This companion site to a National Museum of American History exhibit explores the most famous work of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge's photographic studies of motion have been interpreted as scientific models, but the proofs included in the five exhibit sections suggest a more complex blending of art and science. "Capturing the Moment" tells the story of the commission by California Governor Leland Stanford to study the hooves on a galloping horse and Muybridge's resulting fame. "Muybridge in Motion" traces the University of Pennsylvania study of animal and human locomotion. "From Proof to Print" outlines the process and artistic nature of motion photography. "Sequences and Structures" describes the scientific principles of motion and sequential structure. "Epilogue" discusses Muybridge's influence on late-19th century visual culture and invites visitor comments.

Each section offers a 750-word introductory essay and 10-12 images illustrating the scientific and artistic elements in Muybridge's work. The site also offers five links to related sites and a five-work bibliography. A disclaimer notifies parents and teachers that many subjects were photographed nude or semi-nude. This is an interesting site for those researching the place of photography in American science and culture.

Through a series of maps of the world, continents, and specific countries, users can trace large-scale demographic, economic, and political trends and developments covering the twentieth century. Topics charted on these maps include changes in agricultural workforce, infant mortality rates, life expectancy, literacy, persons with telephones, systems of government, alliances, borders between countries, and political violence, including wars. While examining any one map, click on buttons to find contextual information from additional maps. The site also includes informative timelines. Created by a librarian, the atlas provides a quick and easy way to see comparative change over time on a worldwide basis. Users should be aware, however, that the categorization scheme does not necessarily reflect the views of professional historians.

This site, based on a National Archives exhibition of historically significant photographs, commemorates 20th-century events and everyday life. The gallery features 70 photographs grouped into six chronological headings: A New Century, The Great War and the New Era, The Great Depression and the New Deal, A World in Flames (World War II), Postwar America, and Century's End. Images contained in the gallery depict events such as the first Wright brothers flight at Kitty Hawk, immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, Lyndon Johnson meeting Martin Luther King, Jr., a war protestor placing daisies into the rifle of a U.S. soldier, and Nixon's post-resignation departure from the White House, as well as images of everyday life across the nation and throughout the century. Each chronological section opens with a brief (75-100 word) introduction. A 30-50 word caption contextualizes each image and provides information on the photographer, if known.

A portfolio section contains another 48 images taken from the works of Walter Lubken, Lewis Hine, George Ackerman, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Charles Fenno Jacobs, and Danny Lyon. Each image in the portfolio is accompanied by a 5-10 word title, notes on the photographer, and the date and place the photograph was taken. All photographs are printable. This site is ideal for students and teachers of American culture, society, and historical events in the 20th century.

This site is designed to serve as a memorial to the four students killed at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, by National Guardsmen. Visitors will find 93 transcripts of oral history interviews taken at May 4th commemorations in 1990, 1995, and 2000. The oral histories, ranging from two and 35 minutes, are part of a larger collection. The site provides a 780-word chronology of events and a bibliography of 18 books, 90 articles, four complete issues of journals dedicated to May 4th events, and 25 websites about the tragedy. Exhibits include images of 11 memorials to the four slain students, three poems, and annual commemoration programs and photographs from 1971 to 1995. The site also includes finding aids for 71 offline collections and will be interesting for research in the 1960s, protest, and American education.

Harper's Weekly was the leading illustrated American periodical between 1857 and 1872. This site allows all registered users free access to an online archive of 40,000 advertisements that appeared in Harper's Weekly. Without registering, visitors have access to 33 ads divided into seven categories, such as foreign travel and insurance. Two of the most compelling categories are "Civil War products," featuring ads for metallic artificial legs and bulletproof vests and "consumer goods," including advertisements for appliances, packaged goods, and pest killers. Although the ads include text and images, a 100-word introduction provides the only historical context for the advertisements on this site. For those studying 19th-century advertising and consumer culture, the site will be of interest.

In October 1962 the United States and Soviet Union came very close to war over Soviet plans to place missiles on Cuban soil. A recent movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Thirteen Days, inspired the National Security Archive to make a group of declassified documents relating to the tense incident available. The site includes 17 full-text images of declassified documents, such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff's suggestions on American response to the construction of missile sites in Cuba, a CIA Intelligence Estimate, correspondence, memoranda, and a post-mortem on the crisis. Eight audio clips of White House security briefings, two of which are partially transcribed, are also available, along with 12 U-2 spyplane photographs of missile launch sites.

The site also offers a chronology of events from a characterization of relations between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in 1959, to the 13 days of crisis in October, 1962, and through 1992, when the last of five meetings on the crisis took place in Havana, Cuba.

A 1,000-word essay critical of the film Thirteen Days, a 1,500-word essay looking back on the Cold War, and excerpts from seven other documents and accounts of the crisis are also included.

The site provides the introduction (about 1,500 words) and the table of contents to The Cuban Missile Crisis, a documents reader edited by historians Lawrence Chang and Peter Kornbluh. This site is a good resource for students and teachers interested in Cold War relations.

Before the phonograph, America learned the latest music fads from printed song sheets. These single printed sheets, often beautifully illustrated, included lyrics only and were sung to familiar tunes like "Yankee Doodle." The lyrics and illustrations on these song sheets offer a unique perspective on the political, social, and cultural life of the time.

This American Memory collection offers the 4,291 song sheets from the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collection Division, spanning the years from 1800 through the 1880s, but primarily from the 1850s to the 1870s. Each item offers an image of the song sheet, publication and repository information, and a transcription of the lyrics.

The site also includes a 2,000-word essay on the history of song sheets, links to six related American Memory collections, and a bibliography of more than 70 related scholarly works, approximately 20 of which are for younger readers. The site is keyword searchable and can be browsed by subject, title, composer name, and publisher. For those interested in how 19th-century American politics and society were interpreted in popular culture, this is a useful site.

This American Memory project, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and Duke University, provides a window on American culture between 1850 and 1920 by offering more than 3,000 pieces of sheet music from Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. These musical pieces represent American history and culture through a variety of music types including minstrel, protest, sentimental, patriotic, and political songs, bel canto, spirituals, dance music, vaudeville, and musical pieces.

The collection is particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, Confederate imprints, and Civil War music and includes a large collection of piano marches, opera excerpts, waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles as well.

In addition to the music and lyrics, each item includes an image of sheet music cover illustrations, which provide further perspective on contemporary ideas about politics, patriotism, race, religion, and sentiment. Descriptive remarks, including notes on the composer, publication information, repository, and a transcription of lyrics accompany each item.

The site also offers a 750-word essay; a link to Duke University's home page for sheet music collections; a 1,000-word essay that defines sheet music as a cultural medium and outlines the history of music publishing in the U.S.; a bibliography of more than 150 works on the history of sheet music, composers, musicians, and performers in the U.S.; and links to five other American Memory collections with related materials.

The site is searchable by keyword and browseable by composer name and subject. Students and teachers researching American cultural history or the cultural significance of music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries will find this site useful.

Funded by the Rockefeller Corporation and part of the Library of Congress American Memory Project, this site features approximately 200 maps that document the history, cultural aspects, and geological features of the areas that became the Acadia, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and Yellowstone National Parks. The maps date from the 17th century to the present and include early European, exploration, geological, environmental, United States Geological Survey, and National Park Service maps.

The site is divided into four sections, one for each of the featured national parks. Each section includes a 1200-word essay describing the history of the area and the process by which it became a national park, illustrated with five to seven maps.

The site also includes a bibliography of over 200 scholarly works on related topics. Other links include a 750-word general history of the mapping of national parks and a "Learn More About It" section that offers links to 14 Library of Congress Special Presentations and related collections and exhibits. The collection is keyword searchable and can be browsed by geographic location, subject, creator, and title. This easily navigable site is ideal for students and teachers interested in cartography, the National Parks system, and conservation in America.

This project provides a collection of more than 280 digitized materials documenting the history of Florida from pre-contact to the present. It includes materials relating to Florida history, culture, arts, literature, and social sciences in a number of major thematic areas, including Native American and minority populations, exploration and development, tourism, natural environment, and regional interests. These materials are drawn from the archives, special collections, and libraries of the 10 state universities in the Florida system.

Items include family papers, local history books and booklets, diaries, advertising materials, and Civil War letters, business records, maps, and photographs. Many of the materials are regional or local in scope.

The site also includes an extensive (5000-word) Florida history narrative timeline from pre-contact (before 1492) to the present. A user guide and tutorial are provided, and the documents are searchable by county name, keyword, subject, author, or title. The search engine has an option for listing either electronic holdings only or all collection holdings under a particular subject. Entries in the electronic catalog include the archive in which the original is located as well as a 20-word description of the item and its contents.

Note that a few links are still under construction with no completion date indicated. The site is ideal for researching Florida's state and local history.