Finding and Using Websites for History Fair Research

Chicago Historical Museum
www.chicagohistory.org
Research and Education leads to the History Fair bibliographies, internet links, and the on-line catalog to CHS materials (note: most recent items). Digital projects includes hundreds and thousands on primary sources centered on the Chicago Fire, Haymarket, Daily News photographs, recent immigration.

Chicago Public Library
www.chicagopubliclibrary.org
Search the catalog on-line to help plan for the visit. Students can know what the books are on their subject and where to find them (or, at least begin!) Learn Chicago contains bibliographies, guides to special collections, helpful timelines, and primary sources. Magazines and Databases allow off-site research to many key databases-with a library card.

Library of Congress and its American Memory

http://www.loc.gov/index.html  and http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
The Library of Congress website has many avenues to explore that will lead to a wealth of primary source material.  In particular, American Memory is the largest collection for historians, though not the only source. Many thematic or specialized collections are housed within the American Memory site, from African-American Pamphlets to the Coolidge Era to the Works Progress Administration. Students may look in particular collections or through all of them; they can narrow the search to a particular time period, type of source, etc.

Media Burn Documentary Archives
http://mediaburn.org/
A collection of documentaries by Chicago independent filmmakers.  Some real treasures!

National Archives
www.archives.gov
ARC is the database that will lead students into the vast holdings of the National Archives-at least 20 per cent of it!
http://www.archives.gov/great-lakes/contact/directions-il.html
Among government documents, many pertaining to Chicago, is a collection of photographs of Black Chicago in the 1970s. The Great Lakes Regional office of NARA is located at 79th and Pulaski; personal help by staff and access to documents and microfilm.

Newberry Library's Chicago History Research Links
http://www.newberry.org/chicago-and-midwest
The local history department compiled this list of key research websites.

Newberry Library's Digital Resource Page
http://www.newberry.org/digital-resources
The Newberry Library's Digital Resource page provides access to materials in their collections which include reference tools, teaching materials, images galleries, original scholarship, electronic databases, and electronic journals.

Newberry Library's Digital Collections for the Classroom
http://dcc.newberry.org
The Newberry Library recently launched their Digital Collections for the Classroom page, which provides access to classroom-ready, primary-source documents selected from the library's holdings.

Northern Illinois University
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/
Houses a number of digital collections: Early Illinois, Gilded Age, Lincoln, Civil War. It also holds the back issues of Illinois History Teacher and other state government magazines.

University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
Imagebase
www.uic.edu/depts/ahaa/imagebase
Focus on maps and other data on Chicago neighborhoods, especially those around the university, and downtown.

Urban Experience in Chicago
www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/
A mammoth collection of primary sources based on turn of the century Chicago through the work of Hull House-but the wealth of materials makes it a must-search for many topics based in the time period.

Canal Corridor Association
www.canalcor.org
Information about the Illinois and Michigan Canal; will link to the archives at Lewis University

Digital Illinois
http://www.digitalillinois.org
The Northern Suburban Library System members digitized the collections of 15 historical society collections.

Illinois Labor History Society
http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/

Teaching with Historic Places (National Park Service)
www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/53black/53black.htm
Primary and secondary sources on Bronzeville and Columbus Park

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
http://newdeal.feri.org

Illinois Digital Archives
http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/

Illinois State Archives
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/home.html

Images of American Political History
http://bill.ballpaul.net/iaph/main.php

Census
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/
http://www.census.gov

Women and Social Movements in the United States
http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/
Primary sources on women include a number who were active in Chicago such as Ida B. Wells and Florence Kelley

Primary Sources on Illinois History from a teacher at IMSA
http://staff.imsa.edu/socsci/skinner/coverpage.html

Making of America
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
19th century publications scanned and searchable.

TeachingHistory.org, History Gateway
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/gateway-to-history-websites
The National History Education Clearinghouse's History Gateway page provides a valuable search engine for all your historical inquiries.

Mapping the Stacks: a Guide to Black Chicago's Hidden Archives
http://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/
Mapping the Stacks provides information about a variety of uncatalogued archival collections that focus on Black Chicago between 1930s and 1970s. The collections include literary manuscripts and visual illustrations; rare books and home movies; correspondence and photographs; ephemera and tape-recorded sound.

The Internet Archive
http://archive.org/
The Internet Archive offers permanent access to historical digital collections. The collections include texts, audio, moving images, and software, as well as archived web pages.

National History Day, Research Central
http://www.nhd.org/researchcentral.htm
National History Day's Research Central page provides suggested web links designed to help students, teachers, parents, administrators, and visitors in their research.

Black Metropolis Research Consortium Survey
http://bmrcsurvey.uchicago.edu/
The Black Metropolis Research Consortium Survey serves as a database of collections pertaining to the Black Chicago Metropolis.

Search Engines and Websites that Cluster History Links

Vivisimo.com
a cluster search engine

Virtual Library on History-based Websites for all Over the World
http://vlib.iue.it/history/index.html

Local Archival Collections from Research Centers With On-Line Finding Aids or Lists of Collections:

University of Chicago Special Collections
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/linkchi.html
Links to special collections in Chicago area, including the Chicago Archvists' "repository finder"-doesn't THAT sound worth checking out?!

Center for Research Libraries
http://www.crl.edu/
a consortium of university libraries and research centers

Chicago Public Library 
http://www.chipublib.org/branch/details/library/harold-washington/p/Spc/

University of Illinois at Chicago
http://library.uic.edu/home/collections/manuscripts-and-rare-books

Northwestern University, McCormick Special Collections
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/special-collections

DePaul University Special Collections
http://www.library.depaul.edu/Find/Collections/index.aspx

Loyola University Chicago Digital Special Collections
http://content.library.luc.edu/cdm

Loyola University Chicago, Women & Leadership Archives
http://www.luc.edu/wla

Roosevelt University Archives
http://www.roosevelt.edu/Library/Locations/UniversityArchives.aspx

Illinois Institute of Technology Digital Collections
http://library.iit.edu/digital

Art Institute of Chicago Archival Collections
http://www.artic.edu/research/archival-collections

Chicago State University Archives & Special Collections
http://library.csu.edu/asc