Medicine in the Americas, 1619-1914

Image
Logo, Medicine in the Americas 1610-1914: a Digital Library
Annotation

This small "digital library" offers a collection of eight historical medical books related to the development of medicine in the U.S. PDF files of the original documents are accompanied by a transcription and a brief description. Additionally, most of the documents have a link to a "historical note" with a more detailed description of the document. The text of the documents is searchable. The eight medical works are Clara Barton's 1878 pamphlet on the Red Cross; Thomas N. Chase's 1903 Atlanta University conference report on the mortality of African Americans in cities; Benjamin Coleman's observations on smallpox inoculation, written during the 1721 Boston smallpox epidemic; an 1825 description by Robert Waln, Jr., of the Friends Asylum near Philadelphia, the first private hospital in the United States entirely dedicated to the treatment of mental illness; William T. G. Morton's 1847 work on producing anesthesia by the inhalation of sulphuric ether; L. Emmett Holt's 1894 book on the care and feeding of children; Benjamin Rush's 1808 pamphlet on medical care for U.S. Army soldiers; and the text of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act that led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.

Encyclopedia of Chicago, Historical Sources

Image
Photo, Children standing in front. . . , 1917, Encyclopedia of Chicago
Annotation

This archive brings together more than 1,300 images on a wide array of topics related to Chicago, its people, and its culture. The material in the collection spans both the 19th and 20th centuries and includes photographs, advertisements, broadsides, maps, letters, newspaper articles, illustrations, and engravings. The photographs include aerial views of the Chicago cityscape, Chicago places, Chicago industries and workers performing their trades, historic photographs, Chicago events, and photographs of Chicago's people. The more than 100 maps can be browsed separately. Each item is cross-referenced to related items in the collection and many of the images are accompanied by explanatory text. The images can be enlarged and there are features for rotation and magnification.

Additionally, the site offers interpretive essays on the Plan of Chicago of 1909, "one of the most noted documents in the history of city planning" and the importance of water in Chicago's history. Other special features are a biographical dictionary, a dictionary of leading Chicago businesses from 1820-2000, and a presentation on how Chicagoans remember their history with images and brief interpretations. In addition, the entire contents of Encyclopedia of Chicago can be searched. A useful resource on the history of Chicago or urban history.

Turning Points in Wisconsin History

Image
Photo, Arthur M. Vinje, April 4, 1947
Annotation

This website allows visitors to explore the history of Wisconsin through essays, primary source documents, lesson plans, and maps. The main feature is 53 presentations grouped under 10 overall topics: early native peoples; early explorers, traders, and settlers; territory to statehood; immigration and settlement; Civil War era; mining, lumber, and agriculture; Progressive Era; 20th-century wars and conflicts; prosperity, depression, industrialization, and urbanization; and response to 20th-century change. Each topic offers four or more presentations with a short introductory essay; primary sources available on the site; primary sources available elsewhere; and related links.

Documents available on the site include more than 140 books, tracts, pamphlets, or papers; more than 100 images; more than 260 articles; and more than 35 manuscripts. The site also offers 95 reference maps. There are more than 45 elementary and 36 secondary lesson plans searchable by keyword, grade level, and/or topic. The advanced search allows visitors to search by fields such as agriculture, intellectual life, and politics; or by keyword, education level, topic, presentation, or type of document. Additionally, there is a tutorial on using primary documents. This website is a good starting point for teaching or researching Wisconsin or the mid-Western region.

Walt Whitman Archive

Image
Photo, Walt Whitman with Harry Stafford, Morand, c. 1878, Walt. .  site
Annotation

This site presents the work of one of America's most influential poets, bringing together the various editions of Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, as well as Whitman's notebooks, poetry manuscripts, prose essays, letters, and journal articles. It also makes available the introductions to each edition of Leaves of Grass, an extended biography of Whitman with links to short essays about Whitman's friends and historical events, and a chronology of Whitman's life from 1819 to 1892. All known contemporary reviews of the poet's work are available as well.

An image gallery contains 129 photos of Whitman from the 1840s through the 1890s. The site's searchable bibliography offers more than 200 books, essays, notes, and reviews about Whitman. Additionally, links are provided to Whitman's recently recovered notebooks from the 1850s and 1860s housed at the Library of Congress. A 36-second wax cylinder recording provides what is thought to be Whitman's voice reading four lines from the poem "America." A guide to Whitman's poetry manuscripts and a finding aid for Whitman manuscripts at individual repositories are also included. A teaching syllabus on Dickinson, Whitman, and American culture is available. An excellent resource for any scholar interested in Walt Whitman or his poetry.

Literature and Culture of the American 1950s

Image
Image for Literature and Culture of the American 1950s
Annotation

This collection of more than 100 primary texts, essays, biographical sketches, obituaries, book reviews, and partially annotated links explores the cultural, intellectual, and political trends of the 1950s. Organized alphabetically and according to lesson plans, this eclectic collection of readings is structured around a few landmark texts and topics, including McCarthyism and anticommunism, Daniel Bell's The End of Ideology (1960), William H. Whyte's The Organization Man (1956), feminism, Philip Rieff's The Triumph of the Therapeutic (1966), and conformity in universities.

Materials include substantial excerpts from Vance Packard's The Status Seekers (1959) and the Encyclopedia of the American Left, in addition to retrospective analyses of the postwar period.

Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls

Image
Image for Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls
Annotation

More than 2,300 covers of American "dime novels," and their British counterparts, the "penny dreadfuls," are available on this website. In addition, the full text of nine books and a series entitled Secret Service (1899–1912) are available.

The site offers "guided tours" with images and essays of approximately 1,500 words on print processes and dime novel covers. The full-text selections include stories featuring such heroes as Nick Carter, Buffalo Bill, Jesse James, Deadwood Dick, Fred Fearnot, and Calamity Jane. A full-text search is available only for those affiliated with Stanford University.

The site provides basic information on each title and indexes books according to subject, genre, setting, intended audience age and gender, and type of graphic material. Subject indexing of cover iconography is especially valuable. Listings are organized according to depictions of ethnicity/nationality, occupation, types of places, types of sports and recreations, types of violence, and types of gestures and actions classified according to gender of character portrayed.

France in America

Image
Image for France in America
Annotation

This bilingual website (English and French) explores the history of the French presence in North America from the early 16th century to the end of the 19th century through more than 360 manuscripts, books, maps, and other documents. Each thematic presentation—"Exploration and Knowledge," "The Colonies," "Franco-Indian Alliances," "Imperial Struggles," and "The French and North America after the Treaty of Paris"—includes a title exhibit and additional exhibits that highlight particular items in the collection. Materials can also be browsed in the collections section.

A timeline (1515–1804) organizes events in French America by explorations, colonization and development, and conflicts and diplomacy, and places them in the context of events in France. Additionally, there are eight descriptive maps that show various Indian groups in contact with the French and the changes in political boundaries in North America from before 1763 to the era of the Louisiana Purchase.

American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920

Image
Image, American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920
Annotation

This collection documents the development of vaudeville and other popular entertainment forms from the 1870s to the 1920s. Materials include 334 English and Yiddish playscripts and 146 theater programs and playbills. Sixty-one motion pictures range from animal acts to dance to dramatic sketches. Ten sound recordings feature comic skits, popular music, and a dramatic monologue.

The website also features 143 photos and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of magician Harry Houdini and an essay with links to specific items entitled "Houdini: A Biographical Chronology." Search by keyword or browse the subject and author indexes. The site is linked to the Library of Congress Exhibition Bob Hope and American Variety", that charts the persistence of a vaudeville tradition in later entertainment forms.

Making of America

Image
Image for Making of America
Annotation

Also see the Cornell University branch of the project here.

Together, these two websites provide more than 1.5 million pages of text in a collaborative effort to digitize more than 11,000 volumes and 100,000 journal articles from the 19th century. The websites present full-text access to 32 journals, including literary and political magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The list includes specialized journals as well, such as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, Ladies Repository, and the American Missionary. The websites also offer an abundance of novels and monographs.

A recent addition provides 249 volumes on New York City, some from the early 20th century. At present, the two collections remain separate and must be searched individually. The institutions plan to integrate their sites, however, and to include material from other major research libraries. Access to many "Making of America" texts is also available through the Library of Congress American Memory site, "The Nineteenth Century in Print".

American Transcendentalism Web

Image
Image for American Transcendentalism Web
Annotation

This comprehensive collection presents texts by and about the major figures of American Transcendentalism, a New England intellectual movement that began in the mid-1830s and lasted into the late 1840s. The movement has had a much longer legacy, however, in American literature, philosophy, religion, and political and social reform. Some materials are available on the website; others are provided through links.

Eleven major authors are featured—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Dr. William Ellery Channing, his son William Ellery Channing, Theodore Parker, Amos Bronson Alcott, Jones Very, Christopher Cranch, Orestes Brownson, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Texts are also retrievable according to themes and genre. Resources include more than 100 selections from The Dial, a journal created by the Transcendentalist Club in 1840 that lasted for four years, and informative essays that provide an historic overview.