Group items tagged

Centred mainly on British and European history in the C20th. Quite a few podcasts there on medicine in the C20th.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) electronic reading room of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offers several primary source collections for the study of Central and Eastern Europe during and after the Cold War period. The FOIA Electronic Reading Room web site was established by the CIA "to provide the public with an overview of access to CIA information, including electronic access to previously released documents." Direct web access to the following collections is now possible: # The Soviet and Warsaw Pact Military Journals is a PDF collection of "sensitive Soviet and Warsaw Pact military journals from 1961 to 1984 providing a view into Warsaw Pact military strategy". # Preparing for Martial Law: Through the Eyes of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski is "a captivating collection of over 75 documents concerning the planning and implementation martial law in Poland from mid-1980 to late 1981. The collection release coincided with a CIA symposium honouring Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski, a member of the Polish Army General Staff and the source of the documents."

Seems to focus especially on the Cold War. Definitely one for the conspirary theorists.

Collections focussing mainly on medieval and early C20th European history in the US and Europe.

"The twentieth century has been a century of war. It began with the Boer War in South Africa and ended with the Gulf War in Kuwait and Iraq. This tragic legacy suggests that citizens of the twenty-first century have a shared responsibility to attempt to understand how and why these conflicts occurred and to discover how peace efforts contributed to the resolution of international conflicts. "

Primary sources devoted to helping people understand why the C20th was a time of such visceral conflict. If you believe Niall Ferguson it had to do with ethnic diversity in regions of deteriorating economic conditions and declining imperial control. My high school history teacher reckoned it was ideologies. Many of you will no doubt have other ideas...

* Lawrence Royal & Cabinet Collections The Lawrence Collection consists of 40,000 glass plate negatives from 1870-1914. The images were produced commercially and capture topographical scenes of that period throughout Ireland. The entire Lawrence Royal collection (10,784 plates) and part of the Lawrence Cabinet collection (2,040 plates) are available here to view online. * Poole Whole Plate Collection The Poole collection comprises 65,000 glass plate negatives and was created by the family firm of A.H. Poole in Waterford between 1884-1954. The majority of images in the collection are studio portraits but the Poole Whole Plate subset which consists of 5,119 images, reflects the diversity of the collection with studio portraits, social and political events and also images of architecture and industry in the south east of Ireland. * Independent H Collection The Independent Newspaper collection of some 300,000 images, is made up of glass plates, plastic negatives and a small number of prints. The Independent H collection is a subset of the collection and contains 3,250 glass plates negatives dating from 1912-1936. It provides a record of many aspects of 20th century Irish life, and is particularly strong in the coverage of politics and sport in Ireland.

A wide collection of images and documents (mainly newspapers, I think) on Irish life in the C19th and C20th.

Parallel Archive (PA), an "invented" archive repository accessible for everybody wishing to upload primary sources, is developed by the Open Society Archives (OSA) at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. PA is, "at once a personal scholarly workspace, a collaborative research environment, and a digital repository".

Has primary sources uploaded by people who have registered with the site in many European languages, including English. Come to think of it, is English a European language anymore? Interesting...

These are a set of out-of-print guides made by the NYC Board of Education in 1993-1994. They are full of primary sources, short text selections and activities which many teachers have found very useful. Although designed for 7th and 8th grade they can be modified for high school and elementary school. Many teachers have used these over the last 17 years to help them develop their lessons. They are large files so they will take a few minutes to open. Note that both sets follow the same format but the 8th grade guides were done with a modern text style and therefore "looks" much better.

"As an endless source of discoveries, virtualmuseum.ca is a unique interactive space that brings together Canadian museum collections and riches in a variety of thought-provoking and instructive contents. It's your window on current museum news and your reference guide to plan your next outing. Enter your Canadian museum space." OK!

As an endless source of discoveries, virtualmuseum.ca is a unique interactive space that brings together Canadian museum collections and riches in a variety of thought-provoking and instructive contents. It's your window on current museum news and your reference guide to plan your next outing. Enter your Canadian museum space

The BBC archives offers free access to themed collections of radio and TV programmes, documents and photographs. These are thematic selections of primary sources from an archive which began over 70 years ago.

Excellent source for British social and cultural history.

"The Open Society Archives (OSA) at the Central European University in Budapest is an archival laboratory. While actively collecting, preserving, and making openly accessible documents related to recent history and human rights, they continue to experiment with new ways to contextualize primary sources, developing innovative tools to explore, represent, or bridge traditional archival collections in a digital environment."

Wide diversity of sources for modern European history.

The Margaret Thatcher Foundation's web site offers "free access to the full texts of thousands of documents relating to the politics of the last quarter of a century".

Large repository of sources on the Iron Lady.

Large repository of sources on the Iron Lady.

Enormous number of links to portraits in the UK National Portrait Gallery.

PrimaryAccess is a suite of free online tools that allows students and teachers to use primary source documents to complete meaningful and compelling learning activities with digital movies, storyboards, rebus stories and other online tools.

Looks good.

Contains a few useful links and is often updated so will just get better and better! (Please forgive my cheerfulness - holidays just started).

Of course these comrades have no ulterior motives in providing the material. Of course. DEATH TO THE CAPITALIST PIGS! Of course. Still valuable as a source of historical information though.

Images, sound files, newsreels and other videos, and more on history, science and more.

The European Archive, part of the LiWA (Living Web Archive Project), offers access to archived web sites and multi-media materials with the aim to preserve the whole European Digital Cultural Heritage. We provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

An excellent site for sources on European cultural history.