Reviewed Websites: Chronological

Although this is a commercial site, one that hopes to sell images and reproductions to visitors, it also includes many resources that will help teachers of early American history. The "Explore the World of Early America" section is the best for teachers since it includes images of many important documents. Visitors can read in contemporary accounts the text of the Newburgh Address, the Louisiana Purchase, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Washington's Farewell Address, and many more significant documents. The site also includes numerous maps created in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Moreover, the site allows teachers and students to read obituaries of famous Americans, including George and Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benedict Arnold, the victims of the Boston Massacre, and more.

 

This site, from the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, contains information on the archaeological excavation at Jamestown.

 

This website's target audience includes potential tourists as well as teachers, but it does have a section devoted entirely to teacher and student resources. Most helpful in this section are the seventeen "classroom-tested lesson plans" prepared for a variety of grade levels. Most include the necessary primary sources and other instructional materials within the plans themselves. The "Electronic Field Trips" will also interest teachers and students, especially the Sample Electronic Field Trips. These are very interesting interactive exercises (in the tradition of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books) that your students will find enjoyable and informative.

 

Devoted to both the story and the historical context of American attitudes towards slaves and slavery.

 

Teaching Hard History
A framework for teaching American Slavery.

Contains a timeline and listing of battles, as well as primary documents including letters, diaries, and songs.

 

Award winning site from the University of Virginia covering the experience of two communities during the Civil War.

 

This site contains a number of resources to aid teachers in a discussion of racial violence in American history.

 

This website was designed to accompany the book, With Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. The site primarily contains photographs taken from the book.

 

A framework for teaching American slavery. Important big ideas and critical content students must know to understand the historical significance of slavery.

 

The site uses the presidential election of 1912 to understand the progressive era.

 

Cartoons illustrating progressivism and the election of 1912.

 

This site from the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress contain numerous photographs of important individuals, suffrage parades, and picketers, as well as political cartoons.

 

This resource page to the website for "The Great War in Global Context" has links to several excellent websites related to the history of World War I. The rest of the website includes lesson plans and a useful bibliography of print resources.

 

This web site, presented and supported by Duke University, is the most comprehensive electronic archive for print advertisements in the first half of the twentieth century.

 

Information from the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.

 

 

This site from the National Archives offers several different ways to examine the creations of New Deal arts projects and introduces visitors to several different themes that emerged from the era's visual, print, musical, and theatrical creations.

 

A comprehensive site covering FDR and the New Deal.

 

 

Ten samples from the National Archives of American propaganda posters. See NARA's Digital Classroom for teaching ideas.

 

 

Contains an alphabetical listing of various cultural documents with a Cold War emphasis.

 

 

The website is part of the Library of Congress exhibition entitles The African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship. The link to the sit from this page takes you directly to the section dealing with the civil rights movement.

 

The website is part of an ongoing project from the University of Southern Mississippi, with its strength being oral histories.

 

This website devoted to the Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee (SNCC) contains a wealth of information including biographies of major individuals from the group with audio clips (Real Audio), a description of major events from the time period, a timeline, and links to other sources on the civil rights movement.

 

 

The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952 to 2008

This site contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

 

This website is the most comprehensive on-line collection of presidential documents. It includes State of the Union messages, political party platforms, other messages and public papers from presidents, plus selected audio and video of presidents from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush.