History Matters: An Online History Reference Tool Worth Checking Out

History Matters - From classroom lessons to primary sources, from forums with historians to puzzles, this site is a highly regarded reference tool for educators and students. For History Day students, the "Many Pasts" and "Making Sense of Evidence" areas alone make it worth a visit.

"Many Pasts" contains more than 1,000 primary source image, print, and audio documents, screened by historians and complete with annotations, that focus on ordinary Americans through time. It's searchable by topic area, keyword or collection.

"Making Sense of Evidence" helps students and teachers make effective use of primary sources. “Making Sense of Documents” provide strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. “Scholars in Action” segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources, allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself, then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis.

In "Talking History," you can hear prominent historians on a variety of topics, including Richard White on the American West and Alan Brinkley on the Great Depression and the New Deal.

To get a good overview of the many resources this site offers, click "more about this site" on the home page. The site was developed by the American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, City University of New York, and the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.

Websites We Like: May 4 Collection

From The Scout Report: May 4 Collection - The shock, anger, and sadness that the world felt when four students were killed by the National Guard during a 1970 war protest on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio will hopefully never be repeated. For researchers, students, faculty, staff, and members of the community, the memories of that tragedy, both written and recorded, have been compiled by the Department of Special Collections and Archives of Kent State University. The May 4 Collection has its own website, which is comprised of such links as a table of "Contents", "Index", "Exhibits/Chronologies", "Oral History Project", and "History Day Help". The "May 4 Collection Contents" reveals that there are 211 boxes of papers, records, newspaper articles, photographs, radio recordings, and comic strips that constitute the May 4 Collection. The "Oral History Project" link explains the ongoing project of recording "first-person narratives and personal reactions to the events of May 4, 1970." It aims to record narratives of all viewpoints of those "whose lives were affected by these historical events."

"My grandfather belonged to Thomas Jefferson"

The Library of Congress has wonderful online resources, and now some of its most compelling digital materials are available on iTunes U, including oral histories, webcasts, films and more.

One of the most fascinating is a collection of oral histories of former slaves, recorded in the 1930s. To hear the voices of men and women for whom slavery was a way of life, not something read about in textbooks and relegated to the past, is both moving and informative.

It won't be lost on listeners that the venerable institution making these remarkable recordings available was founded by slaveholder Thomas Jefferson. A descendant of one of Jefferson's slaves is featured in the collection.

You can subscribe to the Voices of Slavery podcast at the Library of Congress website, or go to iTunes U and search "Library of Congress." History Day students exploring this topic will find these well worth a listen.

Websites We Like: Drawings of the American Civil War Era

From The Scout Report: The Becker College: Drawings of the American Civil War Era - Back in the nineteenth century, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper was the LIFE magazine of its day. Illustrators would work on rendering everything from bucolic rural scenes to maritime settings for various stories and so on. This outstanding digital collection from Boston College contains images from the Becker Collection, which features largely unpublished drawings created for the newspaper. First-time visitors should check out the "About the Collection" area for a bit of background context, and they can go on to look through the "Featured Images" section. The drawings here are amazing, and they include Civil War camp scenes, early warships, life on the frontier, and an amazing rendering of the siege of Charleston. After this, visitors will feel more confident about searching the archive on their own, and they should also check out the detailed artist biographies as well. The site is rounded out by a "Related Resources" area that includes links to the U.S. Military Institute and the Civil War Preservation Trust.

Websites We Like: Hidden Histories of Exploration

From The Scout Report: Hidden Histories of Exploration - Columbus, Hudson, Polo, and Stanley, are all names known far and wide to those who hold an interest in the history of exploration. But how about Juan Tepano, Mohammed Jen Jamain, and Nain Singh? The role of these individuals (and many others) from the annals of world history deserves to be better known, and it is quite appropriate that the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) is the one to tell their tales via this website. The site is meant to complement an exhibition at the RGS that highlights "the role of local inhabitants and intermediaries in the history of exploration." Visitors can learn about these persons and the process of exploration by clicking on the "Exhibition" section. From there, visitors will be guided through a series of narrative essays (such as "Local Knowledge" and "European Dependence"), accompanied by historic photographs, drawings, maps, and diary pages. After taking the online exhibition tour, visitors can click on the "Gallery" section to peruse well-illustrated collections like "French Maritime Expeditions" and an eleven-minute film from 1922 titled "Climbing Mount Everest".

Websites We Like: UW Digital Menus Collection

From The Scout Report: University of Washington Digital Collections: Menus Collection - If you ever wondered what entrees were served onboard the SS Alaska on July 26, 1938, you need wonder no more. This delightful and hunger-inducing collection of menus was created by the staff at the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection project, and it contains over 650 menus from the Puget Sound area, including offerings from such venerable institutions as the Space Needle Restaurant and Ivar's Acres of Clams. Visitors should start things off by watching the short video they have created which offers a quick tour through some menu highlights. After that, browse through the collection by subject, or click one of the thematic collections, such as "Hotel Menus" and "Fifties Menus". Still wondering about those entrees on the good ship SS Alaska? They included Smothered Belgian Hare Southern Style and Coconut Fritters with Custard Sauce.

Websites We Like: The Digital Locke Project

Talk about innovation in history! Here's a great topic in intellectual innovation for History Day...

From The Scout Report: The Digital Locke Project - The influence of John Locke on human thought is hard to overstate, and scholars continue to mine his substantial corpus for insights into the ways that humans interact. This delightful website brings together a scholarly text edition of many of his works. The project is being overseen by Professor Paul Schuurman, and the database here includes multiple drafts of some of Locke's most powerful works, such as the seminal "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." Visitors can get started by clicking on the "Texts" button to find the text of his works, along with an "About" area that gives some background material on each work. Those persons who might not be familiar with Locke might also appreciate the "About Locke" area of the site.

Websites We Like: Holocaust Encyclopedia

From The Scout Report: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has some tremendous online resources, and the recent addition of the Holocaust Encyclopedia continues in this tradition. The interactive Encyclopedia includes hundreds of articles that cover topics like the Third Reich, refugees, ghettos, and the liberation of Nazi camps. Each entry contains hypertext links to other entries and relevant resources, including timelines, photo galleries, and primary source documents. Visitors can use the "Browse Articles" to get started, and they should also note that the articles are available in French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and six other languages. In the "Additional Resources" section, visitors will find a link to "The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students" and a complete "A-Z" list of all the articles.

Norman Borlaug Website Collection

From The Scout Report: In September, Nobel Prize recipient and father of the "Green Revolution" Norman Borlaug passed away. To many in the developing world, his work on creating high-yield crop was viewed as a tremendous blessing, as it stemmed widespread starvation. Others found his legacy to be a bit more mixed. In some ways, his work laid the groundwork for decades of monocrop agriculture, genetically modified food, and exponential growth in the use of pesticides and other fertilizers. Borlaug himself remained skeptical of the rising tide of organic farming, even noting in an interview from 2000, "Don't tell the world that we can feed the present population without chemical fertilizer." Even a cursory glance over the online comments on articles about Borlaug reveal a wide range of opinions about his legacy. Commenting on a recent piece from the Guardian, one reader noted, "He undoubtedly did a lot of good-the green revolution was desperately needed and it delivered." Others remained less than enthusiastic, including a reader's thought, "Against the grain on common sense, common decency, compassion and shared humanity."

The first link will whisk users away to a piece of commentary on Borlaug written by Leo Hickman for this Tuesday's Guardian which provides a number of external links to other timely resources. The second link leads visitors to an obituary on Borlaug, which appeared in this Saturday's Telegraph. The third link leads to Borlaug's official Nobel Prize biography, along with his presentation speech and a photo gallery. The fourth link leads to a compendium of interviews and articles related to Borlaug, compiled by the AgBioWorld organization. Finally, the last link leads to an excellent profile of Borlaug written in 1997 for The Atlantic Monthly by journalist Gregg Easterbrook.
Against the grain on Norman Borlaug
Norman Borlaug Obituary
Norman Borlaug: Biography
Ag BioWorld: Norman Borlaug Articles and Interviews
The Atlantic: Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity

Websites We Like - American Experience: We Shall Remain

From The Scout Report: American Experience: We Shall Remain – Whether watching their TV shows on television or on the computer, PBS always provides a worthy presentation. With an extensive collection of PBS programs available online, the number of topics they cover be fully appreciated. The American Experience series titled "We Shall Remain" consists of five episodes "spanning three hundred years [that] tell the story of pivotal moments in U.S. history from the Native American perspective." The "Reel Native" and "Beyond Broadcast" tabs offer Native Americans telling their experiences and also provide activities for teachers. In addition to viewing the full episodes online, visitors to the website can go "Behind the Scenes" by clicking that tab, and can see such features as the "cast and crew", "featured videos", and "photo gallery".
Furthermore, the "Get Involved" part of "Behind the Scenes" informs visitors of "native organizations and tribes, libraries, historical societies, museums, schools and other groups to plan and sponsor activities that promote understanding of local Native history and contemporary life." This area also provides an interactive map that allows a visitor to plot "shoot locations", "tribal colleges", "coalitions", and "native radio stations", by clicking on each corresponding tab.

Websites We Like - British Newspapers, 1800-1900

From the Scout Report: The British Library has done historians a tremendous service by creating this extensive and thoroughly engaging collection of British newspapers from 1800 to 1900. The site contains over two million pages of 19th century newspapers, though it is worth noting that many of them require the payment of a fee. Visitors can browse complete articles from the "Penny Illustrated Paper" and "The Graphic" free of charge, and they should also click on the "Topical Articles" area. This area contains thematic essays on matters such as the Sepoy Mutiny, the Napoleonic Wars, and the abolition of slavery. Each essay also includes access to relevant articles from the newspapers of the day. This area also includes detailed information on how best to use the search engine in order to locate items of interest.

Websites We Like - new additions

Take a look at our "Websites We Like" section sometime. It includes links to sites that we've found useful for History Day--research, teaching, writing, constructing--and we add to it frequently.

Got a website you can't live without? Email us and we'll add it to the list!