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Slavery in America The tragedy of slavery in America is an undeniably influential part of American history. These sites provide all the historic details, as well as a better understanding of how this practice affected (and continues to affect) the social and political fabric of the country.

The Internet is a wonderful source for discovering European explorers and colonists in America. The first Viking settlements may have failed, but once Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean Islands, many Europeans began to come to America.

"November 12, 2009, marks the 55th anniversary of the closing of Ellis Island, a location that will forever be linked to the notion of the American dream. From 1892 to 1954, over 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island. Located in New York Harbor, the site served as a way station for those coming to America from Europe, hoping to build a new life in a new land. "

"During the Great Depression, the United States government sent Danish-born photographer Peter Sekaer on a mission through America's back roads to chronicle the lives of ordinary Americans as they struggled through one of the most challenging periods in U.S. history. Now, for the first time, Sekaer's telling odyssey through America is available to the public after years in obscurity. The 87 vintage gelatin silver prints are in an Atlanta High Museum exhibit called "Signs of Life: Photographs by Peter Sekaer," which will be on view from now until January 9, 2011."

"President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wasn't the first to call America-and Detroit, specifically-"The Arsenal of Democracy," but he popularized the phrase during his famous "fireside chats." And for once, political rhetoric didn't outstrip reality: During the 1940s, Detroit's factories went from manufacturing cars to building tanks, bombers, army trucks, ordnance-in short, arming U.S. forces for battle in World War II."

Free E-books

Companion Website to video series; episode transcripts and video on demand availalbe

online exhibit by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, showcasing the evolution of transportation in the United States.