Grapes of Wrath Scrapbook
This activity aims to enhance reading and understanding of The Grapes of Wrath through ethnographic research -- collections of sound recordings, drawings, photos, fieldnotes, and correspondence. Students show how cultural artifacts support one of themes in the novel.
Florida Folklife from the WPS Collections, 1937-1942
Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections is a multiformat ethnographic field collection documenting African-American, Arabic, Bahamian, British-American, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, and Slavic cultures throughout Florida. Recorded by Robert Cook, Herbert Halpert, Zora Neale Hurston, Stetson Kennedy, Alton Morris, and others in conjunction with the Florida Federal Writers' Project, the Florida Music Project, and the Joint Committee on Folk Arts of the Work Projects Administration,
First Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
This site documents the culture of the 19th century American South from the viewpoint of Southerners. It includes diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, ex-slave narratives, and travel accounts of women, African Americans, enlisted men, Native Americans, laborers, and prominent individuals. The site features 140 titles, including some published before 1860.
Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier
Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection is a multi-format ethnographic field collection of traditional fiddle tunes performed by Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia. Recorded by folklorist Alan Jabbour in 1966-67, when Reed was over eighty years old, the tunes represent the music and evoke the history and spirit of Virginia's Appalachian frontier. Many of the tunes have passed back into circulation during the fiddling revival of the later twentieth century. This online collectio
Emergence of Advertising in America
This site presents over 9,000 images relating to the early history of advertising in the U.S. Materials include cookbooks, photographs of billboards, print advertisements, trade cards, calendars, almanacs, and leaflets for various products. Together, these images illuminate the early evolution of this ubiquitous feature of modern American business and culture.
Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images
This is one of the most significant and controversial representations of American Indian culture ever produced. Issued in a limited edition from 1907-1930, the publication continues to influence the image of Indians in popular culture. In over 2000 photos and narrative, Curtis portrayed the traditional customs and lifeways of 80 Indian tribes.
Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection
This site features catalog entries and images for 102 of the 1,650 flutes and other related material, including books, music, and patents in the collection. The site shows 5 flutes and gives an introduction to the flute as well as a discussion of common misconceptions.
Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
The Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection at the Library of Congress consists of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964. The bulk of the collection consists of portrait photographs of celebrities, including many figures from the Harlem Renaissance. A much smaller portion of the collection is an assortment of American landscapes.
Coca-Cola Television Advertisements
This site presents TV commercials, never-broadcast outtakes, and experimental footage that together reflect the historical development of TV advertising for a major product. Ads include the 1971 Hilltop commercial with an international group of young people on an Italian hilltop singing I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke; the first Polar Bear commercial from 1993; the Snowflake commercial from 1999; and First Experience, an international commercial filmed in Morocco in 1999.
By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
This is a collection of 900 boldly colored and graphically diverse posters produced as part of FDR's New Deal. These striking silkscreens, lithographs, and woodcuts were created to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities.
Band Arts from the Civil War Era
provides examples of brass band music that flourished in the U.S. during the 1850s and remained popular through the 19th century. It includes 700 musical compositions, 8 full-score modern editions, and 19 recorded examples.
Arts for the Nation: American Sheet Arts, 1870-1885
This site consists of tens of thousands of pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the post-Civil War era. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred music and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra. This first release of the online collection consists of over 22,000 musical compositions registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1879.
Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World's Transportation Commission, 1894-1896
This site makes available for viewing the nearly nine hundred images of modes of transportation taken by American photographer William Henry Jackson in North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. The site allows searches by subject and Keyword, and gives archival information about it.
Around the World in 1896
This is a lesson in which students take a trip around the world in 1896 using an online collection of 900 images. The collection includes photos of railroads, elephants, camels, horses, sleds and sleighs, sedan chairs, rickshaws, and other types of transportation, as well as city views, street and harbor scenes, landscapes, and people in North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner
The Gottscho-Schleisner Collection is comprised of over 29,000 images primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors and exteriors of homes, stores, offices, factories, historic buildings, and other structures. Subjects are concentrated chiefly in the northeastern United States, especially the New York City area, and Florida. Included are the homes of notable Americans, such as Raymond Loewy, and of several U.S. presidents, as well as color images of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.
An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, 1600-1920
This site presents a collection of 200 social dance manuals and related materials. Along with dance instruction manuals, this online presentation also includes a significant number of antidance manuals, histories, treatises on etiquette, and items from other conceptual categories. Many of the manuals also provide historical information on theatrical dance.
America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864
This site consists of more than 650 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Portrait daguerreotypes produced by the Mathematics and Statisticsew Brady studio make up the major portion of the collection. The collection also includes early architectural views by John Plumbe, several Philadelphia street scenes, early portraits by pioneering daguerreotypist Robert Cornelius, and copies of painted portraits.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
This site presents 2,900 life histories from 300 writers from 24 states. These histories describe individuals' families, incomes, occupations, political views, religions, diets, and observations.
America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
This site provides song sheets (lyrics without music) for 4000 songs that were popular before the advent of the phonograph and radio. During this time (1850 - 1870), song sheets were the way that many Americans learned the latest songs.
America Dreams
This site investigates what the American Dream has meant over the years to poets, politicians, comedians, musicians, photographers, lawyers, reporters, and others. Students may contribute to the Student Gallery and post their dreams on a Wall of Dreams.
