Nov

American Song Sheets

Posted by Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & Diaries

The Duke University libraries have several digital collections available on their websites. One of these is the American Song Sheets collection, which contains around 1800 song sheets, all from the 19th century. It was customary during the 19th century for publishers to print just the lyrics of popular songs on a single sheet, usually illustrated […]

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Nov

Digital Newspaper Collection –Richmond Dispatch

Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Historic Periodicals, Letters & Diaries, Recent Scholarship

I’ve pointed out digital newspaper collections before, but those largely featured publications from northern or western states. A great resource for southern papers is available from the University of Richmond’s Digital Initiatives, which has over a thousand issues of the Richmond Daily Dispatch published between 1860-1865. One can learn more about Richmond during the Civil […]

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Nov

Picturing America: Viewing the Civil War Through Art

Posted by Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Images, Lesson Plans

Picturing America, in an initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, brings examples from the many different genres of American art into the classroom. The program provides new and interesting pathways for students to understand American history. In addition to the resource book, the website also offers several additional resources for teachers looking […]

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Nov

Soldiers and Sailors System

Posted by Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Lists

The National Park Service boasts an intricate online archive containing regimental information on soldiers and sailors on both sides of the Civil War. Over 6.3 million servicemen can be looked up by name, regiment, or battle via an easy-to-use search engine. One can also look up by state the total amount of soldiers that have […]

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Nov

Transatlantic Telegraph

Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic Periodicals, Images

This section of the “History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications” website is a great resource on the first transatlantic cable in 1858. The site offers lots of information, but the best are the transcripts and images from publications such as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Newspapers provided readers in 1858 with detailed accounts on […]

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Nov

Mitchell's New Universal Atlas, 1857

Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Maps

While my last post was on House Divided’s “zoomable” maps , we also have almost all of the maps from Mitchell’s 1857 atlas available. This includes all the US states and territories as well as countries and major cities from around the world. For example, check out the maps of Africa, Asia, Australia, the Carribean, […]

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Nov

Zoomable Maps

Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Maps

As this is Geography Awareness Week, I thought I would highlight some of the zoomable maps available on House Divided. Some of these maps provide bird-eyes view of various towns and cities – including Alton, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Harrisburg, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, and Washington D.C. In the Springfield map, you can look for […]

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Nov

Harpers Ferry – Mason Committee

Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic Periodicals

After John Brown’s attack in October 1859 on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, the United States Senate launched an investigation that became known as the Mason Committee. Yet when this committee released its findings in the summer of 1860, many regarded its efforts as ineffective. “Supporters of both sides were…heavily armed” in the […]

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Nov

Introducing Slavery through Slaves' Own Words

Posted by Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Lesson Plans, Letters & Diaries

Approaching the topic of slavery can be difficult, especially at the elementary school level when these issues might be discussed for the first time. Posted by the National Endowment for the Humanities, “Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources” offers a helpful classroom solution. Students from third to fifth grade read and explore […]

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Nov

Vicksburg

Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Lesson Plans, Places to Visit

While one can always visit Vicksburg National Military Park, they also have a great exhibit online. Even those who have already been to the park should take a look. The site offers short essays on different aspects of the Vicksburg Siege as well as related images. In addition, the exhibit uses the U.S.S. Cairo as […]

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