Links

Supported by organizations of professional historians such as the American Society for Environmental History and the European Society for Environmental History, H-Environment is the email discussion list on environmental history. This Web site introduces the discussion group and tells you how to join and what is discussed in the group. Discussion threads considered significant have been archived. In addition, there are links to bibliographies, course syllabi, archival sources and other materials (and about 20 other Web sites) on environmental history. The site also has a searchable log of the entire discussion group that visitors can scan by topic, date or author.

This is the home page for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's History Office. A brief essay introduces NASA and its history, while a fact sheet (with several photographs) provides a longer description of NASA's projects from the 1950s to the present. Deeper in the site are extensive histories of NASA's (and its predecessor NACA's) activities in air flight, satellites, space probes and manned exploration of space. A long list of NASA personnel, with biographies, adds to the detail of the site, and detailed chronology of NASA's history is also available. In addition, there are dozens of technical diagrams and drawings for the various space craft NASA has built, including the Space Shuttle and the original Mercury capsules. An excellent set of search functions, site maps and topical indices allows visitors to find information on virtually any NASA program or person.

The history section of this site contains: a brief illustrated history of the National Institutes of Health from 1887 to the present, as well as notes on breakthroughs made over the last century at the NIH, a bibliography of materials on the NIH, a short history of the NIH's various branches, and links to other sites on NIH history. The "exhibits" section has 10 online projects, including dozens of photographs of medical instruments and artwork, timelines of research on a variety of diseases and biological experiments, and biographies of important medical researchers and doctors. There is also extensive information about the museum itself, located in Bethesda, Maryland. Visitors can get information about rotating and permanent exhibits, and read a short prospectus of the museum's history.

The Bulletin of the History of Medicine is the official publication of the American Association of the History of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine. While the site allows visitors to browse the contents and cover artwork of every issue going back to 1996, only subscribers to the Bulletin's online service are allowed access to the actual articles. There are also links to the home page of the American Association of the History of Medicine, detailed information about the Bulletin, and links to other organizations and Web sites for those interested in the history of medicine.

This is the home page for Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science. An overview provides a sense of the museum's collection, and a paragraph describes its history (and the history of the building it is housed in) since 1683. There are seven excellent online exhibits with numerous graphics and photographs, including pieces on the history of photography, mathematics and astronomy. All are composed for a lay audience. For researchers, a remarkable searchable database of over 13,000 objects allows visitors to find and view artifacts in the museum's collection. These objects span the entire history of science and technology, and many of them are extremely rare. Another section of the site features some of the best portraits, instruments and illustrations in the archive.

This University of Virginia site contains one of Alexander Graham Bell's notebooks (1875-1876) from a critical phase in the invention of the telephone. The site primarily consists of about 100 quality images of diagrams from Bell's notebook. There are also data entries and brief notes (transcribed by the editor) available. Most of the experiments listed deal with electricity, magnetism and related metallurgic tests. Various circuits and electrical switches are explored in different configurations. While the site does not contain biographical material, it provides an interesting glimpse into the work of one of America's great inventors.

Uppsala University, in Sweden, is the oldest university in Scandanavia and a pioneering university in astronomy. This small site provides an overview of the history of the university from the fifteenth century to the present (in both English and Swedish). Included on the site are about 10 images (paintings, photographs and drawings) of the university observatories, listings of university publications from the early to middle twentieth century, a timeline of university professors in astronomy, since its origin, and a manuscript page of lecture notes from the 1480s. There are also links to related materials on astronomy and the scientists involved with the university and its discoveries.

Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians is the national association of family doctors. It is one of the largest national medical organizations, with more than 89,400 members. This is the organization's main Web site, and it contains information for members, the general public and medical students. It also has a series of governmental (state and federal) policy papers. Currently (Apirl 2004) there is no history of medicine on the site.

This site from NASA contains a brief biography and photograph of the physicist and "father of modern rocket propulsion," Robert Hutchings Goddard. Among the many firsts by Goddard listed, is the first liquid fuel rocket (1926), which led to the development of military missiles and the possibility of space exploration. A link on the liquid fueled rocket leads to several photographs and engineering sketches and an account of its inaugural flight. Statistics (size, employees, locations, funding, milestones) about the NASA center which is named after Goddard are also available.

Not presenting any original material of its own, this site is a portal for all things related to Albert Einstein. The long list of links includes over 30 references to online material on Einstein's life and work. There are also links to photographs, primary materials, quotations of and by Einstein. In addition, there are links to sites explaining Einstein's complicated physics; some of these sites are designed for advanced science students only, while others are designed for a general audience. Links to dozens of other sites on Einstein, from serious to humorous, round out the site.