History Guide
American History
35 Historical facts you never learned in school.
Browse state by state through all 250 killer digital libraries.
Links/articles on U.S. historical events, subjects, and themes.
Collected papers of the Adams family. John Quincy Adams Diaries.
Search engine of 25,000 “greatest lives”.
Alistair Cooke’s America series from 1971, in YouTube chunks.
Americana
Cornell University and the University of Michigan have put together sites that combined contain over 1 million pages of 19th Century Americana; This page (Cornell) links to Atlantic Monthly (18), Harpers (1850-1899), and Scientific American ( 1846-1869); From Michigan you can browse Catholic World (1860-1901), Overland Monthly (1868-1900), and Southern Literary Messenger (1834-1864)
Massive collection of historical data that contributed to the American ideals, culture and politics; from 500 B.C. to 1800.
Search over 175 digital social history resources; find more than 514,708 digitized objects in 9 formats, including images (photographs and cultural materials), books and pamphlets, journal articles, maps, sheet music, videos, data sets, political cartoons and posters, and oral histories.
Studs Terkel interviews with folks who lived through the Great Depression.
Promoting the love and study of American history; lots of podcasts; and an extensive lists of modules for teachers.
Explore American exploration from eyewitness accounts.
1838-1842; publications of the expedition; the track; Nathaniel Philbrick narrates; 40 tons of artifacts became the foundation of the Smithsonian.
Online magazine: chock full of articles/resources.
The history of the American conservation movement housed at the Smithsonian.
Browse through the various collections found at The Library of Congress.
Indepth look at all 43 U.S. Presidents + bio’s and pictures.
Library of Congress site chronicles the history of baseball; cards, panoramic photos, even a section for teachers.
California’s early years, 1849-1900.
YouTube video from Harvest Moon Studios for Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library mixes “Ken Burns music” with mappable graphics.
Alexander Hamilton
The founder of American finance. Bastard. Immigrant. Federalist. Philanderer. Industrialist. Duelist.
Digital scans of American Milestone Documents (e.g. Constitution, George Washington’s Correspondence, Lincoln’s Assassination Papers).
Thomas Jefferson
TJ’s Digital Archive has his writing; TJ’s buildings are Monticello, Poplar Forest, and the University.
Both general American and more specific Missouri history found at the University of Missouri.
Unlock the digital vaults at the National Archives; interactive site hosts 1200 of its 10 billion records. The Digital Vault at the National Archives has a Pathways tool to test your connections between events and people. You can even create a movie or poster with the images you’ve clipped along the way.
New Deal web guide from the Library of Congress.
Paleopsych - Dean Keith Simonton estimates presidential IQs; Bush scores low, John Quincy Adams tops the list.
Delve into the history of the Quakers at the Earlham College Friends Collection.
Online resources covering the sixties; exhibits, articles and primary sources.
Texas Beyond History is an archaeology and early human history buff’s dream focused on Texas.
Emphemera (mostly print) from the Vietnam War era (browsable) at the U of Washington.
The Imaging Research Center. D.C. 1791 - Today. L’Enfant’s Original Plan.
Papers of the War Department 1784-1800; after having been destroyed by fire in 1800, a decades long effort was instituted to retrieve the files from other sources.
Newspapers of the Washington territory.
Collected papers of Booker T. Washington.
Online museum of President’s home field advantage; President’s residence; China Room established by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson in 1917; Jackie Kennedy selected the wallpaper in the Diplomatic Reception Room; the Library; the Press Briefing Room; the State Dining Room has a terrific gallery with James Polk reception (1843) the earliest; the Blue Room and the Yellow Oval Room; the Lincoln Bedroom; and then, the Master ( adjacent to which is the Living Room and Dressing Room); Family Kitchen looks like it needs an overhaul; the Private Dining Room; and yes, the Bowling Alley, Music Room and Workout Room added by the Clintons; here’s a video tour in B/W with Jackie Kennedy and Architectural Digest’s visits the changes that Nancy Reagan and Jacquiline Kennedy made; finally, the White House Historical Association.
Civil War
Photographic history of the Civil War, in 10 volumes. Or try Son of the South, a truely extensive collection of Civil War resources.
Selected Civil War photoraphs by Mathew Brady stored in The Library of Congress.
Video depicting major events in a very quick overview.
Non-profit trust dedicated to preservation of battlefields; their maps are very useful.
Steven Mintz of the University of Houston’s site is impressive; includes up-to-date US history textbook, annotated primary sources on US, Mexican American and Native American history.
“It’s about how America got born.” In the works, but check out the trailers.
Site of the complete writings of Benjamin Franklin.
Liberty: An American Revolution on PBS web exhibits supplement individual shows; includes interviews with soundbites, glossary and links to relevant sites.
National Museum of American History
At the Smithsonian (http://www.si.edu is home).
Cartoonist from civil war era (illustrated Alice in Wonderland) and his cartoons of Civil War.
Ancient History
Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, Oplontis and Boscoreale were lost to the world in August AD79 to lie hidden for almost 1800 years. Through their destruction and re-discovery, they provide us with a time capsule of Roman life in the first century AD.
The ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna (or simply Amarna) was the short-lived capital built by the ‘heretic’ Pharaoh Akhenaten and abandoned shortly after his death (c. 1332 BCE). His Queen was Nefertiti, their son Tutankhamun. It was in Amarna that he pursued his vision of a society dedicated to the cult of one god, the power of the sun (the Aten). Some correspondence of the day remain, as do some artifacts which tell of a diferent style that vanished after Akhenaten’s death. Was he perhaps one of the models for the biblical Moses?
Rome Reborn: Rome digitally reproduced at the height of its power in AD 320.
Knowledge And Power In New-Assyrian Empire by the British museum covers the first known attempt to acquire all the world’s knowledge within one library. 28000 clay tablets have been found, of which 1600 can be read online in English. You might want to start with the highlights.
Probably the world’s oldest city at 7000 BC (4500 before the pyramids); Ian Hodder introduces the dig site; 3D Visualization; streaming video introduction; Photos and Flickr; virtual Çatalhöyük in second life; Why settle down to city life in the first place?
The earliest temple in Turkey which predates Stonehenge by 6000 years?; German video 1, 2; Smithsonian site.
Interactive Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome
Information on the ancient world, including archeology, atlas, texts and translations.
Online portal to many ancient cultures; Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Romania and Spain.
Catchpenny Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, for your edification and amusement.
Explores art and architecture, history, wars, mythology, geography, and culture.
Theoi Greek Mythology encyclopedia contains over 1500 pages on Greek myth characters; from gods and goddesses, nymphs, titans and monsters, and even family trees, as well as an artwork gallery that’s worth a look.
The Code of Hammurabi (also known as Codex Hammurabi) is one of the earliest and best preserved law codes from ancient Babylon, created ca. 1760 BC (middle chronology). It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi.[1]
Ancient Greek science and technology; Olympics; biographies of ancients; literature in antiquity.
Ancient history fans need to meet Tim Spaulding, creator of this and 48 other sites. In tandem, try Metrum or Elbruz. Start with the library page, then go wherever; Largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island, Archaic Didymaion (the key to ancient architecture) and The Deluge as Metaphor.
Pre-Columbian Central America; start with an introduction; then a primer on who’s who; browse Maya vases (1, 2, 3); or the Pre-Columbian portfolio (1, 2, 3); Maya, Aztec and Mixtex books; Maya dictionaries; linguistic maps.
Architecture History
Open directory project contains over 907 links to architectural history, from architects (580) to travel (16).
Art History
Prof. Whitcombe’s gateway to links for researching art history on the web.
5000 years of art history, all here.
Its Art. History. Conversation. And it is being developed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the static traditional Western art history textbook.
Interactive timeline that covers art history, and opens eyes.
Asia History
Professor Frances Pritchett’s resource of art, history, literature, architecture and culture of South Asia and India; special note of Indian Routes.
Astronomy History
Links to astronomy history sites from A-W.
Aviation History
Links and articles on the history of aviation.
China
The Tang Dynasty was China’s Golden Age; At The Court Of The Emperors; Curse of the Golden Flower; 300 Tang Poems; Ezra Pound’s Cathay (translations of Li Bai originals).
European History
Largest database of Russian and Romanov history on the net.
Nice interactive timeline of British history.
Lars Butterworth podcast series entitled 12 Byzantine Rulers.
Protects and promotes English heritage; the National Monuments Record of over 10 million images; photo essays on numerous topics such as William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement include links at bottom to delve further into, for instance, its end.
Prehistoric and ancient Europe, Medievil and renaissance Europe, Europe as Supranational Region.
Map of Europe in 1000, from Euratlas.
100 years of the roundel includes many galleries; architecture, promotional material and livery; illustrated history.
The encyclopaedia of territories in the medieval western world and the royal and noble families which ruled them.
Website covers the wars in word, image and map.
Lars Brownworth podcast series about the France, England and lesser known Italian Normans.
Timelines: Sources From History
Interactive database from the British Library 1210-Present.
John Strype’s 1720 classic survey online; maps and illustrations.
Resource for England in the Victorian era (1837-1901).
General History
A History of the World in 100 Objects
British Museum podcasts history series told through 100 objects in its collection.
Historical Anatomies is a large database of anatomies.
Award winning site for everything to do about history.
Omnibiography holds biographies on over 110,000 people from antiquities to present.
A collection of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman calligraphy housed at the Library of Congress. Check out: Calligraphers of the Persian Tradition, Ottoman Calligraphers and their works, Qur’anic Fragments, and Noteworthy Items.Color Wheel
Cathedral of Notre Dame; take a virtual tour (requires QuickTime); check out the labyrinth; watch a National Geographic short on engineering the impossible; or simply listen to the bells ring.
Chocolate history in timeline.
History of the color wheel, from Newton forward (ColourLovers)
History of mechanics and machine drawing database from early Middle Ages up to 1650.
Resource of historical and literary diaries and diarists.
Great online tool for historians and students, up to date textbook, essays, et al.
The New School covers both the many schools of thought and the issues they grappled with.
A historical perspective of historians at play; Yerba Buena weighs in; a look at some of their commemorative plaques; if you’d just as soon cut to the chase, here’s a short history.
A place to explore myths.
For instance, The History of Coca-cola on paper, or A Clue to Crossword Origins
The sequences are from the PBS NOVA film “The Vikings” and offer a fascinating look at Birka, a medieval Viking village that archeologists recently excavated near modern-day Stockholm.
History through the eyes of those who lived it, presented by Ibis Communications, a digital publisher of educational programming.
History of food through the ages.
Reportret is a gallery of reconstructed portraits of people throughout history.
The history, principles and function of religious icons; Byzantine iconaclasm; Temple Gallery exhibit; other pieces.
The Story of India (PBS HD) covers 2300 years on the subcontinent.
The National Endowment for the Arts site for history, sociology and music of jazz; introductory video.
is a site for history buffs. They’ve entered into an agreement with The National Archives to digitize every document in their collection.
National Geographic’s atlas of human history.
Open access to Columbia University Press history ebooks, such as The Creation of Color In Eighteenth Century Europe.
a large recording database of famous speeches, many from the 20th Century; site also hosts animal and entertainment sound recordings.
History of religion in 90 seconds (animated map).
Information graphics on historical subjects embedded into intense graphics; genealogy of pop/rock music.
internetmodernhistorysourcebook
searchable source of most anything historical.
History of the internet (1957-2009) in animated form on Vimeo.
Learn about the trials of Salem witches, Scottsboro Socrates and much more.
An irreverant online look at history, and trivia.
Internet source for copy permitted historical texts (ancient, medievil, modern, women’s and Islamic among others).
Including Propoganda by Edward Bernays (1928), A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, essays by Bill Clinton and Mark Twain among others, and much more.
More than 400 topics; then there’s chronology, timelines, tours thru time, interactive tours, what when where, etc.
Thomas Jefferson sought to separate the ethical teachings from religious dogma and other supernatural elements that are intermixed in the account provided by the four Gospels.
Library of Congress podcasts; such as End of European Colonial Empires, Robert E. Lee, and 1507 Waldseemuller World Map.Logo History
MacTutor history of mathematics is quite extensive; especially in biographies.
Short podcasts about history
Modern Mark Maker is a post covering the history of brand logos that’s wonderfully concise about the origins ala Wilhelm Deffke.
Site dedicated to everything mining-related.
History of money from ancient times to present; PBS documentary The Ascent of Money.
Discover Mayan culture; the Mayan calendar; history; archaeology.
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Archeological sites and historic buildings - check out the interactive preservation atlas
The origins of numbers.
Theory and history of ontology; vocabulary; table of descriptive and formal ontologists (pdf).
The history of popcorn; the people who invented the popcorn machine; what makes popcorn pop; high speed shot of popcorn popping.
Beautifully illuminated bible from 1489.
The Atlas of Early Printing (animate range of years function brings it alive).
Illustrated history of recording music technology.
Site digitizes historical material; has a YouTube channel with over 250 film clips of WWII in full color; over 900 clips of automotive history; as well as special collections like Jammin With Betty Boop.
Site features 15 minute podcasts covering the Roman empire beginning with Aeneas’s arrival in Italy and ending (someday) with the exile of Romulus Augustulus, last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
International Institute of Social History site; among their collections - Secret Societies: Documents and illustrations of Freemasons, Jesuits, Illuminati, Carbonari, Burschenschaften and other putative secret societies and clandestine organizations.
Medieval manuscript beautifully illustrates the medieval worldview; check out translations for The Cherub with Six Wings, The 10 Commandments and The Tree of Virtue and The Tree of Vices.
Want more:? Facts; Commercials; Museums.
Historians publish and discuss their research on experimentation in the life sciences, art, and technology; as well as collects and presents texts and images concerning various aspects of the experimentalization of life, such as instruments, experiments, sites and people.
History of Visual Communication tackles the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: the translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.
Weird history
Learn the derivation of such phrases as “raining cats and dogs,” and “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” And such terms as “threshold” and “wake.”
Orson Welles
BBC Arena series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Survey of the history of the Western philosophy.
Online guide to 100 years of wildlife filmmaking; work your way back from Attenborough In Paradise.
Interactive (Flash) view of what was (artefact-wise) going on around the world at any moment in time.
Medical History
U.S. National Library of Medicine
History of medicine in the U.S. - Books and Journals, Archives and Manuscripts, Prints and Photographs, Films and Videos, Digital Collections.
Military History
Cold War International History Project; Alexander Vassiliev’s Notebooks: Provenance and Documentation of Soviet Intelligence Activities in the United States (pdf).
Links to military history sites.
A virtual tour through the Maginot Line…a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates and machine gun posts and other defences which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy.
From 5,000 years of religeous history in 90 seconds to Imperial History of the Middle East.
American military history, especially a “public institution for the study of the citizen-soldier as an essential element for the preservation of democracy.”
One of most comprehensive and best sites to research military history of WWII
The heritage of the Great War is covered at Great War.
Documentary of Verdun on the Western Front during WWI (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Oxford University curated site collected over 6500 digital artifacts from the
Great War.
Perhaps the greatest battle of that war; the bayonet trench; the Douaumont Ossuaire.
Database connects people, events, photographs and other elements of history to tell the story.
Natural History
Academy of Natural Sciences - Philadelphia
Features collection databases and links to other museums.
American Museum of Natural History
Features fossil halls, amber exhibits and the Audobon Gallery.
Berkeley Natural History Museum
A collection of 6 museums and 12 million specimens.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The 6th largest natural history museum in the U.S.
World-class museum and home of “Sue” the Trex.
National Museum of Natural History - Smithsonian
Exhibits change frequently.
Science History
Science, history, and the history of science.
History of science, technology and industry (links to over 5000 websites).
Latin America and Carribbean Science History
Article on Luke Howard: The Man Who Named The Clouds; the Cloud Appreciation Society.
History of information technology, from 70,000 BC (Paleolithic Art) to 1964 AD (Arapnet).
Technology
The “History of Spam” is all about junk email, and quite a fascinating read.