Homepage for Mt. Vernon Estate and Gardens, George Washington's Virginia estate, this site offers valuable sources for researching the life and home of the first U.S. President. An exhibit contains more than 50 images of furniture, art, documents, and other Mount Vernon household objects. Each image is accompanied by a 150-word description of the artifact and its location or significance to the estate. A virtual tour of Mt. Vernon's mansion takes visitors through every room with a photograph and 350-word description of the room and its furnishings. An archaeology section describes digs at eight sites on the estate, a 500-word description of a current excavation of Washington's distillery, and a 1500-word essay on the Mt. Vernon mansion's restoration beginning in 1858. An Educational Resources section offers a fifth-grade lesson plan, complete with trivia about Washington, excerpts from his Rules on Civility, and anecdotes from his military career and presidency; a 2000-word essay on Washington's attitude toward slavery and information on his slaves' lives, including links to a facsimile copy of Washington's 1798 slave census and 18 images of paintings and artifacts depicting the everyday lives of Mt. Vernon's slaves. This site is ideal for researching Washington's life and home, and it could also be useful for those studying material culture and archaeology.

Anytime you write a letter, you use the ZIP code. What is that code, and when did people start using it? More importantly for the postal service, how do you get an entire country's population to memorize and add a seemingly random string of numbers to their addresses?

The answer, in the 1960s, was Mr. Zip, a jaunty cartoon postman, designed to make the new ZIP code cause memorable and approachable.

This website discusses the ways in which Mr. Zip was deployed as an educational and advertising device. The majority of the content consists of an essay divided into smaller, more manageable subpages. However, sprinkled throughout, you'll find Mr. Zip comics; merchandise, such as board games and lunchboxes; promotional materials; PSA videos; a memo; photographs; and postage stamps.

This video describes what each number of the ZIP code represents, which could be a hook if you decide to introduce Mr. ZIP in the classroom. Ultimately, the content is not likely to be of direct use in the classroom but may be of more interest as trivia or to flesh out background knowledge for related lessons.

Provides informative entries on more than 4,000 works of art—more than 500 of which include images—in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. "Conceived of as the nation's museum of modern and contemporary art," the Hirshhorn concentrates on the post-World War II period, with special focus on the past 25 years, though it also owns works by influential modern artists from earlier periods. Searchable according to artist, title, date, nationality, and 30 schools of art. Entries provide short essays of up to 200 words on artists and works. Previous and current exhibits are on display. An "Art Interactive" component explains ways that recent sculptors have used various methods and materials, and invites visitors to design their own creations. Useful for those seeking an introduction to modern and contemporary art history.

Don't let Guam be forgotten in your classroom! After all, it is one of only 16 non-self-governing territories worldwide that are recognized by the UN. As such, leaving Guam out of history is to ignore a rather remarkable political exception.

Guampedia offers a range of short articles on everything from architecture to World War II. These pages also feature relevant photographs and further resource listings. Additional sections offer basic facts on Guam (motto, population, etc.) and its major villages. Be sure to check out the history lesson plans to see if there's any ready-made content appropriate for you to introduce to your classroom.

Additional ways to explore include a selection of media collections including photographs, illustrations, soundbites, and video; MARC Publications, including issues of the Guam Recorder, lectures, and additional e-publications on topics such as archaeology and stonework; and traditional recipes.

A new addition to the Documenting the American South collection, this site focuses on the impact of World War I on the lives of North Carolinians. Drawn from multiple collections at the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries, the digitized text and images are divided thematically into three sections, the "Home Front," "Propaganda and Posters," and "Soldiers' Experience." Each section includes an introductory essay (2,000- to 13,000-words) to provide historical context. "The Home Front," is divided into five subject categories: African Americans, educational institutions, mobilizing resources, patriotism and politics, and women. It concentrates on how North Carolinians responded to the war. The 11 documents on the contributions of African Americans and women to the war effort are especially informative.

"Propaganda Posters" includes 100 U.S. World War I posters distributed in North Carolina, covering topics such as military service and war work. "The Soldiers' Experience," focuses on the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and nurses, in and out of combat, and includes memoirs, unpublished diaries and letters, regimental histories, published biographies, and 17 photographs with descriptive captions. Students will also find 17 artifacts typical of soldiers' equipment—boots, field rations, and "dog tags"—fascinating.

Teachers will appreciate this thematic collection for its effective blend of descriptive text, primary and secondary documents, and historical photographs.

This site offers an online exhibit and an image database of more than 70 historic educational visual aids created for use by schools, libraries, and museums beginning in 1935 by the WPA's (Works Progress Administration) Museum Extension Project. The collection features items such as puppets, toys, architectural models, dioramas, jigsaw puzzles, handbooks and pamphlets, lantern slides, miniature furniture models, prints, and posters. Each item contains information about its size and place of production.

The collection is searchable by item and by state of manufacture and contains materials from Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Suitable for those interested in material culture or government-sponsored education projects.

An exhibit of 20th-century poster art relating to three subjects: commerce, propaganda, and patriotism. Presents approximately 135 posters, arranged into four thematic categories: "American Events"; "Designed to Sell"; "Advice to Americans"; and "Patriotic Persuasion." The selections--which concentrate "on major artists and images that have endured in our collective memory"--include 100-word biographical sketches of artists, short introductions for each category, and other pertinent background information. Special focus is directed to posters on the 1939 World's Fair, the war in Vietnam, the Black Panther movement, the moon landing, the motion picture Vertigo, the poem "Howl," Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" address and Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. Audio files and photographs related to these topics are included. The site also contains a 4,000-word essay by curator Therese Heyman, discussing the history and concept of poster art, notes on the process of production, and a discussion of the impact of posters. A site of particular interest to art historians and scholars of popular culture.

This exhibit from the Library of Congress is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the speech by Secretary of State George Marshall that led to the formation of the Economic Recovery Program [ERP] of United States economic aid to post-World War II Western Europe. The site features more than 30 documents, including photographs and cartoons from the Prints and Photographs Division and photographs, letters, memos, and printed material from the papers of Averell Harriman, the ERP special representative in Europe from 1948 to 1950. These materials, accompanied by brief commentary and a list of key dates, document the origins and effects of this successful international initiative. A useful introduction to the subject.

This site considers which "of the more than 110 million items in the Library of Congress" are considered "treasures." The items in the exhibit are organized into the categories of Memory (History), Reason (Philosophy), and Imagination (Fine Arts), as was the personal library of Thomas Jefferson, which became the core of the Library of Congress.

The exhibit, which offers images of original documents as well as explanatory essays, contains such items as Jefferson's "original rough draft" of the Declaration of Independence, Jedediah Hotchkiss's Civil War maps, Edison's Kinetoscopic record of a sneeze, and Earl Warren's handwritten notes concerning the Miranda decision.