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.

The Oneida Indian Nation, called the "first ally and steadfast friend" of the fledgling American republic, presents documents and historical studies focusing on the Revolutionary War period and on recent efforts to pursue land claims dating from the earlier period. Includes texts of six treaties or agreements involving the Oneida and the U.S. between 1777 and 1794; statements by the U.S. Congress, Presidents, and New York State regarding the Oneida; and President Bill Clinton's 1994 memo on "Government-to-Government Relations with Native American Tribal Governments." In addition, the site offers six essays by Nation historians and others, ranging from 1,300 to 7,400 words in length, on topics such as the roles the Oneida played in the birth of the U.S. and the War of 1812, and the land claim crusade.

Includes excerpts from an oral history project in which 13 tribal elders discuss food, herbal cures, crafts, annuity cloth, language, and land claims; a timeline; 35 press releases; a cookbook; and essays on lacrosse, legends, and the tribal creation story. The site promises in the future to include significant treaties from other Indian nations. Valuable for those studying American Indian history and culture, the Revolutionary War period, and recent legal efforts by Indian nations to pursue land claims.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This exhibit tells the story of "the flag that inspired the National Anthem" through more than 50 images and short texts (50–200 words) explaining their significance. Also presents images from Smithsonian collections to illustrate sections on expressing patriotism, fostering national memory, and how "common cultural symbols, such as the American flag, patriotic songs, presidential images, and monuments, serve to coalesce a common identity among Americans." Elucidates challenges the Smithsonian faces to preserve the flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814 and inspired Francis Scott Key's poem.

Provides a teacher's manual in three sections for grades K–2, 3–5, and 6–8 and suggestions for using the site in the classroom. Includes a 10-title reading list, links to 14 related sites, and games designed to stimulate students to use primary sources to investigate "mysteries surrounding this famous flag." A well-conceived site, though modest in size, that will prove useful for K–8 classes.

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.

This archive of American popular songs in their original form allows the user to explore the history of popular music in the U.S. from the 1850s to the present. It offers more than 400,000 pieces of sheet music, anthologies, and orchestra and band arrangements. Also available are 62,500 recordings.

The collection includes a wide variety of music genres, from music for theater, television, and motion pictures to rhythm and blues and rock. The collection can be browsed by name, title, cover art subject, or date. Or search the archive by keyword or combination of keyword, title, description, composer, or publisher. There are 12 links to other digital sheet music collections. Those researching American popular music should find this extensive collection very useful.

Offers approximately 50,000 images of 6,500 items from the papers of 19th-century American scientist and painter Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872), inventor of the electromagnetic telegraph. In addition to science and art-related papers, the materials in the collection document Morse's interest in photography and religion, as well as his involvement with the American nativist movement. Includes correspondence, diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, books, pamphlets, broadsides, maps, drawings, and other materials, primarily produced during between 1807 and 1872.

The site provides a timeline supplemented with 15 documents; a family tree; two essays of approximately 1,000 words each (entitled "The Invention of the Telegraph" and "The Lesser-Known Morse: Artist, Politician, Photographer"); a bibliography of 22 titles; and links to 16 additional sites.

Searching capabilities leave much to be desired. Keyword searching applies only to titles assigned to documents by the Library of Congress. Thus even though the finding aid lists "Nativism" as a subject, a keyword search turns up nothing. The site unfortunately is of limited use because of this shortcoming.