Korean American Digital Archive

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Thousands of primary materials, including documents compiled by Korean American organizations, personal papers, more than 1,900 photographs, and around 180 interviews, address the experiences of Koreans in the United States between 1903 and 1965 on this website. The materials run the gamut from organizational memos and other official documents to personal letters, wedding programs, birth certificates, and social security check stubs.

This material allows users to piece together the life histories of individual Korean Americans. They will find individuals like Soon Hyun, an activist in the Korean resistance movement against Japanese colonialism in 1919, who later moved to the United States and became a minister in Hawaii. Or Florence Ahn, a Korean American who became a prominent singer in Los Angeles. These personal biographies, in turn, allow users to examine the human dimension of the history of Asian Americans, and place individuals within a larger history.

Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996

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This colorful Library of Congress American Memory site brings together selected items from two American Folklife collections, the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection and the "All American Quilt Contest" series, sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine and Coming Home, a division of the direct mail retailer Land's End.

The Blue Ridge Collection consists of 229 photographs and 181 interviews recorded in 1978 with six Virginia and North Carolina quiltmakers. These items illustrate the art of quiltmaking within the context of daily life in Appalachia. The Quilt Contest materials, from contests held in 1992, 1994, and 1996, include images of approximately 180 prize-winning quilts from across the U.S. The quilts represent a wide variety of styles, traditions, and materials used in the practice of the craft.

The exhibit is divided into three sections. Speaking of Quilts offers an essay (2,000 words) on the making of these two collections and the tradition of quiltmaking. Blue Ridge Quilts features the audio files of interviews and photographs of the six Appalachian quilters practicing their craft, along with a 500-word biography of each featured quiltmaker. Each audio clip is accompanied by brief (150-word) descriptive notes. The Quilt Contest section includes a roughly 2,000-word essay describing the contests and featuring a gallery of images of 180 prizewinning quilts.

The site offers a handy glossary of more than 50 terms and a selected bibliography of approximately 60 monographs and periodicals related to the history and craft of quiltmaking. It can be searched by keyword and browsed by quiltmakers and subjects. This beautiful site is useful for students researching American and Appalachian culture, not to mention those who simply love the art of quiltmaking.

Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns

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A companion for Jazz, the PBS documentary series, this site explores the origins and evolution of a distinctively American form of music.

The site is divided into three main sections. Places, Spaces, and Changing Faces offers information on some of the cities and clubs that contributed to the growth of jazz, from New York's Savoy Ballroom to New Orleans' Anderson's Annex. Jazz Lounge outlines basic musical features and characteristics of jazz rhythm and melody and describes seven major strains of jazz from New Orleans to Bebop. Jazz in Time features a generally chronological history of the changes in jazz from antebellum America through the Jim Crow period, the Depression, World War II, the sixties, and beyond and also provides a link to a history of women in jazz. Another link offers over 100 biographies of musicians.

Each entry includes a roughly 500-word essay that outlines the historical background, major figures in the shaping of jazz, and specific characteristics of the music in that section. The site contains close to 100 audio clips of music and interviews with historians and musicians who appeared in the documentary. About 20 of the interviews are also transcribed.

A virtual piano in the "Jazz Lounge" provides an interactive opportunity to learn about and practice basic jazz techniques. There is also a section about the making of the documentary that includes information on the show's producer, Ken Burns. This site is ideal for researching American cultural history and the history of American music.

Oneida Indian Nation: Culture and History

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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.

WTO History Project

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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.

University of California History Digital Archives

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Still under construction, this site is dedicated to the history of the University of California, from its beginning as a land-grant university in 1868 to it current position as a multi-campus institution. It includes a 6,000-word essay on the founding and development of the college, as well as an interview with David Gardner, a former president of the university. The site also features several online exhibits, including The University at the Turn of the Century: 1899-2000. The strength of the site, though, is its collection of primary sources. Included are more than 70 oral histories by former administrators, politicians, students, and faculty, discussing their recollections. The site presents approximately 50 primary documents, including the 1868 act that established the school, and about 12 secondary sources. A detailed bibliography lists more than 100 books about the University of California. Students and teachers, as well as researchers, will find these resources invaluable, especially once when completed.

The Vietnam Project

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This site presents nearly 1 million pages of Vietnam War-related research materials. It includes the full text of more than 80,000 documents, 60,000 photos and slides, hundreds of interviews with veterans and other participants, streaming audio and video recordings, and much more. The more than 685,000 pages of documents include official government and military records, unit and operation action reports, unit rosters, staff journals and morning reports, personal letters, and diaries. The collection grows by some 20,000 pages of new material each month.

Visitors may find useful the Acronym Database (to help with those mysterious and persistent military acronyms). The search engine has been recently updated, and no longer supports simple searches; all searches are advanced. The archive limits the number of users at any one time, due to licensing issues, so the site may be unavailable during times of heavy use.

Convenient, powerful, and massive, this site is invaluable for research into Vietnam units, individuals, and operations.

What Exit? New Jersey and Its Turnpike

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This site uses about 45 sources to document the planning and construction of the New Jersey Turnpike, opened after two years of construction in 1952.

Building It contains a 1,000-word history of the turnpike's construction, as well as eight primary documents from the planning stages of the highway, including an early map of the proposed route. A dozen promotional documents (pamphlets, public announcements, bond solicitations) and newspaper coverage are also available as is a narrative account of tensions in Elizabeth, NJ, where more than 200 citizens were displaced to build the highway.

Driving It includes 10 accounts from many of the first to drive along the turnpike, advertisements from Howard Johnson's and other turnpike concessionaires, and an excerpt from a 1950s film on highway safety.

Telling It features 16 primary sources, 10 driver stories, and accounts from toll collectors, as well as the story of the first highway worker to lose his life on duty in 1967.

Three Detour sections allow visitors a little diversion with short activities: visitors can match up song lyrics that mention the turnpike with the artists who wrote them (Bruce Springsteen and Simon and Garfunkel are included).

For teachers, the site includes an annotated bibliography of works for various age groups.

TUPPERWARE!

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This site explores the invention and rise of Tupperware products in the 1950s, as well as its impact on women's issues, and its connection to the 20th-century consumer culture revolution. The site focuses on Earl Tupper, the inventor of Tupperware, and Brownie Wise, the woman who created the Tupperware party concept and built a Tupperware empire. Included are short (500-word) biographies of each.

In the Gallery, visitors can see 12 of Tupper's invention notebooks to examine some of his inventions that were not as successful as Tupperware, like his no-drip ice cream cone and his necktie shaper.

The Teacher's Guide offers two learning activities in each of four academic areas: civics, economics, geography, and history. A timeline spans from the 1850s to 2003 and includes events such as the invention of plastic.

Primary Sources includes transcripts of interviews with Tupper and Wise, six video clips from the late 1950s and early 1960s (documenting the annual Tupperware Homecoming Jubilees, which were large gatherings of Tupperware dealers), as well as excerpts from the first Tupperware handbook. Also included are six documents, including a 1960s training manual, How to Sell Tupperware, and a collection of Wise's Aphorisms.

Visitors can share their experiences with Tupperware, either as consumers or as Tupperware dealers, in the Share Your Story section.

Finally, the site features an interview with a noted historian of women's issues who discusses the realities of married women's employment in the 1950s, as well as the impact Tupperware had on women's opportunities.

Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories

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This site captures the recollections of 23 former slaves, born between 1823 and the early 1860s. Several of the people interviewed were more than 100 years old. In the recordings, subjects discuss their entire lives, not just their lives as slaves, but they provide an important glimpse of what life was like for slaves and freedmen. They discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, how slaves were coerced, their families, and, of course, freedom.

Each of the 23 subjects' testimony is presented in four formats: Real Audio sound, MP3, Windows WAV, and transcription. Many of the subjects sang as part of their testimony; those songs are collected here, as well.

Visitors should not miss the Faces and Voices from the Presentation section, where photographs and short biographies are posted for seven of the subjects. The father and grandfather of one of the subjects, George Johnson, were owned by Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Johnson shares his recollections of Davis.

This site contains extraordinary primary sources, and is a tremendous resource for research into slavery and Reconstruction.