Modern (18th-20th Century)

This site will provide a concise Developmental History of Spectacles as well as explain all the contributions of people from many nations who were important along the way.

Website Goals:

To educate interested visitors and professionals and stimulate further research

To increase public awareness and thereby nurture a deeper appreciation in general

To complement the other websites which have information on this topic

To attract the newest generation of collectors (who may wish to join the only collectors clubs, the OAICC and the OHS)

To create a forum where scholarly people can have a dynamic exchange of information and ideas

To share images of the finest and most interesting historical items in both private and public collections from around the world

This site explores a period of U.S. history when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of a citizen versus the power of the state. Focusing on the experiences of Japanese Americans who were placed in detention campus during World War II, this online exhibit is a case study in decision-making and citizen action under the U.S. Constitution.

Experience the story through interactive galleries that combine images, music, text and first-person accounts in the Story Experience, and then share your own memories and responses in Reflections. Search more than 800 artifacts from the Smithsonian Collection in Collection Search, and find related activities, links, bibliography and more in Resources.

Historic Pittsburgh is a digital collection that provides an opportunity to explore and research the history of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania area on the Internet. This website enables access to historic material held by the University of Pittsburgh's University Library System, the Library & Archives of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. The project represents a model of cooperation between libraries and museums in providing online access to their respective materials.

These pages are an on-line museum celebrating Babbage's Analytical Engine. Here you will find a collection of original historical documents tracing the evolution of the Engine from the original concept through concrete design, ending in disappointment when it became clear it would never be built. You'll see concepts used every day in the design and programming of modern computers described for the very first time, often in a manner more lucid than contemporary expositions. You'll get a sense of how mathematics, science, and technology felt in the nineteenth century, and for the elegant language used in discussing those disciplines, and thereby peek into the personalities of the first computer engineer and programmer our species managed to produce. If you are their intellectual heir, perhaps you'll see yourself and your own work through their Victorian eyes.

Virtual Motor City is the name of an IMLS sponsored digitization project, carried out by the Wayne State University Library System and the Walter P. Reuther Library.

The digitized images in the project represent a small subset of the Detroit News Collection, one of the premier photojournalistic resources freely available from a national-level newspaper and held at the Reuther Library.

Early Classics in Biogeography, Distribution, and Diversity Studies: To 1950 is a bibliography and full-text archive designed as a service to advanced students and researchers engaged in work in biogeography, biodiversity, history of science, and related studies. All items in the bibliography are primary sources and were published in 1950 or before. The subjects involved touch on fields ranging from ecology, conservation, systematics and physical geography, to evolutionary biology, cultural biogeography, paleobiology, and bioclimatology--but have in common a relevance to the study of geographical distribution and diversity.

This virtual museum and archive preserves and shares the history and historic records of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and of the securities industry from the 1930s to the present. It includes a wide range of primary materials, including a timeline, papers, photos, oral histories and original programs broadcast from this site, which contribute to the understanding of how the SEC has shaped and continues to shape U.S. and international capital markets.

Discover the many ways that women have influenced and enhanced the practice of medicine. The individuals featured here provide an intriguing glimpse of the broader community of women doctors who are making a difference. The National Library of Medicine is pleased to present this exhibition honoring the lives and accomplishments of these women in the hope of inspiring a new generation of medical pioneers.

The Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical (SciPer) index provides an scholarly synopsis of the material relating to science, technology, and medicine appearing in sixteen non-scientific periodicals published in Britain between 1800 and 1900. With entries describing around 7,500 articles (doubling to more than 15,000 when complete), and with references to over 5,500 individuals, 2,000 publications, and 1,000 institutions, it provides an invaluable research tool for those interested in the representation of science and in the interpenetration of science and literature in nineteenth-century Britain, as well as for students of the period more generally.

NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.