Physical Sciences

This online database of over 3,000 images from the California Institute of Technology's archive of visual materials illustrates the history of science from the Scientific Revolution to the present. Photographs, fine prints, book illustrations, paintings, and architectural drawings of various scientists and their projects, including Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, George Ellery Hale, and Linus Pauling are found in the database. Images are accompanied by a brief (roughly 150-word) biography and, in many cases, a photograph or other image of the scientist(s) involved in the project. The site can be browsed through two sub-categories, "Science and Technological artifacts" and "Rare Books," as well as a keyword search by scientist name or subject. This site provides an ideal tool for research on the history of science and prominent scientific figures.

Account of Hollerith's life, particularly with regards to his development of a tabulating machine for the US Census Bureau. Contains brief listings of bibliographical and online resources.

This site contains biographical profiles of over 200 African-American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering. The site provides brief (roughly 250 word) biographies of scholars from fields such as biology, chemistry, physics, zoology, and veterinary medicine, as well as inventors. Among the scientists included in the site are prominent figures like George Washington Carver, scientist and inventor of numerous industrial applications for agricultural products, and astronomer and mathematician Benjamin Banneker. Each entry also includes a bibliography of sources for further biographical information. The site is indexed by scientist name and profession, and there are special sections for the biographies of 20 women scientists and 14 of the first African Americans to receive Ph.D.'s in science. Though there are no primary documents on this site, it is a good place to find general information on prominent African-American scientists throughout American history.

Short account of the life and work of Herman Hollerith. Part of a large biographical collection of mathematicians.

Site contains several biographies of the physicist and biophysicist Leo Szilard. Interviews and other primary sources are made available, as well as links to other sites for potential research. A number of images are present as is an extensive bibliography.

Site contains brief biographies for over two hundred women complemented with bibliographies for further study.

A Library of Congress Manuscript Division online exhibit to celebrate the Manuscript Division's centenary, this site contains approximately 90 representative documents from the 15th to the mid-20th century. The selected documents include the papers of presidents, cabinet ministers, congressmen, Supereme Court justices, military officers, diplomats, reformers, artists, writers, scientists, and other Americans who made a mark in history. Most items fall with eight categories that reflect the division's strengths: "The Presidency"; "Congress, Law, and Politics"; "Military Affairs"; "Diplomacy and Foreign Policy"; "Arts and Literature"; "Science, Medicine, Exploration, and Invention"; "African-American History and Culture"; "Women's History"; and "Miscellany." Each theme contains a roughly 250-word essay with links to digital reproductions of selected documents. A detailed description (200 words) accompanies each document, and additional information about the collections from which a document came is available through links to the collection records and finding aids. The exhibit also includes roughly 25 images, primarily in the "Science, Medicine, Exploration and Invention" category. There is a special presentation entitled "Collecting, Preserving, and Researching History: A Peek into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division." This site provides a description of the division, its holdings, definitions of terms like "personal papers" and why they are important, how the Library of Congress acquires manuscripts, how the staff prepares, conserves, and stores them, and who uses the documents. The site also has links to the Library of Congress's ordering and reproduction policies, the American Memory site, and to the Library of Congress collection catalogs. This easily navigable site is keyword and subject searchable. This site is ideal for conducting research in many areas of American History, as well as answering the question: "What do archives do?"

The MacTutor Archive hosts thousands of biographical sketches of important mathematicians. Many of the biographies include links to documents and other materials related to mathematicans. Searches can be performed alphabetically or chronologically. In addition to the biographies, the site also includes a number of essays that are grouped by culture and topic. Thus the chronology of Pi or the history of zero can be found under "Arab Mathematics" and "Number Theory" among other categories. This is one of the most-linked to history of science sites on the web because it contains so much information.

Snippets from the first two volumes of Scientific American magazine. Very little information available and what is is of a frivolous nature. Not for research. Site has not been updates since 1997.