Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Image
Image, Page from the journals, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Annotation

This well-designed site presents the Nebraska edition of the Lewis and Clark journals, edited by Gary E. Moulton. The site provides the complete text of all the journals from the 1803–1806 expedition, as well as introductions, prefaces, and sources. The material is searchable by keyword and phrase.

There are 29 scholarly essays about the expedition. An image gallery offers 124 images of pages from the journals, 95 images of people and places, and 50 images of plants and animals encountered on the expedition. The maps section includes 12 explanatory maps and nine images of maps from the journals. Additionally, there are 27 audio excerpts of journal readings and eight video interviews with the editor of the project. The website stands as an outstanding resource for researching the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Harvesting the River

Image
Color offset lithograph, "Whistling In," Bartlett Kassabaum, 1980
Annotation

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.

Jews in America: Our Story

Image
Image, Announcement for a Purim Ball..., New York, 1881, Jews in America
Annotation

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.

Pearl Harbor Attack Map

Image
Avenge Pearl Harbor, Our Bullets Will Do It, c.1942-3, NARA, Flickr Commons
Annotation

This interactive website on the attack on Pearl Harbor provides a chronological overview of the day's events. Each major event on the day's timeline is shown on a map of Hawaii, giving the events a visual place within the harbor geography and allowing site visitors to see where ships were in relationship to each other.

On the map, each major occurrence can be selected as the "full story." These individual full story pages provide a short textual overview of the event alongside a looping archival image and video slideshow. Clicking progresses through the slideshow for users interested in quickly revisiting an image after it has passed or who simply want to go through the slideshow at a faster pace. Many of the events also offer eyewitness quotes.

One of the most praiseworthy aspects of the site is that these quotes are not all from U.S. sailors and commanders. The voices selected include two women—a nurse and the daughter of a military man—and several Japanese airmen, submariners, and commanders. By providing voices from both sides of the attack, National Geographic avoids dehumanizing the Japanese through the absence of their own stories.

Marian Anderson: A Life in Song

Image
Portrait, Marion Anderson
Annotation

Created by the staff of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania, this exhibit traces the life and musical career of African American contralto Marian Anderson. Anderson broke the race barrier when she came to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s. The materials are drawn from Anderson's personal papers, which she donated to the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. The exhibit is presented chronologically in 10 sections that explore Anderson's birth in Philadelphia, her education and musical training, and her career and humanitarian efforts toward improving African Americans' opportunities.

The site contains more than 30 audio and six video excerpts from performances and interviews, over 50 images, with approximately 100-word explanatory captions, illustrating Anderson's life and work. This exhibit is ideal for researching African American history and the history of the performing arts in America.

Fly Girls

Image
Image, American Experience: Fly Girls
Annotation

A companion site for a PBS American Experience documentary on the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, who flew military support missions during World War II. More than 1,000 women participated in the program, marking the first time women piloted aircraft for the U.S. Army. The site includes 16 documents—including official correspondence, letters, and certificates—and transcripts of interviews with two of the pilots, a historian, and a general. Additionally, it offers a transcript of the complete one-hour broadcast; a 3,430-word excerpt from a book by a WASP test pilot; biographies of approximately 1,200 words each of three WASP pilots and three female pilots from earlier times; two video clips; a 2,100-word introductory essay; and a 1,000-word history of the B-29, a dangerous bomber WASPs flew in order to convince resistant male pilots that the plane was safe.

The site also provides a timeline, a bibliography of 22 titles, and a reference guide for teachers. With its emphasis on the experience of these pilots as women—they suffered ridicule, attacks in the press, and possibly even sabotage to their aircraft, then disbanded in December 1944 when male pilots lobbied for their jobs—the site will be of interest to those studying women's history, in addition to military history.

LexisNexis

Image
Logo, LexisNexis
Annotation

This service provides full-text and keyword searching to more than 5,900 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications. The database accesses current and recent issues of more than 50 major English-language newspapers, including the New York Times and The Washington Post back to 1980 or earlier. The database also offers more than 400 magazines and journals, 600 newsletters, and transcripts of radio and television broadcasts from major networks.

Legal materials include Federal and state cases, laws, codes, and regulations and law review articles. Business resources include SEC filings and reports and corporate financial information and profiles. The site also provides statistical tables of data pertaining to industries, biographical information, country and state profiles, polls and surveys, and the World Almanac and Book of Facts. Access to various parts of this enormous resource varies by subscription agreement.

Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive

Image
Photo, That Fateful Day, cayusa, Flickr
Annotation

There are countless websites which catalog web activities related to the spread of information on 9/11. However, film is another way to approach research on the day. At what time did news of 9/11 break in China? Japan? Iraq? Russia? How did news coverage vary from one U.S. news station to another?

This archive contains television coverage arranged in visual timelines by day and channel. This format allows users to easily compare the information being aired at the same time by NBC, FOX, BBC World, and Japan's NHK—to name just a handful. Additionally, the timeline permits educators to find clips broadcast at specific times between 9/11 and the 17th of September.

The website also includes 10 talks given at a scholarly conference about the implications of film archives in historical research.

Note that foreign news channels have not been subtitled.

Top Documentary Films

Image
Photo, video camera Harajuku, May 5, 2010, colodio, Flickr
Annotation

Top Documentary Films consists of a collection of more than 1800 documentaries pulled from upload sites around the web. The owner of the site claims to avoid linking documentaries which exist solely to defame individuals or organizations, suggesting that this documentary collection may contain fewer sensational works than other similar sites.

Documentaries are parceled into categories, including 9/11 and history. Guests can also run a keyword search if there are seeking films on a specific subject.

Watch a series on American art, biographies of Clinton or Ho Chi Minh, or a film on the conquistadors. Opportunities for classroom use abound if educators are willing to put in the time to determine if a particular film has merit and is appropriate for their students and subject.

Documentary Heaven

Image
Photo, Documentary Challenge, 26 April 2004, guttersnipe.76, Flickr
Annotation

Documentary Heaven collects free-to-view documentaries from around the web. While making a wide variety of content available in one location, it should be noted that quality may vary widely. Documentary Heaven supports independent documentary makers. As a result, linked videos may or may not provide trustworthy information, and some cover topics or have collected user comments which may be considered inappropriate. Educators should decide on the merit of a particular film after previewing it personally.

A natural inclination is to jump to the history section. However, this section is devoted to all of history, so you will have to comb through to find U.S. history topics. The only section uniquely devoted to U.S. history is the 9/11 category. Further browsing issues arise as it becomes apparent that, for example, the biographical documentary of a deceased artist may be located within both the artist and biography categories, but not the history category, although the artist is undoubtedly part of history.

These detriments aside, the site provides access to a wide variety of films and topics. Consider simply reading through the site's list of titles rather than browsing category by category. If you are willing to invest time to locate topics of interest or if you know a precise topic that you wish to search, the site holds great potential.