History Archives: Online.

December 27, 2007 8:34 PM

Want to study some history and have hundreds of hours on your hands? Don't worry now. We already exhaustive know about the Valley of the Shadow project. But what about Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, a bilingual English-French archive? If neither of these (vast) subjects tickle your pickle, don't worry...

Would a Raid on Deerfield capture your fancy? Stories of midwifery? Matthew Brady's Civil War Photographs? General American (and Missourian?) history? The papers of the Adams family? Exploration of the North American continent? The Quakers? California in the latter half of the 1800s?

I really suggest starting with Valley of the Shadow and Canadian Mysteries (also available in French!)--specifically, Klatsassin or William Robinson. Both have been designed to guide people into the beginnings of exploration (notably, look at the Valley's suggested lesson plans.

They will also steal your soul if you are not careful.

posted by flibbertigibbet (6 comments total)

Great post!

You might also explore some of the Newspapers of the Washington Territory. Or some turn-of-the-century newspapers from all over the place. Or browse through the collected papers of Booker T. Washington. Or explore one of the numerous digital history collections at the American Memory Project. Or bookmark this list of 250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives.

Someone needs to start a wiki of these "deep" history resources--websites with hundreds or thousands of primary sources. Anyone?
posted by LarryC at 9:22 PM on December 27, 2007

Thanks LarryC!
posted by flibbertigibbet at 10:10 PM on December 27, 2007

Thanks both of you!
posted by marxchivist at 10:14 PM on December 27, 2007

Hey! I know the Canadian Mystery History guy. Some of my students worked on that project as well. Which cost, ummm, something like 465,000$ when all was said and done.

Don't forget the very cost-effective LarryC history blog
posted by Rumple at 10:54 PM on December 27, 2007

History According to Bob has always been one of my most favouritest podcasts.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:14 AM on December 28, 2007

That Canadian mysteries site is fabulous. It's full of transcribed original documents. I just wasted an hour browsing through the Donnelly history.
posted by aclevername at 1:03 PM on December 28, 2007