Exhibits as Primary Sources
Some of the exhibits described here are virtual in that they exist only on Web pages and some are real in that the Web page is a "photo" of an exhibit in a real museum...
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Some of the exhibits described here are virtual in that they exist only on Web pages and some are real in that the Web page is a "photo" of an exhibit in a real museum. We call them exhibits because they are static. They were selected to reflect the diversity of history.
At home in the Heartland is a wonderful online exhibit, integrating historical artifacts in U.S. history with maps and timelines among other data types. The look and feel of the site demonstrates how historians work and this excitement will be conveyed to your students. The teacher's resources, including clues to the past, are well-done.
Los Angeles Unified School District is sponsoring exhibits of Japanese-Americans.
Women's contributions to WWII have been captured at Brown.
While much of the content of the Mariner site in Newport News, Virginia, is about the physical museum itself, it also offers interesting links to the world's explorers and the ships that carried them. For a fee advanced students can access special collections and rare documents. Might be fun to consider one research project, using this capability so students can have a taste of research processes they will encounter in college. Another site for sailors, the Mary Rose, includes audio of crew members' talk on this Henry VIII warship, sunk in 1545.
The National Trust introduces students to another variant of primary sources, historical landmarks. Students can complete fun quizzes, such as selecting items which do not belong in a photo of an historical setting.Several Web designers have taken 360 degree photos of historical sites and placed them online. Look at the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, the Forum in ancient Rome (now contains a chat room), and the Valley of Kings in Egypt.
Here are 4 exhibits with rare primary sources. At the San Francisco Museum's Gold Rush exhibit are artifacts and letters of advice from the miners' wives. New Deal is maintained by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (feri). A full document and photo gallery about the TVA--electrifying America--has been digitized. Back to 1066 in Europe for a very well-prepared, homegrown site, altogether 9MG's of displays, glossaries, and rare maps. The Peabody Museum at Harvard shows and explains a pre-Columbian excavation at Copan in western Honduras. The exhibit itself mimics an ancient Mayan settlement. For instance, sunlight shines differentially on components just as the sun did on ancient villages. Each doorway signals a new aspect of culture. Since few students are likely to be fortunate to visit this site in the real world, this virtual tour is a rare primary source. The Museum of World War II site is composed of memorabilia, collected by 1 soldier. The display illustrates how the war and home fronts seemed juxtaposed in his mind, an example for students preparing their own virtual exhibits. The National Cowboy Museum displays Western Heritage topics, such as the stagecoach---a fun site for upper elementary and middle school.
The Center for Educational Telecommunications has in-gathered a variety of media about the history, culture and current life of Asian peoples to the U.S. You will find Chinese, Vietnamese and Pacific Islanders--more information about some groups than others.
The Presidential Timeline of the 20th century, developed by UT LTC at Austin and the National Archives "reminds us that history is not simply the set of narratives we read in history books but the experience of creating these stories from the essential evidence contained in primary sources, such as...diaries.
See Also
Annotation
Look up Virtual Museums at this site for ideas for helping students construct their own exhibit of primary sources.
