A & E Biography
http://www.biography.com
In association with the Biography Channel, this website offers the viewer access to a tremendous amount of information in the form of biographies. What makes this site so good is that there are over 25,000 biographies easily located just by typing the name of the person into the search box. As with nearly all commercial websites, there are many ads and banners that can distract from the quality content. For the purpose of biographical information, this site is an easy quick-reference page.

Academy Curricular Exchange
http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/soc/high.html
The Academy Curricular Exchange offers the viewer a tremendous number of teacher-submitted mini-lessons, lesson plans, and unit plans in the area of high school (9-12) social studies. Ranging from mini-lessons like “search & seizure laws (HS)” or “Civil War & Emancipation (HS)” to regular lessons like “U.S. History, create newspaper presentations for understanding WWI (HS)” or “Government, American Political Culture, a values debate (12)”, one would be able to find a lesson on anything they are looking for. While most of the links take you to a lesson plan contained on the same website, some of the links do direct the user to other websites, so careful consideration to where the user is being redirected should be taken. Nearly all the lesson plans are teacher submitted, and as is the case have been tested and used in the classroom already.

Ad*Access
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/
“The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.”
Advertisements and marketing schemes for commercial products offer a fascinating and entertaining glimpse into the history of our culture. Hosted by Duke University’s Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, this archive features magazine advertisements from the early to mid 20th century. It is divided thematically and also can be searched via an internal search engine. The WWII Era propaganda adds for War Bonds, rationing, and other social programs to support the war are particularly interesting and potentially usable in the classroom. Other ads for beauty and cosmetic products may not be as useful in the classroom, but amusing nonetheless. The simple organization of the archive and search engine should facilitate easy access and research. These ads could be effectively incorporated into a wide range of lessons dealing with the early 20th century and World Wars. (BR)

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/amdocs_index.html
The University of Kansas’s Carrie Full Text Electronic Libary is the brainchild of a frustrated history professor who tired of his printer running out of paper. It constitutes an enormous collection of documents, images, digitized books and manuscripts. For those interested in U.S. history, the Documents for the Study of American History will be the most useful. The archive is not as elaborately organized as others, and has no internal search engine. Nevertheless, any deficiencies in its simple chronological layout produces are well compensated by the sheer size of the archive. It contains nearly 1,000 documents, images or audio files (a rough estimate). These documents, images and audio files range from the 1400’s to President George W. Bush’s 2005 inaugural speech (they obviously update the page often). Along with the chronological format, the presidential terms are marked and separate the documents into groups. This website, nearly 10 years in the making, is an invaluable resource. (BR)

America from the Great Depression to World War II:
Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
"The images in the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information collection are among the most famous documentary photographs ever produced…”
With 160,000 black and white photographs and 1,600 color photographs in the collection, America from the Great Depression to World War II is a great asset to have when looking for good visual aids in the classroom. This site, as with all of the other American Memory websites, is easy to navigate through and find information. The visitor to this site can choose to browse by subject, creator, or geographic location, all good ways of narrowing down the search field. One point of interest worth noting about this site is that there are many photographs of Nebraska during this time period!

America on the Move
http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/
"On the Move explores the role of transportation in American history. Visit communities wrestling with the changes that new transportation networks brought. See cities change, suburbs expand, and farms and factories become part of regional, national, and international economies. Meet people as they travel for work and pleasure, and as they move to new homes."
For those desiring to learn more about transportation and its revolutionary effects on American society, America on the Move is the place to start. Based on an exhibition at the National Museum of American History, this website traces the evolution of transportation from the Early Republic to Modern American History. Images and historical narratives show how transportation methods influenced the size and composition of cities, businesses and commerce throughout the nation, even the types of food that Americans eat. Finally, interactive games make this website enjoyable for younger browsers, while lesson plans proffered on the site can help teachers with in class activities.

America's Wars
http://www.va.gov/pressrel/amwars01.htm
From the Department of Veteran’s Affairs comes the webpage America’s Wars. This page, similar to that of Statistical Summary: America’s Major Wars, has the main function of providing the visitor with statistical data on the topic of war. Some of the statistics that can be found on this page are death statistics, wounded statistics, current living veteran statistics, last living dependents of different wars, last widows of different wars, and estimations of living veterans up through the year 2020. While there is not a lot of information other than statistical, the page would be a good source of information concerning wars, and their veterans.

America’s Story from America’s Library
http://www.americasstory.com
"America's Story from America's Library" wants you to have fun with history while learning at the same time. We want to put the story back in history and show you some things that you've never heard or seen before.”
Presented by the Library of Congress, this site offers information, games, quizzes, and audio/visual material. The America at Play section talks about American leisure and pastimes and has lots of fun activities. The Meet Amazing Americans section deals with a variety of individuals from Buffalo Bill Cody to Duke Ellington and from King Kamehameha I to W.E.B. Du Bois. Throughout the site there are links to audio and video clips that are both informative and very entertaining. The site also helps contextualize the myriad of topics by placing everything on a timeline. If not anything else, this site could provide some fun supplemental material for lessons on almost any topic. (BR)

American Journeys
http://www.americanjourneys.org/index.asp
"Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later."
Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Wisconsin State Historical Society, and National History Day, American Journeys is a website created for the purpose of providing a legion of primary documents and images about the exploration and settlement of the North American continent. With the assistance of renowned historians, this project has collected digital images and reproductions of key documents, pictures, and illustrations in American History. Moreover, the website offers teachers material concerning problematic issues that arise when teaching history (nomenclature, geography, choosing a topic, sensitive content). In the near future, American Journeys will expand this feature to include lesson plans.

American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html
"American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States..."
American Memory, in connection with the Library of Congress, offers a tremendous amount of information in the area of American history. The information, in the form of pictures, text, and audio clips, is easily located. One area of interest on this website is the "Learning Page" where one can find many lesson plans, searchable by either theme or title. Other areas of interest are a "Today in History" area, and a "Featured Collection" area; which for this month is United States Congressional Documents and Debates (1774-1873).

American Studies
http://xroads.virginia.edu
American Studies, from the University of Virginia, offers the visitor many great features. Among the many categories are Hypertexts (W.E.B. Dubois, R.W. Emerson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe), Cultural Maps (including Territorial Expansion, Revolutionary America, and Union Expansion), Museum Exhibits (The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, The World’s Columbian Exposition, etc.), and The 1930s. Another great aspect to this site is that it offers an extensive section pertaining to the history of the United States Capitol building as well as a virtual tour.

American Studies Web
http://lumen.georgetown.edu/projects/asw/
“The American Studies Web is the largest bibliography of web-based resources in the field of American Studies.”
The field of American Studies helps supplement the study of U.S. history with a host of other disciplines and methodologies to produce a broad-based perspective on our past. This portal site has a series of categories and subjects that help narrow search results and lead to the most useful links. There are 28 main subjects including Community Studies, Frontier and Borderlands Studies, History and Historical Culture Studies, Nationalism and Post-nationalism and Working Class and Labor Studies. The sites that are referenced represent a wide range of perspectives and are of excellent quality. This site’s primary value is that it adds numerous other methodologies and approaches that are sometimes not included in history websites.

An American Time Capsule:
Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/pehome.html
"The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. In total the collection comprises 28,000 primary source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American History…”
An American Time Capsule brings together a great collection of advertisements, leaflets, proclamations, timetables (train schedules for example), and many other printed sources from American history. With the ability to search this site by genre, title, author, and geographic location it is easy to locate information. As with other American Memory websites, the information comes in the form of scanned images, making them great for overhead displays or PowerPoint slides. With the wide ranging variety of items covered (a list of deserters from Pennsylvania regiments, Gettysburg, Oct. 6, 1866 among others) this site provides an interesting view of all sides of our country’s past.

America’s Library
http://americaslibrary.gov
"This Web site is brought to you from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the largest library in the world and the nation’s library… Here you can discover what Abe Lincoln had in his pockets on the night he was assassinated… or you can read about other ‘Amazing Americans’ such as Buffalo Bill Cody…”
America’s Library offers a fair amount of information on interesting subjects in American history. This website is broken into distinct main areas, Meet Amazing Americans (Jane Addams, Cesar Chavez, John Joseph Pershing (of Nebraska importance), Duke Ellington, etc…), Jump Back in Time (brief information on time periods such as Colonial America, The Gilded Age, The Depression, etc…), and See, Hear and Sing (among others). One great feature on this website is that in the See, Hear and Sing section one can listen to music such as George M. Cohen’s “Over There” and many other selections. Each musical selection is quick to load, along with historical information about the selection.

Arlington National Cemetery Homepage
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/homepage.htm
With detailed history of its grounds and information of various memorials located within Arlington, the Arlington National Cemetery Homepage is a good resource for anyone seeking information on this specific subject. Developed and maintained by Michael Patterson, the son of a former United States Army officer, the site contains information on such subjects as the cemetery’s history as written by Enoch Aquila Chase in 1929, stereographic photographs of Arlington Cemetery, and a National Geographic article on the Cemetery from 1928. Worth looking at (and listening to) are several nice audio selections from various persons buried on the grounds, including Robert F. Kennedy's remarks about the late Martin Luther King Jr.

Awesome Library
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/history.html
“Awesome Library organizes the Web with 26,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education”
This portal site offers links to hundreds of useful history websites and lesson plans. The links are divided thematically and cover an excellent range of American history. Within each category, the links are divided into Books, Discussions, Lesson Plans, Lists, Materials, Multimedia, Papers, Periodicals, Projects, Purchase Resources, Research, Web Library Sponsors, Sub-topics and Worksheets. Each thematic category offers a selection of these resources and most of them contain a short annotation of what the linked site is. Although it does require a bit of navigating, this portal site is an amazing resource. If the browser puts a little time into looking around, it will definitely pay off in finding lesson plan materials, information and ideas. (BR)

Basic Readings in United States Democracy
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/demo.htm
This website, taken from the book of the same name, offers the viewer a tremendous amount of history through documents and pictures. The strength of this site is that it offers many interesting topics to learn about and teach in the classroom, such as "Industrial America", "On the Road from Slavery to Freedom", "Cold War Issues", and "A More Inclusive America". The information is easily found, and the topics are wide-ranging and interesting.

Belgian-American Research Collection
http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/BelgAmrCol/
&A pilot project was undertaken in 1975-1976 to establish a Belgian-American Ethnic Resource Collection in the Special Collections Department of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Cofrin Library. The objective was to record the undocumented historical, social, and cultural legacy of this unique ethnic group…”
With funding provided by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, the Wisconsin American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, this website offers information pertaining to the Belgian-American Ethnic group. The information that can be located on this site is a good source for tracing the history of Belgians as they immigrated to this country and settled in northeastern Wisconsin. Focusing primarily in the mid 1850s onward, one can view census information from the time period, as well as some of the culture that these people encountered when they arrived, as well as the culture that they helped shape for later generations.

A Biography of America
http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica
"A Biography of America is a telecourse and video series that presents American history as a living narrative…”
Created as the companion website to the video series and telecourse of the same name, A Biography of America does an excellent job at bringing general United States history to the visitor. The information is divided into categories broken down into time periods such as The Coming of Independence, The Civil War, and Industrial Supremacy. Each time period offers key events in the form of a time-line, maps, and a webography (which provides links to sites with primary and secondary source materials related to the specific period). The site is very well organized which makes it very easy to locate information.

A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/brush/exhibition/catalogue.htm
"The portraits in ‘A Brush with History’ date from the 1720s to the 1990s… These paintings, collected by the Gallery because of the sitter’s role in American history and culture, also form a narrative about American portraiture in all its variety…”
A Brush with History, in association with The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, is a very interesting and well thought out site. Easy to navigate through to find information, it allows the visitor a chance to view portraits of many influential people in American history with a brief description of their contribution(s). Among the list of many are Samuel F.B. Morse, Benjamin Franklin, Anne Green, Frederick Douglass, John C. Calhoun, Lena Horne, and Dolly Madison.

Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey…1933-Present
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml/hhhome.html
"The collection documents achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types… including examples as diverse as windmills, one-room schoolhouses…”
Built in America, similar to some other historic building sites, offers the visitor a chance to view many pictures and photographs of historical buildings. One strength of this site is that there is a geographic location index, which allows for a thorough search of nearly any place in America. This government website is nicely laid out, ensuring easy navigation and a chance to view many interesting historic buildings quickly.

The Center of Military History
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/default.htm
&Ever since its formation, CMH has provided historical support to the Army Staff, contributing essential background information for decision making, staff actions, command information programs, and public statements by Army officials. In recent decades it also has progressively expanded its active role in the vital areas of military history education, the management of the Army’s museum systems, and the introduction of automated data retrieval systems.”
Sponsored and maintained by the United States Army, this website houses online publications, electronic images, and explanations of Army regulations. The digital images are divided into artwork and photography. Subjects span from the Spanish-American War to Desert Storm. They have good resolution and depict the wide spectrum of Army activities. Most importantly, the online publications for this website are loaded with information. Browsers can access literature on every major engagement in the History of the United States. The authors of these works—often active or retired servicemen and women—support their arguments with evidence and illustrations, thus making them a good source for online research.

Close Up Foundation
http://www.closeup.org
“Close Up's mission is built on the belief that textbooks and lectures alone are not enough to help students understand the democratic process and make it work.”
The Close Up Foundation website is the nation’s largest nonprofit (501(c)(3)), nonpartisan citizenship education organization which offers civic education programs for high school and middle school students, as well as teachers and adults. This site brings together a tremendous number of digitized full text documents ranging from the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) and the Declaration of Independence (1776), to the Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls (1848) and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963). Also worth noting on this site is the vast amount of links to other civic-related information, such as the Constitution and the three branches of our federal government.

The Connecticut Historical Society
http://www.chs.org
&Established in Hartford in 1825, The Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) is the seventh oldest historical society in the nation and houses one of the most distinguished museum and library collections in New England…”
The Connecticut Historical Society online website offers visitors a series of various online exhibits covering a variety of topics including Connecticut in 1836, Connecticut in the Age of Jazz, and Civil War Treasures (among others). With over 200,000 prints and photographs, as well as 35,000 objects, these online exhibits are very well equipped with lots of visual information. Of particular importance is the section of this website dealing with African Americans and the Civil War.

Cuban Heritage Collection Digital
http://digital.library.miami.edu/chcdigital/chcdigital.shtml
“The CHC brings together in one repository many kinds of materials in different formats, including audiovisual resources, correspondence, illustrations, manuscripts, maps, memorabilia, photographs, postcards, and posters. Here you will find finding aids for our collections of personal and corporate papers and special format materials.”
From the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban-American relations have played a significant role in national history. In contemporary American society, these issues remain in the form of immigration, economic relations, and foreign relations. The Cuban Heritage Collection offers some of this history in the form of primary documents and photographs of Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Cuban exiles living in the United States. The Manuel R. Bustamonte Collection contains beautiful images of Cuban society, landscape, and industry. The Tomás Estrada Palma Collection offers viewers stunning images of the Presidential Palace in Havana. Primary documents are found in abundance at this site, some in English and others in Spanish. For students and teachers seeking to learn more about Cuban culture, CHC Digital provides bibliographic sources.

Cultural Maps
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Map/map_hp.html
"Cultural Maps is dedicated to the graphical presentation of non-graphical info'"
For those looking to incorporate more visuals into their classroom to complement their information, this site has some good maps. One area of strength for this site is that it has great maps showing the expansion of the territories (in order by date). Depending on how you view it and what you are presenting, the fact that this site tends to be concentrating on the Virginia area for most of its material can either be good or bad.

Digital History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston.”
A combined project of the University of Houston, Chicago Historical Society, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and Project for the Active Teaching of American History (PATH), this information source is extensive. Digital History provides its readers with a massive list of materials including, but not limited to, a digital textbook and encyclopedia; images, pictures, interactive games and activities, and political cartoons (good for research or sheer enjoyment); lesson plans; primary documents; and a guide on writing and researching history. The latter item on this list captures the interest of those acquainted with typical on-line resources. A website offering capable suggestions and guidelines on researching and writing history is a rarity. The lessons teach students and novices valuable tools such as choosing a topic, finding primary sources, locating information in journals, and utilizing archives and local institutions. Finally, Digital History contains links to other websites and organizations. Overall, this site is a useful and easily accessible source of information.

DiscoverySchool.com
http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/index.html
In association with the Discovery Channel, DiscoverySchool.com brings a great collection of lesson plans to the Internet. This site has hundreds of original lesson plans “written by teachers for teachers” that can be located either using a pull-down menu, or by browsing by subject or grade. Some of the many lesson plans that can viewed and implemented are The Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court, Japanese-Americans of WWII, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Korean War, and The Cold War and Beyond. With its great search feature and vast collection of lesson plans this site is a great asset for classroom instruction.

Douglass Archives of American Public Address
http://douglassarchives.org/
“Douglass is an electronic archive of American oratory and related documents. It is intended to serve general scholarship and courses in American rhetorical history at Northwestern University.”
The Douglass Archives of American Public Address hold a good selection of important speeches in U.S history from John Winthrop in 1625 to George W. Bush in 2003. These speeches can be searched by author, title, chronology or issue (topic). In addition to these speeches, the site provides an extensive list of links to off-site “speeches, documents and resources across the Web.” These links are divided and grouped chronologically and can be easily navigated. Under the U.S. History link this site also provides the text of An Outline of American History, one of the oldest continuing publications of the United States Information Agency (USIA). This survey of U.S. History serves as an excellent source for background information and for understanding broad historical trends. This site is a great source for historic speeches, information on U.S. history and links to other useful sites. (BR)

EdSitement: History and Social Studies
http://edsitement.neh.gov/tab_lesson.asp?subjectArea=3
"From the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities… Bring online educational resources from some of the world’s great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to your classroom…”
This website offers many valuable tools and features for the educator, with its most valuable feature being its wide array of lesson plans in the area of history. The collection is far-ranging from “We Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address”, “Was There an Industrial Revolution?: Americans At Work Before the Civil War”, Attitudes Toward Emancipation”, to “Oh, Say, Can You See What the Star-Spangled Banner Means?” As a precaution however (as with all on-line lesson plans), it would be advisable to check to links in the lesson plans themselves as sites tend to regularly change url addresses or fold altogether.

Education World
http://www.educationworld.com/a_sites/archives/history.shtml
Education World is a website that has located other good websites focusing on different areas of history such as the Civil War, Holocaust, American Revolution, United States presidents, and women in history. Other points of interest about this site are article archives where one can find teacher submitted lesson plans, and articles and tips on incorporating technology into the classroom. Also, there are subject resources like time-lines, worksheets, games, and activities for downloadable classroom use.

The Educator’s Reference Desk: Resources Guide
http://www.eduref.org
“While the U.S. Department of Education will discontinue the AskERIC service December 19th, you will still have access to the resources you've come to depend upon. Through The Educator's Reference Desk (http://www.eduref.org) you can access AskERIC's 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses.”
The Educator’s Reference Desk is a teacher’s paradise for lesson plans, resource guides, and of course, access to ERIC. Lesson plans are easily accessed and contain some wonderful activities. Students should find the Indian Leather Painting and Roanoke Mystery lessons entertaining. If a teacher prefers research oriented assignments to group activities, the site provides a myriad of choices. Overall, this is an exceptional tool for research and lesson planning. It is definitely worth book marking.

Emigration and Immigration
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/unit19/unit19.html
The five lesson plans on this website (from the Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis Max Kade German-American Center) are intended for grades 7-12. They are all focused on German immigrants to the U.S. but touch on a good range of topics that are relevant to all immigrant groups; namely, the reasons for and against immigrating, immigrant success, failure and experiences in the U.S., things immigrants brought with them and even how immigration affected the country from which they left. The lesson include some, though not many, primary documents for analysis. Nevertheless, the lessons ask important questions from students and help them evaluate the complicated issues of immigration and its effects and implications for societies and individuals. Any part of these lessons would make a great introduction to the subject of U.S. immigration in the past centuries. (BR)

Encyclopaedia of USA History:
Immigration to the United States of America 1840-1960
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAimmigration.htm
The Encyclopaedia of United States History, from The Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia, offers an interesting look into European Emigration to the United States from 1829-1920. An interesting feature of this site is that it offers statistics on immigration and occupation, immigration and crime, and immigration and literacy (among others). By providing information on events and issues dealing with immigrants such as the Haymarket Bombing and The Red Scare (1919-20), this site effectively provides the visitor with a complete look into the lives and influence(s) of immigrants.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement: 1850 - 1920
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amrvhtml/conshome.html
“The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 documents the historical formation and cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress. The collection consists of 62 books and pamphlets, 140 Federal statutes and Congressional resolutions, 34 additional legislative documents, excerpts from the Congressional Globe and the Congressional Record, 360 Presidential proclamations, 170 prints and photographs, 2 historic manuscripts, and 2 motion pictures.”
The synopsis above, taken from the Library of Congress website, makes clear the impressive content of this virtual exhibit. The most obvious value are the number and range of primary documents dealing with the Conservation Movement. The time period spans 70 years and organizes the content into a timeline. Within the timeline is information about events and links to the aforementioned primary sources. The events in the timeline are described in an easily understandable fashion and the primary sources are an excellent supplement. The exhibit may also be searched by a number of parameters and is easily navigable. This is a great blend of primary documents with the necessary background information and historical context.

Eye Witness to History: History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/
This is one of the most user-friendly and informative collections of primary documents available on the Internet. It includes both the primary documents and background information to help contextualize the primary sources. The documents are all eyewitness accounts of the different historical events. Each entry first gives historical background, then introduces the eyewitness and then gives their account. Citations for the primary sources are provided. The documents are split up into chronological and thematic categories. The “Voices from the 20th Century” has a good selection of audio clips including presidential speeches, the crash of the Hindenburg and many others. The Snapshots offers similar glimpses into history through photographs. The presentation of primary documents in this contextualized fashion is an excellent resource. The casual browser could easily spend hours reading and exploring the fascinating content presented on this site. (BR)

Famous Trials (by Doug Linder 2002)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm
This is yet another site created by Doug Linder (professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City) that deals with, as the site title suggests, famous trials in American history. Some of the different trials to chose from (among many) are the Salem witch trials of 1692, the Lincoln assassination trial of 1865, the Johnson impeachment trial of 1868, the Lindbergh baby trial of 1935, and the O.J. Simpson trial of 1995. What makes this site so good is the fact that with all of the trials there are trial records, evidence, and even pictures or images (depending on how long ago the trial was). With so much information to view on this site it would definitely be worth visiting if a mock trial were being considered for the classroom!

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
http://www.ed.gov/free
This website offers a very good way of locating quality websites in many different areas. Operating as the government's education website, one can easily locate sites by subject, but also many different topics within each different subject. Typing in a search query, a list of links quickly appears (many of which are links to other government history websites). As this website was, and continues to be geared towards helping educators across the nation, it would be worth accessing for information.

The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/icuhtml/
"The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West…”
In association with the Library of Congress, American Memory, and the University of Chicago Library, The First American West offers the visitor great primary documents. With the ability to search by subject, name, title, theme, or keyword, information is easily and quickly located. On this site one can find maps, documents, pictures, and even pictures of historical documents (i.e. book pages, etc.) serving to offer many sources of primary documents for the classroom.

From Revolution to Reconstruction . . . and what happened afterwards
Site URL: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/index.htm
This database of primary documents concerning American History began as a classroom project at the University of Goningen, Department of Humanities Computing. Since its inception in 1994, the project has grown through the work of Dr. George M. Welling and his various teams of students. Visiting the website, browsers can read and reference a number of historical documents ranging from the Magna Carta to President George W. Bush’s inaugural speech. The site is user friendly and constantly updated. Overall, this website is a great resource tool for students and teachers of history.

TheGateway.org
http://www.thegateway.org
Gateway to Educational MaterialsSM is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.”
TheGateway.org is a portal website for teachers looking for on-line educational materials. Provided by the U.S. Department of Education, this site links teachers with other government, non-profit, commercial, and private websites for all disciplines at all levels. The websites vary from text-oriented to interactive. The organization of TheGateway.org provides a fast, efficient means of surfing the internet for valuable and helpful materials.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. Increasingly national and international in scope, the Institute’s initiatives target audiences ranging from students to scholars to the general public.”
This website contains a wide range of useful resources for teachers, students, and history fanatics. From the digital collections, readers can access original documents, letters, literature, and artwork. The Lehrman collection spans a significant portion of American history, and the digital reproductions are of a very high quality. In addition to general information and special collections, teachers visiting the site will discover a wide variety of lesson plans. They generally include easy-to-follow outlines; an overview of the time period; primary documents; reading assignments accompanied by review questions; high quality pictures; quizzes; timelines; detailed maps; a recommended readings list; and the sources utilized while formulating the lesson plan. The daily assignments focus on instructing students in the proper use of archives, databases, primary and secondary sources, and other history resources. Moreover, the activities are group-oriented to nurture social skills and teamwork.

Great Lakes Maritime History Project
http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/GreatLakes/
state of Wisconsin has a proud and colorful history. One of its richest and most romantic chapters is its maritime history, staged on the waters of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, on hundreds of smaller lakes and a whole network of rivers. Much of that fascinating story has been captured in photography and art and this web site brings to the public eye some of its highlights.”
The collaborative effort of various Wisconsin state agencies, Great Lakes Maritime History Project visually reveals the story of maritime activity on Wisconsin waters. The web site provides browsers with quality visual images and a small collection of videos. Perusing the various snapshots, one realizes the breadth of activity that occurred on these lakes and rivers. When addressing the role of maritime traffic in frontier trading, state settlement, colonization, and modern industry in the Great Lake states, these images magnify the dynamic nature of these processes. Great Lakes Maritime History Project also provides its visitors with links to other Wisconsin historical societies. It would be well worth the reader’s time to visit these links, as some contain historical documents, newspaper articles, government documents, and images.

Herblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/
“From the stock market crash in 1929 through the new millennium beginning in the year 2000, editorial cartoonist Herb Block has chronicled the nation’s political history, caricaturing twelve American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.”
An excellent way to help students understand differing viewpoints on complex political issues and historical events is to use political cartoons. They help illustrate (literally) ideas that can otherwise be confusing and fail to interest students. Through poignant humor and wit, political cartoons can help provoke discussion and debate among students and add a valuable learning opportunity to the classroom. Over the past 70 years, cartoonist Herb Block has been at the forefront of this field. He has been awarded four Pulitzer prizes, and now has an entire exhibit dedicated to his cartoons in the Library of Congress. This website features many of these cartoons. They are organized both chronologically and thematically. A wide range of topics is treated and this collection could supplement most major topics in 20th century American history. BR

Historical Census Browser
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/
“The data presented here describe the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960. The available data differ somewhat from decade to decade, according to what was collected in the census and the items chosen for transcription to electronic form. For the early decades, most of the characteristics have been transcribed.”
This website is an amazing resource, especially for students to which accessing Census data may seem a daunting task. This website allows you to choose a census year, pick variables and view the results. Once those results are processed, variables can be added or deleted to further expand or focus the results. Variables such as General Populations Education, Economy, Ethnicity, Agriculture and Slave Population can be traced over time and compared by region, age, gender and other variables. This usage of this website would make for an excellent assignment or paper. It allows students to easily access and analyze census information and could be easily incorporated into a challenging assignment. BR

History Channel Network
http://network.historychannel.com/?AID=1035073&PID=303712
"Welcome to the HistoryChannel.com Network, a collection of the web's best history sites, indexed all in one place."
There are few history websites out there that can compare with the quality of historychannel.com, but those that are of good quality are identified here. On the History Channel Network the history channel has previewed and approved websites they feel are of good quality. With a lot of different categories to choose from, and even more websites listed in each category, this website offers everything from general to very specific history categories. This website in one worth looking in to, just keep in mind that it is a web portal and sites can change their content in a second, making the task of monitoring their quality very difficult (even with the approval of the history channel).

A History Teacher’s Bag of Tricks
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/index.shtml
“This website brings you a collection of assignments Marchand used in his university classroom. These "Documentary Source Problems" encouraged students to become historians and use their own analytical skills to determine what happened in history. The assignments provide students with a collection of primary sources from which they can deduce the events of the past.”
Roland Marchand was a teacher at the University of California-Davis. This website includes lesson plans of Marchand’s as well as numerous other resources. The lesson plans skillfully incorporate primary documents into the classroom. The lesson plans deal with a good variety of topics and are provided for university, high school and middle school levels. The Slide Archive provides thousands and thousands of categorized images that would greatly enhance any lesson. The images cover the full range of U.S. History, culture and life. This site offers high quality information that is well organized and ready for classroom use. (BR)

History Matters
http://historymatters.gmu.edu
"Designed for High School and college teachers of United States History courses. This site serves as a gateway to Web resources and offers useful materials for teaching United States history..."
History Matters, by George Mason University, presents the viewer with a tremendous amount of information on nearly any subject for American history. The amount of material though is not overwhelming at all. What makes this site so useful is that the search function for this site is one of the best around. Not only can you choose a general topic to look for, but you can also choose sub-areas from that general topic, thereby narrowing your search and making it all the more specific and helpful.

History Now
http://www.historynow.org/03_2005/index.html
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History presents here their quarterly journal, History Now. Issues of the journal each focus on a certain aspect of American History. Now on its 3rd issue, the topics covered so far have been Elections, Slavery and Primary Sources, and Immigration. Each issue contains articles from well renowned historians, lesson plans submitted by teachers and interactive activities or resources. In addition, there is also a question and answer forum with the archivist and list of useful online resources relevant to the issue’s topic. The lesson plans and interactive resources will definitely be useful and interesting for teachers. However, the scholarly articles should not be overlooked. They represent excellent scholarship and provide the strong historical background and context needed for understanding and teaching these topics.

A Hypertext on American History
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/usa.htm
"...a World Wide Web-site dedicated to the pre-World War I history of the United States of America..."
A Hypertext on American History, maintained and managed by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, offers a unique experience. Not only are there many documents pertaining to United States history, but there are also essays written on many subjects, which serve to offer some non-American, global perspectives on American matters. The information on this site is easy to locate as it is organized by time period and subject.

Immigration: The Changing Face of America
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/immigration_set1.html
“This feature presentation links educators to primary sources from the Library of Congress' online collections. These Web resources can make history come alive for students! The feature provides an introduction to the study of immigration to the United States. It is far from the complete story, and focuses only on the immigrant groups that arrived in greatest numbers during the 19th and early 20th centuries.”
As conceded by this website’s overview, it is only an introduction to U.S. immigration. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth looking at as it goes far beyond an average cursory introduction. Along the left hand side of the main page there are small images that link to different nationalities of immigrants. Within each section, the story of that group’s immigration to the United States is summarized. These presentations are enhanced by the inclusion of primary source materials from the Library of Congress (mainly images). Other Library of Congress websites with relevant information are also linked within these summaries. The historical information and explanations give an excellent picture of the reasons for, modes of and diverse groups that participated in U.S. immigration. Other features include several interactive games provided for students about the “Irish” language and Native American place names, interviews with recent U.S. immigrants, an international cookbook and a few excellent teacher lesson plans. This website is indeed an excellent introduction to U.S. immigration and offers many avenues for more in-depth investigation and interest. (BR)

The Innocents Abroad
http://library.thinkquest.org/C006287/
The Innocents Abroad is a discussion of how American foreign policy has been shaped by the men who made it and the unique political environment they made it in…”
As another ThinkQuest website created by pre-collegiate students, The Innocents Abroad does a good job at presenting specific, topical information in an easy-to-follow site format. The visitor to this site can view the information not only in chronological order (represented in a timeline), but also by specific name(s). There is an in-depth section with key events that the timeline does not have room to address, as well as a section for Policy Today. Of particular interest on this website is a section of online resources for the educator with external site links to lesson plans.

International Quilt Study Center
http://www.quiltstudy.org
“The INTERNATIONAL QUILT STUDY CENTER was established to encourage the interdisciplinary study of all aspects of quiltmaking and to foster preservation of this tradition. The IQSC's mission is two-fold: to study those past and present who have practiced the tradition, the objects they have made and the materials they have used, and to collect, conserve and exhibit quilts and associated textiles.”
Founded by the Department of Textile, Clothing, and Design in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska, the International Quilt Study Center houses over 1,650 quilts from around the world. The program started in April 1997 with the Ardis and Robert James Collection. Since then, the center has received the Robert & Helen Cargo Collection, the Sarah Miller Amish Crib Quilt Collection, and the Jonathan Holstein Quilt Collection. The International Quilt Study Center employs an interdisciplinary approach to study quilts as an art form, and to understand the spiritual and artistic significance of these textiles. The website reflects the breadth of this collection. For those interested in this subject, the IQSC provides dates and information on new exhibits, conferences, and collections. The site also has a search engine that allows visitors to see the vast array of quilts. Although there are a few images with unclear resolution, the majority of the digital pictures reveal breathtaking quilts of various themes and cultural origins. While this website is relatively new, the content offers browsers a relatively in depth view of the world of quilt making. Hopefully, future additions to the site will give the browsers a general overview of the quilts, as well as a guide to understanding their meanings.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
“The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is one of a series of history primary sourcebooks. It is intended to serve the needs of teachers and students in college survey courses in modern European history and American history, as well as in modern Western Civilization and World Cultures.”
This site covers a wide variety of subjects, countries, and time periods. Nonetheless, American history students and teachers can benefit greatly from its resources. Speeches from World War II leaders, charters from British colonies in the Americas, or general American History documents are found on this website in an easily referenced, easily accessed format. Moreover, the designers provide links to images, maps, and audio/visual format. For instance, browsers can access pre-1920 Victrola recordings from one of the links. Last but not least, teachers can accentuate their lectures or group activities by using the primary materials located on this site. Overall, a great, comprehensive website on modern history.

The Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org
The Internet Public Library basically provides visitors with an on-line library of electronic sources and links to various sites. For teachers and students, this site has much to offer. First, the IPL search engine quickly locates other websites that house primary and secondary sources. Second, students at all levels can use IPL to hone their writing, research, and study skills. There is an especially nice selection under the “TeenSpace” topic that helps high school students learn how to write a research paper or project, and how to overcome some of the dread that comes with large projects. Overall, this is a wonderful site.

The Learning Page
http://learning.loc.gov/learn
"The Learning Page is designed to help educators use the American Memory Collections to teach history and culture…”
The Learning Page, was created with the intent of helping educators with all of the many American Memory websites that have been produced on various topics. Pertaining to individual American Memory sites, one can find lesson plans, featured activities (including interactive puzzles and learning games), and guided questions. One interesting aspect to this site is that it offers advice and tips on how to construct lesson plans with primary documents and historians’ sources from the American Memory collections.

Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies
http://www.csun.edu/%7Ehcedu013/plans.html#Lesson%20Plans
The Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies website is another site that offers many lesson plans for the social studies teacher. With lessons ranging from “Age of Imperialism” and “Amistad Case” to “Women in World History”, one would be able to find a lesson on anything that they are looking for. There is no search function on the site so all of the lessons will take a while to look through (as they are all on one page). Nonetheless, some great lesson plans can be found on this site, so the time spent scrolling through them all is worth it.

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web
http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/online-Exhibitions/
“This site features links to online exhibitions that have been created by libraries, archives, and historical societies, as well as to museum online exhibitions with a significant focus on library and archival materials.”
A project of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, this site links the browser to libraries across the country. These online exhibits include “printed books, book illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, printed ephemera, posters, archival audio and video recordings, artist's books, and the book arts (engraving, marbling, and bookbinding)” and more. They are searchable by subject and are also listed alphabetically. Through this portal site, you can visit libraries across the country and enjoy exhibits on a wide variety of topics. (BR)

The Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov
The Library of Congress online site can effectively be used as the main page for other sites like The Learning Page and the American Memory Collections. The search engine on this site is of great value as it searches government databases to find the most accurate and pertinent information. With links to places such as America’s Library, and Online Galleries and Exhibits, the visitor should be able to find the information sought.

The LOC.gov Wise Guide
http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide
The Library of Congress has partnered with the Ad Council to create the "Wise Guide," a monthly look at links to the best of the Library's online materials. Currently, the site has eight archived issues with one current edition. In these editions visitors can follow links to various materials from the vast resources collected by the government. As an example, in the current edition one can view information dealing with Father's Day, John Philip Sousa, and an amusing collection of dance instruction manuals from 1490 to 1920. This site would be helpful for anyone who would like to keep up to date on current online materials offered by our federal government’s sponsored websites.

Links to the Past: National Park Service Cultural Resources
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history.htm
"Today, more than half of the 386 park areas administered by the National Park Service have been set aside as symbols and evidence of our history and prehistory."
The main goal of this website is to offer the visitor history of the United States through the many American national parks. There is quite a bit of information on this website, and as the individual park histories vary, the information found here is interesting and just as varied. This website does offer a new way to look at our country's history by reconnecting our national landmarks with their own personal stories.

Making of America
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu
"Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction..."
Making of America is an excellent resource for an educator looking to provide primary sources to their students in the classroom. The search feature on this website allows the visitor to not only search through books, but also journals. Once a search has been performed the visitor can view their information via scanned pages stored digitally. The page images are clear, and would print out nicely for classroom use. With 3,166,450 pages and 3,166,450 volumes in their holdings, there is a great chance of finding what you are looking for.

Map Collections
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
If anyone is looking for maps to enhance a presentation, this site is tremendous. Not only is the viewer able to look at historical maps and pictures of cities and towns, but also conservation/environment, military battles and campaigns, and general maps. What distinguishes this site however is that the viewer can zoom in on any area of any map for a closer, more detailed picture. This serves to produce very content-specific maps!

Massachusetts Historical Society
http://www.masshist.org/welcome
“In the two centuries since the founding of the MHS, its mission has remained constant: to collect, preserve, and communicate historical information about Massachusetts and the nation to the widest possible audience.”
The Massachusetts Historical Society website surveys a wide spectrum of the state’s history. Utilizing primary documents, pictures, illustrations, maps, and narratives, this site gives browsers an introduction to the defining events of Massachusetts history, and in some cases, American History. Also, teachers can access a lesson plan on John Quincy Adams. The lesson plan is applicable for an individual or classroom setting, and the web team has provided the necessary text and images. Finally, this site deserves high marks for accessibility. Browsers should experience minimal difficulty finding what they need here.

Matrix
http://matrix.msu.edu
at Michigan State University, MATRIX is devoted to the application of new technologies in humanities and social science teaching and research. The Center creates and maintains online resources, provides training in computing and new teaching technologies, and creates forums for the exchange of ideas and expertise in new teaching technologies.”
Michigan State University has accomplished much over the years in terms of their technological application of historical resources. Matrix is another step in this long process of merging history and technology. Although the browser will not find a massive database filled with images or primary documents at this site, they will find something arguably better—links to the other projects and databases sponsored or created by MSU. Among the many links, visitors will find the Studs Terkle project, Historica Voices.org, H-Quilts, Quilt index, The Internet and Women’s Democratic Organizing, and many others. Should internet search engines fail to produce the desired result, or if a browser simply wants to see what new creation MSU has produced, Matrix is a good place to start.

Mr. Donn’s US History
http://members.aol.com/MrDonnHistory/American.html
Mr. Donn’s US History website was designed and is maintained by a fellow educator. The website that he has produced has by far the most lesson plans seen in one collection. The site itself requires some scrolling and searching as there is no search functionality, but the content of the site more than makes up for the extra time involved in looking for specific information. There are many subjects covered ranging from “Key Dates - American West's Expansion Timeline” and “The French and Indian War Unit” to “Teddy Roosevelt” (with a Teacher's Guide) and the “Lewis and Clark Thematic Unit.” The lesson plans located on this site are thorough in nature and include all the print materials needed to complete them, so this site is one worth taking the time to look at.

NARA Archival Research Catalog
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/
“The Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries.”
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Archival Research Catalog links you to descriptions of 982,221 cubic feet of holdings. This represents only 20% of the NARA’s holdings and they aim to continue adding to what is available online. The database is searchable by time period, type or location. One drawback is that not all of the records are available to view digitally. Thankfully, there is an adjoining catalog, the Access to Archival Databases (ADD) system, that contains only digital resources. The enormity of the archives assures that resources can be found for most topics in American History. Many of these come in series, containing numerous documents that could be incorporated into lesson plans and classroom activities. (BR)

NARA: United States National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov
"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent federal agency that preserves our nation's history and defines us as a people by overseeing the management of all federal records..."
Admittedly, this site is somewhat confusing to navigate through, but having said that there is a good "Digital Classroom" section where one can find lesson plans for teachers to utilize in the classroom. One good aspect to this website is in its search features. The visitor can not only search textual records for information, but also microfilm; at the same time providing information on how to access and/or order the information (such as the microfilm). This site also allows access to the Archival Retrieval Catalog (ARC), a very good system for locating congressional records and digital images.

National Center for History in the Schools
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/
National Center for History in the Schools has published over sixty teaching units that are the fruits of collaborations between history professors and experienced teachers of both United States and World History.”
The National Center for History in the Schools website offers teachers teaching units based on primary sources taken from government documents, newspapers, literature, and other art. The lesson plans found on this site are well thought out and thorough in their coverage of the time period addressed. The only drawback to this site is that the lesson plans themselves are not free. For a small charge a teacher would be purchasing a quality lesson plan or teaching unit that has been approved by many other teachers over the years. Also on this site for download are teaching standards for teachers.

National Child Labor Committee Collection
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/nclchtml/nclcabt.html
Made possible by the Library of Congress, the National Child Labor Collection contains 5,000 photographs of child laborers in America. These photos display a wide range of occupations held by children. When looking through the collection, browsers can use a search engine or filter through the indexes (general, geographic location, photographer). Finally, the site provides information about copyright policies and the process for ordering copies of photos.

National Museum of American History: Virtual Exhibitions
http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/category.cfm?category=online
This site has many very good features. Its greatest strength lies in its selection of virtual exhibits. The topics are wide ranging and interesting, ranging from "A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the Constitution" and "Photographing History: Fred I. Maroon and the Nixon Years, 1970-1974" to "July 1942: United We Stand" (a collection of the numerous depictions of the American flag in WWII). The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has effectively assembled a website with a lot of interesting historical subjects that can be presented to a classroom in an exciting presentation.

National Park Service Data Information
http://www.nps.gov/gis/data_info/clearinghouse.html
National Park Service Data and Information Web site contains several helpful links for data related to the Parks.”
The National Park Service Data Information Web site offers the visitor national and regional data sets in such areas as civil war and land status, local/regional historic and scenic trails, and information on the Virgin Islands. All of the information is in a well-designed and easily “browseable” format that utilizes an interactive map, making information retrieval very quick whether you are looking for general or specific state information. Some of the more interesting information can be found in the Civil War section that contains information on battery positions, burials, forts, guns, historical campsites, and the railroad.

Nebraska Studies
http://www.nebraskastudies.org/
“Nebraskastudies.org offers teachers, students, and history buffs access to archival photos, documents, letter, video segments, maps and more – capturing the life and history of Nebraska from pre-1500 to the present.”
This is by far one of the best websites on Nebraska history. It not only offers some amazing resources, but it does so in a very organized and easily navigable way. The site is set up on a timeline stretching from pre-1500 to the present. Within each segment there is a timeline featuring important events in Nebraska history as well as corresponding events on the national and international scene. Each topic includes extensive historical analysis, primary documents, stories, images and audio/visual resources. The Tools section provides teachers some useful worksheets and resources on interpreting and understanding primary documents. There is also a Teacher Resources section that provides full lesson plans complete with primary documents, worksheets, student assignments and quizzes. Teachers will find here not only ideas for lesson topics, but also background information for their own understanding and more than enough resources for bringing it into the classroom. The site should definitely be examined by any teacher wanting to teach lessons on almost any topic in Nebraska history. BR

The New Americans
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/
“Follow a diverse group of immigrants and refugees as they leave their home and families behind and learn what it means to be new Americans in the 21st century.”
Based on a PBS series, this website gives a rich and fascinating glimpse into the current events of a historic and integral part of U.S. History – immigration. One of the best ways to understand historical phenomena is to investigate their current counterparts, and immigration is a subject in which this technique works especially well. The issues, trials and problems faced by U.S. immigrants in centuries past are still faced today by the immigrants entering our country. On this website there are interactive activities, audio and video clips from the series, immigrant stories and an excellent section on immigrant culture. Most useful are the set of lesson plans found under the “For Teachers” section. The questions asked of students in these lesson plans do an excellent job of helping them relate and connect with peoples they are separated from by culture, experiences and time. Nearly all of the United States has a recent immigrant past, and these lesson plans, TV series and website can help us better understand that past.

New York Times on the Web Learning Center Lesson Plan Archive
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/archive.html
“Teachers can access a daily lesson plan for grades 6-12, written in partnership with The Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Each lesson plan and the article it references can be printed out for classroom use. Previous lessons are available in the archive and in thematic lesson plan units.”
This collection of lesson plans is searchable by keyword and easily browsed by topic. These features are particularly useful as many of the lessons plans are outside the realm of American History. The lesson plans usually involve interactive discussions, role-plays and simulations. One aspect that sets these lesson plans apart from others is the incorporation of current events into study of past. Many take historical events to explore current affairs, or vice versa. Topics range from Native American Art, to politics, to international relations, but the majority deal with modern U.S. History. This site could be used as a good resource for new ideas and perspectives on how to present U.S. history. (BR)

Our Documents
http://www.ourdocuments.gov
This new site, consisting primarily at the moment of constitutional history information, will be adding three new documents weekly from their list of the “100 Milestone Documents” (documents that have influenced the course of human history). This site has high resolution images with pertinent text and history in PDF format making it easily printed. The downside to this is the large file sizes and thus the long time taken to download the files. Also worth mentioning is the section on this website titled the Teacher’s Toolbox, which will provide key resources for working with the 100 milestone documents in the classroom.

An Outline of American History
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/history/toc.htm
"'An Outline Of American History' is one of the oldest continuing publications of the United States Information Agency (USIA) the entire volume has been extensively revised by the staff editors."
An Outline of American History-online offers all of the information from the textbook in an easy to follow (and locate) format. This website is very well organized; it not only breaks the information down by chapter headings, but also into individual subjects from each chapter. Because it is so well organized, this site and content would make a great quick-reference guide for educators and students. With so much information offered, this site is helpful in finding not only constitutional history, but also general American history.

PBS – American Experience
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/index.html
“As television's longest-running, most-watched history series, American Experience brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that helped form this nation. American Experience Online premiered in November of 1995 and has since won accolades from viewers and critics alike. To date, American Experience Online has produced over 85 feature sites.”
This resource is valuable as a companion to the PBS American Experience programs or simply as a resource website. Be sure to check first with the season schedule to see what programs are going to be run soon on your local PBS station. The program sites are listed thematically, alphabetically, and chronologically. They can also be searched by keyword. Within each site there are primary documents, biographies and often games, video clips and other multimedia resources. There is a good selection of topics so it should be easy to find something of interest. This site would be great for students to learn about new topics and find out what events in history interest them the most. If coupled with a viewing of one of the programs, the teacher resources would prove very helpful to facilitate good classroom activities. BR

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/
“Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts) on the Internet. Our collection of more than 13,000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.”
Literature and intellectual thought have played an important role in the formation and evolution of American culture and ultimately our history. This archive is an excellent resource for utilizing literature in classroom settings. From the 13,000 books that are digitized here, there are certain to be many useful titles relevant to a host of U.S. history subjects. Some of the more famous American authors found here include Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and hundreds of others. There are also some audio e-books, digitized sheet music, presidential inaugural addresses and historically significant speeches. The search engine makes navigating and finding useful titles simple and easy. The use of these texts would be an excellent way to give new perspectives on historical events and trends. The story of American history is much more that dates and names, and these titles can help fill in and animate that story.

Rubistar Home
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
is a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics but does not have the time to develop them from scratch.”
Although not necessarily a website dedicated to history, teachers can definitely benefit from this resource. A rubric is a set of criteria that teachers use to help grade assignments and clarify the student’s responsibilities in its completion. Because history often depends on a combination of personal interpretation and documented facts, grading objectively sometimes seems almost impossible. With rubrics, this obstacle in teaching history does not seem such an impassable barrier. Rubistar has a program that helps teachers swiftly generate a rubric for his or her classroom needs. Part of the 4teachers.org website and maintained by Al Tec at the University of Kansas, this resource is accessible and user-friendly. Teachers should not have difficulties with this website. Nonetheless, the website creators also included a tutorial session for anyone unfamiliar with the program.

September 21, 1939: A Day In Radio
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s2/Radio/day/radio.html
September 21, 1939: A Day In Radio is a website that offers the visitor access to one full day of radio programming from 1939. From sign-on in the early morning to the last show of the evening this site gives a small peek into the times and lives of Americans over 60 years ago. Among the daily programming one can find news, music (orchestra and big band primarily), and radio shows. This site allows students a small glimpse into the past by providing them with an audio primary source that is interesting and engaging.

Smithsonian Education
http://educate.si.edu
"Smithsonian educational materials emphasize inquiry-based learning with primary sources and museum collections. We provide photographs and reproductions, guidelines for working with them, and links to other online resources…”
The Smithsonian Education website brings to the educator valuable tools in the area of teaching with museum resources. The visitor to this site can find lesson plans, in school activities, and a resource bank with websites to help the educator with the materials. The Educators Tool Kit section is a great feature to this site that allows the educator to download worksheets which serve to help students get the most out of any museum visit, and also to view ways of including the museum information into the classroom (such as Creating a Classroom Exhibit, or Creating a Classroom Museum).

Smithsonian National Museum of American History
http://americanhistory.si.edu/
Brought to you by the Smithsonian National Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History offers some great online virtual exhibitions. These exhibitions include both pictures and educator sections on such topics as September 11, West Point, July 1942, and the American presidency. The information is easily located thanks to a great timeline that uses objects from the museum’s own collection as visual markers. With a great search function, in coordination with the timeline feature, this website makes researching for information, pictures, visual aids, etc. pertaining to American history quick and easy.

Social Studies
http://www.ed.gov/free/s-social.html
than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site…”
If an educator is looking for resources and lesson plans in the area of the social studies, this site would be a great place to visit. With new teaching and learning resources added monthly, this website is continuously expanding to better aid educators. This website offers Gateway to Educational Materials, “which offers a database of more than 17,000 education resources across more than 100 websites.” Some specific social studies areas include civics, history, state history, the U.S. Constitution, U.S. government, and U.S. history.

The Social Studies Education Home Page
http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/sse/index.html
The goal of this web site is to provide a platform for the Wayne State University Social Studies Education students and faculty to reach out to the educational community at large with instructional ideas and research findings.”
Brought to you by Wayne State University, this site has a limited amount of lesson and unit plans, but a fair number of links to other resources. The links themselves are to other websites, but the other websites for the most part are credible and respected sites with many lesson plans of their own. This website includes not only lesson plans dealing with American History (focusing on Civil Rights and Native American histories), but also an “Ideas for Classroom Teachers” section which provides practical advice and information for preservice teachers as well as those already in the field of teaching.

The Social Studies Help Center
http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/index.html
Social Studies help for the 11th grade American History and 12th grade Economics and AP Government. There are class notes, numerous Supreme Court case summaries and information on how to write a research paper inside.”
David K. Miller, a teacher of 12 years and recently promoted assistant principal, started this website six years ago to help his students with their social studies classes. Since its inception, it has grown to include information ranging from American History to AP American Government. History materials include narratives about the major issues, periods, and events, which are reinforced with a variety of primary documents. Also, students looking to supplement their class notes can find resources here, since portions of his material come in the form of outlines. Just as important, Mr. Miller offers his visitors information on writing a research paper and documenting sources. Teachers also stand to gain from this website. There is a section with sample rubrics for general assignments or thematic papers. Finally, Miller supplements his website by providing links to others.

Social Studies Sources
http://education.indiana.edu/%7Esocialst/
page is designed for K-12 social studies teachers and students. It also has information and topics that are useful to pre-service social studies instructors and students.”
With content areas of General History, Government/Politics, Geography/Culture, News Sources, Cultural Diversity, and U.S. History, the Social Studies Sources website offers teachers excellent lesson plans in all of the categories, but of particular interest are the lesson plans in the U.S. History section. Along with the lesson plans, this site offers links to other credible websites (like American Memory from the Library of Congress), that serve to bring primary documents into the classroom. Some of the more interesting primary document-based websites that Social Studies Sources lists on its site are the Civil War Photographs Home Page (from the American Memory collection), the History of the United States (from Mississippi State University), and Abraham Lincoln Online.

Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html
Beginning in Port Aranas, Texas, on March 31, 1939, and ending at the Library of Congress on June 14 of that same year, John Avery Lomax and his wife recorded approximately 25 hours of folk music from more than 300 performers. This site consists of nearly 700 sound recordings, fieldnotes, dust jackets, and other manuscripts which serve to document the “3 month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States.” Not limited to just audio and text files, this site contains a great deal of photographs from the couple’s previous southern state expeditions, giving the viewer a complete “image” of the southern portion of the United States during this time period.

Statistical Summary: America’s Major Wars
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/other/stats/warcost.htm
The Statistical Summary: America’s Major Wars website from the Civil War Center brings together statistical information from every major American war. While there is not a tremendous amount of information, the information found on this page would be a nice statistical supplement to any classroom discussion. The statistics offered on this page break down into three main categories: Military Participation Ratio, Casualties, and Financial Cost. This page is a good source for quick facts for the classroom.

Subject Research Guides: American and British History
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/history.shtml
This is one of the most impressive portal sites around! It is hosted as a research guide by Rutgers University Libraries. Besides the enormous content of the site, it is wonderfully organized. The categories are Reference Resources, Archival and MSS. Guides, General History Portals, Sites Organized by Subject, Sites Organized by Period, Full-text Documents by Period and History Associations & History Listservs. Obviously, there are a wide variety of research approaches offered. Within each category, there are hundreds of links that include explanatory annotations. Although much of the content deals with British history as indicated in the sites title there is an equal amount of American history resources. The resources on American history merit the time requisite to sorting through any unrelated British links. (BR)

Teachers First U.S. History Lesson Plans
http://www.teachersfirst.com/ushistory/lesn-ushist.htm
“Teachers First is a collection of original content, Internet resources, and lesson plans drawn from around the world.”
This collection of lesson plans varies both in grade level and topic. There are lesson plans on Native American topics, slavery and immigration, to mention a few. The lesson plans do a good job of involving the students and getting them to think in analytical ways. Most useful are the lesson plans that include simulation activities that help view historical events and trends from new and engaging perspectives. The lesson plans come from a diverse number of sources and cover a wide range of topics and teaching methods. Unfortunately, not all of the materials listed in the lesson plans are included. Many will provide links to handouts and other resources, but many materials are not provided. Nonetheless, there is a good amount of valuable information and resources. (BR)

Teaching American History
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/
This website, hosted by the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University, offers some very useful resources. Foremost is the digital library. It offers an extensive selection of documents on American political thought from the revolution through the 20th century. The documents are organized chronologically in the Founding, Expansion, Civil War, Progressive and Post World War II Eras. Within each Era, the documents are listed by author and topic as well as in a category entitled “General Readings.” This additional category offers a host of other significant documents related to the time period. One feature that sets this digital library apart from others of similar content is its internal search engine that makes browsing and researching much easier. This collection is an indispensable collection of the most important primary documents in American History and should be used often in lesson planning and presentation. Also available on this website are audio recordings of lectures and seminar presentation on various topics. Another feature is a link to all Teaching American History Grant websites. (BR)

Teaching the Journal of American History
http://www.indiana.edu/~jah/teaching/
"Teaching the JAH uses online tools to bridge the gap between the latest scholarly research…”
This website, as the title would suggest, is primarily for educators, although there is excellent information located here for students as well. Located on this site are not only links to past Journal of American History articles, but also a Current Feature selection. With both past and current selections, there is information on how to teach the article, and how to better incorporate primary sources into the lesson (links to the sources are included). With each feature there is also a list of articles and books one can read for further information on the topic addressed; reading for both educators and students.

Teaching with Historic Places
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/
“Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom.”
One of the struggles for history teachers is to help students connect with the historical events being taught. One way to make history more relevant and approachable for students is to use tangible artifacts or historic places. This website offers over 100 lesson plans that use historic places to teach broader trends. The lesson plans are complete with historical information, pictures and activities. These lesson plans can be searched by location or theme. If a particularly difficult concept needs to be taught in class, hopefully there will be a historic place lesson plan that will help illustrate and explain the topic. There is only one lesson plan from Nebraska, but many from the Great Plains. The lesson plans survey a good range of social and cultural topics and could be easily and effectively used in any U.S. history class. (BR)

This Day in History
http://www.historychannel.com/tdih
Brought to you by The History Channel, This Day in History offers the visitor a chance to view key events that occurred on the current day in history. One can even choose the subject that they want to view for the daily fact such as The Civil War, Cold War History, Old West History, Vietnam History, and World War II History among others. This Day in History offers educators good information that could be used effectively to focus the attention of the classroom at the beginning of the period.

United States Air Force Museum
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/index.htm
“The USAF Museum (USAFM) portrays the history and traditions of the United States Air Force through specialized displays and exhibition of historical items at the USAFM. The museum manages the worldwide USAF Museum System (USAFMS) for museums and historical property, maintaining accountability for all USAF historical property.”
The United States Air Force Museum website provides visitors with detailed information about military airplanes used since World War I. The descriptions come with high-quality photographs, design specifications, and an explanation of the machines’ purposes. Moreover, the web designers included a section about major American conflicts and the role of the USAF. Overall, this is a great site. The historical narratives are very informative and accessible to a wide range of people. This site is definitely useful to students and teachers interested in military history.

U.S. Army Military History Institute
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/
"USAMHI collects, organizes, preserves, and makes available source materials on American military history to the defense community, academic researchers, and the public…”
The U.S. Army Military History Institute website offers the visitor information on nearly every major war in our country’s history. Located on this site is a great digital library where one can access information searchable by chronological order or alphabetical listing. As it seems that the information is nearly all saved in PDF format, one would need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on their computer to properly view their findings. Also of interest on this site are many good military photographs from wartime as well as oral histories.

US Centennial of Flight Home Page
http://www.centennialofflight.gov
invention of the airplane was a fundamental turning point in history. It redefined the way we fought our wars; revolutionized travel and commerce; fueled the process of technological change; and helped to shape a world in which the very survival of a nation would depend on its scientific and technical prowess…”
The US Centennial of Flight Home Page offers an interesting look into the area of early human flight. In documenting the accomplishments of the Wright brothers and others who made significant contributions, this website offers not only photographic images, but also small video and audio clips. There is some information in the form of essays, but the strength of this site lies in its fair amount of audio/visual material. With the short clips located on this site on can turn the classroom into an “all senses” learning experience.

United States Historical Documents Archive
http://www.ushda.org
United States Historical Documents Archive does a good job at presenting a lot of material for the viewer in an easy to locate manner. Information on this site is separated not only by period (ex. 17th & 18th centuries), but also by topic/subject. Some of the subjects the viewer is able to choose from are general history, Federalist Papers, Speeches and Songs, Inaugural and Farewell addresses, etc. Also of importance, this site presents information on the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

USnewsclassroom.com
http://www.usnewsclassroom.com
USnewsclassroom.com has many great features for the educator. Among themy are a lesson plan library with extras such as applicable quizzes in either PDF or RTF format and comprehension questions, and featured activities such as “Political Cartoons: Do You ‘Get it’?”. This site also has a Resources Kit” section where one can download comprehensive units to use in the classroom, with topics including “Our Evolving Government”, “Immigration”, and “Justice and the Constitution”. This site is one worth visiting.

University of Georgia Libraries: Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library
http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/maps.html
The University of Georgia Libraries presents the visitor with the opportunity to view rare printable maps that would be great for visual representations of material. With over 800+ historical maps spanning over 500 years this site also offers the visitor a good chance of finding what they are looking for. Some things to keep in mind however concerning this site are that the maps do tend to focus on the Georgia area, and the maps were scanned with very high resolution (2400 dpi) which means that they are very large in file size and take a while to download. The positive side to this though is that the pictures are very clean and would make great overheads.

University of Texas Library Online
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html
U.T. Online is yet another great source if one were to want to locate maps to enhance their presentations. The University does a fine job in providing the viewer with easy to locate maps in such areas as cities and states, US expansion, Native American tribal areas, territorial growth by year, and military history maps. The site is very easy to navigate and allows the viewer to access the information quickly and nearly effortlessly.

University of Virginia Electronic Text Center
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/
“The Etext Center at the University of Virginia Library has pursued twin missions with equal seriousness of purpose since its inception in 1992: To build and maintain an internet-accessible collection of SGML and XML-encoded texts and images…To build and maintain user communities adept at the creation and use of these materials.”
The most useful collection in this online library is The Modern English Collection (AD 1500-present). Within this collection there are primary documents from African American and Native American sources, the American Civil War, the Colonial era, Women Writers and many others. These documents range from runaway slave advertisements to works of early American fiction. This collection has many of the common documents that are easily found elsewhere, but also contains thousands of unique resources. The selection offers the opportunity to go beyond well-known sources and to utilize new and fresh documents. This collection is an excellent place to find primary documents for classroom use. Though not directly applicable to U.S. History there are also interesting sources for European and world history. (BR)

Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and its Neighborhoods, 1839-1963
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/contents.htm
is a history website constructed at the University of Illinois at Chicago and sponsored by the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and the College of Architecture and the Arts. It provides documents and images from archival collections that are arranged to engage students and scholars in new approaches to the study of urbanization in American history”
Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963, is an interesting sociological website that serves to bring attention to a rather tumultuous time in Chicago’s past. Consisting of historical documents, images, interpretive essays, biographies, and literature and memoirs, this site is able to bring light to issues of social science. The historical documents on this website range from archival materials (correspondence, scrapbooks, institutional records, diaries, journals and unpublished manuscripts) to printed materials from the time (newspaper clippings, articles from magazines and journals, broadsides, pamphlets, posters, and government reports). There is a tremendous amount of information present on this website serving to make it one worth viewing.

Voice of the Shuttle
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2713
A professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara together with a team of graduate students maintains this portal site. They must have been keeping themselves busy because their sites content is enormous! Although including many subjects, the most extensive is the list of History websites. On the right hand side of the page is a list of topics including U.S. and Native American history. Clicking on these links will direct you to lists of websites. The links are all organized into subcategories such as “US-Indian Treaties and Related Documents,” “Revolutionary America (to 1791)” and “U.S. Civil War.” There are 38 such subcategories. Each link has a brief annotation or explanation of the site. Furthermore, the resources on the page all seem to be updated and without bad links. This is a well-organized portal site with a wide range of subjects to choose from. It well deserves the awards and distinctions it has received.

Wars and Conflicts of the United States Navy
http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/index.html
Wars and Conflicts of the United States Navy is a site located on the United States Naval Historical Center home page. There is a lot of textual information on this site, but after taking a few moments to orientate themselves, the visitor is able to locate information easily. This site provides information on specific dates in American naval history, the general history of the United States Navy, casualties (“U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel killed and wounded in wars, conflicts and incidents with hostile forces, 1775-present”), and Instances of Use of United States Forces Abroad (1798 – 1993). On tremendously valuable asset of this site is its Naval History By Period section that allows the visitor easy access to a lot of detailed information.

The WebQuest Page
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/
Brought to you by the creators of the WebQuest originally designed in early 1995, Bernie Dodge and Tom March, The WebQuest Page offers viewers a chance to view WebQuest examples designed by either themselves or others that have been approved. Defined as “an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web”, a WebQuest has been praised in recent years as an effective way to teach students. Not only does this site have many WebQuest examples on a far-ranging list of topics, but it also provides research and a rationale behind the practice itself. This site is a valuable resource and is highly recommended for everyone.

Within These Walls
http://americanhistory.si.edu/house/home.asp
Within These Walls, from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, brings an interesting look at our nation’s history through the history of one house. This site tells the story of five families who lived in this house over a 200 year period, focusing on the impact that the families had on the political environment around them. Through stories of meetings with important historical figures in their kitchens and parlors, and everyday choices and personal acts of courage and sacrifice, this site is able to bring social and political history to the visitor in an interesting format. The one drawback to this site is that it takes a while to load because it utilizes Flash technology. Even the non-Flash version seems to take some time. However, having said all that, this site does present the visitor with some very good resources and pictures from the historical time period in question.

The World War I Document Archive
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/
“This archive of primary documents from World War I has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List (WWI-L). The archive is international in focus and intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War.”
This online archive has received 7.5 million hits for good reason. Not only has it cataloged and digitized thousands of documents and images, but their content represents a wide range of topics and sources. The nine major categories are Conventions, Treaties, & Official Papers, Documents by Year, Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences, Special Topics and Commentaries, WWI Biographical Dictionary, WWI Image Archive, The Maritime War, The Medical Front and Other WWI Sites. Within each of these categories, the documents are further divided and organized in an easily navigable fashion. In addition to the site’s excellent organization, it contains numerous internal search engines that can make finding documents even easier. The impressive content of this site would be good enough, but its user-friendly organization makes it even more appealing. Any search for primary documents from WWI should definitely start (and likely will end) here. (BR)

WWW-VL History: United States
http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/
Hosted and maintained by the University of Kansas, this site, while not too flashy, does offer a lot of information on many subjects in American history. There are many areas to choose from ranging from pre-Europeans to the present, and covering many areas such as the revolutionary and civil war. One of this sites strength lies in the fact that every subject area addressed is quickly identified and seen on the main page either in subject topics or chronological periods, thereby eliminating a lot of scrolling and "surfing" time.