How can I create Documentaries?

Documentaries can be a great multimedia project on a variety of subjects. There are a number of free programs available that make it relatively easy to put a video together, several of which are listed below. House Divided has created several documentaries that are online at YouTube.

Programs for Creating Documentaries

is a free program from Microsoft.

“” provides an overview of all the basic features. is a free program from Microsoft that requires Windows Vista or Windows 7. Learn how to create videos and use all of the features with . The of this program includes several new features, including captions that are easier to add.Animoto is not a program that you download and install. After you upload content, youcan create videos online. While the basic version is free, a subscription is required to access all of the features. Teachers can avoid any fees by using Animoto for Education.iMovieis a video editing program from Apple. This program does not work on computers with Microsofts’ Windows installed.

How Can I Use Internet Text Archives (Internet Archive)?

The Texts section of the Internet Archive is a great resource for primary sources as they provide free access to books in the public domain that would not be in most library collections. This non-profit organization has partnered with a number of institutions, including Duke University Libraries, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and the University of California Libraries, to scan books in their collections. While some tips are listed below, you can find more information on their FAQ page.

Using the Internet Archive

Browse/Search by Collection – Try browsing or searching by collection to

get an idea as to what is available on this site. “American Libraries” and “Children’s Library” highlight some of the best books on their collections front page.

Search Options – Select the relevant collection or sub-collection from the drop down menu
Sort Results By – Several options are available; try sorting by “Download count” or “Average rating” to get the best or highest quality digital version
Book Contributor – This site can have multiple versions of some books, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin. If a particular version has a problem (i.e. poor image quality), look for another copy uploaded by different contributor.
View the Book – While several viewing options are available, “Read Online” and “Full Text” are the easiest to use since extra programs or browser plugins are not required.
Short, Stable URL – Use the URL from a book’s detail page.

Recommended Sources

Have you found any sources that have been particularly helpful or interesting? Let us know!

How Can I Use Internet Text Archives (Google Books)?

Google Books is a great resource for primary sources as they provide free access to books in the public domain that would not be in most library collections. Google has partnered with a number of university libraries, including Columbia, Harvard, and Oxford, to scan books in their collections. While some tips are listed below, you can find more comprehensive overview at the Google Books Help page.

Using Google Books

Not all of the books are online in full – Google organizes their collection into four categories: Full View, Limited Preview, Snippet View, and No Preview Available. You can learn more about each category here.
Clip Tool – Generates plain text and a screenshot from a specific part of the book that you select. For example, this image is a screenshot from a section of page 82 in this book.
Link Tool – Provides a stable URL to a specific page in a book. Note that this link will include settings such as the search results – click here for an example.
Short, Stable URL – If you want a short, stable URL to a specific book, remove everything after the first & symbol in a URL. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Searching Google Books

Google Books provides a number of different ways to sort search results, including sort by relevance/date, document type, and time period. Select “Full View” to limit search results to those sources that are in the public domain.
Need information about a specific person? Try searching by entering “Last Name, First Name” and a key term such as “Encyclopedia” “Cyclopedia” “Biographical” or “Library” (quotations included). If any encyclopedias have an entry on that person, they will be among the first search results. For example, take a look at this search on John McClintock

Recommended Sources

Have you found any sources on Google Books that have been particularly helpful or interesting? Let us know!

What are Clippings in Nineteenth-Century Newspapers?

Few Nineteenth Century newspaper editors, particularly in the decades before the Civil War, had the resources to hire lots of reporters to cover stories in their own cities or other states. While newspapers included editorials and reports written by their own staff in every issue, many also published content from other papers. As you read a newspaper from this period, it is important to watch out for these types of articles. Document records in House Divided include an “Original Source” field, which indicates whether that article was original published in another paper or contained an excerpt. Some papers, such as the Ripley (OH) Bee, might include the original publication above the article title.

Other newspaper, such as the Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, noted the original source directly below the article title. The Bangor (ME) Whig and Courier, however, usually gave credit to  the other publications at the end of the article. As uniform standards did not exist, editors adopted their own guidelines  for how or where to note the original source. In addition, some editorials  might include extracts from articles published in other papers. These can be easier to quickly identify, as some papers indented the block quote or noted that part of the article had been “copied.” You can start to learn more about newspapers in this period from sources noted in a previous post.

Any Suggestions for Reading Nineteenth-Century Newspapers?

Today the New York Times states that “[their] goal is to cover the news impartially and to treat readers, news sources, advertisers and all parts of our society fairly and openly.” Newspapers in the 19th Century, however, had far different objectives.

As one reads newspaper articles posted in House Divided, it is critical to identify a paper’s partisan affiliation in order to put the article in context. Editors were rarely, if ever, independent since politicians and political parties usually provided financial support for a paper. If one were to start a new publication, it would not be unusual to solicit donations from politicians. In July 1860, Abraham Lincoln received a letter from Jole Johnson in which he asked “[Lincoln] to make some contribution to the Support of the paper.” Politicians could also dictate important editorial decisions. Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago (IL) Tribune, asked Abraham Lincoln in June 1858 for advice on how to respond to an editorial published in the Democrat’s Chicago (IL) Times. Editors could work with politicians and their political parties to advance a particular agenda through the paper.

You can start to learn more about 19th Century newspapers from the following sources –

Menahem Blondheim, News over the Wires: The Telegraph and the Flow of Public Information in America, 1844-1897 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994).

James L. Crouthamel, Bennett’s New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989).

Frankie Hutton, The Early Black Press in America, 1827 to 1860 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993).

James M. Perry, A Bohemian Brigade: The Civil War Correspondents, Mostly Rough, Sometimes Ready (New York: Wiley, 2000).

Lorman Ratner and Dwight L. Teeter, Fanatics and Fire-Eaters: Newspapers and the Coming of the Civil War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003).

Dan Schiller, Objectivity and the News: The Public and the Rise of Commercial Journalism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981).

Richard A. Schwarzlose, The Nation’s Newsbrokers. 2 vols. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1989-1990).

How can I find all of the Zoomify Images on House Divided?

How can I find all of the Zoomify Images on House Divided?Zoomify is a software program that allows online users to pan and

zoom digital images. House Divided currently has over 160 free zoomable

images in our Image Collection. These include zoomable photographs, city and state maps, panoramic maps, battlefield maps, and other types of images such as cartoons or prints. You can locate all of them by searching the Image Collection with “zoom” in the title field.

I found a mistake on House Divided. Who should I contact?

From June 2008 until April 2011, we plan to label our work for the House Divided website as a Draft Edition. This means that you should use with this site some caution and plenty of patience because what you see is a work in progress. There will be gaps and some mistakes and lots of changes as we prepare for an official launch on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011. If you would like to see what we intend to do for every day of the period 1840 to 1880, go to March 17, 1860 as an example of our vision. You can also search out our best documented people by querying individuals in our Collections section whose Importance or Status equals Most Important or Very Important.

Always feel free to send comments or suggestions because everything that goes into this site is designed to make the period more accessible and engaging for users. Please send any feedback to hdivided@dickinson.edu.