Library

General U.S. History Exploration and Colonization

The American Revolution

The American Civil War Progressive Era and World War I
Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression 1940s and World War II 1950s: McCarthyism, Cold War, and Rock 'N Roll 1960s and Vietnam 1970s: Watergate, Disco, and Pet Rocks
1980s and 1990s: Reaganomics,  PCs, and Grunge

 

General U.S. History

Spartacus Online Encyclopaedia of US History - free historical encyclopaedia

National Museum of American History - features online exhibits from the Smithsonian Intuition's American History Museum.

American Studies Web - the largest bibliography of web-based resources in the field of American Studies. Contains information on a wide variety of topics including immigration, current events, folklore, politics, and war

Digital History - developed through a partnership between top universities, historical societies, and the National Parks Service, this site offers an online encyclopedia, virtual exhibitions, and primary source documents

National Heritage Academies' History Interactive - organized in a timeline, this site offers live streaming video, pictures, and documents

HistoryWired - is an experimental program through which you can take a virtual tour of selected objects from the vast collections of the National Museum of American History. Here you'll have an opportunity to look at hundreds of museum artifacts, most of which are not currently on exhibit.

Smithsonian Education - made just for students, this website has online interactive games, trivia quizzes, and activities

Imperial War Museum - online exhibits and information from one of England's best museums

Eyewitness to History - features first hand accounts of people who were present at historic events from ancient times to present

America's Story - produced by the Library of Congress, this site offers timelines and articles about key events in American History

American Cultural History - prepared by the reference department at Kingwood College, this site gives information on art, music, film, and fashion for each decade of the Twentieth Century

 

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Exploration and Colonization

1492: An Ongoing Voyage - an online exhibit from the Library of Congress that examines the cultural impact of Columbus' discovery

Discoverers' Web - links to pages on discoverers and explorers

BBC's History of Exploration - powered by the British Broadcasting Corporation, this site features interactive maps, online tours, and thematic essays on exploration from ancient times to present day

Medieval Sourcebook- Extracts from Columbus' Journals - part of a project from Fordham University, this site contains documents from Columbus' journal from his 1492 voyage.

Sir Francis Drake - essays and biographical information on the famous English explorer

First Nations -  links to various sites that give detailed information on Native American tribes

Lewis & Clark - produced by PBS, this site serves as a companion piece to the Ken Burns Film

Rivers, Edens, and Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing of America - an online exhibit from the Library of Congress

Mayflower Web - information on passengers of the Mayflower, digitized primary source documents, and a detailed history of the ship and its voyage

Jamestown Rediscovery Web - official site of the Jamestown of the restored Jamestown settlement featuring online exhibits, essays, and passenger lists

Virtual Tour of Plymouth Plantation - an online exhibit of the restored Pilgrim settlement

13 Originals - Contains links to colonial maps and charters, plus essays regarding each of the original 13 colonies

Archive of Early America - features digitized documents, letters, and newspapers from colonial times, plus short movies

Colonial Williamsburg - the official site of the restored 18th century colonial Virginia capitol

You Be the Historian - an interactive tour of everyday life in colonial America, created by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

 

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The American Revolution

The History Place: American Revolution - timelines, biographies, and a synopsis of key events

The American Revolution and Its Era - created by the Library of Congress, this site offers maps and charts of the war

Multi-educator's American Revolution - and interactive timeline of key events of the war

PBS Liberty! - companion piece to the PBS series, this site features timelines, resources, daily life, military point-of-views and a revolutionary war game

Little Known Facts About the American Revolution - compiled by the state of Delaware

National Parks Service: American Revolution - tour Revolutionary War sites online

Spy Letters - An online exhibit from the University of Michigan featuring digitized letters from Revolutionary spies

 

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The American Civil War

The American Civil War Homepage - compiled by a professor at the University of Tennessee, this site gathers together in one place hypertext links to the most useful identified electronic files about the American Civil War

The Valley of the Shadow: The Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginia - interweaves the histories of two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon line during the era of the American Civil War

The Museum of the Confederacy - features online exhibits focusing on Southern involvement in the war

The Civil War - produced by PBS, this site serves as a companion piece to the Ken Burns Film

Index of Civil War Information - created by the United States Civil War Center, this is an extensive indexing of websites pertaining to the war

Camp Life - created by the National Parks Service, this online exhibit shows what army life was like for both Confederate and Federal troops

Battle Summaries - produced by the National Parks Service, this site provides very brief overviews of battles

Poetry and Music of the War Between the States - this site features full text poetry from both Union and Confederate soldiers, plus MIDI files and lyrics of wartime songs

Virginia Center for Civil War Studies - from Virginia Polytechnic and State University, this site has a wealth of information on the Civil War

Civil War@Smithsonian - produced by the National Portrait Gallery, this site dedicated to examining the Civil War through the Smithsonian Institution's extensive collections

 

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Progressive Era and World War I

Triangle Factory Fire - online exhibit from Cornell University

Evolution of the Conservation Movement - the Library of Congress presents this online exhibit that traces the origins of conservation in the U.S.

Women's Suffrage - collection of primary documents on the Suffrage Movement from SUNY Binghamton

BBC School World War I - read and listen to stories of the War from the people who lived it. Explore diaries, letters, scrapbooks, newspaper cuttings, photos and keepsakes. Also features games and activities.

No Man's Land: The Wartime Paintings of Mary Ritter Hamilton - features wartime artwork from an acclaimed artist who created over 300 paintings of battlefields

The Doughboy Center - from the Great War Society, this site offers information on army life during the war

Trenches on the Web - a comprehensive reference library containing information on the World War I era

Doughboy Hit Parade - this site features popular music from the Great War

 

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Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression

Puritans to Prohibition - this site gives interesting facts about the history of alcohol consumption in the U.S.

Flapper Culture and Style - this site gives the history of Flappers and includes many photographs and cartoons

Sacco and Vanzetti - created by Court TV, this site give a detailed account of the famous trial and includes primary documents, a trial transcript and multimedia tools

Jazz - created by PBS, this is the companion site to the Ken Burn's film - read biographies on famous singer/songwriters or listen to sound files

New Deal Network - an educational guide to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The New Deal Network is sponsored by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College/Columbia University.

America in the 1930s - organized like a newspaper, this site offers information regarding world events, culture, and daily life during the 1930s. 

The American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl - from the PBS series, this site offers first hand accounts from people who lived through the Depression in the Southern Plains.

Great Depression Photographs - online index from the Library of Congress of thousands of black and white or color photographs taken during the 1930s.

 

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1940s and World War II

Museum of World War II - online exhibits featuring artifacts, primary documents, and photographs

A People At War - online exhibit from the National Archives

BBC's History of World War II - a wealth of information on the war from the British Broadcasting Corporation, this site offers timelines, biographies, and a multimedia gallery
Museum of the Holocaust - online exhibits, photo galleries, and eyewitness accounts

Cybrary of the Holocaust - research materials, primary documents, and photographs

Topaz Museum - online exhibits that tell the story of the Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII

American Big Band Database - information on famous bands and bandleaders of the the Swing Era
Songs of World War II - listen to WAV files of famous songs from the 1940s

Baseball Enlists - online exhibit from the National Baseball Hall of Fame 

 

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1950s: McCarthyism, Cold War, and Rock 'N Roll

Cold War Museum - online exhibits that examine the 30+ year standoff between the U.S. and the USSR

Fifties Web - fashion and fads from the fabulous fifties

HUAC and Hollywood - examines the Second Red Scare and its effects on the Entertainment Industry

McCarthyism - online encyclopaedia article that describes the persecution of suspected communists lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy

Rave On - explore the roots of Rock and Roll music through this online exhibit from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

 

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1960s and Vietnam

Battlefield Vietnam - created by PBS, this site gives a brief history of the war

National Civil Rights Museum - online exhibits, information, and activities

MLK Page - created by the Political Science department of Western Michigan University, this site offers an annotated timeline of the Civil Rights Movement

American Cultural History 1960-1969 - created by the Kingwood College Library, this site give information on the music, fashion, and entertainment of the Sixties

Apollo 11 - a NASA website that describes the first mission to land on the Moon - this site has pictures, sound clips and film from the mission. 

I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era - an online exhibit from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

 

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1970s: Watergate, Disco, and Pet Rocks

Revisiting Watergate - from the paper that cracked the scandal, The Washington Post has designed a multimedia look at Watergate

Disco Step By Step - an online chronology of the rise and fall of Disco

American Cultural History: 1970-1979 - created by the Kingwood College Library, this site give information on the music, fashion, and entertainment of the Seventies

 

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1980s and 1990s: Reaganomics,  PCs, and Grunge

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library -  documents and images from Reagan's years in office

History of AIDS and HIV - from AVERT, an international organization dedicated to eradicating AIDS, this site give a synopsis of the disease and the research being done to find a cure

The Space Shuttle Challenger - from NASA, this site gives the history of the Challenger explosion and the ensuing investigations

Classic 80s Arcade Games - play Frogger or Pac Man for free at this site

Computer History Museum - online exhibits that follow the rise of computers

History of Grunge - online encyclopaedia article that explores the most popular musical trend of the 90s

The Gulf War - from PBS, this site offers a history of the first Gulf War

 

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