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Your ringside seat to history - from the Ancient World to the present. History through the eyes of those who lived it, presented by Ibis Communications, Inc. a digital publisher of educational programming.

This site has pages on historical topics containing secondary and primary source information. It's probably more suitable for junior classes than senior research, although it does have excerpts from contemporaneous texts.

"A Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico In 1519 Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba, landed in Mexico and made his way to the Aztec capital. Miguel Leon­Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist, gathered accounts by the Aztecs, some of which were written shortly after the conquest. Speeches of Motecuhzoma and Cortés When Motecuhzoma [Montezuma] had given necklaces to each one, Cortés asked him: "Are you Motecuhzoma? Are you the king? Is it true that you are the king Motecuhzoma?" And the king said: "Yes, I am Motecuhzoma." Then he stood up to welcome Cortés; he came forward, bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: "Our lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy. "The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming. The kings Itzcoatl, Motecuhzoma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields. "Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching! If only they can see what I see! "No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams.... I have seen you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for five days, for ten days, with my eyes fixed on the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your throne again. "This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses. Welcome to your land, my lords! " When Motecuhzoma had finished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain could understand it. Cortés replied in his str

PBS

Build your own face from the selections of eyes, noses, chins, hats etc... Each illustration is taken from portraits which are part of the collections of Museums Sheffield. (UK)

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.

The English Emblem Book Project of the Penn State University Libraries in Pennsylvania, USA, has digitized older form of texts, the emblem books, for the 16th to the 19th centuries. "An emblem book is a collection of images with adjoining text. In an emblem there is a dialog or tension between image and word. Emblems are frequently allegorical in theme. Emblem books are a form of text not altogether familiar to us today. An emblem book represents a particular kind of reading. Unlike today, the eye is not intended to move rapidly from page to page. The emblem is meant to arrest the sense, to lead into the text, to the richness of its associations. An emblem is something like a riddle, a "hieroglyph" in the Renaissance vocabulary -- what many readers considered to be a form of natural language."

Watch European colonialism rise and fall in seconds in this GIF. Vox has also written an accompanying text:

Another site to help students use primary sources. Has some good questions to help students develop their eye for historical detail, motive, perspective, etc.

I've uploaded a few documents related to Habits of Mind in AP World History to my Scribd page. Does anyone else use Habits of Mind in their teaching? My school is implementing it next year and I'd be very interested in learning from the experiences of others. 

Yes my school has been using Dimensions of Learning for the last three years. Keep an eye out for Art Costa who comes out from the States to inservice teachers in Brisbane on Habits of Mind. I really enjoyed my day with him. Very practical stuff. If you are interested you can join a learning hub; go to http://www.nsn.net.au/habits_of_mind_hub This link is a some what old but you can join and receive email updates on various events they are running.

Thanks Louise. I'll check it out.