Lieutenant Cornelius C. Platter’s diary (Nov. 1864 – April 1865), which is available from the Digital Library of Georgia, provides an account of his service with the 81st Ohio Infantry Volunteers as they marched through Georgia and the Carolinas with General William T. Sherman. This diary offers an interesting perspective on life as an officer […]
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Feb
10
Lieutenant Cornelius C. Platter Diary (1864 – 1865)
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Images, Letters & Diariesno comment
3
Feb
10
Westbrook Seminary: Educating Women
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & Diaries“Westbrook Seminary: Educating Women” is an interesting digital exhibit available through Maine Memory Network, which is managed by the Maine Historical Society. One can read a student’s diary (1843-1844) as well as learn more about several students who attended Westbrook Seminary throughout the 19th century. Check out all of the digital exhibits on Maine Memory […]
1
Feb
10
Iowa Counties Historic Atlases
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, MapsThe University of Iowa’s Digital Library contains a number of different digital projects, including “Iowa Counties Historic Atlases.” One can find almost 100 county atlases published between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Each county atlas, such as one for Des Moines county, offers different county maps, city maps, a wide variety of illustrations, […]
29
Jan
10
Newton Chandler California Gold Rush Era Letters
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Letters & Diaries“N. A. Chandler California Gold Rush Era Letters” is a great digital project available from Claremont College. Newton Chandler (1818?-1880), who arrived in San Francisco in 1855, wrote over fifty letters to his wife between 1855 and 1872. These letters provide interesting insights into the Gold Rush, including Chandler’s journey to California in 1855. While […]
27
Jan
10
Historic Iowa Children's Diaries
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & DiariesThe University of Iowa has a small but interesting digital collection of diaries from children who lived in Iowa from 1860 to the 1900s. Of the eleven diaries that are available, three were written between 1860 and 1870. Even though they are relatively short (only a few pages have been digitized in some cases), the […]
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Jan
10
Emergence of Advertising in America
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & DiariesDuke University’s “The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 – 1920” is a great resource for learning more about the early advertising history in the United States. This collection, which has over 9,000 images, is organized into eleven categories – almost all of the advertisements produced before 1870 are in “Broadsides” and “Advertising Ephemera.” Yet […]
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Jan
10
The University of Maryland has an interesting collection of sixty two letters from a family who lived in Maryland during the Civil War. This project consists primarily of Tillie Farquhar Sterling’s correspondence with her mother, which can provide an interesting look into daily life in Maryland between 1862 and 1864. Other letters in the collection […]
21
Jan
10
Post Office and the Press
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic PeriodicalsThe United States Post Office had an important role in suppressing antislavery material in slave states before the Civil War. Newspapers and books, such as the New York Tribune and Hinton Rowan Helper’s The Impending Crisis of the South (1857), were not always distributed in southern states.The Chicago Press and Tribune, which supported the Republican […]
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Jan
10
The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue (1858)
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic Periodicals, Images, Letters & DiariesOberlin College has a great digital exhibit on the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue that took place in September 1858. This event represented an important challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as residents were successful in their efforts to prevent southerners from returning fugitive slave to slavery. Some of the rescuers were arrested and their trial […]
15
Jan
10
Papers of Jefferson Davis
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & DiariesRice University has created a great online supplement for their 12 volume Papers of Jefferson Davis project. While not all of the papers have been posted online, the site offers a nice selection of material from his entire career. One can read “a listing of the demerits Davis received while” at West Point, a newspaper […]
