Contemporary (Post-WWII)

An excellent resource for those interested in the impact the Internet has made on the lives of Americans. The site holds reports written by staff members and experts, multimedia presentations, data sets covering a variety of topics, press releases and a comprehensive set of links. Incredible amount of primary and secondary source material for researchers.

In addition to basic materials such as a glossary, a links page and an introduction to the project, this site includes an online exhibit that focuses on significant bioscientists, video from the symposium, and digitized oral histories. The site also includes an internal search engine which should help users to move quickly through the information.

This site offers films selected from the Prelinger Archives, a privately held collection of 20th-century American ephemeral films (films produced for specific purposes at specific times, not intended for long-term preservation). The site contains more than 800 high-quality digital video files documenting various aspects of 20th-century North American culture, society, leisure, history, industry, technology, and landscape. It includes films produced between 1927 and 1987 by and for U.S. corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. Some of the films depict ordinary people in normal daily activities, such as working, dishwashing, driving, and learning proper behavior. For example, one 1955 film illustrates the ¨comfort and delight of jet travel for Pan American World Airways and a 1930s film shows how and where bananas were grown and imported into the United States. The site contains an alphabetical index and printable list of all film titles. Note that viewing these movies requires a DSL or faster connection and, even with a fast connection, many of the movies take several minutes to load. This is an important source for those interested in American Studies, business and labor history, advertising and art history, cinema studies, and cultural history.

A collection of some of the displays from the above mentioned exhibition. Includes audio files of lectures which were presented, as well as several related articles and activities. Of particular note is a section devoted to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki which contains images, oral histories submitted to the site, and links for further study.

Website for the Einstein Papers Project, which has begun to publish an enormous amount of Einstein's papers, both personal and professional. No online resources, however, except for a link to the Einstein Archives Online, which reproduces a portion of the collection.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers History Center holdings include the IEEE Archives, which consist of the unpublished records of the IEEE and a collection of historical photographs relating to history of electrical and computer technologies, and a collection of oral history transcripts of pioneering engineers. IEEE History Center Newsletters are also archived (in PDF format). These newsletters provide information about the current activities of the Center, book reviews and a few articles about the history of electronic engineering.

This site has not been updated since 1999, but nonetheless contains excellent primary source material for researches who are interested in one of the two topics on which material was collected: the Clean Air Act and and the GATE experiment of the Global Atmospheric Research program. Both areas include general histories, primary documents, images, interviews, biographies, and links for further study.

The American Institute of Physics has combined exhibits with educational syllabi, and archives in this deep site. Included are exhibits about Madame Currie, Albert Einstein, the electron, the transistor and Werner Heisenberg and the Uncertainty Principle. Archives include thousands of digitized images in the Emilio Sagres visual archive, and the book and manuscript catalogue of the Neils Bohr library. The site also includes online syllabi and sample readings for history of physics teachers, information about accessing information at AIP, and online newsletters relating to the library and Center for History of Physics.

This project, produced by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, looks to expand the recent history of electric lighting and energy issues relating to lighting. An example of "participatory history," there is an attempt to record online the stories and memories of the people who have produced or dealt with electric lighting. This group includes: electricians, engineers, electrical researchers, inventors, utility workers, city planners, architects, retailers, consumers, and anyone else who has taken part in the buying, selling, installing, and designing electric lighting. Extensive input forms are available for each of these groups to add to the electronic archive the Smithsonian is building. The site also includes historical essays on commercial, industrial and residential lighting, particularly focusing on the last 30 years. An extensive bibliography, including articles and books from both professional societies and the popular press, adds to the background material on the site.

This site provides essays, timelines, and personal recollections of the history of research on plasmids, extremophiles and second generation antibiotics. Currently, only the plasmid portion of the site is fully developed. A timeline of plasmid research outlines major breakthroughs from 1903-1969, a glossary covers most of the important terms related to the field, and an extensive bibliography covers published papers on plasmids from the 1940s and 50s. Microbiologists and others involved with plasmid research can add their comments and recollections to the site's archive. In addition, the site contains links to other sites and professional associations interested in the history of microbiology.