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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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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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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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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The University of California’s Calisphere has several “themed collections” on a number of subjects, including the Gold Rush, that are designed to help educators “quickly find compelling primary sources.” One can use this site to explore how California “changed…dramatically” as a result of the “sudden influx” of people after 1848. The collection is sub-divided into […]

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When Democrats could not agree on a single candidate from the 1860 election, the northern and southern wings selected their own – Stephen Douglas and John Breckinridge, respectively. This development alarmed President John Buchanan, as a letter from August 1860 reveals. If “a re-union between the” northern and southern Democrats did not occur, Buchanan told […]

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The history department at the University of Nebraska has a number of lectures on digital history projects available, including Edward Ayers’ “Civil War and Emancipation: Visualizing American History.” Ayers, who developed the Valley of the Shadow, discusses that project as well as the Emancipation Project and the Southern History Database. While a transcript is not […]

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Most students are unfamiliar with the Filibuster of the 1850s. If anything, one associates it with attempts to prevent a vote on bills in the US Senate. T. J. Stiles’ essay in the Gilder Lehrman’s online journal History Now provides a nice overview of the subject and profiles the infamous “Filibuster King” William Walker. “Filibusters […]

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The New York Times recently published a review of two new exhibits on John Brown – one from the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond and another from the New York Historical Society. (The New York Historical Society’s exhibit draws on material from the Gilder Lehrman Institute and some of it is online, as I noted […]

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The University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab’s “Voting America” is great resource on US Presidential elections. The site provides a series of maps on each election between 1840 and 2004  that show a variety of different information. For example, the 1860 election map includes layers that breakdown the popular vote by county and counties with […]

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