Other Sites of Interest

Home:

• IC History Department Homepage -- see what the history department is up to.
• Ithaca College Homepage -- for more on the college and the community.
• Other Homes that I've known at one time or another:
  • Richmond, Virginia,
  • Hampshire College,
  • History Department of Virginia Commonwealth University, and the
  • History Department at UNC.

Innovative History Sites that I'm impressed with (most of the web is notably content- and context-free, which is quite disturbing to me and to other historians. Here are some exceptions -- nicely crafted sites with context and worthy content):

• History Matters -- a nice web resource for students and teachers of the US surveys. Many links to other sites here, as well as a wealth of primary sources and images. Worth a look.
• Valley of the Shadow -- the Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginia -- an especially rich and multi-layered historical website.
• Martha Ballard interactive website -- an experimental site full of primary documents based around the award-winning book A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
• Within These Walls -- 200 years of one house in Ipswich, Ma.; a part of the Smithsonian's American History museum online collection of exhibitions.
• History News Network -- a site that includes articles and press releases on all sorts of breaking news concerning history, archives, scholarship, etc.

Online Exhibitions (generally thin on context, but rich in materials and images):

• Library of Congress American Memory Collection -- a tremendous collection of exhibits on a range of themes in American history. Worth browsing through occasionally to see what is new and what strikes a chord.
• National Archives -- another nice source for good web exhibits.
• Smithsonian Online -- The Smithsonian offers a number of exhibits of their wares online. More broadly, each museum has some exhibits and links. Go to the general Smithsonian webpage and poke around sometime.

History Primary Sources Online (this is a strength of the web for history -- giving broad access to primary materials):

• Making of America -- a large and growing web resource for historical primary materials -- a library online. It isn't always as easy to navigate as you'd hope, but if you know what you want to find, particularly with 19th century publications, it just might be here and very legible.
• Great Speeches -- a collection of recorded 20th century speeches.
• Documenting the South -- primary documents relating to the history of this region.
• Ellis Island -- American Family Immigration History Center -- a searchable database for immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. A fascinating resource
• US Census records -- there is simply so much here it is mind boggling. True for other government agencies as well -- more and more are available online
• Ancestry Plus -- a subscription database (not available to individuals but many institutions subscribe to it) that is an amazing resource, including readable, searchable images of federal manuscript census forms, military records, and some birth, marriage, and death records. This is already amazing, and they add to it every week. (link will simply take you to the IC library's list of databases including Ancestry Plus)

The I-can't-help-but-put-this-on-my-page category:

• Earth Lights -- scroll through a satellite picture of the Earth at night.  This is just one of dozens of photographs NASA puts on the web.  See their Astronomy Picture of the Day.
• Cloud Appreciation Society -- end the tyranny of heliocentrism! Clouds bring life! Spread the word!
• NPR.com -- frankly, I don't even know what is here because there is so much. It is an extensive, wonderful site, full of interviews, music, web-only additions to the stories they run, etc. Very worthwhile to check it out.
• Biography of the Day -- supplied by the well-researched American National Biography reference work -- they are often very interesting, and I know from experience that their facts are well checked (I worked on this as a grad student).
• The Onion.com -- irreverent (sometimes offensive!) web humor, including some very nice mock news stories from the past.
• Leafpile.com -- website of Kathleen and Henry McLaughlin, who spent a year in rural northern Transylvania in Rumania, compiling wonderful images of a beautiful and very different way of life. Maramures is the particular region they have the most entrancing images (and stories) of.
• This American Life -- the website for the Public Radio show. Blow up your TV (or at least turn it off), turn on your computer, and play (through the free and widely-accessible Real Player program) archived shows if you want an amazing and entertaining experience. If you're not sure where to start, look at the Staff Favorites, or just try the episode (104) called Music Lessons or the one about summer camps. If you are looking for history content, try "Simulated Worlds" (episode 38) about re-creations of the past across America. This American Life makes me laugh more than just about anything else -- it is offbeat, and sometimes haunting, wrenching, or otherwise very affecting. Believe me, this is worth looking into.