JTA - Jewish News Archive

 

JTA - Jewish News Archive

 

The JTA Jewish News Archive is a powerful reference tool that offers a perspective on current events and modern Jewish history that is not available anywhere else. With free access to nearly a century of reporting about global events affecting world Jewry, the Archive will not only serve as a rich resource for both the casually curious as well as students and scholars of modern Jewish history, it will also transform the way the next generation of Jewish leaders and activists learn about their heritage.

Until now, there has been no authoritative site that provides a comprehensive chronicle of modern Jewish history, as seen through the eyes of journalists. From the aftermath of World War I, to the rise of Nazi Germany, through the Holocaust, the creation of the modern State of Israel and right up to today, JTA journalists have been reporting on stories and issues affecting Jews around the globe. The JTA Jewish News Archive holds over a quarter-million articles They provide a unique lens through which to view world events that no other news organization provides.

“The JTA Jewish News Archive has the potential to spark an interest in the past that will transform the future,” says Jonathan Sarna, the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. Professor Sarna, a member of JTA’s Board of Directors, chaired the project.

It has long been JTA’s mission to document the narrative of modern Jewish history. JTA was founded in the waning days of World War I by Jacob Landau as a mechanism for transmitting vital information about what was happening in Jewish communities in various parts of the world. Orginally named the Jewish Correspondence Bureau, it was, in fact, the first news agency that not only gathered but also disseminated news in every part of the world.

The tag line on the logo, "Writing the first draft of Jewish history since 1917" reflects the reality that the correspondents reported what they could confirm at that time. It is possible that some of the facts in these articles were proven erroneous when more deliberate research became possible . As a news service, though, JTA reported events that would have otherwise not been documented. That is the nature of news reporting, particularly during times of war or political repression.

Throughout our long history, JTA has earned its reputation for journalistic integrity, outstanding reporting and insightful analysis. Over the years, the Jewish community has come to rely on JTA as the single most credible source of news and analysis available about events and issues of Jewish interest anywhere in the world.

Headquartered in New York, JTA is a not-for-profit corporation governed by an independent Board of Directors. It has no allegiance to any specific branch of Judaism or political viewpoint. We receive funding from a diverse array of sources.

National Jukebox LOC.gov

 

National Jukebox LOC.gov

 

About the National Jukebox

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which has granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings.

At launch, the Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Jukebox content will be increased regularly, with additional Victor recordings and acoustically recorded titles made by other Sony-owned U.S. labels, including Columbia, OKeh, and others.

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

 

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

 

“…a repository of inestimable value, like the art world’s Fort Knox.”– contemporary art collector and friend of the Archives

Founded in Detroit in 1954 by Edgar P. Richardson, then Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Lawrence A. Fleischman, a Detroit executive and active young collector, the initial goal of the Archives was to serve as microfilm repository of papers housed in other institutions. This mission expanded quickly to collecting and preserving original material and, in 1970, the Archives joined the Smithsonian Institution, sharing the Institution’s mandate—the increase and diffusion of knowledge.

The Archives today is the world’s pre-eminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.

Our vast holdings—more than 16 million letters, diaries and scrapbooks of artists, dealers, and collectors; manuscripts of critics and scholars; business and financial records of museums, galleries, schools, and associations; photographs of art world figures and events; sketches and sketchbooks; rare printed material; film, audio and video recordings; and the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art—are a vital resource to anyone interested in American culture over the past 200 years.

Yet the Archives is still growing! Each year, our curators travel the country seeking the papers of today’s artists, dealers, and collectors, and once new collections are acquired, professional archivists preserve the materials and create easy-to-use guides.

Founded on the belief that the public needs free and open access to the most valuable research materials, our collections are available to the thousands of researchers who consult original papers at our research facilities or use our reference services remotely every year, and to millions who visit us online to access detailed images of fully digitized collections.

Our resources serve as reference for countless dissertations, exhibitions, catalogues, articles, and books on American art and artists, and preserve the untold stories that, without a central repository such as the Archives, might have otherwise been lost.

Through collecting, preserving, and providing access to our collections, the Archives inspires new ways of interpreting the visual arts in America and allows current and future generations to piece together the nation’s rich artistic and cultural heritage.

The Pop History Dig - a collection of short stories about popular culture - its history, its people, and its power

 

The Pop History Dig - a collection of short stories about popular culture - its history, its people, and its power

Welcome to The Pop History Dig.

     In today’s world, busy people often miss or by-pass important historic and cultural events when they first occur.  Others have completely forgotten older events or know little of their significance.  The Pop History Dig is offered as a place to revisit some of that cultural history, whether decades old or occurring just last week.  It is also a place to consider and reconsider the importance and meaning of these events – and their impact on society.

     What you will find here is a collection of stories that probe the history and power of popular culture – its people, its businesses, and its politics.  Everything from Thomas Edison’s inventions to Oprah Winfrey’s political endorsements is fair game at this site – and more.  Music, sport, film, and television are all part of the mix.  Media and entertainment, quite obviously, figure prominently in  make up of popular culture, and these are a primary focus.  History is covered, yes, but it’s history with a difference; political, cultural, and business history; history that helps explain, for example, how media and entertainment have become such a pervasive part of our daily lives.

 

     All of this is served up in a short- to medium-length story format – stories that are somewhat longer than a typical blog, but in-depth enough to provide thorough coverage of a particular subject or offer some new arrangement of  information.  Each story typically includes period photos, sidebars, and other graphics.  Some will contain music files, and some will link to videos on YouTube and elsewere.  There is also biography, business history, and a share of nostalgia found here.  Some stories are serious and conven- tional, others less so.

     Jack Kennedy’s politics are covered, as well as Mickey Mantle’s home runs and Madonna’s music.  Warner Brothers’ film history is included, along with John Steinbeck’s novels and the power of 1930s’ radio.  Walt Disney’s empire and how Ted Turner built CNN are also covered. Jack Kennedy’s politics are covered, as well as  Mickey Mantle’s home runs and Madonna’s music. And other stories to come might focus on the product endorsements of basketball phenom LeBron James, the history of MTV, or a Ray Charles song.

     These are all stories of a kind; part of the mix of people and events sometimes called “popular culture.”  But they are also more than that.  They are stories of money, politics, and power, too – and also, the longer timeline of history.  They tell us something about who we are, where we have come from, and what we value.  Some are significant in business or the arts; others have become historic milestones and landmarks; and still others have become woven into the social fabric over time.  Some are embedded in our personal lives and emotional memories – from music and film, or a good book or memorable sporting event.  And whether personal marker or cultural milestone, many of these events have come to us by way of the media and entertainment industries.

London Low Life

 

London Low Life

"This is an engaging and timely resource...with the potential to change the way we have approached the Victorian period and imagined life in London"
Rosalind Crone, Open University

This collection brings to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, inviting students and scholars to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century’s greatest city.

From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature.

This is also an incredible visual resource for students and scholars of London, with many full colour maps, cartoons, sketches and a full set of the essential Tallis’ Street Views of London – a unique resource for the study of London architecture and commerce. We also include George Gissing's famous London scrapbooks from the Pforzheimer Collection, containing his research for London novels such as New Grub Street and The Netherworld.

Topics covered include:

• the underworld
• slang
• working-class culture
• street literature
• popular music
• urban topography
• ‘slumming’
• Prostitution
• the Temperance Movement
• social reform
• Toynbee Hall
• police and criminality

London Low Life

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC)

 

U.S. Army Heritage Collections Online

To search all of our materials, click on the "Search All Collections" button.
To limit your search to specific portions of our collection, please click one of the three search options below.

All Catalogs

U.S. AHEC Collections
Home of the U.S. Army Military History Institute (USAMHI)

Research Catalog

Search our catalog for books, manuscripts, photographs, serials, microfilm, and more.

Resource Guides Finding Aids

Search for subject bibliographies & collections of research sources.

Resource Guides Finding Aids

Search for digitized photographs, manuscripts, military publications, oral histories, and audio/video material.

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC)

Military History Encyclopedia on the Web

Military History Encyclopedia on the Web

Welcome to HistoryOfWar.org. We aim to make our site your first call for information on any aspect of military history. If we don't have what you want,then contact us via our military history discussion forum or contact us directly

Currently we have 3,945 articles, 1,530 pictures, 370 maps, 357 unit histories and over 2,775,700 words in original articles. We don't just cover the best known conflicts, although we do have good coverage of the First and Second World Wars, the Napoleonic Wars and now the American Civil War.

We now open a new section of the site, a day-by-day history of the Second World War, covering the 2,214 days of the war from the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 to the Japanese surrender in Hong Kong on 16 September 1945 (two weeks after the surrender in Tokyo Bay), and currently containing 5,276 individual facts.

Check our recent articles page (last update 2 June 2011) to see what we are doing at the moment. New articles will also be announced on our Blog, our forum and our mailing list (sign up using the form at the base of this page).

Our section of reviews of new book and DVD releases was last updated on 30 May 2011.

In 2006 we ran our first two themed months, on the Napoleonic Wars, where we more than doubled our coverage of the period, and more recently on the American Civil War. Our first theme of 2007 was on War in the Air. The first day of the War in the Air theme also saw us post our 1,000th article, on the Supermarine Spitfire Mk XII. Our 2,000th article is a look at the German battlecruiser Von der Tann, part of our recent focus on the First World War. Our 3,000th article looks at the battle of Truillas (22 September 1793), a Spanish victory early in the War of the First Coalition.

We have now added our two millionth word, in our biography of the Roman general Manius Aquillius (died 89/88 B.C.), our 1000th battle - the battle of Rivoli of 14 January 1797, and our 500th military aircraft, the Kawasaki Ki-48 Army Type 99 Twin-engined Light Bomber (Lily)

Military History Encyclopedia on the Web

Digital Library on American Slavery

Digital Library on American Slavery

The Digital Library on American Slavery offers data on race and slavery extracted from eighteenth and nineteenth-century documents and processed over a period of eighteen years. The Digital Library contains detailed information on about 150,000 individuals, including slaves, free people of color, and whites. These data have been painstakingly extracted from 2,975 legislative petitions and 14,512 county court petitions, and from a wide range of related documents, including wills, inventories, deeds, bills of sale, depositions, court proceedings, amended petitions, among others. Buried in these documents are the names and other data on roughly 80,000 individual slaves, 8,000 free people of color, and 62,000 whites, both slave owners and non-slave owners.

One of the inherent tragedies of slavery is the fact that the masses of black people often remain nameless in the historical record. The 1850 and 1860 United States Population Slave Censuses, for example, recorded the age, gender, color, and owner's name for approximately 7.2 million slaves, but failed to record the names of individual slaves.

One of the unique aspects of the Digital Library is the information on individual slaves that will be made available along with additional data on their owners stretching over time. For each slave, other data, when included in the documents, will be added: an alternate name, name extension (Jr., Sr.), age, gender, color, dates of ownership, as well as economic and family information. Free black data will include name, name extension, age, gender, color, occupation, how and when freed, names and status of family relations. Despite these unique profiles, the total number of names in the database, compared with the millions of slaves and free blacks over time, is small. Even so, no other online database connects slaves with their owners in such a manner.

The Digital Library is a rich resource in other ways as well. The list of subjects reveals the variety of "causes" or "bills of complaint," in the language of the courts, that petitioners brought, or defendants raised, in their civil suits. The general topics include slave ownership, slave management, freedom suits, crime and punishment, health, death, social and civic life, marriage, women, and family, among others. In addition, all of the petitions relate in one way or another to a broad range of legal issues and state laws concerning race and slavery.

Encyclopedia of Chicago

 

Encyclopedia of Chicago

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHICAGO

The World Wide Web has influenced The Encyclopedia of Chicago from its inception in 1994. As we mapped out the project, we came to realize that the form of the encyclopedia–with its emphasis on multiple pathways through a complex body of knowledge rather than on a single narrative–resembled the structure of the Web. Of course, Web publication also appealed to us for other reasons rooted in our encyclopedic ambitions: by publishing on the internet, we could reach a potentially enormous worldwide audience; we could expand the work's size beyond the limitations defined by a single printed volume; and we could complement narrative and interpretation with audio and video primary sources in addition to text and still images. But the possibilities didn't stop there, for as the project grew, so did the Web; this brave new world soon featured interactive maps, split screens, and zooms. We hope these features will make the encyclopedia as lively and various a place to visit as the city itself, and tempt readers to explore its back alleys as well as its grand boulevards. But most importantly, we hope that the electronic version of The Encyclopedia of Chicago, like the print version (University of Chicago Press, 2004) will stimulate readers to think differently about Chicago–by walking new paths through its history.

A Vision of Britain through Time | Your national on-line library for local history | Maps, Statistics, Travel Writing and more

 

A Vision of Britain through Time | Your national on-line library for local history | Maps, Statistics, Travel Writing and more

 

A Vision of Britain through Time brings together historical surveys of Britain to create a record of how the country and its localities have changed.

It was created by Humphrey Southall and the Great Britain Historical GIS Project ("GIS" stands for "Geographical Information System"). We are based in the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. More information about the project, and about historical applications of GIS technology, is available from our other web site at:

www.gbhgis.org

More detailed information is available here about:

• News: This is where we tell you about new facilities and content in the Vision of Britain web site.

• Accessibility: Making the Vision of Britain web site accessible to the widest possible audience.

• Credits and Copyright: Who did what in creating this site, and who owns what.

• FAQ: Using the web site: Frequently Asked Questions about using the Vision of Britain web site.

• FAQ: Content: Frequently Asked Questions about the information in the Vision of Britain web site.

• Sources: The raw materials on which the Vision of Britain web site is based: books, maps, statistical reports and so on.

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center | UConn

http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/collections/spanwomen.htm

Spanish Periodicals and Newspapers: Women's Magazine Digital Collection

In the early 1970s, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut acquired an incredible collection of Spanish Periodicals and Newspapers collected by the famous bibliophile, Juan Perez de Guzman y Boza, the Duque de T' Serclaes. Now housed in Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, this rich collection reflects the complex history of Spain through periodicals and newspapers dating from the 18th-20th centuries, with the bulk of the collection dating from the 19th century.

Of significant interest is the wide selection of women's magazines written by men to appeal to an elite female audience. The collection is full of things such as short historical stories, poems, good advice for both men and women about the proper behavior of ladies at any age, beautiful colored and engraved images with the latest news of Paris fashion, music sheets of polkas and other music specifically composed for the magazines, and patterns for needlework, to name only a few. These magazines are an amazing window to understand the social dimensions of women in 19th century Spain.

Because of their significance to international researchers unable to travel to the University, the Dodd Research Center, in collaboration with the UConn Libraries, digitized 20 titles from the collection. Thanks to the support and funding of the UConn Libraries' Digital Project Team (DPT) and its members (Dave Lowe, Michael Bennett) and cataloger Tom Koenig, the Libraries have created in-house this digital collection, to provide electronic access to researchers around the world.
The digital copies are available through the Internet Archive and the UConn Digital Collections site and are available in several different formats and the text is searchable. This webpage grouped all the digitized titles available for easy access.

For more information about this collection, visit our previous Item of the Month feature from August 2009

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center | UConn

Digital Harlem :: Everyday Life 1915-1930

 

Digital Harlem :: Everyday Life 1915-1930

The Digital Harlem website presents information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930.

The panel on the left allows you to search for events, people or places, and generate interactive web maps based on the search results. Multiple layers of results can be displayed on the same map, and each can be toggled on and off. A legend identifying the symbols used on the map can be found to the right. Clicking on a symbol on the map will open a window containing further information about that item. A series of ready-made 'feature' maps can be accessed from the panel on the right.

For more information on Harlem, and the Sources used in this site, and About the project of which it is part, How to conduct searches and create maps, and the Feature maps we have created, click on the buttons above the map.

A more detailed, illustrated guide to how to use the site is available on the Digital Harlem blog. Updates, news and feedback, can also be found on the blog

• Winner of the American Historical Association's 2010 Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History
• Winner of the American Library Association's 2010 ABC-CLIO Online History Award

Lincolniana at Brown

Lincolniana at Brown

 

The Lincoln Collection at Brown had its beginnings in September 1855, when a young Westerner arrived at Brown, after a three-day journey from Indiana, to pursue an East Coast education. He could hardly have known it then, but John Milton Hay was to bring a lot more than his wit to the university he grew to love in the generations that followed his 1858 graduation.

In the early part of the 20th century, when the University was planning to build a new library to replace its existing outmoded structure, Andrew Carnegie offered to pay half the cost of construction if the University would name it in honor of John Hay, its most distinguished alumnus, then recently deceased. To President Faunce, the answer was simple and obvious. Hay’s devoted service in the Lincoln White House as Assistant Private Secretary to the President (for more about this, see the online exhibit “John Hay’s Lincoln”) rendered the idea of a Lincoln collection another self-evident decision for the University, but finding a Lincoln collection of sufficient depth and importance proved to be something of a challenge. In 1920, President Faunce learned that Hugh McLellan was about to put his father’s sizeable Lincoln collection up for auction. The McLellan Collection was then one of the five most distinguished Lincoln collections in the world. Faunce prevailed upon John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Class of 1897, to purchase the collection as a donation to the University. Rockefeller then funded the outfitting of a special room in the Hay Library to house the McLellan Collection, with cases designed by Hugh McLellan and made from quartered oak. Within five years, the McLellan Collection had outgrown this small space, and an adjoining room was furnished to match the first, providing additional space.

The McLellan Collection has been supplemented over the years by some major gifts of Lincoln and related materials, increasing the collection to more than five times its original size. During his lifetime, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. remained the principle benefactor of the collection, collecting and donating additional manuscripts, books, portraits and prints. The papers of Rush Christopher Hawkins, which included a number of Lincoln manuscripts, came to the University in 1948 with the collections of the Annmary Brown Memorial. In 2006, a major bequest from Maury A. Bromsen, the late Boston book dealer, added hundreds of prints, books, pamphlets and museum objects to the collection, along with a portrait of Lincoln by one of his associates, the printing plates for an important series of Confederate etchings and manuscripts of Civil War generals George B. McClellan and P.T.G. Beauregard. More recently, the collection has been the beneficiary of the interest and attention of Douglas W. Squires, Class of 1973. In the interim, the Library has received numerous other small donations of material pertaining to Lincoln and the Civil War; we encourage interested patrons to consult the Library’s A to Z list of Special Collections for details on some of these.

The Hay Library’s Lincoln rooms remain today much as they were when first set up in the 1920s, although they are no longer actively used as research space. They house a permanent display of paintings, sculpture and objects from the Lincoln Collection, and may be viewed upon request. Materials from the Lincoln Collection are made available for research use in the Hay Library’s main reading room. For further information or to arrange for a tour of the Lincoln rooms, please contact: hay@brown.edu.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

• Papers of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (Rockefeller Archive Center)
• John Hay Papers (Library of Congress)
• Mr. Lincoln and Friends (The Lincoln Institute)

American President: Resource on the U.S. Presidents

 American President: Resource on the U.S. Presidents

American President: An Online Reference Resource

A comprehensive collection of material about the Presidents of the United States and the history of the presidency. This web site features essays about the President's life before, during, and after each presidential term. It additionally provides information about the First Lady and cabinet officials of each administration. A collection of essays on the President at Work delves into the function, responsibilities, and organization of the modern presidency and traces the history and evolution of presidential duties.

American President: Resource on the U.S. Presidents

Institute of Historical Research | The national centre for history

Institute of Historical Research | The national centre for history

Founded in 1921 by A. F. Pollard, the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is an important resource and meeting place for researchers from all over the world. Based at the University of London, the IHR offers:

• IHR library - an outstanding open-access library
• conferences and seminars that are open to the public
• postgraduate degrees and research training
• The History Lab, a hub for postgraduate students
• resources for historical research in both digital format and print
• publications - including the Institute's journal Historical Research

Find out more in What we offer. You can also access a range of partner sites, including the websites of the IHR's three research centres:

• Centre for Contemporary British History
• Centre for Metropolitan History
• Victoria County History

Institute of Historical Research | The national centre for history

Discovering American Women's History Online

 Discovering American Women's History Online

This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to Katrina Thomas's photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century.

This database simplifies access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Abigail Franks' letters to her son from the 1730s and 1740s (Center for Jewish History) to Katrina Thomas' photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century.

Search and Browse Options

Please see the Search Tips page for several examples of simple and complex searches.

Researchers can browse the database by subject (150+ entries), place (i.e., states), time period, and primary source type. By browsing through these lists of preconfigured searches, researchers not only gain a quick sense of the scope of the database, but may also discover topics (e.g., women engineers) and approaches to research (e.g., using scrapbooks as primary sources) that they had not considered. In addition, many users will be pleasantly surprised by the number of collections that document the history of women in their home state.

Thumbnail Images

Many "short records" in the database include a thumbnail of an image from the collection that the record describes. The use of thumbnails in this way provides a visual cue to the content of the collection. Full records include a thumbnail caption field.

About the Developer

Ken Middleton is a reference librarian at Middle Tennessee State University Library. He has a second master's degree, with an emphasis in American women's history, from the same university.

Credits and Acknowledgements

Numerous people have provided valuable advice, technical knowledge, and encouragement. Many thanks to Fagdeba Bakoyema, Al Camp, Mary Hoffschwelle, James Staub, Mayo Taylor, and the entire Digital Projects team at Walker Library.

Discovering American Women's History Online