History Sites

The debt is inadequately acknowledged only since it is so extensive.  This site would not have been possible nor effective without the generous assistance of many public and non-profit sites that maintain historical links or that have translated into hypertext those documents which are central to the history and political development of the United States.  They have been a source of both inspiration and practical assistance.  It is difficult to single out any specific site since each makes its own valuable contribution to an understanding of US history and political development. -- Dr. Devin Bent

Nonetheless, in roughly alphabetical order:

Universities and Nonprofits:

• The American Presidency (http://www.interlink-cafe.com/uspresidents/firstp~1.htm) is an excellent and well maintained site on the Presidents of the United States. The links are up-to-date.

• Archiving Early America (http://www.earlyamerica.com/) adds The Early America Review (A Journal of Fact and Opinion On the People, Issues and Events Of 18th Century America) (http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/) to a its collection of documents which includes several full length biographies.
  
• The Avalon Project of Yale University Law School (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm) has perhaps the most extensive collection of historical documents and has its own search engine.

• The Capitol Link of The National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.inter.net/Welcome.html) has an excellent collection of unusual but useful documents not easily found elsewhere.

• Chief Executive Club (http://helios.insnet.com/~tjl1886/presidx.htm) is an ongoing project dedicated to the Presidents of the United States. This excellent site is up-to-date and very responsive to suggestions.

• Civnet: Journal for a Civil Society (http://civnet.org/mag/contents.htm) presents a current view of civic education.

• The Constitution Society (http://www.constitution.org/) provides a wide range of documents with a focus on the U.S. Constitution.

• The Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents (http://www.law.ou.edu/ushist.html) of the University of Oklahoma Law Center (http://www.law.ou.edu/ushist.html) is another very complete collection of documents.

• The Federalist Papers Online (http://www.mcs.net/~knautzr/fed/fedpaper.html) has an excellent presentation of the complete Federalist Papers and other historical documents.

• First Nation Histories (http://www.dickshovel.com/Compacts.html), an impressive work, will eventually include approximately 240 histories of Native American nations.

• The First Ten Presidents Of The United States Of America (http://members.aol.com/lucid2020/index.html), focuses on the founding Presidents and does an outstanding job.  Text and graphic version of all pages are maintained.  Has a strong collection of links to James Madison sites.

• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, University of Houston, (http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/GILDER.HTM) has excellent collections related to slavery.

• Kahon:wes's Mohawk & Iroquois Homepage (http://www.axess.com/mohawk/) provides a comprehensive listing of Six Nation sites in addition to its own resources.

• Maritime History (http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_sa/personal/md4/index.html) is a small but fascinating collection of documents from the British Admiralty Prize Courts.

• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas at Austin.
   (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/histus.html) is a collection of political and settlement maps of the United States.

• Presidents of the United States (POTUS) (http://www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS/) is a collection of documents, data, and links for the Presidents of the United States.

• Project Gutenberg (http://www.wit.com/newwit/gutenberg/gutenberg.html) has transcribed an amazing number of public domain texts into electronic form and is the original source of several of the documents downloaded here.

• From Revolution to Reconstruction: WWW project of Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Faculteit der Letteren (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa). The electronic revolution makes available an excellent site in the Netherlands. (In English.)

• The Special Collections Library, Duke University (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/) has excellent digitized representations of documents including collections treating African-Americans.

• Tales of the Early Republic: (http://www.panix.com/~hal) A History Web Site, Focusing on the 1830s-1840s, is an excellent source and provided very hard to find information relevant to the War of 1812.

• Voices from the Gap: Women Writers of Color.  (http://english.cla.umn.edu/lkd/vfg/vfghom).  This excellent collection is sponsored by the Department of English and the Program in American Studies of the University of Minnesota.

Genealogy Sites:

Genealogy sites provide a level of detail and personal interest that is often missing from the other sites.  The following sites have information relevant to James Madison and his times.  Please suggest others.

• Captain David Perry  (http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~dagjones/captdavidperry/). Denise Jones maintains this site about Captain David Perry of Vermont who supported James Madison and fought in the War of 1812.

• Peterman Family Genealogy (http://www.gate.net/~greg/Peterman.html.)  Greg Peterman maintains this site with information about the Osgood and the indentured servants that sailed aboard her to the United States in 1750.

• USGenWeb Project (http://www.usgenweb.org/) a group of volunteers work together to provide Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States.

• USGenWeb Kentucky Archives (http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ky/kyfiles.html).  This state genealogical site hosts a wide range of historical materials including a full-length history of the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Historical Monuments and Sites:

• Connecticut River Museum (http://www.connix.com/~crm/index.htm) mounts an excellent exhibit on privateers including their role in the War of 1812.

• The Constitution Online (http://www.navy.mil/homepage/constitution/) is dedicated to "Old Ironsides."

• The Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (The Patriots of Fort McHenry) (http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/patriot.html) is an imaginative and entertaining site.

• New Orleans Online (http://neworleansonline.com/home.htm) promotes New Orleans but has an interesting collection on the history of New Orleans featuring contributions of African-Americans.

Government:

• The National Archives (http://www.nara.gov/) is official custodian of many of the originals of the great documents and has an excellent web site.

• The White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/top.html) maintains biographies of Presidents and First Ladies and has some historical material on the White House itself.  This used to seem like an excellent site.

• The Library of Congress (http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/) mounts an excellent collection of exhibitions and offers an American Memory Collection with search engine. We are very much indebted to the American Memory Collection.

• The United States Information Agency (USIA) (http://usiahq.usis.usemb.se/) maintains information for teachers.