Museum

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History presented the exhibit "September 11: Bearing Witness to History" one year after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The immediacy of the events and exhibit prompted more than 10,000 visitors to share their story on cards in the exhibit hall, which are availble from the September 11 Digital Archive website. Visitors to the online exhibition may share their stories through a partnership with the September 11 Digital Archive, and thousands have already done so.

In addition to the wealth of material available in the online exhibit and collection, this site includes a "Reflections" section where visitors may share their responses to seven different questions about issues raised in the exhibit and read the responses of others. In addition to asking for reactions to the website and exhibit itself, there are questions asking for visitor experiences of internment or the World War II era. There also are three more reflective questions asking visitors about the causes of interment and possibility of a similar situation in the future, the meaning of citizenship, and the tension between national security versus indiviudal liberty. Finally, there is a question asking the visitor to compare the attack on Pearl Harbor with the events of September 11, 2001.

This website contains a directory and description of the artifact holdings of the Bakken Library and Museum. The Bakken is a not-for-profit educational institute founded by the inventor of the first transistorized cardiac pacemaker. Fittingly, the collection is largely devoted to the use of electricity and magnetism in medicine and the life sciences. The directory is sorted and listed by categories, but unfortunately the collection is not searchable. The entries for each item include an image, a physical description including materials, size, and weight, and a list of remarks that note special features or the condition of the item. The website also features a commentary that supplements the collection directory with a historical overview.

The American Red Cross Museum in partnership with the September 11 Digital Archive is collecting stories to document the relief efforts and response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Individuals can submit their story through the website and which they may choose to have featured on the site. The stories speak to personal experiences witnessing the attacks as well as local and community response efforts and thoughts on humanitarianism and volunteerism.

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.

Project Bionics aims to collect, present and preserve the history of artificial organs. Through detailed timelines, biographies, personal accounts, pictures, and bibliographies, the project explores many facets of the history of artificial organs.

The Skyscraper Museum is located in Lower Manhattan and celebrates the history of skyscrapers with particular emphasis on New York. The site contains information about the museum with directions, exhibit descriptions, and news. The most helpful resources for online researchers are the web projects that include many computer-generated models of New York's real estate development over time and space. The VIVA Project offers a digital model of Manhattan that viewers can navigate to see the sky-line of various neighborhoods. Eventually, browsers will be able to click on specific buildings to find descriptions of their histories as well as historic photographs, although this feature is only available for Lower Manhattan at present.

Features a biography, major accomplishments, and essay " The Polish Bridge Builder" by Kaya Mirecka Ploss, PhD.

"Diciphering the Genetic Code" is an online exhibit that explores Marshall Nirenberg's genetics research in the 1950's and 1960's and explains the importance of his experiments and discoveries. The exhibit includes an eight-section history of genetics research beginning with Gregor Mendel and ending with a copy of Nirenber's article in Science Magazine entitled "Will Society Be Prepared?" Images and descriptions of the instruments used in the lab are provided, as are brief biographies of many of the researchers involved. A glossary and links to related web sites are included. The site is well-designed and approachable, and is a good starting point for understanding the study of genetics.

Making the Modern World is a vast online exhibit from the Science Museum of London that covers science and society in the modern era, from traditional research and inventions and engineering, to social sciences and everyday life. There are many ways to explore the hundreds of images, audio files, and texts of the exhibit that begins with “Enlightenments and Measurement” in 1750 and concludes with the “Age of Ambivalence” in 2000. The largest section of the site is the Stories and Timelines, which is in narrative and chronological form. There are guided tours along the themes of “Technology as Passport,” “Women Making the Modern World,” and “Conflict in the Modern World.” The Daily Life Section has six categories that include personal, leisure, work, health, and control, and the stories of nine contemporary people's interactions with technology, some inventors, others learning how to handle a screwdriver and "DIY- Do It Yourself." The Icons of Invention includes more than 100 objects from science, technology, and medicine, while the Learning Modules cover biology, English, chemistry, geography, history, mathematics, and psychology. Throughout the site are subsections called "rich media scenes" with moving images and sound that provide interaction with catalogued images and quizzes within a particular story. Finally, there are basic and advanced search options to navigate quickly to a particular item or term.