History of the University of Georgia by Thomas Walter Reed
University of Georgia Online Archives.
This 3000-page history of the University of Georgia was finished in 1948 by Thomas Walter Reed, who had retired as the Registrar of the University three years earlier. Reed’s work is described on this website as “monumental.” Although Reed undertook a general narrative of the University from the beginning of its charter in 1785, including a discussion of student life and the evolution of the curriculum, he organized his work around chapters devoted to the various presidents and chancellors of the school, and the administrative changes they brought about. The work is almost a catch-all for those who might be interested even in minutiae such as how the new Mathematics room was decorated when it was completed in 1863, which university alumni were Confederate Generals, or the content of various reports of the Board of Regents, or the vicissitudes of its relationship with the State Governor. A scanned version of the entire typescript is available on the website. Proud Bulldogs alumni might well spend hours browsing through the meandering byways of this massive saga.
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Teaching the U.S. Civil War
David Blight.
This forum was moderated by David Blight, Professor of History at Yale University. Blight’s most recent book is Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, 1863–1915 (2001), winner of numerous prizes, including the Bancroft Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize for the most outstanding book on slavery, resistance, and/or abolition. He is also the author of Frederick Douglass’s Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee (1989); and the editor or co-editor of numerous books on the Civil War period, including Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era (1997). Blight has also written many articles on abolitionism, American historical memory, and African-American intellectual and cultural history. In addition to his career teaching at colleges and universities, he was for seven years a public high school teacher in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. (March, 2003)
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Roger L. Stevens Presents
Library of Congress.
This exhibition preveiew form the Library of Congress highlights the work of roger L. Stevens, one of America’s foremost theatre producers and impressarios of the 20th century.
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Archaeological Collage
Greg Haun.
Greg Haun, a programmer and expert in the art of photo collage, has created this innovatice approach to lookin gat historical chage and transformation in the urban environment. Taking historic photographs and contemporary photographs of the same location, Mr. Haun offers 21 different views of Portland, Oregon. The innovative element is that users can scan through three different settings of the same location: Past, Collage (which blends the past and present) and Present. The site is rounded out by a short essay by Mr. Haun on his collage technique, as well as information about his most recent project, a mural that draws on historical photographs.
Resources Available: IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2002-12-02.

Duke Ellington
CMG Worldwide.
This site pays homage to one of America’s most prestigious and creative composers, Duke Ellington.
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Lionel Hampton: His Life and Legacy
University of Idaho.
A tribute to jazz great Lionel Hampton, this site explains the long friendship between a university and a musician (after whom the University of Idaho named the Lionel Hampton School of Music). The site includes a 1,000-word biography of Hampton, as well as a timeline of his relationship to the school. Also included are a gallery of 23 photographs and a collection of nine videos of Hampton performing and conducting teaching sessions. A PDF version of Hampton’s discography rounds out the collection.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIO, VIDEO.
Website last visited on 2004-06-22.

The Changing of the Avant Garde
Museum of Modern Art.
This Web exhibition from MoMA presents a history of modern utopian and visionary architecture, using architectural drawings donated to the museum by the Howard Gilman Foundaton in 2000. The drawings date from the late 1950s to the 1970s. The main menu is two spheres, Megastructrues (larger, public buildings and complexes) and Postmodern Roots (smaller buildings, retail and houses), from which users can select names to view particular projects.
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History of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
University of Washington, Special Collections.
This exhibit documents the history of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State from inception, in November 1938, to collapse, in November 1940, and eventual reconstruction in 1950. In 1940, the original structure was the third longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge was initially referred to as “the Pearl Harbor of engineering,” but the wavelike motion the bridge displayed soon earned it the nickname “Galloping Gertie.” The exhibit divides the history of the infamous bridge into five themes—construction, opening, collapse, aftermath, and reconstruction—each with 15 to 30 photographs and newspaper articles accompanied by 50- to 100-word captions. A bibliography of more than 30 items rounds out this online exhibit and those interested in the impact of the bridge on the Gig Harbor Peninsula residents should visit the link Gig Harbor Museum. This is also a valuable site for anyone interested in engineering, aerodynamics, and Pacific Northwest history.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2002-12-02.

Conelrad
Bill Geerhart, Curtis Samson.
Conelrad is a site devoted to all aspects of atomic culture in the United States, presented in a visually stimulating fashion.
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Airline History: The History of Commercial Avaition
Sarah Ward.
This site offers histories of commercial airlines and aircraft from the 1920s to the present. “Airline Index” offers profiles or essays of almost every major airline around the world, both contemporary and historical. Each profile gives details about types of planes used by each airline, type of business conducted, and numerous photographs of the planes. “Aircraft by Decade” offers photographs as well as basic statistics about plane models and types introduced during every decade of the 20th century. “Aircraft of Paper” provides information and pictures of 16 prototype aircraft that were designed but never produced, including Howard Hughes’ HK-4 Hercules, dubbed “The Spruce Goose,” and the Boeing 2707–300 Supersonic Transport. “Airline History” offers two longer essays on the history of the airline industry in the U.S. and Great Britain, though the U.S. essay concentrates on the types of aircraft flown in different periods. Additionally, “Super Sonic” gives a brief overview of the history of supersonic airliners and “Flying Boat” provides an overview of the history of commercial seaplanes used in the 1920s and 1930s, along with photos of the aircraft. Not a scholarly project, this website provides useful information on the history of the commercial airline industry and its aircraft.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.
Website last visited on 2006-01-26.

The Jesuit Plantation Project (Georgetown University)
The Jesuit Plantation Project involves the conversion of the Maryland Province Archive to an electronic format. The archive contains over 200 years of personal, legal, and financial documents produced by the six Jesuit-owned plantations in Maryland. As an electronic archive project, the Jesuit Plantation Project is fully integrated with the American Studies Core Curriculum at Georgetown University. The students and faculty work collaboratively on ongoing development of this site.
Resources Available: TEXT.

Historian and the Computer (City College, City University of New York)
These student projects cover a range of topics, including Enrique Chumbes on the Hollywood Blacklist, Erica Fernandez on the Harlem Renaissance, Elvis Minaya on Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, and Tommy Lee Mitchell on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.

Miami Valley Cultural History Project (Miami University of Ohio)
Miami University of Ohio.
This site has been developed to present oral history interviews and student research on the Miami Valley region’s history and culture. Check out Exhibits & Projects to see class projects and recent work. There is also a collection of Educational Resources: syllabi, assignments, guides, and other resources.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.

The Capitol Project (University of Virginia)
The Capitol Project is an infinitely extensible exploration of the National Capitol as an American icon—the cathedral of our national faith, the map of our public memory, and the monument to our official culture. University of Virginia students and faculty have created a virtual tour, pages on specific presidents and periods in the Capitol’s history and floorplans and maps.
Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.

Crossroads: Chicano Identity and Border Culture
Bret Eynon and Donna Thompson, American Social History Project.
The concept of identity is closely linked to questions of history, culture, and representation, as well as such issues as ethnicity, gender, class, and region. Some Chicano scholars have found the themes of “boundaries,” “resistance,” and “affirmation” to be vital in understanding and representing Chicano history and culture. In this activity you will identify and explore the complex ways that the theme of “borders” affect Chicano identity in the United States.
Resources Available: TEXT.

Picturing a Nation: Native Americans and Visual Representation
Bret Eynon and Donna Thompson, American Social History Project.
In this activity you will examine and explore images of Native American culture and history. Many of the images are found in private archival collections or public museums located across the United States. Drawing from the resources found on two sites, you will construct a visual essay that illustrates the Native American experience and helps you to think about how Native American expressive culture is interpreted and what features of Native culture are uniquely “American.”
Resources Available: TEXT.

“Their Own Hotheadedness”: Senator Benjamin R.“Pitchfork Ben” Tillman Justifies Violence Against Southern Blacks
In this March 23, 1900, speech before the U.S. Senate, Senator Benjamin R. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman of South Carolina defended the actions of his white constituents who had murdered several black citizens of his home state. Tillman blamed the violence on the “hot-headedness” of Southern blacks and on the misguided efforts of Republicans during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War to “put white necks under black heels.” He also defended violence against black men, claiming that southern whites “will not submit to [the black man] gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him”—an evocation of the deeply sexualized racist fantasies of many Southern whites.
Resources Available: TEXT.

Killing the Messenger: Ida Wells-Barnett Protests a Postmaster’s Murder in 1898
The rising tide of lynchings of African Americans across the South launched a national anti-lynching crusade, led by Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper editor Ida Wells-Barnett, an outspoken advocate for the area’s African-American citizens. As the leader of the national anti-lynching movement, Wells-Barnett joined a group of Illinois congressmen who visited the White House in March, 1898, to protest the murder of the newly-appointed Lake City, South Carolina Postmaster Baker, who was black. Wells-Barnett penned this petition to President William McKinley to urge punishment of those responsible for shooting.
Resources Available: TEXT.

No Way Out: Two New York City Firemen Testify about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
One of the greatest industrial tragedies in U.S. history occurred on March 25, 1911, when 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist company in New York City. In this brief excerpt from their testimony before the Factory Investigation Commission, New York City Fire Chief Edward F. Croker and Fire Marshall William Beers commented on the safety lapses—the locking of an exit door, the inadequate fire escapes, and the overcrowded factory floor—that led to the deaths of the Triangle workers.
Resources Available: TEXT.

American Soldiers in the Philippines Write Home about the War
During the U.S. war in the Philippines between 1899 and 1904 (which grew out of the Spanish-American War that had erupted in 1898), ordinary American soldiers shared the nationalist zeal of their commanders and pursued the Filipino “enemy” with brutality and sometimes outright lawlessness. Racism, which flourished in the United States in this period, led American soldiers to repeatedly assert their desire “to get at the niggers.” An anti-imperialist movement, which rejected annexation by the United States of former Spanish colonies like Puerto Rico and the Philippines, attempted to build opposition at home to the increasingly brutal war. Although few soldiers joined the anti-imperialist cause, their statements did sometimes provide ammunition for the opponents of annexation and war. In 1899, the Anti-Imperialist League published a pamphlet of Soldiers Letters, with the provocative subtitle: “Being Materials for a History of a War of Criminal Aggression.” Historian Jim Zwick notes that the publication “was immediately controversial. Supporters of the war discounted the accounts of atrocities as the boasting of soldiers wanting to impress their friends and families at home or, because the identities of some of the writers were withheld from publication, as outright fabrications.” But the brutal portrayal of the war that is found in these letters (excerpts from twenty-seven of them are included here) is supported in other accounts.
Resources Available: TEXT.

Bitter Harvest: A Puerto Rican Farmer Laments U.S. Control of the Island
In 1898, the United States took control of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, intending to use it as a base for strategic naval operations. Most of the island’s 900,000 inhabitants welcomed the end of Spanish rule. But they were divided about the U.S. presence. Some hoped links with the United States would lead to increased trade and prosperity; others wanted total independence. Some who initially welcomed the United States quickly became disillusioned. Severo Tulier, a small farmer from Vega Baja, had to sell his farm in 1899; he worked first as a field laborer, and then moved to San Juan to learn a trade. He described the conditions of life among farm workers to Henry K. Carroll, the special commissioner for the United States to Puerto Rico, who interviewed hundreds of Puerto Ricans as part of his effort to formulate U.S. policy for governing the island.
Resources Available: TEXT.

Beyond Bed Pans: The Life of a Late 19th-century Young Nurse
In this autobiographical account of the life that awaited new nursing recruits in 1893, former nurse Mary Roberts Rinehart painted a vivid portrait of the daily obstacles that stood between nurses and the professional status they hoped to attain. Rinehart described the “simple, plain hell” faced by the young nurse, a description that challenged conventional expectations about professional work.
Resources Available: TEXT.

Camella Teoli Testifies about the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike
When 30,000 largely immigrant workers walked out of the Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile mills in January 1912, they launched one of the epic confrontations between capital and labor. The strike began in part because of unsafe working conditions in the mills, which were described in graphic detail in the testimony that fourteen-year-old millworker Camella Teoli delivered before a U.S. Congressional hearing in March 1912. Her testimony (a portion of which was included here) about losing her hair when it got caught in a textile machine she was operating gained national headlines in 1912—in part because Helen Herron Taft, the wife of the president, was in the audience when Teoli testified. The resulting publicity helped secure a strike victory.
Resources Available: TEXT.

“Oh God, For One More Breath”: Early 20th century Tennessee Coal Miners’ Last Words
Coal mining and railroad work were the two most dangerous trades in the United States in the early 20th century. Coal miners frequently died in spectacular explosions and cave-ins that could kill dozens or even hundreds at a time. Although most testimony about coal mining disasters came from survivors and observers, the men who suffocated to death in the Fraterville, Tennessee mines in May 1902 left behind their own grim account. Trapped in the mine after an explosion and with their air rapidly depleting, they wrote letters to their loved ones describing their final moments.
Resources Available: TEXT.

A Year’s Wage for Three Peaches: A Black Man Tells of Exploitation in the Late 19th century South
The harsh brutality of race relations in the late nineteenth-century South was sometimes best expressed through small incidents. For William Robinson, the story that best encapsulated his own experience growing up African-American in rural Georgia in the 1880s involved three peaches. He was interviewed by oral historian Charles Hardy in 1983 when Robinson was 103 years old. Apparently, some ninety-five years earlier when he was eight years old, three black boys sneaked into a peach orchard on the way home from church and stole some peaches, three of which they gave to young Robinson. The white orchard owner caught Robinson and threatened him with the chain gang. He forced Robinson’s father to pay $21 for the three peaches—a sum that could well have been a year’s cash income for a sharecropping family in this period.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

George Kills in Sight Describes the Death of Indian Leader Crazy Horse
One of the most notable Indian warriors of the post-Civil War era was Crazy Horse (Tashunka Witko), a military leader of the Teton Sioux. In the aftermath of Custer’s defeat by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn in June 1876, U.S. troops relentlessly pursued both Indian leaders. Crazy Horse was arrested in September, taken to Fort Robinson (in what is now northwestern Nebraska), and ultimately killed by a soldier, perhaps after the Indian warrior resisted being locked in a guardhouse.
One of the many versions of Crazy Horse’s death and secret burial can be heard in this interview with George Kills in Sight, which was done by Joseph Cash of the University of South Dakota in 1967 when Kills in Sight was in his seventies. Kills in Sight’s family—his father’s mother was Crazy Horse’s cousin and learned about Crazy Horse from his grandfather, Big Crow—taught him to revere Crazy Horse as a heroic figure. Kills in Sight concludes by describing how his grandfather and others took the body and secretly buried it.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

“I Just Loved that School”: Henrietta Chief Recalls an Indian Boarding School in the Early 20th century
In this 1970 interview with University of South Dakota historian Herbert Hoover, Henrietta Chief, A Winnebago, talks of her religious conversion at the Tomah School in the first decade of the 20th century. The Tomah school was one of the federal government’s off-reservation boarding schools, the linchpin of federal policy after 1887 to Americanize and assimilate Indian youth by removing them from their home environment and culture. Henrietta Chief’s conversion made her a fervent apostle of Christianity for the rest of her life.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

A Woman Recounts Her Twelve Abortions in Turn-of-the-Century New York
In an interview, conducted by oral historian Allyson Knoth for the Feminist History Research Project, Elizabeth Anderson, born in Germany in the late 1880s, described the twelve abortions she endured as a young married woman living in New York City with a husband who refused to use birth control devices such as condoms. Anderson detailed a series of painful and dangerous procedures, including the use of ergot pills, and pricking the cervix with a hat pin. Anderson also suggested that abortion was used by working-class women as well as those better off; the typical abortionist charged $25 (a decent week’s wage) to perform the illegal procedure.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

Burned into Memory: An African American Recalls Mob Violence in Early 20th century Florida
The threat of lynching was a powerful mechanism for keeping black Southerners in line. Although this interview (conducted by historian Charles Hardy for a radio program) took place in 1985, “William Brown” (a pseudonym) could still vividly recall the smell of burning flesh that lingered after a 1902 lynching that he witnessed in Jacksonville, Florida, when he was five years old.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

“I Started Filling Rifles”: A Woman Strike Supporter Remembers the 1914 Ludlow Massacre
The brutal southern Colorado coal strike reached its nadir on Easter night, 1914, with the horrendous deaths by fire of three women and eleven children at the hands of the Colorado state militia. Mary Thomas, whose husband was on strike, was interviewed at age eighty eight by historian Sherna Gluck in 1974 for the Feminist History Research Project. Thomas vividly recalled the horror of the infamous Ludlow Massacre, described her efforts to save the lives of women and children by hiding them in a dry well, and her jailing in the aftermath the massacre. She was the only woman strike supporter to be jailed during the strike.
Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.