ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ Novem ber 2001 / 991 IN T E R N E T R E SO U R C ES U.S. history Primary and secondary sources by Paul A. Frisch I n February 1996, C&RL N e w s published “A m erican H isto ry R eso u rces on the Internet”1 Not surprisingly, many o f the re­ sources from the early days of the Web were gopher sites. The Web sites reviewed in this article link to primary and secondary sources and will be useful to librarians, students, and historians. The limitation o f space necessar­ ily excludes many deserving topics and sites. M e ta sites and directories • A b out.com Guides. An impressive Web directory, About.com lists 30 subjects with links to more than 700 sites covering centu­ ries, biographies, and topics reflecting tradi­ tional time frames, major events, gender, race, and ethnicity. The About.com site also provides access to forums, chatrooms, and brief introduc­ tory articles. A c c e s s : http://americanhistory. about.com/index.htm. • WWW Virtual Library History: U nited States. The H istoiy Index Network is main­ tained by Lynn H. Nelson, professor emeri­ tus o f medieval history at the University of Kansas. The U.S. history portion is superbly organized into three major categories with m any topics. The first category, Research Tools, includes bibliography, materials, re­ search aids, and associations and societies, which each have more specific categories. The second m ajor category lists 19 historical top­ ics. The third major category is divided into 11 chronological periods from pre-Columbian contact to the 20th century. A c c e s s : http:// www. ukans. edu/history/VL/USA/index.html. • A m e r ic a n a n d B ritish H isto r y R e­ search Guides. This well-organized and easy- to-use site is maintained at the Rutgers Uni­ versity Libraries. The guide contents include reference sources, archival and manuscript guides, general history portals, sites organized by subject, sites organized by period, full-text documents by period, history associations, and h is to ry e le c tro n ic lists. A c c e s s : h ttp :/ / www. lib rarie s. ru tgers. edu/rul/rr_gatew ay/ research_guides/history/history. shtml. Prim ary sources Primary sources provide the documentation for history as it is being made. This original stuff from which history is written includes text, sound, picture, and artifact. Prim ary sources continue to proliferate on the Web as institutions dedicated to preserving the historical record rush to digitize their sources, making them readily accessible and, in some cases, rescuing their content from deteriorat­ ing documents. The primary sources reviewed here include text, photographs and film, oral history and speeches (voice and transcripts), and maps and data. • A m erican M em ory: H istorical C ollec­ tion s fo r th e N ation al D igital Library. The A b o u t th e a u th o r Paul A. Frisch is dean a n d lib ra ry d ire c to r a tO u r Lady o f th e Lake University in San A n to n io , Texas, e-mail: frisp@lake.ollusa.edu About.com About.com About.com http://americanhistory mailto:frisp@lake.ollusa.edu 992 / C&RL News ■ November 2001 Library o f Congress’ huge project to create a national digital library, representing American history and culture, so far offers more than 7 million digitized items from more than 100 his­ torical collections. These primary sources in­ clude text, photographs, film, maps, and mu­ sic (sound and sheet). American Memory pro­ vides the capability to search for items across its collections and links to digital collections from aro u n d the w o rld. A c c e s s : h ttp :// memory.loc.gov/ ammem/ammemhome.html or http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ amhome.html. • N ational A rch iv es an d R ecords A d ­ m inistration (NARA). As the official deposi­ tory for U.S. government materials, NARA is a treasure trove o f sources. Search the NAIL (NARA Archival Information Locator) for digi­ tal or non-digital sources. American Originals provides access to digitized copies of the Dec­ laration o f Independence, the U.S. Constitu­ tion, the Bill of Rights, and other important or unusual documents (“W hen Nixon Met Elvis”). There is technical guidance concern­ ing archival preservation and management, and resources for at-home recordkeepers. A c­ c e s s : http://www.nara.gov/. • M akin g o f A m erica (MOA). The MOA Collection includes more than 4 million pages from more than 13,000 volumes o f primary source materi­ als fo u n d in TH E O YEZ PROJEC the libraries at Cornell University and the University of Michi­ gan. The focus of the initial phase o f MOA, which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is the 19th century, especially 1850 to 1877. Cornell’s site covers 22 journals o f the period, mainly general interest publi­ TN cations with some specific areas, such as ag­ riculture. Fewer than 300 monographs are included. Michigan’s site has digitized about 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles, pri­ marily in the areas o f education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science, and technology. A c c e s s : Cornell at http:// cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa and Michigan at http:// moa .umdl. um ich. edu. • T h e A v a lo n Project at th e Y ale Law School. This far-ranging digital project col­ lects legal, historical, and diplomatic docu­ ments. Among the areas covered are colonial charters and grants, state constitutions from 1776 to present, U.S. statutes on slavery and on Native Americans, papers o f the Confed­ erate States o f America, treaties with Native Americans and with foreign countries, and economic and legal treatises. A c c e s s : http:// www. yale. edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon. htm. • H istory C h an n el: Speeches. The site hosts hundreds o f speeches available in au­ dio files that can be searched by speaker, topic, or time period. An alphabetically ar­ ranged speakers index can also be browsed. Speech categories are politics and govern­ ment; science and technology; arts, entertain­ ment, and culture; and war and diplomacy. A written context is provided for each speech. A c c e s s : h ttp ://w w w .h isto ry ch a n n e l.com / speeches/index, htm l. • P r o je ct O yez: U.S. S u p rem e C o u rt M ultim edia D atabase. Leading cases from legal casebooks and textbooks were selected for inclusion in this database at Northwest­ ern University. Most cases are text only, but many cases from recent years have an audio portion that plays as the text scrolls. A c c e s s : http://oyez.nwu.edu/. ORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY • H istorical Picture C ollections. Steven Schoenherr, an A m erican historian at the University o f San Diego, provides pictures in such categories as presidents, states, cities and regions, aviation, military, movies and radio, railroads, science and technology, ships, and space images. A c c e s s : http://history.acusd. edu/gen/documents/clipsources. html. • Perry-C asteneda Library M ap C o llec­ tion: H istorical M aps o f th e U nited States. The categories used by the University of Texas map library are early inhabitants, exploration memory.loc.gov/ http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ http://www.nara.gov/ cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa http://www.historychannel.com/ http://oyez.nwu.edu/ http://history.acusd C&RL News ■ Novem ber 2001 / 993 and settlement, U.S. territorial growth, later historical periods, military history, historical maps o f Texas and U.S. cities, and national historic sites. There is a link to other map sites. A c c e s s : http ://w w w .lib .titexas.ed u / maps/histus. html. • U nited States H istorical C ensus D ata Browser. Using data compiled by the Inter­ university Consortium for Political and Social Research, the University o f Virginia Libraries have created easily browsed data files that describe the people and economy o f each state and county from 1790 to I960. A c c e s s : http:/ / fisher, lib .Virginia. edu/census. Topics and chronological periods • H-NET: H um anities an d Social Sci­ en ces O n lin e. H-NET is an interdisciplinary organization o f scholars and teachers who maintain edited lists and Web sites with peer- reviewed essays, multimedia materials, and discussion. Many H-NET sites cover topics in Am erican history. A c c e s s : http://w w w 2.h- net.msu.edu/. • Th e A m erican Revolution: National Discussions o f Our R evolutionary Origins. The site was created by H-NET to serve as a place for discussions and research sources, complementing the official companion site to PBS’s Liberty! documentary series. Notewor­ thy links on the site include a selected bibliog­ raphy, scholarly essays, maps, images, docu­ ments, and secondary sources. It also covers links to colonial American history. A c ce ss . http:/ /revolution.h-net.msu.edu/intro.html. t he Vtueriean Civil W ar • T h e A m erican C iv il War H om epage. George Hoemann (University of Tennessee at Knoxville) maintains this massive collec­ tion of hypertext links that print out to more than 40 pages. The 12 categories, many with subheadings, emphasize political and mili­ tary aspects o f the Civil War: general re­ sources, secession crisis and before, images o f wartime, biographical information, histo­ ries and bibliographies, documentary records, state and local studies, battles and campaigns, rosters and regimental histories, other mili­ tary information, Civil War reenactors, and C iv il W ar ro u n d tab le s. A c c e s s : h ttp :// sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/waiweb.html. H • T h e U n ited States C iv il War Center. The Special Collections Department of the Louisiana State University Libraries operates the Civil War Center and its homepage for “promoting the study o f the Civil War from the perspectives o f all professions, occupa­ tions, and academic disciplines.” The first sec­ tion o f the homepage deals with Civil War information, providing an alphabetically ar­ ranged list of links to full- text sources on a range of military and non-military subjects as disparate as a n im a ls/v e te rin a ry s c i­ ence, pop culture, sociol­ ogy and work, and writ­ ers and literature o f the period. The Civil War resources section pro­ vides more traditional military categories with links to Web sites. A c c e s s : http://www.cwc. lsu. eclu/cwc/index. htm. • H-SHGAPE Intern et R esources. The Society for Historians o f the Gilded Age and Progressive Era’s site examines the period between 1877 and 1918, combining links to primary and secondaiy sources for the fol­ lowing topics: general resources, political leaders, transformation of the West, the rise o f big business and American workers, lit­ erature and culture, the crisis o f the 1890s, the w ar with Spain and the aftermath, the new immigration and urban America, Pro­ gressive reform , and the G reat War and America. A c c e s s http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/ -shgape/internet/index.html. • American Cultural His­ omepage tory: Th e Tw entieth C en­ tury. Peggy Whitley and other reference librarians at King­ wood College have constructed an entertaining, informative decade-by-decade tour of 20th-cen­ tury America. Each decade explores the fol­ lowing eight cultural areas: art and architec­ ture, books and literature, fads and fashion, education, historic events and technology, music, persons and personalities, and the­ ater and film. Each cultural area offers a brief overview with a picture and links within the text, L ib ra ry o f C o n gress b ro w sin g call letters, a short list o f books, and a few Web sites. A c c e s s http://www.nhmccd.edu/ contracts/lrc/kc/decades. htm l. • N ew D eal N etw ork: A Guide to the G reat D e p re s sio n o f th e 1930s an d the http://www.lib.titexas.edu/ http://fisher http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/ http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/ http://www.cwc http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/ http://www.nhmccd.edu/ 9 9 4 / C&RL News ■ November 2001 R oosevelt Administration. The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Institute fo r Learn in g T ech n o lo gies at C olum bia University’s Teachers College have developed a site suitable for undergraduate research. A documents section provides access to more than 700 articles, speeches, letters, and other texts organized by subject, date, and author, while a photo gallery has more than 4,000 images. There are also links to archives, col­ lections, essays, and features. A c c e s s : http:// newdeal.feri.org/. • WWW V irtual Library: T h e C o ld War. There are other Cold War sites with more links, but not as well organized with chronologi­ cal, geographical, and topical arrangements. So m e o f th e m a jo r to p ic s in c lu d e M c C a rth y is m , th e K o re a n W ar, th e Rosenbergs, the Bay o f Pigs, the Cuban M is­ sile Crisis, and the causes o f the Soviet col­ lapse. A c c e s s : http://www.ukans.edu/history/ VL/US A/ coldwar. htm l. • B io gra p h y .C o m . The Web site for the Biography TV channel has more than 25,000 biographies w ith links to related biogra­ phies in the database and Web sites. A c ­ c e s s : http://w w w .biography.com . • A m erican W om en’s H istory: A Re­ sea rch Guide. Ken Middleton, reference li­ brarian at Middle Tennessee State University, has created a comprehensive, well-organized, up-to-date Web site, providing more than 1,600 citations to print and Internet reference sources, more than 900 links to Internet sources, and a shortcut to more than 200 links to digital collections of primary sources. The five main sections, each with several subhead­ ings, are: general reference and biographical sources; subject index to research sources in 70 categories; state and regional sources; find­ ing books, journal articles and theses; and finding primary sources. There is a shortcut to bookmarks that lists a dozen categories. A c c e s s : http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/his- tory/women. html. • P eo p le w ith a History: A n O utline G u id e to L e s b ia n , G a y , B is e x u a l a n d T r a n s* H is t o r y (L G B T ). Paul H a ls a ll’s (Fordham University) site provides links to general LGBT history pages, collections of textual material, museums and archives, and lesbian-specific sites. These sources are diffi­ cult to find at most U.S. history sites. A c c e s s : http://w w w . fordham. e du/halsall/p w h. • A frican-A m erican History: A Guide to R esources & R esearch o n the Web. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ Department o f History site follows the cur­ rents of African American history through gen­ eral sources, culture, Black nationalism, civil rights, the Harlem Renaissance, slavery and slave narratives, African-American women, and supplies extensive biographical links to four m ajor 20th -centu ry figu res— W .E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Zora Neale Hurston. A c c e s s : http:// web.uccs.edu/~history/index/afroam.html. • Latino American History: A Guide to Re­ sources and Research o n the Web. Surprisingly, it is difficult to find a comprehensive, up-to-date, English-language site on the history of the United States’ fastest-growing ethnic group. The Univer­ sity of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ Department of History has oiganized its site by general re­ sources, archives, Hispanic women’s history, po­ litical movements, popular culture, religion, and a chronological arrangement of sources. A cce ss : http ://w eb. uccs. edu/~history/index/latino. html. • A n cesto rs in th e Am ericas. Several Asian American ethnic groups are covered in this companion site to the PBS series A n c e s ­ t o r s i n t h e A m e r i c a s . An A sian Am erican timeline provides historical context, but the heart of the site lists Asian American history Web sites, especially for Asian American eth­ nic groups: Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Fili­ pino, Korean, Pacific Islander, and Southeast Asian. Though you may find sites that pro­ vide more depth for an individual ethnicity, the inclusion of so many ethnicities makes this an exceptional resource. A c c e s s : http:// www. pbs. org/ ancestorsintheamericas. • H-AMINDIAN (A m erican In d ian H is­ to r y an d Culture). This is a joint effort of H- NET and Arizona State University’s Depart­ ment of History. Links to history sites, one of nearly 30 categories under Native links, pro­ vide an alphabetical list, with brief descrip­ tions, to a range of up-to-date historical links. A c c e s s : http://www.asu.edu/clas/history/h- amindian/index, html. N ote 1. Stanley D. Nash, Miles Yoshimura, and William Vincenti, “American history resources on the Internet,” C&RL N e w s 57 (Feb. 1996): 82-84, 96. ■ newdeal.feri.org/ http://www.ukans.edu/history/ Biography.Com http://www.biography.com http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/his-tory/women http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/his-tory/women http://w http://www.asu.edu/clas/history/h-amindian/index http://www.asu.edu/clas/history/h-amindian/index