United States of America

1. Primary Historical Documents
   
2. Major Sites
   
3. Special Collections and Projects
   
4. U.S. Military History
   
5. JFK Assassination materials

1. Primary Historical Documents

   1. U.S. Historical Documents - [Wiretap collection]. One of the earliest collections, still in gopher and now somewhat limited.
   2. American History Documents developed as part of the special project, "From Revolution to Reconstruction - An HTML-hypertext on American History, from the colonial period until the First World War." At time of preparation [9/28/95] Welling's students had coded 87 documents in to HTML format, many from original sources, and more to follow shortly. The same page provides links to a number of other initiatives to provide American historical texts on the Internet.
   3. 1880 US Census FTP Server - A major online archive of raw data. "We are now distributing the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) ... for the census years 1850, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990. ... This site is maintained by the Social History Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. For more information, contact ipums@torgo.hist.umn.edu."
   4. Rare Map Collection - Hargrett Library, University of Georgia
      -Very high resolution scanned maps (i.e. large files)
      -exclusively US; 160 on WWW; 800 in collection [all digitized]
   5. Scanned Originals of Early American Documents - Facsimiles of constitutions, Bill of Rights, and related historic photographs
   6. Sketch of a three years travell in South America, California and Mexico - by Eugene Ring (1827-1912)
      "This document is an authentic record of one man's experiences during the California gold rush of 1849. It is based on a set of manuscripts that are now in the possession of the author's grandson."

2. Major Sites

   1. USA Page - from Mississippi State U. Very well organized, by period and theme. Part of a much larger Historical Text Archive project.
   2. American History - [Yahoo]. Sparse and uneven, with mostly military topics

3. Special Collections, Projects

   1. "American Memory from the Library of Congress consists of collections of primary source and archival material relating to American culture and history. These historical collections are the Library of Congress's key contribution to the national digital library. Most of these offerings are from the unparalleled special collections of the Library of Congress."
      Of particular interest are the American Special Collections, mostly graphical material [maps, document facsimiles, etc.] searchable by region, period, and subject.
      As an example, see 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, which "examines the first sustained contacts between American people and European explorers, conquerors and settlers from 1492 to 1600. The dramatic events following 1492 set the stage for numerous cultural interactions in the Americas which are still in progress - a complex and ongoing voyage."
      
   2. "From Revolution to Reconstruction - An HTML-hypertext on American History, from the colonial period until the First World War."
      This page represents an innovative use of the Internet for a combinatiton of historical teaching, research, and publishing. Starting with a simple text summarizing aspects of American history, students selected a specific topic/project, found supporting primary documents, wrote essays about these documents/topics, and then published the whole in hypertextual form on the WWW.
      See the collection of American history documents produced by the project, many scanned from original sources.
   3. Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935 - "These pages introduce the first organizations formed to oppose U.S. territorial and economic imperialism and make available some of the otherwise hard-to-find documents they produced. Among these is a large collection of anti-imperialist literature. Much of it was written by authors whose works are still appreciated and studied today but whose roles in the anti-imperialist movement are not widely known."
      An exemplary scholarly project presenting, in electronic form, a selection of current historiography, historical literature, primary documents, and other resources focussed around a specific topic.
   4. The La Belle Project - maintained by Andrew W. Hall, Southwest Underwater Archaeology Society. Unofficial overview of the Texas Historical Commission's recent discovery of the 1686 wreck, with links to the THC's official material. Also includes extensive! collection of maritime materials.
   5. President's Day - Highlights of the U.S. Presidents' administrations, including their portraits and signatures.
   6. The World of Benjamin Franklin - From the Franklin Institute Science Museum. A broad-ranging depiction of Franklin's life and work through text, pictures, and movies.
   7. Ask Thomas Jefferson [Libertarian]. "Being one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and among the first Americans to have to defend the newly won liberties of Americans from encroachment makes Thomas Jefferson one of the most qualified people to ask about politics and many other issues. ... All sources thus far are from his quotes, though later on this page will include links to biographical information about him and more."
   8. Daniel Webster: Dartmouth's Favorite Son - "It is hoped that this exhibit will describe in detail a part of Webster's life that was very personal and very close to him: his association with Dartmouth College [graduated 1801], an association that he maintained throughout his life. ... Already, it boasts a tremendous number of original manuscripts, many of which have never been transcribed before."

4. U.S. Military History

   1. Korean War Project by Hal Barker. Extensive and well-organized.
   2. Military History [Yahoo] - Somewhat of a fan club atmosphere, but useful pointers to pages dedicated to specific, almost exclusively American, wars
   3. Military History: Civil War - [Yahoo]. A flouishing subfield, with both popular and scholarly/academic elements, documents, visuals, etc.
   4. "British Response to the Cuban Missile Crisis" [Oxford thesis] - Azeem Azhar (1994) PPE Thesis available in Merton College Library, Oxford University, Oxford, on the WWW, or from the author(azeem@oxmedia.demon.co.uk) via e-mail.
      "This thesis investigates the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 and the British response to it. Working from original documents it is a diplomatic history of the time."
      

5. JFK Assassination materials

   1. The JFK Assassination Home Page. Really an extended article expounding one person's views, but begins with is a table of contents, and he has appended some other interesting sources of information.
   2. Fair Play Magazine - The central source of material and discussion about the ongoing debate re. JFK's assassination. The contributors are very serious about the subject, and write some good history, if on a very narrow topic.
   3. JFK Bibliography