Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
From an E-Mail from Footnote.com:
The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is one of the most widely used and valuable databases for genealogy research…Footnote has created a page for each record that includes:
+ The complete indexed information
+ A place to add additional facts
+ A photo gallery
+ A timeline
+ A map
+ A place to add stories and comments
Access the SSDI Database (Updated Weekly, Free)
Btw, note the many ways to refine search results. They are located in the left-side column of a results page.
Note: Two other places to find the SSDI (free) are Ancestry.com (updated weekly) and FamilySearch.org.
Both services also provide the social security number of the person you are hoping to locate.
Note: Footnote.com also provides both free and fee-based services. You can compare free vs. fee on this page.
See Also: Footnote.com and The National Archives (NATA) Launch Largest Interactive World War II Collection Online (12/2008)
See Also: Footnote.com and the National Archives (NARA) Launch an Interactive Vietnam War Memorial (3/2008)
See Also: Footnote Blog
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Digitization Projects, Genealogy, Government Documents and Political Information, History, Reference Tools | No Comments »
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
From the Announcement:
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation has launched EmmyTVLegends.org, a new web video portal offering free, public access to the Archive of American Television, the most comprehensive videotaped interview collection of its kind. It features revealing conversations with more than 600 influential figures [2000+ hours] that have shaped the television industry from its inception to present day, and includes little-known anecdotes, unique perspectives, and eyewitness accounts from top names in TV.
This ambitious, new website has been more than a decade in the making. Since 1996, the Archive has conducted in-depth interviews with television’s biggest
stars, industry legends, and crucial behind-the-scenes players who make television magic. In 2005, the Archive began to release the interviews online
to the public, but until now there was no easy way to search and navigate the footage.
Access EmmyTVLegends.org
Advanced Search Interface
Much more in the complete announcement.
Source: Reuters
Hat Tip: AMIA Newsbriefs
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Arts and Humanities, History, Media, Multimedia Search, Resources | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
From the Article:
The ancient city of Rome was not built in a day. It took nearly a decade to build the Colosseum, and almost a century to construct St. Peter’s Basilica. But now the city, including these landmarks, can be digitized in just a matter of hours.
A new computer algorithm developed at the University of Washington uses hundreds of thousands of tourist photos to automatically reconstruct an entire city in about a day.
The tool is the most recent in a series developed at the UW to harness the increasingly large digital photo collections available on photo-sharing Web sites. The digital Rome was built from 150,000 tourist photos tagged with the word “Rome” or “Roma” that were downloaded from the popular photo-sharing Web site, Flickr.
Earlier versions of the UW photo-stitching technology are known as Photo Tourism. That technology was licensed in 2006 to Microsoft, which now offers it as a free tool called Photosynth.
“With Photosynth and Photo Tourism, we basically reconstruct individual landmarks. Here we’re trying to reconstruct entire cities,” said co-author Noah Snavely, who developed Photo Tourism as his UW doctoral work and is now an assistant professor at Cornell University.
Source: Science Daily
+ Access and Use Photosynth (via Microsoft)
+ Various Photosynth’s of Rome
Posted in Arts and Humanities, History, Museums & Online Exhibits, Resources, Science, Software and Web-Based Applications | No Comments »
Friday, September 11th, 2009
From the Story:
These new images [and video] are just a few minutes among hundreds of hours of amateur video and images being collected by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center which has launched a website containing examples of citizen journalism of the tragedy.
According to today’s press release the museum has issued a world-wide invitation for the public to submit media related to the 9/11 events through a new online initiative “Make History.” 911History.org will become a permanent digital archive and help build an interactive, mapped time line of events on the web.
[Snip]
Each photo will be placed alongside current Google “Street View” photos of various locations. Users can click on locations, themes or time of day to view the footage or images from the locations they were actually taken reports Sky News.
Source: Digital Journal
Access National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center (Home Page)
A Few Web-Based Resources to Assist in Remembering the Tragedy of September 11, 2001
+ September11.Archive.Org (via Internet Archive)
+ September 11 Television Archive (via Internet Archive)
+ September 11 Digital Archive (Center for History and New Media and American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning)
+ Remembering 9/11 (Library of Congress)
+ America Transformed (NPR)
NPR Coverage Sept. 11 – Oct. 8, 2001. Includes audio archives.
+ Voices of Reflection National Public Radio 9/11 Coverage
From September 11, 2002.
+ Audio: Understanding America A Year After 9/11 (Minnesota Public Radio)
+ The Sonic Memorial Project
+ Audio: Commission Hearings (via NPR)
+ 9/11 Commission Web Site
+ 9/11 Commission Records (via National Archives and Records Administration)
See Also: 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance
What you can do.
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, History, Multimedia Search, Museums & Online Exhibits, Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
From the Article:
For the last 50 years, inside an unmarked warehouse here, a historic movie prop has rested in a deep, deep sleep. Last month a Walt Disney Company archivist awakened it.
Becky Cline, manager of the Walt Disney Company archive, with the storybook used for the opening scene of “Sleeping Beauty,” the animated classic from 1959, in Glendale, Calif.
Wearing white gloves, Becky Cline, manager of the sprawling repository, gently opened a crate containing the giant bejeweled storybook used for the opening scene of “Sleeping Beauty,” the animated classic from 1959. “We have to be really, really careful with this,” Ms. Cline said, almost in a whisper.
The prop, along with dozens of other specimens from Disney films that have long been kept under lock and key, will headline an unusual exhibition of memorabilia that opens on Thursday and runs through the weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California.
The exhibition, “Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives,” will also include modern grails (Miley Cyrus’s blond “Hannah Montana” wig) and items from Walt Disney’s own office (like the rotary-dial telephone, dingy cord and all). “We would never clean it — that’s Walt’s grime,” Ms. Cline said.
Source: NY Times
Hat Tip: AMIA Newsbriefs
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, History | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
From the Article:
South Carolinians will soon find it easier to read newspaper accounts about the start of the Civil War, discriminatory Jim Crow laws and Gov. Benjamin Tillman’s South Carolina Dispensary, which was once the only entity legally authorized to sell alcohol in the state.
The University of South Carolina’s S.C. Digital Newspaper Project will make available online newspapers published throughout the state from 1860 to 1922.
The University Libraries landed a two-year $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities last spring to launch the project, said Kate Boyd, digital collections librarian. It will use the money to scan 100,000 pages of selected South Carolina newspapers and make them available through the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America database.
The first phase of the project will be ready in time for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 2011, Boyd said.
[Snip]
The university plans to expand the project over time to include more newspapers, and to create a site for South Carolina newspapers separate from the Library of Congress site.
Source: The Post and Courier
See Also: Chronicling America (Over 1 Million Digitized Historic Newspaper Pages from 1880-1922)
See Also: NewspaperArchive.com
See Also: Google News Archive Search
Posted in Digitization Projects, History | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Constitution Day is September 17, 2009. From the Announcement:
Looking for resources for Constitution Day activities? The Library of Congress has a variety of sources you can use. Explore the Creating the United States online exhibit http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/creatingtheus/Pages/default.aspx and learn more about the impact of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence on U.S. history. Explore the interactive Constitution where students can learn more about the Constitution and origin of important parts of the Constitution. The Learn More will lead you to links for other exhibits, online resources, webcasts and lessons you can use to help students learn more about the Constitution.
See Also: National Constitution Center Constitution Day Resources
Source: LC / National Constitution Center
Posted in History, Resources for Educators, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
BusinessWeek’s Jim Ellis, the Assistant Managing Editor of the magazine, provides a 4 minute 30 second video showing a selection of historical covers.
Source: BusinessWeek
Posted in History, Information Industry, Resources, Webcasts and Podcasts | No Comments »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
From the Article:
Garage sales are for treasures; museums are for the ages. Mayme Clayton spent a lifetime scouring one so her son could build the other.
In size and significance, according to curators, the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum of African American History & Culture will rival New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Avery Clayton, 56, is still cataloging the hundreds of thousands of things his mom collected, but the museum’s first major exhibition is scheduled Oct. 24 to Jan. 4.
[Snip]
She spent most of her career as a librarian at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1969, she helped establish the African-American Studies Center Library at UCLA.
[Snip]
Clayton started cataloging the 30,000 books in his mother’s collection because they took up the most room. A quarter of them have been processed.
Source: AP (via Columbus Dispatch)
See Also: Learn More About the Library and Museum
See Also: Transcript: Large Collection of Black Memorabilia Goes Public (via NPR, November 9, 2006)
Posted in History, Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
From the Directory:
The Library of Congress began systematically collecting residential and organizational telephone directories from many countries in 1937, but the records for these items, in general, are not included in the Library’s online catalog. To fill that gap, the indexes provided here detail the Library’s specific holdings of these directories from each of the countries listed. In addition, the Library has earlier address (non-telephone) directories and business directories that are reflected in the online catalog – only a few of them are included in these indexes. Historians, biographers and genealogists greatly value older directories, for such resources tell where a person lived and what years he or she resided there. Some directories provide additional information, such as profession or trade.
A comprehensive microfilm collection of telephone directories from France, including overseas departments, published by the French national library and the French post and telecommunications office, may be found under the title Annuaires téléphoniques, 1883-1959, [microfilm] reproduits sur microfilm avec le concours du Ministère des Poste et Télécommunications. Sable-sur-Sarthe : Bibliothèque Nationale, 1988. A comprehensive microfilm collection of telephone directories from France, including overseas departments, published by the French national library and the French post and telecommunications office. Collection is available in the Microform Reading Room under the call number Microfilm 2000/54. A guide to that collection is available in the Main Reading Room: Microform Guide 530.
The Library has also digitized a few directories from Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, with links from this page.
Source: European Reading Room, Library of Congress
Posted in Business and Economics, Genealogy, History, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
From the Article:
The British Library has made 28,000 rare recordings available free online.
The collection focuses on both traditional English music and recordings gathered from across the globe by British-based scholars.
The 2,000 hours of material ranges from a rendition of Any Old Iron in Birmingham, to performances by Ugandan royal musicians.
The recordings, which represent a fraction of the library’s audio archives, are available on its website.
International recordings range from the sounds of stamping tubes and nose flutes to recordings of African rumba, calypso and blues.
The British Library Sound Archive is one of the largest sound archives in the world and holds over one million discs and 200,000 tapes
This blog post and news release has details on the content that was just added to the collection.
Source: BBC
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Arts and Humanities, History, Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
From the Article:
Can you remember a time when you didn’t watch videos of silly cats on YouTube, or didn’t buy everything from books to car parts to clothes online? What about mail? You know, the stuff that came in paper envelopes with little postage stamps?
Forty years ago Wednesday, something happened that changed the way we shop, do business, learn and stay in touch with relatives and friends. It was Sept. 2, 1969 when computer scientists at UCLA created a network connection between two computers. They set up the first node of what has become today’s Internet.
“This was the day that the infant Internet took its first breath of life,” said Leonard Kleinrock, a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at UCLA and one of the men who enabled two computers to exchange data over a network for the very first time. “It was the first time…this baby came out and looked around and started talking to the world.”
See Also: Q&A With Six Internet Rock Stars
The pundits and bloggers have all weighed in with their predictions for 2007, but what about technology’s leading pioneers and visionaries? Computerworld’s Gary Anthes and Thomas Hoffman asked Vinton Cerf, Robert Metcalfe, Leonard Kleinrock, Charles Feld, Warren Bennis and Robert Lucky three questions each about the big technology stories and surprises of 2006 and 2007.
See Also: Q&A: An Internet Pioneer Looks Ahead
Leonard Kleinrock predicts ‘really smart’ handhelds, but warns of out-of-control complexity.
Source: Computerworld
Posted in History, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
From the Article:
Researchers in Israel say they have developed a computer program that can decipher previously unreadable ancient texts and possibly lead the way to a Google-like search engine for historical documents.
The program uses a pattern recognition algorithm similar to those law enforcement agencies have adopted to identify and compare fingerprints.
But in this case, the program identifies letters, words and even handwriting styles, saving historians and liturgists hours of sitting and studying each manuscript.
By recognizing such patterns, the computer can recreate with high accuracy portions of texts that faded over time or even those written over by later scribes, said Itay Bar-Yosef, one of the researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Source: Wired
Posted in Digitization Projects, History, Info Management and Retrieval, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
From the Poetry Archive Intro:
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive is an online repository of over 4000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research.
The heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and Edward Thomas. This is supplemented by a comprehensive range of multimedia artefacts from the Imperial War Museum, a separate archive of over 6,500 items contributed by the general public, and a set of specially developed educational resources.
From The Great War Archive:
The Great War Archive contains over 6,500 items contributed by the general public between March and June 2008. Every item originates from, or relates to, someone’s experience of the First World War, either abroad or at home. Contributions were received via a special website and also through a series of open days at libraries and museums throughout the country.
Source: Oxford University
See Also: War poet Edmund Blunden’s works go online (via The Independent)
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Arts and Humanities, Databases, Directories, and Guides, History, Resources | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
From the Article:
A facsimile of a key historic document held in the Vatican Secret Archives in which English peers appealed to Pope Clement VII to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is to be given to the Queen on Thursday.
[Snip]
Scrinium, a Venice-based publisher that promotes the historic and cultural wealth of the Vatican and reproduces treasures from its archives as collectors’ items, said the facsimile would be presented to Lady Roberts, the Royal Librarian since 2002. It said the presentation “underlines the international importance of a high quality project based on lengthy and accurate research”.
Source: The Times of London
Posted in History, Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
From the Article:
A new database for Irish genealogy and research was yesterday released online by the National Library of Ireland.
The free searchable version of the April 1911 family census contains information from the 32 counties and is searchable using any combination of name, surname, age, sex and place
It gives access not only to a database of information but to images of the original census forms which would have been handwritten by the head of the household.
The project, which has so far taken three years of work, has information which is much more personal than the online census release by the CSO earlier this year.
In June, the results of every census conducted in Ireland from 1926 to 1991 were made available online to the public for the first time.
Access the Database
Source: IrishTimes.com
Posted in Genealogy, History, Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
From the Announcement:
The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine announces the launch of a new image platform for its premier database, Images from the History of Medicine. Using award winning software developed by Luna Imaging, Inc., NLM offers greatly enhanced searching and viewing capabilities to image researchers. Patrons can view search results in a multi-image display, download high resolution copies of their favorite images, zoom in on image details, move images into a patron-defined workspace for further manipulation, and create media groups for presenting images and sharing them via e-mail or posting on blogs. With these new capabilities, NLM greatly enhances usability of its image collection, where inspection and comparison of images is often as important as access to bibliographic data. IHM is available free of charge.
Source: National Library of Medicine Technical Bulletin
Posted in History, Science, Search Tools | No Comments »
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
From the Article:
As soon as the Canadian National Exhibition wraps up next month, the real work will begin for the event’s archival division.
The Toronto-based CNE Archives, responsible for preserving the public records for the annual exhibition, will begin to digitize its collection of films taken at the CNE. Without intervention, the archival material — some of which dates back to the 1920s — will continue to deteriorate
Christina Stewart, sound and moving image archivist at CNE Archives, said the exhibition has over 200 reels of 16 mm film in its collection, featuring footage of entertainers such as Bob Hope and Duke Ellington and other memorable events from the CNE’s storied history.
“We’ve got all the dignitaries that have opened up the CNE over the years, great footage from fashion shows and, on the fun side of course, we have all the rock concerts from over the years,” she said.
Source: Computerworld Canada
Posted in Arts and Humanities, Digitization Projects, History | No Comments »
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
From the Times Education Supplement:
Extracts of original archive footage of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This programme features 11 extracts from various film archive sources on the Cuban Missile Crisis, selected by author, teacher and curriculum advisor Ben Walsh.
About 14 minutes of video is included.
Source: TES
Posted in History, Resources, Resources for Educators | No Comments »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
From the Web Site:
This Museum Directory contains a recently augmented international listing of more than 1200 museums and collections, both public and private, dedicated to food and beverages. Often the museums are large and comprehensive; other times they are small and idiosyncratic.
Search the Database by:
+ Keyword
+ Category
+ Food/Beverage
+ U.S. States
+ Country
Source: Food History News
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, History, Reference Tools | No Comments »
