Secondary Source

This multi-faceted project documents the history of the nation's efforts to protect what has come to be called critical infrastructure -- the systems and structures that are vital to the smooth and safe functioning of our economy, society, and way of life. Examples of critical infrastructure include the country’s electrical grid, banking network, distribution pipelines, transportation corridors, and emergency response systems, among other things. Many of these systems are interdependent and rely on computer technology to operate.

A major focus of the CIP Oral History and Digital Archive Project is an ongoing interview program centered on the evolution of critical infrastructure protection -- or CIP -- during the 1980s and 1990s, up to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security in November 2002. Many of our interviewees are federal policymakers who have helped to shape and guide the CIP debate at the highest levels of government. You’ll find summaries of their interview transcripts in the Archive section.

In addition to gathering first-hand insights into recent CIP history, the project also looks at the broad historical context of CIP in the United States during the last three centuries. The Overview section sketches out some of the major issues in CIP, supplemented by a Timeline offering a detailed overview of key events and developments in CIP history. The Archive section provides easy access to a collection of materials selected for their relevance to the "big picture" of CIP. The Bibliography section gives suggestions for additional background reading available from other sources.

Remembering Pearl Harbor provides three ways to learn about the attack on Pearl Harbor: a multimedia map and timeline, resources on the history of World War II, and a Memory Book with stories of those who were affected by the attack. The multimedia map incorporates a timeline and personal narratives, while the resources include specific details on the ships and planes involved in the attack and where to look for further information. The Memory Book archive hosts more than 1,000 entries grouped by geographic location of the contributor. The archive is searchable and includes the experiences of witnesses and other involved in World War II, frequently shared by their children and grandchildren.

This site tells the story of the Washington Metro, a 103-mile rapid transit system serving the nation’s capital. Metro – one of the largest public-works projects ever built and the second-busiest rail transit system in the United States – is the creation of thousands of planners, engineers, architects, and builders. It remains a daily fixture for hundreds of thousands of residents of DC, northern Virginia, and southern Maryland, and visitors from around the world have toured DC on Metro’s underground trains. Users of Metro are invited to share their experiences on the site.

A collaborative effort of thirty archives, museums, and libraries, the Moving Here website explores, records, and illustrates the motivations and experiences of immigrants to England over the past 200 years. There are exhibits and galleries outlining the experiences of Caribbean, Irish, Jewish, and South Asian immigrants, and a searchable database of digitized photographs, maps, objects, documents, and audio files. The site also provides a guide to researching family history. Visitors are invited to share their family's migration story and provide personal images through the website. There are already more than 500 stories and images gathered through the website and contemporary community groups.

Gary McCue's John Holland Website is a vast resource on the early history of submarines and the man who became known as the father of the U.S. Submarine Service. McCue worked for a submarine design firm and used the Holland VI as a model for public demonstrations until his investigation of the craft led him into a full research project. The site contains a biographical essay and family information on Holland, descriptions of Holland's designs, summaries competing designers and their ships, drawings, photographs, personal accounts, correspondence, and newspaper clippings. A list of patents attributed to Holland includes a screw propeller, engines, a steering apparatus, and numerous submarine boats and guns. The site is basic and the navigation is not perfect, but the detail and extent of information make it worth a long visit. The site is also noteworthy for some rare information such as first-hand accounts by early crew members and trial reports. The site also provides a bibliography to aid further research.

The University Libraries of the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey maintains this site to provide researchers with information about its special collections resources. The collections available at the library include university archives, faculty papers, various manuscripts, oral histories, post cards, medical artifacts, and a New Jersey AIDS collection. Only certain segments of the site are searchable, but the site is easy to navigate and their are several helpful finding guides. Historians of medicine and those interested in regional or state-specific records would be well served by this library, and the site can be a useful tool for identifying the availability of desired information before making a research trip.

The Writings of Charles Darwin on the Web, edited by Dr. John van Wyhe, is an effort to publish in original format all of Charles Darwin's writings. The site already contains almost all of Darwin's writings as well as an extensive bibliography, images, and a biographical essay. While many of these materials are available elsewhere on the web, according to the authors, many online sources confuse editions, make errors in footnotes, and do a poor job of rendering transcriptions of scholarly quality. The texts here are not available in facsimile, but the authors have employed painstaking care to preserve the text of the originals all the way down to the characters, formatting, and page breaks. Line breaks have been altered in the case of hyphenation in order to allow better accuracy when searching.

The History of Computing Project is a non-profit, collaborative initiative "to record and publish the history of the computer and its roots in the broadest sense of the word." The site is a large collection of short reports divided into six subcategories: Companies, biographies, timeline, hardware, software, and video games. The site contains many images that supplement the historical text, and there are links to outside sources. The site is growing and as the editors add information to address all of their topics completely, this site will become a one stop source for any computer background topic. As it is, the site is large enough to seem a little unwieldy, and it is not searchable, but the division of categories, and the occasional alphabetical or chronological index, organizes the material into segments that are more accessible.

This site documents the history of women in science by providing a long list of biographies including female scientists from a range of disciplines. The site design is old and the navigation is basic, but a large amount of information on certain individuals is available throught this site and its links. The site offers a short introduction, the biographies, a few images, and a bibliography. Visitors can select whether to browse the biographies alphabetically, by date of birth, or by field. The site boasts more than 100 records, but many are one-sentence descriptions which are not useful. Some of the entries give summaries of the women's lives, their significant, and provide links to further online resources devoted that scientist. Other features of the site include an interactive quiz, crossword puzzle, and a long list of links to related sites.

This History of Dentistry site contains a descriptive narrative that tells the story of how dentistry developed through the ages to become the sophisticated medical science of today. The site begins with facts about prehistoric and ancient ideas about teeth and tooth disease, as well as early method of care and treatment. From there, the writer continues the story under a wide range of subject headings from "The Etruscan Practical Approach" to "The History of Toothpaste." Each article also includes links to endnotes as well. This site is part of the larger South African Dental Association site and there are a host of articles concerning contemporary dental issues that can be accessed from the side bar. The site acts as a primer on dental history and a guide to literary reference.