Group items tagged

An excellent set of digital source collections run by Columbia Uni. I've been meaning to save all these collections individually but it's such a massive task that I'm just saving the root pages of the collections. If you have a look through these you'll find some gems. And if you save them to the group you will have my undying affection (just please use the same tagging standards - it keeps the information findable).

Amazing collections of historic photographs

Huge digital collection of historic newspapers by the Library of Congress!

What is this collection? Compiled service records of Confederate soldiers labeled with each soldier's name, rank, and unit, with links to revealing documents about each soldier. Collections include records for soldiers from over 50 territories and states.  Has a free 7 day trial.

'Together with the introduction of rural mail delivery, the telephone, and the automobile, farm newspapers played a key role in the modernization of rural America. The Farm, Field and Fireside collection contains historically significant U.S. farm weeklies published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

"Lookbackmaps is a network of neighborhood historians, historical photo enthusiasts, historians, book publishers and others who collaborate to map history. Through the online digitization of high-resolution public photo collections and geotagging technology, Lookbackmaps creates collaborative, standardized views into the past. There's something in being human that wonders what was here before us-who occupied this space, how did they live, what did they leave behind? By mapping the millions of historical photos available through public libraries and private collections on the web, we start to piece together the puzzle."

The Online Historical Population Reports (OHPR) collection provides online access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937. The collection goes far beyond the basic population reports with a wealth of textual and statistical material which provide an in-depth view of the economy, society (through births, deaths and marriages) and medicine during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Information on each of the US Presidents. The information is cursory however would be useful for preliminary or activities where only basic biographic information is required.

'A comprehensive collection of material about the Presidents of the United States and the history of the presidency. This web site features essays about the President's life before, during, and after each presidential term. It additionally provides information about the First Lady and cabinet officials of each administration. A collection of essays on the President at Work delves into the function, responsibilities, and organization of the modern presidency and traces the history and evolution of presidential duties.'

A collection of primary sources focussing on medicine.

'Collections of books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day.'

Over 1000 photos of Muslims and Christian missionaries working among them in Western China in the 1920s and 1930s form the core of this collection, which is supplemented by several hundred books, pamphlets, broadsides, etc., in several languages.

An obscure topic, however might be useful. Especially given the recent trouble in Western China.

The approximately 1,275 images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery. This collection is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and the general public - in brief, anyone interested in the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World.

"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 Letters of Philip II, King of Spain, 1592-1597 a digital collection available within the Special Collections Department of the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA, is made of "... 174 letters and documents, all in Spanish : 172 manuscript, 2 printed.

Has English summaries of the letters.

"The LBC/IRN Audio Archive, (London Broadcasting Company / Independent Radio News audio archive) consists of 7,000 reel-to-reel tapes in a collection that runs from 1973 to the mid-1990s. It is the most important commercial radio archive in the UK and provides a unique audio history of the period. This digitised collection focuses on the most noteworthy content - approximately 3,000 hours of recordings relating to news and current affairs. The digitised archive contains invaluable recordings of a wide range of broadcasts including coverage of the Falklands war, the miners' strike, Northern Ireland, the whole of the Thatcher period of government and recordings of the first hour of UK commercial radio including the first commercial radio news bulletin."

You can only listen if you are part of a tertiary institution which has a paid subscription through the Athens ID system (v. annoying!) however you're able to read the transcripts for free.

"This is a collection of hyperlinks to digitized editions of source-documents and literature concerning early medieval Europe that can be found on the internet today. Sources listed here are all available to the public, free of charge. Currently there are 3696 entries in this collection. "

'A decade after Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness first depicted the mysteries and agonies of the area, Herbert Lang and James Chapin set sail for the northeastern Belgian Congo. They knew they were launching an extraordinary adventure, but they could not have imagined what those years would hold. By the time they sailed home five and a half years later, they had collected tons of precious zoological and anthropological specimens representing one of the most comprehensive collections of the day'

In the 1950s and 1960s planners in Harrisonburg, VA implemented a federally sponsored slum clearance and urban renewal program. Seeking to compare this redevelopment effort with the urban renewal efforts in other major cities, students in James Madison University's US Urban Social History Course have begun digitizing relevant primary documents. These files are drawn from Harrisonburg's City Council minutes as well as records located at the Department of Planning and Community Development, the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and in local planner Robert Sullivan's personal collection. The files are organized by the location where the originals are currently located. Indices and summaries of relevant Daily New Record articles will be added shortly. The students who digitzed this collection of documents include: John Almquist, Alicen Brown, Alexander Carroll, Rose Anne Coates, Troy Cunningham, Eric Echelberger, John Fitzmaurice, Paul Frankel, Christopher Gray, William Hayes, Mark Hitchko, Kristin Keinz, Anna Klemm, Meaghan Leonard, Christina Lloyd-Williams, Brian Mannion, Mallory Micetich, Elizabeth Morris, Emily Neufeld, Samuel Padgett, Taylor Wood

Our students know that divorce is part of life, yet it is not a part of their history courses, it is rarely, if ever mentioned. Divorce has a history all of it's own, and many, many American's lives were shaped by it. In the early 1900s, the ability to obtain a legal divorce was difficult and in some instances, required relocation to a jurisdiction that offered liberal divorce laws. Although Las Vegas, Nevada might be known for quick marriages, it was in Reno, Nevada that legal divorces were available to residents who there for only six weeks. This online exhibit organized by Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno, Libraries, presents documents from the city's heyday as the divorce capital of the United States.

Our students know that divorce is part of life, yet it is not a part of their history courses, it is rarely, if ever mentioned. Divorce has a history all of it's own, and many, many American's lives were shaped by it. In the early 1900s, the ability to obtain a legal divorce was difficult and in some instances, required relocation to a jurisdiction that offered liberal divorce laws. Although Las Vegas, Nevada might be known for quick marriages, it was in Reno, Nevada that legal divorces were available to residents who there for only six weeks. This online exhibit organized by Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno, Libraries, presents documents from the city's heyday as the divorce capital of the United States.

I love the Harvard Libraries, sharing with us plebs outside the ivory tower. How generous.

Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, includes approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets as well as 9,000 photographs, 200 maps, and 13,000 pages from manuscript and archival collections.

Large collection of digitized, radical posters