This collection of essays about the history of the U.S. Senate begins with a brief overview (900 words). More than 140 "historical minutes" (300 words) discuss interesting events in the Senate from 1789 to 1980. Events include the caning of Charles Sumner in 1856, the 1914 ban on smoking in the Senate chamber, and a 1935 Huey Long filibuster. The complete texts of 15 oral histories, of 40 to 700 pages, of retired senators and Senate staff members are available and 15 others may be ordered. The oral histories cover 1910 to 1984 and deal with a wide range of issues, including the desegregation of the staff, the McCarthy hearings, preparations to impeach Nixon, rhetorical rules of debate, and the impact of computers on the work of the senate. Staff members include pages, the Sergeant at Arms, aides, administrative assistants, and the first African-American Government Documents Clerk. A collection of 26 essays (500 to 3000 words) discuss Senate procedure, leadership, officers of the Senate, and general information, such as the development of the oath of office. Other essays include 2,400 words on the president pro-tempore and a 1,300 word essay on the 1959 committee, chaired by John F. Kennedy, that designated the five most outstanding senators in American history.

The site also includes a section of frequently asked questions about the Senate and links to a directory that provides a 150-word biography of every senator and vice president as well as many congress people and staff members. Statistics about majority and minority leaders and the practice of switching parties are also provided. The minutes of Senate Republican Conferences from 1911 to 1964 and Senate Democratic Conferences from 1903 to 1964 are available in their entirety. Visitors may also read the full texts of eight lectures given by statesmen, such as George Bush and Senator Robert C. Byrd as part of the Leaders Lectures series established in 1988 by Trent Lott. The site is easy to navigate and will be useful for research in the history of American political institutions.

This sound archive, maintained by radio enthusiast Kim Scarborough, features acclaimed radio drama adaptations, broadcast between July and December 1938, from Mercury Theater. Mercury Theater on the Air, a New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman, is most famous for its "War of the Worlds" broadcast of October 30, 1938, when its fictional news account of an invasion from Mars caused a national panic. In December 1938, the program found a sponsor in Campbell Soup and was renamed the Campbell Playhouse. This collection includes all surviving Mercury Theater broadcasts, five episodes of Campbell Playhouse, and a seven-part radio series "Les Miserables" produced by Orson Welles and featuring Mercury Theater players. A brief history of the Mercury Theatre and complete show listings provide context for the broadcasts.

This site incorporates 679 excerpts from original sound recordings and more than 1200 photographs from the Library of Congress American Folklife Center's Coal River Folklife Project (1992-1999). These materials document traditional uses of mountains in southern West Virginia's Big Coal River Valley as common land for hunting, gardening, mining, and timbering. It includes interviews on native forest species, traditional harvesting, storytelling, river baptisms, and other special occasions celebrated in the valley's commons. Forty brief (approximately 500-word) interpretive texts outline the social, historical, economic, and cultural contexts of community life in the valley; eight maps and more than 150 photographs illustrate these community activities. Captions (roughly 25-word) describe the more than 1200 images contained on the site, which is keyword searchable and browsable by subject, geographic location, photograph title, and audio title. This site would be of interest to those researching rural American life and folkways.

This site contains transcripts, audio recordings, and edited stories from interviews, conducted in the spring of 1998 by sophomores at South Kingstown High School, with 31 Rhode Islanders about their recollections of the year 1968. These narratives, including references to the Vietnam War, Civil Rights movement, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, as well as personal memories, are a living history of one of the most tumultuous years in United States history. The project includes a glossary, timeline, and bibliography of reference, as well as notes from the project coordinators about oral history in the classroom.

This exhibit changes daily and includes text, images, and sound or video clips, where appropriate, for each day's event. The material comes from the Library of Congress's American Memory collections. Topics range widely and have included the establishment of Oregon as a state, Stalin's request that the U.S. invade Western Europe, and the Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanemoku's 1911 freestyle record. The site provides links to American Memory collections as well as suggestions for finding more information on the same or related topics. This attractive and well-designed site would be useful for teachers wishing to get students involved in a daily exercise in history or for teachers hoping provide a broad sense of what can count as history.

Listen to tapes of four telephone conversations about the Vietnam War secretly recorded by Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office. Johnson recorded these conversations with Adlai Stevenson, McGeorge Bundy, Richard Russell, and Press Secretary George Reedy in 1964. In his four-minute conversation with Stevenson, Johnson attempts to get the U.N. Ambassador’s opinion on the situation in Vietnam and Laos. Bundy spoke to Johnson for seven minutes about communicating with North Vietnam through Canada. Johnson spoke to Reedy for ten minutes about Dean Rusk’s activities. Johnson spoke with Russell for 26 minutes about his anxieties regarding American involvement in Vietnam. The site offers 30-word descriptions of the conversations and is linked to both the Houghton Mifflin textbook, Challenge of Democracy, and to History and Politics Out Loud, a site created by Jerry Goldman, one of the book’s authors. This site will be useful for research on Johnson, the Vietnam War, and the Presidency.

The ethnically diverse history of Tucson, Arizona is celebrated here in sections on the Hispanic, Native American, African American, Chinese, and Jewish heritage of the area. A 1000-word essay on the Hispanic history of Tucson is complemented by the four histories, from two to 100 pages, of local families. An exhibit of traditional arts in the Mexican American community includes photographs of houses, piñatas, and ten video clips of low-rider cars. Sources on Native Americans include 12 oral histories (300-600 words), about food and culture. The history of African Americans in the Tucson area from the 16th to the 19th century is recounted in an 1,800-word essay. A collection of 22 biographies (120-800 words) and summarized oral histories offer more personal details of African American life in Tucson. The collection of material about Chinese Americans in Tucson includes four biographies (600-1,200 words) and seven video clips of interviews with a Chinese American woman who grew up in Tucson in the 1940s. The journey made by one Jewish family from Russia in the 19th century to Tucson in the 20th is recounted in a 4,700-word illustrated essay. The site will be useful for research in ethnicity and the history of the west.

Produced as a part of a series of articles on black history titled "Through Spokane's Eyes: Moments in Black History," this site is a civil rights oral history project organized around the memories of men and women from Spokane, WA. Visitors can listen to of eight oral history interviews. They include an account by Jerrelene Williamson who compares the civil rights movement in Spokane to events in Alabama. Like most of the interviews, Williamson's dialogue is approximately 10 minutes in length. Emelda and Manuel Brown discuss their experiences with racial prejudice within the context of raising a family in Spokane in the 1960s. Their interview (32 minutes) is the second longest within the collection. Like many others within the project, Clarence Freeman shares his remembrances of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Sam Minnix and Verda Lofton describe the local civil rights demonstrations, and Flip Schulke recounts his experiences as a photographer in the south during the 1960s. His interview includes a discussion of James Meredith's admission into the University of Mississippi and at 45 minutes, is the longest. Alvin Pitmon talks about the desegregation of Arkansas schools and Nancy Nelson sings two civil rights spirituals, "My Lord, What a Morning" and "Let Us Break Bread Together."

A search engine allows users to search interviews by keyword and across database topics. This site will be of great interest to those interested in the history of civil rights in the United States.

Presenting a virtual alternative to the museum in Tucson, this site allows visitors to experience the indigenous cultures of Arizona and the greater southwest. The Online Exhibitions section offers a plethora of digital programs and resources, including Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest, With an Eye on Culture: The Photography of Helga Teiwes, and The Pottery Project: Explore the Arnold and Doris Roland Wall of Pots.

The Paths of Life section features a virtual reality tour of the exhibit that consists of 22 panoramas of the museum space with accompanying text. This presentation enables online visitors to vividly examine the origins, lifestyles, and contemporary lives of 10 Native American Indian tribes from the American Southwest and/or northern Mexico.

The With an Eye on Culture photography exhibit features more than 50 photographs, along with explanatory notes and video footage of interviews with some Native American subjects.

The Pottery Project enables vistors to virtually explore the Arizona State Museum's Wall of Pots. According to the Museum, the primary purpose of this exhibit is to "illustrate continuity and change over nearly two millennia of pottery making in the Southwest." For this reason, the Wall of Pots showcases both protohistoric and contemporary pottery. Visitors can view the collection column by column, and even explore individual shelves.

However, these are just a few examples of the resources complied by the Arizona State Museum. Younger students might enjoy the What Would Frida Wear? section, which allows users to dress a virtual paper doll of the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, in indigenous clothing and read about her life. Interested in more games like this? Pop over to the Explore Culture Online page for informative podcasts, videos, reading lists, and a ton of other engaging activities and useful information.

This website is dedicated to the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, presenting material on his political ideas and his life through three main sections. "The Homestead" includes a 1,000-word introductory essay with six photographs. The richest section, on the history of Coolidge, includes a chronology of his life. An archive of speeches from his time as governor of Massachusetts to his time as President is also available. They consist of 28 early speeches, 20 during his tenure as governor, 11 from him as vice-president, and 31 presidential addresses. Twenty-one essays (800 to 1400 words) include "Coolidge the Victim?" by Hendrik Booraem V and "The Day Harding Died" by Frank Greene. Also available is a compilation of Coolidge quotes arranged alphabetically from "advancement" to "xenophobia." Visitors may access 20 papers presented at a 1998 conference on Coolidge and reprinted in The New England Journal of History. The papers average 1,000 words and include topics such as Coolidge's relationship with the Northampton Irish and his presidential legacy.

Under "Ask the President," visitors could ask Jim Cooke, an actor who has played Coolidge in a one-man play since 1985, questions about the President's life. Today, the archives remain available.