The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) serves as a portal to the digital collections of more then 40 state, regional, and online-only libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural institutions. Created to strengthen access to public resources and to "create novel environments for learning, tools for discovery, and engaging apps," the DPLA is an invaluable first stop for teachers and students looking for primary sources, particularly regional history sources.

Visitors to the website can search the more than 4,500,000 objects in the collections of participating institutions using keywords, returning results they can filter by format, owning institution, partner, date, language, location, and subject. Clicking on an object brings up detailed metadata, including creator, date of creation, and a description of the object, as well as a link to its original location online. Visitors who create a free account can save their search results, make them private or public, and share them via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

Visitors can also browse objects on a map or timeline—a fantastic way to prompt thinking about how primary sources are located in time and space. The timeline stretches from 1000 BCE to the present. (Note that zooming into the map returns finer results.) In addition, more than eight virtual exhibits demonstrate how DPLA sources can be curated to tell stories about themes and events.

The DPLA's API (application programming interface) allows visitors with the know-how to create apps drawing on the DPLA's collections. An eclectic set of more than 10 apps lets visitors browse DPLA's search results as a "river of images," discover primary sources related to their Zotero bibliographies, and more.

A fantastic starting point for anyone looking for primary sources, teachers can feel confident pointing students towards the DPLA to begin research projects or turning to the DPLA themselves to find resources to support lesson plans.

Internment experiences of Americans and Canadians of Japanese heritage in the Northwest during World War II are documented in this site, which features an exhibit that "tells the story of Seattle's Japanese American community in the spring and summer of 1942 and their four month sojourn at the Puyallup Assembly Center known as 'Camp Harmony.'" The internment camp section furnishes nearly 150 primary documents--including 12 issues of the "Camp Harmony Newsletter," 16 government documents, ten letters, 39 photographs, 24 drawings, a scrapbook, 20 newspaper clippings, and a 7,500-word chapter from the book Nisei Daughter that describes camp life. The site also provides archival guides and inventories for 21 University of Washington Library manuscript holdings relating to the internment and for 21 related collections; a 46-title bibliography for further reading; and additional information and documents related to Japanese Canadian internment. Valuable for those studying the wartime experiences and culture of interned Japanese Americans.

This archive offers a collection of more than 900,000 photographs, maps, letters, documents, books, artifacts, and other items relating to all aspects of Texas history, from prehistory through the 20th century. Subjects include agriculture, arts and crafts, education, immigration, military and war, places, science and technology, sports and recreation, architecture, business and economics, government and law, literature, people, religion, social life and customs, and the Texas landscape and nature. Some subjects include sub-categories. For instance, social life and customs, with 694 items, includes 13 sub-categories, such as clothing, families, food and cooking, homes, slavery, and travel. The visitor can also search the collection by keyword.

Resources for educators include seven "primary source adventures," divided into 4th- and 7th-grade levels, with lesson plans, preparatory resources, student worksheets, and PowerPoint slideshows. Subjects of the lessons include Cabeza de Vaca, Hood's Texas Brigade in the Civil War, life in the Civilian Conservation Corps, the journey of Coronado, the Mier Expedition, runaway slaves, the Shelby County Regulator Moderator war, and a comparison of Wichita and Comanche village life. This website offers useful resources for both researching and teaching the history of Texas.

The stated purpose of this website is to provide an overview of World War I. This it does effectively through hundreds of essays, 3,100 encyclopedic entries, 618 biographies, 318 resources on the war's major diplomatic and military events, and a timeline. Primary documents include over 100 diaries and firsthand accounts of soldiers and politicians, 3,900 photographs, 651 propaganda posters, and 155 audio files of songs and speeches. Documents include treaties, reports, correspondence, memoirs, speeches, dispatches, and accounts of battles and sieges.

The site also provides 95 essays on literary figures who wrote about the war. While admittedly a work-in-progress, the site offers much material on the leaders who engaged their countries in war and on the experiences of ordinary soldiers who fought the battles.

Emma Goldman (1869–1940) was a major figure in the radical and feminist movements in the United States prior to her deportation in 1919. This collection of primary resources includes selections from four books by Goldman as well as 18 published essays and pamphlets, four speeches, 49 letters, and five newspaper accounts of Goldman's activities.

There are also nearly 40 photographs, illustrations, and facsimiles of documents. Additional items include two biographical exhibitions, selections from a published guide of documentary sources, and four sample documents from the book edition of her papers. A curriculum for students is designed to aid the study of freedom of expression, women's rights, anti-militarism, and social change. The site offers essays on the project's history and bibliographic references as well as links to other websites.

This website provides free access to a variety of visual materials and "seeks to illustrate the unique role of visual images in American history." Clio is an educational organization developing American history projects with appeal to a wide audience, including students, educators, and researchers. This site aims to not only provide access to a variety of visual historical materials, such as photographs, illustrations, and material objects (namely quilts), but also "to promote visual literacy by exploring the variety of ways that images enhance our understanding of the past and challenge us to hone our interpretive skills."

The website is organized into three main sections. The first, "Visualizing America," includes two collections of modules, titled "Picturing the Past: Illustrated Histories and the American Imagination, 1840–1900," and "Quilts as Visual History." A second section, ”Photography Exhibits," includes three photography collections: one focusing on the work of Frances Benjamin Johnston, another on the work of the Allen Sisters (Mary and Frances Allen), and the Peter Palmquist Gallery. A third section, "Creating History," examines the figure of Lowell Thomas, who became one of America's best known journalists, as well as the media version and reality of Lawrence of Arabia.

An additional section concerning women's history and lives in the 21st century and second half of the 20th century is planned for 2013.

A valuable website to students and researchers alike, it suffers only slightly from a lack of search capabilities.

The 190 works presented on this site—approximately 40,000 written pages and more than 3,000 illustrations—provide eyewitness accounts covering California history from the Gold Rush through the end of the 19th century. Most authors represented are white, educated, male Americans, including reporters detailing Gold Rush incidents and visitors from the 1880s attracted to a highly-publicized romantic vision of California life.

The narratives, in the form of diaries, descriptions, guidebooks, and subsequent reminiscences, portray encounters with those living in California as well as the impact of mining, ranching, and agriculture. Additional topics include urban development, the growth of cities, and California's unique place in American culture. A special presentation recounts early California history, and a discussion of the collection's strengths and weaknesses provides useful context for the first-person accounts.

A work in progress, this site presents the southern Arizona school newspaper, Little Cowpuncher. Created by Anglo and Mexican American ranch children, from kindergarten through 8th grade, between 1932 and 1943 at five neighboring Arizona schools (Redington, Baboquivari, Sasco, San Fernando, and Sopori), the newspapers present the original and unedited stories, poems, and illustrations of students about their community and school life. The site includes a map that identifies the location of the five schools and users may select which newspaper they wish to examine by school and by year.

The newspapers include many stories about holiday celebrations, especially Halloween and Christmas. Also frequently featured are tales of rodeo activities and issues dedicated to graduating classmates. Other local events, such as an outbreak of chicken pox and droughts offer a unique perspective on the students' isolated rural lives.

Although the site is simply designed, middle and high school students and teachers will find that the newspapers present an opportunity to study pioneer Mexican and American ranch families and understand the bilingual and bicultural communities they created in Southern Arizona.