Noteworthy World Wide Web Sites

This is not a comprehensive guide to history sites on the Internet, but merely our attempt to highlight some the history-related Web sites our staff and readers have found to be interesting, informative, or especially innovative. If you have a site you believe should be noted in future issues, please let us know—and tell us why you think it stands out from others.  

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Free Speech Movement: Student Protest - U.C. Berkeley, 1964-65
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/BANC/FSM/

A fine site for students and teachers looking for resources on the 1960s. Includes finding aids to relevant research collections, searchable oral history transcripts online, documents, video and sound recordings, bibliographies, and more. A co-operative project between The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley and the Free Speech Movement Archives. Installed 1998, updated regularly.

The Emma Goldman Papers
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/

Emma Goldman was an advocate of free speech, birth control, women's equality and independence, unionization, pacifism, and socialism. This Web site is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Emma Goldman or what she stood for. It features selections from the printed guide to the 69-reel microfilm collection of Goldman's papers—including introductory, biographical and bibliographical essays, indexes to the collection contents, and a detailed chronology. Most interesting is the on-line exhibition, which includes excerpts from the Emma Goldman Papers Traveling Exhibition and is filled with pictures, brief descriptions of Emma Goldman's life and achievements, transcripts of (and in some cases, digitized images of the original) select articles and letters. The site also includes a short movie clip of Goldman in a Hearst Metrotone Newsreel shot in 1934. Other key features include selections from Goldman's writings, newspaper and third-party accounts, published essays and pamphlets, and some of her inspiring speeches.

History of American Education Web Project
http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfrnb/index.html

Compiled by undergraduate students from Eastern Illinois University, this Web site offers (somewhat rudimentary) reports on the history of American education. Topics include European influences on education, colonial, early national, common school, progressive, and modern periods of American education. Images are often included with text and links to other history of education sites are provided. This site is a good introduction to the field.

We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/

Listing 42 historic sites for their association with the modern civil rights movement (many of which are listed with the National Register), this project is sponsored by the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. Viewers can read about each of the sites on the travel itinerary (such as the Brown Chapel AME Church, the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail, or the Ida B. Wells-Barnett house) in detail, complete with photographs. Viewers can also use an interactive map to locate a state or city, or link to related resources such as a historical bibliography or other civil rights movement resources on the Web.

Journal of the Association for History and Computing
http://mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/JAHCindex.HTM

Sponsored by the American Association for History and Computing, the Journal of the Association for History and Computing "aspires to promote and develop interest in the use of computers in all types of historical study at every level, in both teaching and research." Besides offering articles on various aspects of history and computer technology, the journal also offers reviews of Web sites, other electronic journals, print resources and applications/programs.

Child Labor in America, 1908-1912: Photographs of Lewis W. Hine
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor

This commercial site (free access, but plenty of advertising) presents some of the most famous photographs of Lewis W. Hine—taken between 1908 and 1912—documenting the exploitation of children in early 20th century industrial America. Hine (1874-1940) is one of the founders of modern documentary photography and the photographs showcased at this site illustrate why his reputation is so immense; they are powerful and moving, and beautifully reproduced here with stunning clarity and contrast. Along with the photographs which contain Hine's original captions, there is a short essay about the photographer, as well as the history of child labor in the United States.

Africa: South of the Sahara. Selected historical sites
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/history.html

This site is a compiled "URLogy" of historical sites about Africa, with short descriptions identifying each link. It is an extremely useful database with hundreds of links covering a broad spectrum of African history and resources—a great resource to jump into research on African history or current events.

World War II Resources: Primary source materials on the Web
http://metalab.unc.edu/pha/
This site is devoted to primary source materials pertaining to all aspects of World War II—including French, German, British, and American involvement. More than 1,000 internal links; documents may be downloaded for off-site viewing.

The Handbook of Texas Online: A multidisciplinary encyclopedia
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online
This online encyclopedia of Texas history, geography and culture, contains more than 23,000 articles on people, places, events, and history. The search function is self-explanatory and complete, but it helps to know specific names or key words. The Handbook of Texas Online is a joint project of The General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association.

Harappa
http://www.harappa.com

A truly multimedia site with over 1,000 pages to explore, this site has two goals. The first is to bring the history of one of the world's first cities, ancient Harappa, to the Web. Harappa lies in the Indus Valley; it was part of a civilization that flourished around 2,500 B.C. in the western part of South Asia, in what today is Pakistan and western India. The other half of the site deals with later South Asian history, the Raj, by presenting engravings, lithographs, photographs and film.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-present
http://bioguide.congress.gov

This Web site features short biographies (with bibliographies) of each member of Congress from 1774 to the present. However, without the full name (excluding nicknames) of a particular member of Congress, the search function will not retrieve the requested information. When searching for Teddy Roosevelt, the full name, Theodore, must be entered; the search engine will not recognize "Teddy." Additional information including congressional history and a list of current members of Congress with their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, current legislation, bills, and committees assignments is also available at the site.

SCRAN: Searchable Archive of Scotland's History and Culture
http://www.scran.ac.uk/

This Web site is a great resource for the study of Scottish material culture and history. It includes items and documents from a variety of museums, galleries, archives, and universities. Among the resources is a gallery of over 1,000 photographs, a history of churches in Scotland, and reproductions of advertisements for women during World War II. The site is part of the ongoing "National Grid for Learning," and includes special resources for educators  

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Noteworthy World Wide Web Sites 
Copyright © 1999 by The Journal for MultiMedia History


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