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 Library 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)

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).

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.

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)

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.

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)

Great Lakes Maritime History Project
http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/GreatLakes/
“The 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.

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.

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.

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

Social Studies Sources
http://education.indiana.edu/%7Esocialst/
“This 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.

US Centennial of Flight Home Page
http://www.centennialofflight.gov
“The 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.