Useful Links
A growing list of historian and educator recommended sites:
PVMA's Web Sites
NEW! Impressions From a Lost World
In which mysterious footprints are discovered in the rock in 19th century New England, are closely examined, and are concluded to be the tracks of an extinct race of gigantic birds that we now know as DINOSAURS!
American Centuries: Views from New England
Memorial Hall Museum's Educational Web site. Includes over 2000 searchable objects and documents from the museum's collection as well as curricula, interactive activities, online exhibits and much more.
Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
This website brings together a variety of different types of content to illuminate broad and competing perspectives on the dramatic attack on Deerfield by French and Native allies.
Shays' Rebellion and the Making of a Nation
Discover the fascinating history surrounding this pivotal event in the making of the United States.
Historic Deerfield Online Catalogue
The library serves primarily as a resource center to support research in Historic Deerfield's museum collections. John Kenneth Byard's personal library of nearly two hundred books on American decorative arts, presented after his death in 1959, forms the nucleus of the Flynt Library. Today, holdings include 17,000 printed volumes, 130 periodical titles, and over 2,000 microforms, accessible through an on-line catalog.
Web Sites Worth Your Time
American Memory: Historical collections for the National Digital Library
American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
AskART.com
The Artists Bluebook" - Extensive information about 28,000 American Artists.
The Association for Gravestone Studies Online
The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) was founded for the purpose of furthering the study and preservation of gravestones. AGS is an international organization with an interest in gravemarkers of all periods and styles.
The Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands
This searchable site "explores the history of the Dutch presence in America and the interactions between the United States and the Netherlands from Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage to the post-World-War-II period." It is browsable by theme, such as the sale of Manhattan, or by type of material, including books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and prints. A joint project of the Library of Congress and the National Library of the Netherlands. Available in English and Dutch.
Children of World War II
This site from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) provides a glimpse of what life was like for British children during World War II. It features annotated images of a replica of a typical home, a rationing activity, and evacuees' letters. It also includes resources such as posters, photographs, letters, documents, an audio clip of an air raid siren, and materials for teachers.
Colonial Music Institute
"Bringing history to life through music." David & Ginger Hildebrand
have a number of recordings of songs from Colonial times.
The Do History Website
"A site that shows you how to piece together the past from the fragments that have survived".
The Electric Ben Franklin
"The remarkable Benjamin Franklin, a printer by trade, a scientist by fame, and a man of action by all accounts, continues to shape American thinking and action. The Independence Hall Association has commissioned and assembled resources for you to explore the diversity that was Benjamin Franklin." Features biographical information, images, a timeline, articles, activities, interactive features (including panoramic views of historical buildings), quotes, and related links.
Folk Music Index to Recordings
Index of recordings of traditional and tradition based music as reflected in both commercial and non-commercial recordings.
The Franklin County Publication
Archive Index
A website of vintage newspaper articles created by Barbara Stewart and Michael
Muller, both of Montague, MA. The archive currently contains over 7,000
articles, dated between 1870 and 1873, from the Greenfield Courier &
Gazette (today known as The Recorder). Articles are indexed by topic, and
are searchable by keyword.
A Guide to the Constitution
for Kids
A great resource for many kid-friendly lessons, activities and songs about
the Constitution and how it impacts everyday life.
History Matters
Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses, this
site serves as a gateway to Web resources and offers useful materials
for teaching U.S. history.
LearnPysanky.com
Formerly known as "How to Make Ukrainian Easter Eggs (Pysanky),"
this site offers basic instruction in this unusual craft. The site includes
a designs page with free step-by-step diagrams, suggested supply sources,
a list of workshops by area, resources, hints and tricks, a FAQ, coloring
pages, links, and a gallery of designs. From an artist of Ukrainian heritage.
The Massachusetts Studies Project
Educational resources for teachers, students and lifelong learners.
NARA - The US National Archives & Records Administration
Use the Internet to check more than 50 million historical records at the National Archives, from Civil War battles to family immigration files.
Nationwide Gravesite Locator
This searchable database from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "contains more than three million records of veterans and dependents buried in VA's 120 cemeteries since the Civil War. It also has records of some burials in state veteran's cemeteries and burials in Arlington National Cemetery from 1999 to the present." Search results include military branch and rank, service dates, and location of the gravesite.
On This Day: The First of April, 1864
A lighthearted but accurate historical review of April Fool's Day, illustrated with a cartoon by artist Thomas Nast. From the New York Times Learning Network.
Picturing Modern America 1880-1920: Historical Thinking Exercises for Middle and High School Students
This site offers interactive activities aimed at deepening "students' understanding of common topics in the study of modern America 1880-1920" and building "students' skills in analyzing primary sources, especially visual sources." Critical thinking exercises cover topics such as women's history, child labor, prairie life, industrialization, and social customs. From Educational Development Center's Center for Children and Technology.
Popular Songs in American
History
"Tunes, lyrics, information, historical background and tune-related
links." Songs are listed by time and subject from 17th century to early
1900s. Midis are available for each song and are downloadable.
The Silkroad Foundation
The Silk Road Foundation Web site offers a fascinating introduction to the history and culture of the people and places along the ancient Silk Road which includes Inner and Central Asia. In addition to information about the lectures, courses, and community events that the Foundation sponsors, this site includes a variety of articles, bibliographies, and images related to Silk Road topics. Also included are sections devoted to Xinjiang and Dunhuang studies, a historical chronology (still under construction) with links to additional information (e.g. history of silk), and a list of other interesting Silk Road links.
Resources for Teachers from the
Library of Congress
From the Library of Congress: A Teachers' Resource page ncluding many primary
sources.An abundance of diverse resources is available currently, including
books, pamphlets, sound recordings, Web sites, videos, and multimedia kits.
The Veterans History Project
Experiencing War: stories from the Veterans History Project (Library of Congress). Personal narratives by veterans from all wars.
The Vietnam Project
In addition to its mission of collecting materials concerning Vietnam, the Vietnam War, and Southeast Asia, the Vietnam Archive currently administers two projects, the Oral History Project and the Virtual Vietnam Archive." The site features oral histories, documents (such as official military records) and photographs. Also includes operations and acronyms databases. Searchable. From Texas Tech University. Note: Some material not available online due to copyright/donor restrictions.
U. S. Constitution
From the site Immigration Direct, this essay on the U. S. Constitution is
a good introduction for young learners.
Holidays
History of the Advent Calendar
This page from a German advent calendar company presents information on the origins of advent calendars and a short history of their evolution from simple chalk lines marking off the days in December until Christmas to paper calendars with windows. The online Advent Calendar Museum provides photographs of calendars from the 1940s through 1960s. Also includes a brief history of the Sellmer Company in Stuttgart and an online tour of calendar production.