Here is New York

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Here is New York started as a pop-up gallery show in SOHO. Any individual who had photographed 9/11 or related topics was given the opportunity to submit their images to the charitable event. Images are no longer for sale, but a sizable collection can be accessed via this website. There is no way to keyword search for content, but the photographs have been sorted into more than 50 categories, ranging from "Animals" to "WTC - Pre 9/11." Be aware that several categories, such as "Victims" or "Medical" may contain graphic content. As a result, the best use of the gallery would likely entail vetting particular images for your individual lesson needs.

The homepage also offers a link to a collection of oral histories. As of August 24, 2011, 110 of the 550 personal accounts taped in 2002 and 2003 are available online. Speakers were permitted to say anything they wished, as long as they wished, in any language; so, again, vetting is highly suggested. Videos can be searched by location of filming—New York City; Shanksville, PA; or the Pentagon.

Center on Congress

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The Center on Congress, led by former U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton, exists to help the public better understand the role of Congress and the public's relationship to it. Their audience includes the general public, teachers, and journalists.

Your first thought as an educator may be to click on Teacher Resources. However, this section is more of a gateway to content in Learn About Congress than a section unto itself. That said, Classroom Resources does include a tool for paring down the site's educational materials to the appropriate grade level and topic, as well as best practices videos of lessons in action.

Learning About Congress has the widest variety of content useful to the K-12 educator. Resources include approximately 8 interactive modules, more than 20 short animated videos, a collection of live-action video clips of "insider views," more than 30 brief audio presentations on issues ranging from disaster relief to bilingual education, and a variety of relevant reading material. The spoken narration on the interactive modules tends to be dry, and would more than likely only be of use in the higher grades. However, the animated videos are enthusiastically narrated, making them more appropriate for a wider range of viewers. A free Citizen's Guide helps to connect daily life to the actions of Congress. The guide is not unlike a textbook in terms of language and graphic design. As such, its format should be readily accessible and familiar to the average student.

Depending on your computer access and comfort with online activities, you may also be interested in the Virtual Congress where your students can create members of Congress, move their avatars through digital recreations of key locations, and participate in a "multi-player" setting proposing legislation. Another option is Teaching with Primary Sources, a joint effort between the Center on Congress and the Library of Congress, providing separate entry points for teachers and students. These offerings require free registration.

Other items of interest on the site include results of public and political scientists' surveys on Congress' function, beginning in 2002; a blog concerning topics relevant to current Congressional issues; and Congressional FAQs. Teachers can also apply for the American Civic Education Teacher Awards.

Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whaleship

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In 1868, Laura Jernegan, six-year-old daughter of a whaling captain, put to sea with her parents and younger brother. This website, created by the Martha's Vineyard Museum, explores her family's four-year whaling expedition, focusing on Laura's own diary.

Two narratives ground the exhibit: "The Story of Whaling" and "Laura's Story." Each narrative is divided up into three sections—"Before the Voyage," "The Voyage" and "After the Voyage"—and consists of 14—15 individual "chapters," each a short essay of approximately 300—1600 words. "The Story of Whaling" describes the rise and fall of the whaling industry and the nature of a whaling voyage, including preparation and hiring crew.

"Laura's Story" narrates the voyage of the Roman, the ship on which Laura and her family set sail. The voyage included a stay in Hawaii, mutiny, and the Roman's sinking in the Arctic (everyone survived). "Laura's Story" also looks at the lives of Laura and her family before and after the voyage, as young children and as adults. Each essay include links to images, descriptions, and other sections of the website that clarify and enrich the text.

For Laura's own description of her time at sea, "Explore Laura's Journal" lets visitors browse her 43-page journal. Written in a child's bold handwriting, the journal is short and easy to read, and can be viewed in the original scans, as a text transcript, or with a magic lens feature that translates the writing into print as the mouse runs over a page.

Further background information supports the two narratives and Laura's journal, including:

  • "About Whales," a mini-exhibit answering basic questions about six whale species;
  • an interactive timeline reaching from 1774 to 1955, including both general world history events and whaling events;
  • "Explore the Ship," a diagram of a whaling ship that visitors can click for information on crew positions and parts of the ship; and
  • a "Map of Whaling."

This interactive world map lets visitors display features from six sets of information, turning each set on or off and overlaying them. The sets include the four routes of the Roman's journey, three typical whaling routes, posts and sites important to whaling, 1878 whaling grounds for four species, major ocean currents, and whale migration patterns for three species.

Finally, visitors can view zoomable photographs of 175 different whaling-related objects in "Artifacts," read the descriptions of 15 crew positions in "Meet the Crew," and browse 16 pieces of logbook art, 36 photos, and 53 whaling-related images in the "Picture Gallery." An A-to-Z glossary offers definitions for 180 historical and whaling terms. Visitors can also explore the biographies of five people, including all of the members of the Jernegan family and, in "More About," can read 10 more 1,000-3,000-word essays on subjects like race and whaling, women and whaling, and 19th-century children's literature.

In the "For Teachers" section, educators can download two units on whaling: a four-lesson unit for grades 1–3, or a six-lesson unit for 4–5. "For Further Study" features a bibliography of 75 books for children and adults and eight annotated links.

A thorough website centered around a very unique primary source—use it to invite young children into history through the voice of a peer!

Union or Secession: Virginians Decide

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Created by the Library of Virginia as part of its Virginia Memory project, this website lets visitors explore the events leading up to and immediately following Virginia's secession from the Union on April 17, 1861. Short essays and more than 200 primary sources, including newspaper articles, speeches, letters, prints and drawings, official documents, maps, and other materials, present the story from a variety of perspectives, including those of women, African Americans, and people both pro- and anti-secession.

The website is divided into six different sections, each providing a different way of approaching the content. “Virginians Decide” divides Virginian history from the beginning of 1860 to July 1861 into 12 chronological sections, covering events including the 1860 presidential election, the meeting of the Virginia Convention of 1861, the formation of West Virginia, and the entrance of Virginia into the Civil War. Each section features a 300–500-word essay introducing the topic, accompanied by 5–45 related primary sources, links to the biographies of related historical figures, and 1–3 more short essays looking at aspects of the topic in greater detail. “Explore” lets visitors search all of the site's primary sources by 11 themes (Business and Economics, Convention of 1861, Elections and Politics, Journalism, Making West Virginia, Military, Restored and Loyal Government, Secessionism, Slavery, Unionism, Women) and seven geographical regions.

Visitors can get to know more about the people in the sources in “People.” Forty 400–2,500-word biographies give overviews of the lives of journalists, members of the Convention of 1850–1851 and of 1861, members of the Wheeling Convention, politicians, ministers, escaped slaves, free black businessmen, writers, army officers, slave traders, and others. Each biography includes related primary sources and links to related biographies. “Timeline” lets visitors browse sources arranged on an interactive timeline covering 1849 to 1862, and “For Educators” includes four downloadable lesson plans (on John Brown and the Fugitive Slave Law).

Of special interest to educators is “Callie's Mailbag.” This section gathers together 22 letters sent to a young educated Virginian woman, daughter of a secession-sympathetic Campbell County family. Callie Anthony was in her early 20s when she received these letters, which date from Dec. 1859 to Jul. 1861 and come from relatives and friends, expressing a wide range of pro- and anti-secession views.

Scanned documents and images can be downloaded in high resolution, and transcripts of written and printed documents are also downloadable. A valuable site for anyone teaching Virginian Civil War history, or wanting to give students a closer look at tensions in a seceding state.

Virginia Memory

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A project of the Library of Virginia, this website makes many of the library's resources available to the public in digital form. Most resources in its digital collections relate to Virginia history, making this a treasure house for educators teaching Virginia state history.

"Digital Collections" contains the bulk of the site's content. More than 70 collections document aspects of Virginian life and politics from the colonial era to the present day, and include photographs, maps, broadsides, newspaper articles, letters, artwork, posters, official documents and records, archived political websites, and many other types of primary sources.

Topics include, but are far from limited to, modern Virgina politics and elections; the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting; World War II photographs; Works Project Administration oral histories; the 1939 World's Fair; World War I veterans and posters; the sinking of the Titanic; stereographs; the Richmond Planet, a 19th-century African American paper; Civil War maps; official documents related to Civil War veterans; religious petitions from 1774 to 1802; letters to the Virginia governor from 1776 to 1784; Dunmore's War; and official documents from the Revolutionary War. Collections can be browsed by topic and title, and are internally searchable using keywords and other filtering tools.

Other features on the site include the "Reading Room," "Exhibitions," and "Online Classroom." "Reading Room" lets visitors explore a primary source for each day in Virginia history or browse a timeline of Virginia history. There are eight essays on unusual sources in the library's collection as well as on new finds in the library's blog, "Out of the Box."

"Exhibitions" preserves 25 exhibits on Virginia history topics that accompany physical exhibitions at the library. "Online Classroom" orients teachers to the site with a short "Guide for Educators," suggesting possible uses for the website's resources, and offers four source analysis sheets and 30 Virginia-history-related lesson plans, all downloadable as .pdfs. The section also highlights two online exhibits designed to be particularly useful to teachers: "Shaping the Constitution," chronicling Virginians' contributions to the founding of the country, and "Union or Secession?", which uses primary sources to explore the months leading up to Virginia's secession in the Civil War.

An invaluable resource for educators covering Virginia state history, this website should also be of use to teachers covering the colonial period, the American Revolution, and the Civil War generally, among other topics.

Indiana Historical Society Digital Image Collections

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This website boasts a growing collection of more than 38,000 photographs, lithographs, letters, cards, poems and other texts centering around Indiana history from the early 19th century to the present. The collection is especially strong in African American history in Indiana, with browseable collections on Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919), a nationally renowned businesswoman and philanthropist, Flanner House, the first agency in Indianapolis devoted to meeting the social service needs of African Americans, and the Indianapolis Recorder, the longest continually operated African American newspaper in Indiana.

In addition to that of Madam C.J. Walker, there are collections of roughly 100 images each related to other notable Hoosiers. The website also contains a collection of more than 1,000 items related to President Lincoln, including portraits and busts of the president, as well as documents surrounding the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Other notable collections include one devoted to military history, several collections of images and portraits of Native Americans from the mid-19th century, and close to 200 historical maps of Indiana. All content is keyword searchable.

The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918

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In 1918, an influenza epidemic swept around the world, killing an estimated 50 million people—34 million more than died in World War I—and attacking more than one-fifth of the world's population. No part of the United States was spared, as people in both urban and rural areas, from densely populated cities on the East Coast to those living in the Alaskan wilderness experienced the disease. This website offers 16 documents and images documenting this crisis. These sources reveal that many aspects of daily life in the United States were affected by the epidemic. Visitors can see, for example, a photograph of a mail carrier in New York City wearing a protective mask, telegrams from Arizona and Oklahoma describing the cancellation of public meetings and the symptoms of patients, and the personal letter of a nurse to her friend describing conditions at various military bases. Visitors can also order reproductions of these documents.

Wisconsin State Historical Society Online Collections

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Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, the Wisconsin State Historical Society is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. This website provides a host of online collections containing thousands of documents and images addressing Wisconsin's social, political, and cultural history, drawn from the Historical Society's collections.

Highlights include full-text access to 80 histories of Wisconsin counties, and 1,000 more articles, memoirs, interviews, and essays on Wisconsin history and archaeology first published between 1850 and 1920; thousands of articles from the Wisconsin Magazine of History; and hundreds of objects form the Society's Museum, including moccasins, dolls, quilts, ceramics, paintings, and children's clothing.

Other objects can be viewed at the website's Online Exhibits section, which includes objects from exhibits on Presidential elections, Wisconsin's Olympic speed skaters, the Milwaukee Braves, Jewish women, and family labor in Milwaukee after World War II.

The website also provides a vast collection of images available through Wisconsin Historical Images, including photographs, drawings, and prints relating to both regional history, as well as more national histories of 19th-century exploration, mass communications, and social action movements.

University of Wyoming Digital Collections

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This website presents nine "Digital Collections" containing more than 10,000 primary sources on many aspects of Wyoming's 19th and 20th-century history.

The Palen Collection contains more than 200 programs, news clippings, brochures, and photographs surrounding Cheyenne's Frontier Days and rodeos from around the state.

Those interested in the history of studio photography will be particularly interested in the close to 3,000 photographs from a studio in Laramie, WY, in the Ludvig Svenson collection.

The Richard Throssel collection contains more than 550 early 20th-century photographs of Native American life and culture.

Other highlights include a small collection of journals, manuscripts, photographs, and articles surrounding the life of writer Owen Wister and his travels in the West; close to 500 photographs and more than 4,000 documents relating to ranch life in Wyoming; and a collection of photographs of Roscoe Turner and the early history of aviation.

The website also presents two collections of research projects conducted by University of Wyoming undergraduates, as well as a collection entitled Digital Herbaria, which contains high-resolution photographs and data for 6,014 vascular plant specimens found in the Grand Teton National Park.

Teachers will be especially interested in the website's Teacher Resources section, which includes links to a substantial number of lesson plans emphasizing critical analysis of primary sources.

Ulysses S. Grant Digital Archive

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The largest public archive of Ulysses S. Grant correspondence to date, the collection includes letters, research notes, artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia. Topics cover Grant's childhood, military career, and experiences in the Civil War through his presidency and post-White House years.

The bulk of the collection is made up of 31 full-text searchable, digitized volumes of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Edited by John Y. Simon, these volumes comprise thousands of letters spanning from 1837, just before Grant left for the Military Academy at West Point, to his death in 1885. The volumes also contain photographs, a chronology of the correspondence, and annotations.

In addition to the extensive Papers, the collection provides a sampling of digitized material from the U.S. Grant Association, including 14 multi-page compilations and 11 political cartoons from sources such as Harper's Weekly and Puck. Items include detailed, linked metadata to assist in tracking source provenance and connecting to related sources. Additionally, all items are keyword searchable and can be browsed by format, date, or title.