LibGuides: History: Useful Websites

General Resources

Teaching Students to Ask Good Questions (Teaching Montana History Blog)
This blog aims to nurture a supportive and enthusiastic network of educators committed to place-based learning and teaching Montana history. Here you will find tips on using primary sources in the classroom, information about resources for teaching Montana history, examples of exceptional heritage education projects, and notices about professional development opportunities.
Google News Archive
Google News Archive is an extension of Google News providing free access to scanned archives of newspapers and links to other newspaper archives on the web, both free and paid.
Some of the news archives date back to 18th century. There is a timeline view available, to select news from various years.

US History

Presidential Documents
This guide provides documents and links to documents about the office of the President of the United States of America.
American Memory
This online collection from the Library of Congress includes primary sources in the form of historical documents, photos, audio, and more.
Documenting the American South
A digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
Making of America
This collaborative effort between Cornell and the University of Michigan is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
The Valley of the Shadow
Collection of primary source materials from two civil war era communities, one North and one South.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
This website is focused on Black Freedom, and features select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
Television Archive
Programs in TV News Archive for research and educational purposes.
Catalog Undercover
We are endlessly fascinated by stories of coded messages, espionage, and intelligence found in the historical records of the National Archives. Join us as we crack the code in this week’s newsletter to bring you stories of spies, camouflage, and cryptography found in the National Archives Catalog!

Ancient History

BBC Ancient History Web Page http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/

Ancient History Encyclopedia https://www.ancient.eu/index/

Interactive Archeological Excavations in Egypt's Valley of the Kings http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/ The Theban Mapping Project's website is back online!

Ancient Minoan Civilization http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/minoan.html

MesoAmerican Civilization Links http://www.archaeolink.com/mesoamerican_civilizations.htm

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook (Fordham University) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html

The British Museum's Ancient Egypt links http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html

The British Museum's Ancient Greece links http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/

The British Museum's Ancient China links http://www.ancientchina.co.uk/menu.html

Ancient Mesopotamia (Univ. of Chicago) http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/

Indus Valley Civilization http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html

Perseus Project http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

Medieval History

Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Fordham University) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

Monasticism in Medieval Christianity http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/mona/hd_mona.htm

The Crusades 1095-1291 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/hd_crus.htm

Medieval Life & Times http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/

Middle Ages Web Resources http://www.themiddleages.net/

Medieval Civilization General Resources http://www.archaeolink.com/medieval_civilization_general_re.htm

Chicago Style

Purdue OWL: Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition
Publications in the field of history often use the Chicago Style. An excellent resource covering the basics of this style can be found at Purdue OWL.

World War I

World War II

Escape and Evasion Reports (National Archives)
A series containing information on escape and evasion activities and training of U.S. soldiers serving in the European theater during World War II.

Montana History

Digitized Montana Newspapers Online
The two, freely accessible resources below were designed specifically for digitized newspapers, offering improved search, browse, display, downloading and printing.
African Americans in Montana and the West
Black history matters. This special digital issue of Montana The Magazine of Western History focuses on African American history in Montana and the diversity of Black experiences in the West. We draw attention to this history with a selection of articles from the past twenty-five years of Montana The Magazine of Western History, excerpts from two MHS Press books, and a new essay from Herbert Ruffin II on the state of the field.
Montana’s African American Heritage Resources
The Identifying Montana’s African American Heritage Places Project worked with a team of historians, researchers, and volunteers to compile the resources that informed the history contained within this website.
Virtual Exhibition - American Land Rush
Swept up in the optimism of the 1910s, Lily Stearns settled with her four children on a promising homestead in northeastern Montana, where she found her fate conscribed by extreme weather and the limits of her endurance. This richly illustrated virtual exhibition tells the story of one participant in the largest homestead boom in US history, revealing the erratic fortunes of farm life reflected in the abundant economic, political, and personal uncertainties of the era.
The Bozeman Trail (PBS)
The Bozeman Trail is an award winning documentary produced by Tom Manning in collaboration with MontanaPBS and WyomingPBS. Teachers can use this multimedia collection to bring the events of this period in U.S. History alive! Explore clips from the film, and use graphic organizers and discussion activities to help students gain a deeper understanding of The Bozeman Trail and how it impacted Westward Expansion.

Historical Anti-Asian Sentiment in Montana

Poster from Butte
Analyzing a Primary Document
Learning from Historical Documents: Hum Fay's Testimony
Chinese communities grew in Butte, Helena, and throughout the United States as an urban residual of the mining frontier. Many Chinese worked discarded mines with profitable patience, served in countless domestic capacities, and opened businesses of their own. As their communities grew, white neighbors sometimes grew fearful and unfriendly. In Butte, opposition took the form of a union boycott of Chinese businesses. Hum Fay, who owned the Palace Restaurant in Butte, responded with a law suit, which ultimately ended the boycott but not the prejudice that sparked it.
Learning From Historical Documents: Howard Toole's Letter
Embarrassed by their behavior during World War I, Montana exhibited little animosity toward the resident German population during the Second World War. The Japanese, a more readily identifiable minority, were another matter. Fearful that Japanese Americans might help the Japanese military in case of an invasion of the United States, the federal government evacuated all people of Japanese descent from the West Coast to more isolated areas. Montana, whose colleges, CCC camps, and military posts were slated to receive many evacuees, reacted sharply - particularly to the idea that Japanese Americans might be allowed to attend the university, taking the places of young men fighting overseas.
Fort Missoula Alien Detention Center
During World War II, Fort Missoula was turned over to the Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, for use as an Alien Detention Center. Between 1941 and 1944, the ADC held 1,200 non-military Italian men, 1,000 Japanese resident aliens, 23 German resident aliens, and 123 Japanese Latin and South Americans.

George 'Montana' Oiye
The Journey of a Japanese American from the Big Sky to the Battlefields of Europe