Primary Source

Excellent resource for serious research in computer technology fields. The archival collections, including large photographic files, are indexed with strong abstracts, and are both browsable and searchable. However, PDF files of their "research-grade" oral history collection are available online. These recount the experiences of over three hundred individuals whose work developed computers, software, and networking. The site also contains essays on Charles Babbage and the computing industry in Minnesota, as well as PDF files of the CBI Newsletter. The Cray Research Virtual Museum displays many of the large scale computers built by Seymour Cray in the 1950s and 1960s. Links are made to other websites, bibliographies, and research collections and tools.

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collection includes digital images of measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for 10,000 historic structures and sites dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. These collections display building types and engineering technologies from a farmhouse to a pickle factory, from churches to the Golden Gate Bridge. New material is added monthly. A gallery of images includes 36 photographs and 18 drawings of 50 structures, one from each state in the U.S. The site is searchable by geographic location, keyword, and a subject index that is organized by structure type. For each structure, the site provides from one to ten drawings, from one to 30 photographs, and from one to 50 pages of HABS text in facsimile detailing the structure’s history, significance, and current physical condition. Useful for a specialized audience, for architectural historians, or for those looking for illustrations and examples.

This site, developed by the Society for the History of Technology, teaches the history of the production and consumption of textiles. Three completed "modular units," Early Industrialization, True Colors, and Synthetic Fibers, link the history of textile technology to issues of race and gender in American history. Five more units will be available soon. Web teaching materials include teacher and student essays, lesson plans, slide shows, videos, and documents. Other collaborators on the project include the National Science Foundation; the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; and the Center for Children and Technology. The site is designed for middle and high school students and social studies teachers.

The National Park Service's online presence for the Edison National Historic Site is a repository for a large amount of Edisonia. This site is geared to be accessible to children, a resource for students, and also an engaging experience for adults. It makes available several of Edison's early sound and motion picture recordings, as well as hundreds of images, both personal and professional. A biography about Edison, and essays about his laboratory, inventions, and life away from science, written by NHS staff, provide compelling secondary material. A bibliography is posted for those interested in further research, and the site contains a list of Edison's astonishing 1,093 patents. A fun and interesting activity is a recreation of the "Edison Mental Fitness Test," which anyone hoping to be a manager in Edison's lab had to pass. An excellent site, useful for a variety of people and purposes.

This excellent site features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs and original magazine articles documenting Thomas Edison's corporate impact on the history of American entertainment. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)—prolific inventor, manufacturer, and businessman—patented 1,093 inventions, including the phonograph, the kinetograph (a motion picture camera), and the kinetoscope (a motion picture viewer). All are searchable by keyword, title, or subject; movies are presented in QuickTime, Mpeg and RealMedia formats and a capsule description of each film is provided. Special pages focus on the life of the great inventor and histories of Edison's contribution to motion picture and sound recording technologies. Part of the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress, drawn from collections in the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

An online collection of portions of the Bell Institute's holdings, which are largely reproductions from the Library of Congress. Contains a vast amount of documentation on topics which include correspondence, the Aerial Experiment Association, and lab notes. These are accessible by browsing drop down menus which allow one to choose collection, volume, and page. It also can be searched using predefined or custom keywords. The Bell Family Archive also contains a an image gallery of photos ranging from telephones to kites to family members. A virtual tour of the Institute itself is available, as are a series of printable reproductions of games, diagrams, and experiments for children. An excellent resource for researchers interested in Bell.

This site includes a biography and timeline of Thomas Edison's life, as well as information about his experiments in the production and distribution of electric power in Brockton, Massachusetts. The site serves as a good summary of Edison's work and offers a useful background on the Brockton experiments which can be a starting point for further research.

Great source for information on scientific personas and activities during the Victorian era. Contains biographies of many scientists including Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Sigmund Freud, William Paley, Herbert Spencer, and Louis Agassiz. Overviews of scientific disciples are organized by Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Psychology, Mathematics, and Medicine. Links to both on and off-site reproductions of primary documents are available as are a diversity of images. A list of links to related sites, as well as a number of bibliographies are provided as well.

This Library of Congress site is devoted to Alexander Graham Bell, Samuel F. B. Morse, and the early developement of telecommunications. The site is divided into two sections. The first section provides access to a selection of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers. The selection includes 4,695 items dated from 1862 to 1939. The Bell Family Papers are indexed by series, subject, and name, and the collection is searchable. However, the second section dealing with Samuel F. B. Morse, remains in the preview stage as of 09/08/2004. It gives a brief overview of the life of Morse, but it is not yet searchable and makes no reference to Morse's career as a nativist.