Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000

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Created by two history professors, this site was designed to provide "a resource and a model for teachers of U.S. women's history." It currently offers 45 mini-monographs, each comprised of a background essay and relevant primary source documents, organized around an analytical question concerning a social movement. Projects are organized into five subject categories: peace and international; politics and public life; sexuality, reproduction, and women's health; work and production; and race and gender. The site includes more than 1,050 documents and 400 photographs. Keyword searching, links to more than 400 sites, and more than 24 lesson plans are also provided. The site has expanded to include thousands of new documents starting in 1600 in a joint project with Alexander Street Press. The joint site requires subscription.

Selling the Computer Revolution: Marketing Brochures in the Collection Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/25/2008 - 22:21
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Presenting more than 250 computer marketing brochures from 1948 to 1988, this collection represents materials from more than 90 companies.

Visitors can explore the entire collection or browse by company. Categories include: calculators, mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers, supercomputers; applications for which the computer was intended; and decade.

Of particular interest are six early marketing brochures from Apple Computer, a brochure for the Commodore 64 computer, and two mid-1950s IBM brochures for "electronic data processing machines." Each group of brochures is accompanied by a brief introduction with historical information about the company, category, type of application, or decade. The full contents of each brochure are available for viewing or download in .pdf format and each brochure is accompanied by descriptive data.

Vietnam Center and Archive

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This massive website furnishes several large collections. The Oral History Project presents full transcriptions of more than 475 audio oral histories conducted with U.S. men and women who served in Vietnam. The Virtual Vietnam Archive offers more than 408,000 pages from over 270,000 documents regarding the Vietnam War in addition to a number of video interviews.

The site focuses on military and diplomatic history, but aims to record the experiences of ordinary individuals involved in Vietnam and on the home front. Additional items address Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as Americans and Vietnamese. Secondary and reference resources are also available, including conferences papers, and video versions of a 1996 address by former ambassador William Colby on "Turning Points in the Vietnam War."

Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943

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This colorful exhibit showcases more than 900 Work Projects Administration (WPA) posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of the New Deal program to support the arts during the Depression.

Silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters promoted New Deal and local programs dealing with public health, safety, education, travel and tourism, and community activities, as well as publicizing art exhibits, theater, and musical performances in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

Each poster is accompanied by a brief description. Three special presentations feature more than 40 posters, including highlights of the collection's breadth and depth as well as style and content; an audio recording with a silkscreen artist; and a Federal Art Project calendar. A bibliography of 10 related scholarly works also is included.

Women in Journalism

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Forty-four "full-life" interviews with American women journalists are available on this website. Interviewees include women who began their careers in the 1920s through the present. Print, radio, and television journalism all are represented.

Interviews address difficulties women have encountered entering the profession and how their presence has changed the field. They also discuss political life, famous people interviewed, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, and social, ethical, and technological changes of the 20th century.

A preface and an explanation of methodology introduce the site. Each interview is linked to a photograph and brief biographical sketch of the interviewee. Interviews range from one to 12 sessions and each session is about 20 pages long. Interviews are indexed but not searchable.

Photographs from the Chicago Daily News: 1902-1933

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More than 55,000 photographs taken by staff photographers of the Chicago Daily News during the first decades of the 20th century are available on this website. Roughly 20 percent of the photos were published in the paper. The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon paper, sold at a cost of one cent for many years, with stories that tried to appeal to the city's large working-class audience.

The website provides subject access to the photographs, which include street scenes, buildings, prominent people, labor violence, political campaigns and conventions, criminals, ethnic groups, workers, children, actors, and disasters. Many photographs of athletes and political leaders are also featured. While most of the images were taken in Chicago and nearby areas, some were taken elsewhere, including at presidential inaugurations. The images provide a glimpse into varied aspects of urban life and document the use of photography by the press during early 20th century.

The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip

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In 1939, John Lomax, Curator of the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song, and his wife Ruby Terrill Lomax, embarked on a 6,500-mile journey through the South. During their travels, they recorded more than 700 folk tunes that now are available as audio files on this website. Genres include ballads, blues, children's songs, cowboy songs, fiddle tunes, field hollers, lullabies, play-party songs, spirituals, and work songs.

The site also presents field notes containing personal information on some of the more than 300 performers the Lomaxes recorded, notes on geography and culture, and excerpts from correspondence. More than 50 letters to and from the Lomaxes, 380 photographs, a bibliography of 22 works, and a map are also offered. The site is keyword searchable and can be browsed by subject as well as title, song text, and performer.

The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War

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This exhibit collects a series of chronologies, images, maps, bibliographies, biographies, essays, and other materials for studying the Spanish-American War. An overview essay discusses the historical context, including events leading up to the war and well-known individuals such as Jose Martí and Theodore Roosevelt.

There are four main sections: Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Each section presents an introductory essay, a chronology, and guides to related resources. An index offers short descriptive entries on 57 people, 13 places in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, and 21 events. Also available are a chronology and a selected bibliography of personal narratives, illustration sources, manuscripts, and maps. Finally, there is a list of additional Library of Congress resources and relevant American Memory presentations.

Chinese in California, 1850-1925

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These 8,000 items document the immigrant experience of Chinese who settled in California during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials include photographs, letters, diaries, speeches, business records, legal documents, pamphlets, sheet music, cartoons, and artwork.

Access is provided through nine galleries, each containing an introductory essay and 70 to 575 items. Four galleries present materials on San Francisco's Chinatown, including architectural space, business and politics, community life, and appeal to outsiders. Additional galleries deal with Chinese involvement in U.S. expansion westward; communities outside San Francisco; agricultural, fishing and related industries; the anti-Chinese movement and Chinese exclusion; and sentiments concerning the Chinese. Visitors may search by keyword, name, subject, title, group, and theme. The site will be useful for studying ethnic history, labor history, and the history of the West as well as Chinese-American history.

American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850

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This attractive site explores the mid-Atlantic region and history with maps created before 1850. An extensive collection offers more than 1,852 historical maps of many different types. In addition to numerous regional and state maps, these include land surveys, coast surveys, nautical charts, military maps, ornamental maps, and city maps.

An overview provides historical context for reading the maps of the geographic regions. In addition, the site offers several special features. "Basics of Maps" explains such cartographic terms and features as orientation, scale, and the cartouche. "Maps Through History" highlights particular maps and map genres from the collection, including a look at New York Harbor, the Hudson River, nautical charts, maps revealing early transportation routes, and maps of American Revolution battle sites. "Geographical Areas" highlights many kinds of maps and what information they offer. Visitors can click on thumbnail images to view enlarged maps and pan and zoom the maps.