the visitor to follow the role of Jewish women in the resurgence of the feminist movement from the 1960s through the end of the 20th century. The thematic essays—"Foremothers," "From Silence to Voice," "Setting the Feminist Agenda," "The Personal is Political," "Feminism is Judaism," and "Confronting Power"—combine images, audio clips, and statements from prominent Jewish feminists, as well as short biographies of the feminists. The visitor can search the entire collection of more than 90 objects and stories from Jewish feminists used in the essays or browse the collection by person, format, topic, or date. A useful resource for researching Jewish women or the history of the feminist movement.

A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life

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Oil on canvas, Mary Olivia Lucas Harby. . . , c. 1830, A Portion of the People
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This exhibit tells "the story of Southern Jewish settlers and their descendants from the late 1600s through the 21st century." It currently consists of two presentations, each with more than 50 pages presenting an image from the exhibit's collection with accompanying explanatory text. Images include portraits, maps, historical documents, photographs of Jewish ritual books and religious and cultural objects, paintings and photographs of synagogues, and photographs of Jewish businesses. "First Families" explores the period from the 1600s to the 1820s through more than 50 images and "This Happy Land" explores the antebellum and Civil War years through more than 90 images. (The presentation "Pledging Allegiance," recounting the story of Jewish migration to the South in the first half of the 20th century, is under construction.) Visitors can listen to six interviews featuring voices from the past (transcripts are available). Additionally, a photographic essay with more than 40 photographs, "Palmetto Jews" by Bill Aron, examines Jewish life in South Carolina over the past 50 years. There is no site search capability.