An annotated list of web sites and other electronic resources related to information covered in Great Events from History: The Eighteenth Century.
General
Eighteenth Century Resources .
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th/index.html Jack Lynch, an associate professor of English at Rutgers University, has compiled this extraordinarily comprehensive list of Web links about the eighteenth century–the best site available for this period. The site contains a search engine enabling users to quickly locate Web resources about a specified topic. Users also can search for Web links by accessing several broad subject areas, such as art and architecture, music, literature, science and mathematics, philosophy, and religion. The section listing history Web sites is especially useful for its wide range of information about British and American history.
The European Enlightenment .
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ENLIGHT/ENLCONT.HTM This list of links to information about seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thought is part of World Civilizations: An Internet Classroom and Anthology, produced by Washington State University. The European Enlightenment page links to information about philosophy, the Industrial Revolution, the changing status of women, and absolute monarchy. It also features links to a glossary of Enlightenment terms and concepts, and excerpts of works by Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith.
History World International .
http://history-world.org/ A wealth of information about history from the Neolithic period to the present. Users can access the “Contents A-Z” page for a list of pages with information about the Americas, art and architecture, Asia and the Middle East, Europe, science, world religions, and other general topics. The “Europe” section includes overviews of the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and articles tracing the influence of Goethe and Johann Sebastian Bach. The “Science” section includes a discussion of Benjamin Franklin and electricity, while the “World Religions” section contains information about the rise of Methodism.
WebChron: Web Chronology Project .
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/Webchron/ The Web Chronology Project was created by the History Department at North Park University in Chicago, and contains a series of hyperlinked time lines. The chronologies trace developments in the United States, Africa, Middle East, India, China, and Russia and Eastern Europe. Other chronologies provide information about Islam, Christianity, Judaism, art, music, literature, and speculative thought in the Western tradition.
Africa
African Slave Trade and European Imperialism .
http://Web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/time lines/htime line3.htm This is the third part of a five-part African time line created by Cora Agatucci, professor of English at Central Oregon Community College. The time line offers an overview of African history between the fifteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, including information on the Asante Empire, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the slave uprising in Haiti. The site is especially useful for its information on the Atlantic slave trade, African resistance to slavery, and the African diaspora.
Internet African History Sourcebook .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html A page in the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, a highly-regarded collection of primary source materials compiled by Paul Halsall of Fordham University. Internet African History Sourcebook contains information about African history, including documents regarding African societies, the impact of slavery, and European imperialism.
Oloudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African .
http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/ Comprehensive site about Equiano, a Nigerian-born slave who purchased his freedom and eventually moved to London, where he became active in the abolition movement. The site includes excerpts from Equiano’s best-selling book, The Interesting Narrative Life of Oloudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789), as well as a biography, portraits, and a map of Equiano’s travels.
Art and Architecture
Art History Resources on the Web: Part 11, 18th Century Art .
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTH18thcentury.html Chris Witcombe, a professor of art history at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, has compiled this extensive list of Web sites about art history. This page of the site specifically deals with eighteenth-century painting, sculpture, and architecture, featuring almost three hundred links to information about Canaletto, Gainsborough, Watteau, Hogarth, William Blake, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Goya, and other artists, sculptors, and architects of the period.
A Digital Archive of American Architecture: 18th Century .
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/fa267_18.html Professor Jeffery Howe of Boston College has compiled this slide collection of eighteenth-century American architecture, which includes examples of buildings created in the Georgian and federalist styles, and slides of period houses, churches, and public and commercial structures.
A Digital Archive of Architecture: 18th Century Architecture .
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/18arch_europe.html Another page in Jeffery Howe’s Web site, featuring examples of eighteenth-century European architecture, including additions to Versailles and buildings in Vienna and London.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Time line of Art History .
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm The museum’s Web site describes itself as a “chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated especially by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.” The time line for the period from 1600 to 1800 contains art works, maps, and chronologies organized by regions of the world, including North America, Europe, Central American and Mexico, Africa, Oceania, and several areas of Asia. The site also features numerous pages devoted to specific topics, including European Art in the Baroque and Rococo eras, and African, Asian, and Islamic art.
WebMuseum, Paris: Famous Art Works Exhibition .
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/ This Web collection of European and American paintings from 1250 through the twentieth century includes two pages specifically about eighteenth century art: “Baroque, 1600-1700,” and “Revolution and Restoration.” Each page contains links to information about specific artists, including Claude Lorraine, Fragonard, Constable, Goya, Watteau, Benjamin West, and Copley. Additional information about artists is accessible through the “Artist Index,” an alphabetical listing of artists whose work is featured on the site.
World Art Treasures .
http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/ A collection of 100,000 slides compiled by art historian Jacques-Edouard Berger and the foundation bearing his name. The site includes a separate section containing slides of eighteenth century art, and other pages with paintings by Caneletto, William Blake, Goya, Hogarth, and Watteau.
Asia
The British Presence in India in the Eighteenth Century .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/empire/east_india_01.shtml Part of the British Broadcasting Company’s Web site, this page contains an essay by Professor Peter Marshall, professor emeritus at King’s College, London University, about the East India Company’s presence in India. It also features a bibliography.
Internet East Asian History Sourcebook .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/eastasiasbook.html This site provides primary source materials tracing the historical and cultural developments in China, Japan, and Korea, including information about European exploration and the activities of the East India Company.
Manas: India and its Neighbors .
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/index.html Vinay Lal, associate professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, created this Web site with a vast array of information about the history, politics, and culture of India. The section entitled “British India” includes information about the fortunes of the East India Company in eighteenth-century India, and the beginnings of British rule following the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
Tokugawa Japan, 1603-1868 .
http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/TOKJAPAN/TOKJAPAN.HTM This section of World Civilizations: An Internet Classroom and Anthology, created by Professor Richard Hooker of Washington State University, focuses on Tokugawa Japan, with information about daily life, Neo-Confucianism, and kabuki.
Australia
Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal: European Discovery and Settlement of Australia .
Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal: Convicts and the European Settlement of Australia .
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/convicts/ These two pages in the Australian government’s Web site describe Captain James Cook’s expedition to Australia in 1770, and the subsequent British colonization of the country by convicts and other European settlers. The pages contain numerous links to additional sites providing information about Cook and other explorers, European settlement, convicts, and aboriginal life.
Austria
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Enlightened Despots .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook11.html This page, featuring primary source materials about government in the age of Enlightenment, includes information about Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.
Canada
Canada .
http://canada.gc.ca/acanada/acPubHome.jsp?font=0&lang=eng This site, created by the Canadian government, includes a wealth of information about the country’s history, culture, society, and government. There is a time line of military history, which includes information about the eighteenth-century, and an online version of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, featuring authoritative articles about prominent Canadians.
The Canadian Encyclopedia .
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=Homepage&Params=A1 The Canadian Encyclopedia provides authoritative information on what the site describes as “all things Canadian.” The “Feature Articles” section contains numerous articles offering an introduction to historical topics. These articles include biographies of important Canadians, including eighteenth-century figures Pontiac and Alexander Mackenzie, and articles about culture, sports, exploration, the military, and society. An extensive time line chronicles significant events throughout Canadian history.
oCanada.ca: Canadian History, 18th Century .
http://www.ocanada.ca/history/history_18.php The oCanada.ca Web site contains a time line listing significant events in Canadian history, including this page featuring a chronology of events occurring in the eighteenth century.
Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada .
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/explorers/index-e.html This Web site, produced by the Library and Archives Canada, is described in Exploration (below).
Economics
The History of Economic Thought .
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/ Created by the Department of Economics at the New School for Social Research, this site features biographical information and excerpts of texts from more than five hundred economists who can be accessed via an alphabetical index. Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, Étienne Bonnet de Condillac, Denis Diderot, and Benjamin Franklin are among the eighteenth-century thinkers featured here.
McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought .
http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/ An extensive collection of texts about economics, organized by author. The site includes the writings of Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, Tom Paine, David Hume, François Quesnay, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, among other eighteenth century thinkers.
Exploration
Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal: European Discovery and Settlement of Australia .
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/australianhistory/ This site, which includes information about James Cook’s discovery of Australia, is described in Australia (above).
History of Exploration: 17th – 18th Century .
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=2092&HistoryID=ab90 This page in the History of Exploration Web site contains information on the eighteenth-century exploration of Canada, the Pacific Islands, Australia, and Africa.
Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada .
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/explorers/index-e.html Created by the Library and Archives Canada, the site chronicles the many people who discovered and explored the country. It includes three pages devoted to eighteenth-century exploration, plus additional pages about prominent explorers of the period, including Alexander Mackenzie, James Cook, George Vancouver, Thanadelthur, and Vitus Jonassen Bering.
France
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: French Revolution .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook13.html This page of Web links is part of Internet Modern History Sourcebook, a compilation of primary source materials organized by Paul Halsall of Fordham University. The French Revolution page links to documents related to the revolution, including the Tennis Court Oath and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. There are also links to Web sites with information about Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars.
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution .
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/ A user-friendly guide to the French Revolution, featuring twelve essays that provide an overview of the causes, events, and legacy of the conflict. The Web site also contains 245 political cartoons and other images; 330 documents, such as memoirs, reports, newspaper articles, and eyewitness accounts, chronicling the revolution; and an extensive time line of events.
Marie Antoinette .
http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/France/MarieAntoinette.html Part of the Royalty.nu Web site, this page provides a biography of Marie Antoinette, including information about the French Revolution and her execution. It also features a bibliography, with materials about Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Marie’s court and times, and the French Revolution.
Napoleon Bonaparte Internet Guide .
http://www.napoleonbonaparte.nl/ A guide to help users readily access what its creator describes as “the best Napoleonic sites in the world.” There are hundreds of links to sites about Napoleon, the Napoleonic era, and other topics, as well as articles about Napoleon.
Germany
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Enlightened Despots .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook11.html This page, featuring primary source materials about government in the age of Enlightenment, includes information about King Frederick II, described as a “model of an Enlightenment despot.” It also contains information about the decline of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of Prussia.
Great Britain
Britain’s Prime Ministers .
http://www.britannia.com/gov/primes/ Contains a page of biographical information about each prime minister, from Robert Walpole through Tony Blair. Each page also lists significant historical events that occurred during the prime minister’s term in office.
The British Presence in India in the Eighteenth Century .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/empire/east_india_01.shtml Part of the British Broadcasting Company’s Web site, this page contains an essay by Professor Peter Marshall, professor emeritus at King’s College, London University, about the East India Company’s presence in India. It also features a bibliography.
England Time line: The Stuarts and Civil War, 1603-1713 .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/time lines/england/geo_georgian_britain.shtml These pages are part of the British Broadcasting Company’s time line of English history. They feature information about significant people and events of the period, related links, and multimedia games.
Monarchs .
http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html An informative, easy-to-use site containing biographies and portraits of the queens and kings who have ruled England since 829.
Scottish History: The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/enlightenment/index.shtml The British Broadcasting Company’s Web site contains a section on Scottish history, including these pages about Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, Scotland’s contributions to the Industrial Revolution, and Scottish radicalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Literature
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes .
http://www.bartleby.com/cambridge/ An exhaustively comprehensive examination of all forms of writing in Great Britain and the United States, including literature, legal and church writing, journalism, children’s literature, and philosophy. Volumes nine through eleven contain essays about various aspects of eighteenth-century English literature, including information about Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, Edmund Burke, Daniel Defoe, and Jonathan Swift. Volume fifteen focuses on literature from the colonial and revolutionary United States, including the works of Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin.
Eighteenth-Century E-Texts .
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th/etext.html Jack Lynch, associate professor of English at Rutgers University, has compiled this amazingly extensive collection of hundreds of electronic texts. The texts are arranged alphabetically by author, and cover a wide time range–from the period of John Milton to that of Lord Byron. Many of the texts are in English, including some works translated from other languages, while other texts are in German, French, and other original languages. The site includes works by William Blake, Robert Burns, Daniel Defoe, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Phyllis Wheatley, Jonathan Swift, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Friederich Schiller.
SAC Lit Web: Restoration and Eighteenth Century English Literature Index .
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/18thcent.htm A page in San Antonio College LitWeb, a compendium of biographical and bibliographical information about English literature. Restoration and Eighteenth Century English Literature Index provides links to pages about authors whose works were published between 1660 and 1784, including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Fanny Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Oliver Goldsmith, and Henry Fielding. Each author page lists that author’s major works and provides links to related Web sites.
Voice of the Shuttle: Restoration & 18th Century .
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2738 Voice of the Shuttle is an excellent collection of Web resources about the humanities compiled by professors at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This page contains links to English-language essays, literary criticism, and examples of prose, poetry, and drama from a long list of British authors.
The William Blake Archive .
http://www.blakearchive.org/main.html A hypermedia archive of Blake’s prints, paintings, and poems, sponsored by the Library of Congress, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and several universities. Includes a biography, chronology, and glossary, with search engines and detailed instructions describing how to use the site.
Mathematics
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive .
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/index.html A very comprehensive Web site, created and maintained by the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The site features biographies of prominent mathematicians which can be accessed by either an alphabetical or chronological index. It also contains information about math history, with separate pages explaining important mathematical discoveries and concepts.
Mathematicians of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries .
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/RBallHist.html This page, part of a Web site maintained by the School of Mathematics at Trinity College in Dublin, links to biographical information about prominent mathematicians. The biographies are adapted from A Short Account of the History of Mathematics by W. W. S Rouse Ball (4th ed., 1908). Leonhard Euler, Jean-le-Rond D’Alembert, and Joseph-Louis Lagrange are among the eighteenth-century mathematicians included here.
Military History
Military History Encyclopedia on the Web .
http://www.historyofwar.org/main.html Compiled by three British professors, this Web-based encyclopedia features articles about wars and battles throughout history. The information can be assessed with several indexes, including alphabetical listings of wars, battles, biographies, and countries. The French and Indian and Seven Years’ Wars are among the conflicts discussed here.
Music
Carolina Classical Connection: An Index of Classical Music Web Site Links .
http://www.carolinaclassical.com/links.html A wide variety of music-related Web sites, with biographical information on composers, descriptions of musical genres and types of compositions, and encoded music files. The page with links to the Baroque Period includes information on Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi and other composers of the early eighteenth-century; the page of Classical Period links features information about late eighteenth-century composers, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christoph Gluck, and Franz Joseph Haydn.
The Classical MIDI Connection: The Baroque Period .
The Classical MIDI Connection: The Classical Period .
http://www.classicalmidiconnection.com/cmc/classica.html A collection of music “midi” files. “Midi,” or musical instrument digital interface, is a digital technology that allows electronic musical instruments and computers to communicate with one another, and enables people to listen to music on their computers. The site has an alphabetized list of composers with links to midi files of their music. A separate page is devoted to the music of the Baroque Era, featuring information about Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi; another page contains midi files of Classical Period music from composers such as Christoph Gluck, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
J. S. Bach Home Page .
http://www.jsbach.org/ A well organized overview of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life and music. The site features a biography, bibliography, portraits of the composer, a complete list of his works, and a list of recommended recordings. There is also an extensive list of links to other Bach-related Web sites, as well as links to sites with midi files of Bach’s music.
The Mozart Project .
http://www.mozartproject.org/ The site, in its own words, provides information about “the life, times, and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” It contains an illustrated biography, lists of compositions organized by date and musical genre, selected essays, a bibliography, and links to related resources, including Web sites with sound files of Mozart’s music.
Music History 102: A Guide to Western Composers and Their Music from the Middle Ages to the Present .
http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/#baro Created by the highly regarded Internet Public Library, this site provides an overview of music in six eras, biographical information about significant composers, and sound files created with Real Audio Players software. Two of the site’s pages highlight music from the eighteenth century: the page about the Baroque Age (c. 1600-1750), with information about Johann Sebastian Bach, George Fredric Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi, and the page about the Classical Period (1750-1820), with information about Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Christoph Gluck.
Philosophy
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/ A collection of articles written by philosophy professors, including information about French and English Deism, German Idealism, the Encyclopedists, Cesare Beccaria, Johann Gottlieb Ficthte, Jeremy Bentham, and George Berkeley.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Enlightenment .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook10.html A compilation of full texts and excerpts of writings providing the philosophical, religious, economic, and political thought of Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, George Berkeley, and other eighteenth-century authors.
Philosophy Pages .
http://www.philosophypages.com/ A comprehensive and easily accessible site aimed at students of the Western philosophical tradition. Users can access information via a dictionary of philosophical terms and names, a survey of the history of Western philosophy, and a time line. Philosophy Pages also provides links to other philosophy Web sites and essays examining the ideas of several major philosophers, including Immanuel Kant, Jean Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and George Berkeley.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html A collection of articles about various aspects of philosophy, which can be accessed through an alphabetical table of contents. Includes articles about Scottish philosophy in the eighteenth century, George Berkeley, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Montesquieu.
Religion
Baՙal Shem Tov Foundation .
http://www.baalshemtov.com/ The foundation’s Web site provides information about Rebbe Baՙal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. Site pages include a biography, explanations of the rebbe’s teachings, a bibliography, stories about Baՙal Shem Tov, and links to related Web sites.
Jonathan Edwards.com .
http://www.jonathanedwards.com/ A collection of Edwards’s sermons and other writings. The site also contains a chronology of his life, biographical sketches, overviews of his theology, and a bibliography of materials about Edwards and the Great Awakening.
Methodist Archives and Research Centre .
http://rylibWeb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/method.html Established by the Methodist Church of Great Britain, this online archive contains primary and secondary texts written by John Wesley, George Whitefield, and other theologians. Users also can access an exhibit on Wesley’s life and legacy and links to other Web sites about Methodism.
Religion in Eighteenth-Century America .
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel02.html
Religion and the American Revolution .
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel03.html These two pages are part of Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, a Web site accompanying an exhibit at the Library of Congress. The first page describes various aspects of eighteenth-century religion, including the appearance of churches, Deism, and the rise of American evangelism during the Great Awakening, with information about George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists. The second page describes the role of religion and the problems of American Anglicans during the American Revolution.
Russia
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Enlightened Despots .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook11.html This page, featuring primary source materials about government in the age of Enlightenment, includes information about Peter the Great, the rise of Russia, and the reign of Catherine the Great.
Science, Technology. and Medicine
Eighteenth Century Inventions, 1700-1799 .
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl1700s.htm About.com has created a time line of inventions, with links to additional information about some of the inventors and inventions of the eighteenth century. Jethro Tull’s seed drill, Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine, and Gabriel Fahrenheit’s thermometer are among the inventions included.
Eric Weisstein’s World of Science .
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/ This online reference has been compiled by a research scientist and former professor of astronomy. It contains comprehensive encyclopedias of information about astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. There also are brief biographies and portraits of noteworthy scientists, including Luigi Galvini, Alessandro Volta, Joseph Priestly, James Watt, Comte de Buffon, William Herschel, and other eighteenth century figures.
History of Western Biomedicine .
http://www.mic.ki.se/West.html#West3 Compiled by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, this site contains links to information about medical and scientific history. The section entitled “Modern Period, 1601-“ includes a list of sites about eighteenth-century scientific and medical developments, including the chemical revolution, Captain Cook and the scourge of scurvy, and Edward Jenner and the discovery of vaccination.
Lavoisier’s Friends .
http://historyofscience.free.fr/Lavoisier-Friends/ A bilingual English-French Web site designed to publicize the work of the man whom many consider the father of modern chemistry. Contains an extensive biography, explanations of Lavoisier’s scientific discoveries, and a bibliography.
Theater
Theatre Database: 18th Century Theatre .
http://www.theatredatabase.com/18th_century/ The pages on this site link to biographical information about playwrights and actors, including Joseph Addison, Hannah Cowley, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Oliver Goldsmith, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and Friedrich Schiller. There are also Web links to pages about eighteenth-century American theater.
Trade and Commerce
African Slave Trade and European Imperialism .
http://Web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/time lines/htime line3.htm This site about the Atlantic slave trade is described in Africa (above).
The Bubble Project .
http://is.dal.ca/~dmcneil/bubble.html Created by a team of scholars at Dalhousie University, the site provides a historical overview, essays, and Web links about the South Sea Bubble, a major stock market crash in England in 1720.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Industrial Revolution .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook14.html A list of Web links providing information about the agricultural revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the revolution in textile manufacturing, and the growth and development of steam power.
The Open Door Web Site: The Industrial Revolution .
http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/001.html# The The Open Door Web Site was created by teachers to make British history available to their students online. The site includes a series of pages about the changing nature of agriculture and industry in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including information about the textile industry and iron and steel manufacture.
Textile Industry .
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Textiles.htm Created by Spartacus Educational, a British company that provides Web-based information for teachers and students, this site chronicles the development of the British textile industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It includes information about the inventions of James Watt, Matthew Boulton, James Hargreaves, and John Kay, and about textile entrepreneurs, such as Richard Arkwright. The site also contains descriptions of life in a textile factory and interviews with factory workers.
United States
American Memory: Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 .
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/bdsdhome.html This site, created by the Library of Congress, contains more than two hundred and seventy broadsides with information about the work of the Continental Congress and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. Broadsides were large sheets of paper with printed information that were widely disseminated during the eighteenth century. The broadsides can be accessed by a list of subjects, such as U.S. Revolutionary history, the currency question, and politics and government of the Old Northwest. The site also features early printed versions of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
American Memory: George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799 .
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html The Library of Congress has digitized its massive collection of Washington’s correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, journals, reports, and other papers, and made them available on this Web site. The site also contains a detailed time line of Washington’s life and an essay about Washington’s work as a surveyor and mapmaker.
American Revolution.org .
http://www.americanrevolution.org/ A gateway providing extensive information about the American Revolution, including a lengthy list of links to related historical sites, electronic versions of books, and scholarly essays.
Archiving Early America .
http://earlyamerica.com/ A digital archive of historical documents, newspapers, maps, and other materials from the eighteenth century. The site is chock full of information, including period biographies and autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere, and Daniel Boone; biographies of notable women of early America; digitized copies of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and U.S. Constitution; period documents representing milestone historic events; and brief movies about Franklin, Washington, Revere, and the American Revolution.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School .
http://www.yale.edu/lawWeb/avalon/avalon.htm A collection of digitized documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government. A separate page entitled “18th Century Documents,” features numerous legal and political documents originating in the United States, including charters and constitutions for the American colonies, the Stamp Act, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and American Crisis, and papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other founding fathers.
Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History .
http://www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin/ Franklin scholar Leo Lemay has created this chronology, extensively documenting the significant events in Franklin’s life and placing his life within the context of the era’s politics.
A Chronology of American Slavery: 1619-1789 .
http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html The first page of a three-page chronology, tracing the history of slavery during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: American Independence .
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook12.html This is one of the sourcebooks, or collections of primary source materials, compiled by Paul Halsall of Fordham University. The American Independence Sourcebook includes a wide range of primary source materials about eighteenth-century American history, including documents about the original colonies, the American Revolution, America foreign policy prior to 1898, the establishment of the American state, Native Americans, and slavery.
Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive .
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/ A compendium of electronic information about Jefferson compiled by the University of Virginia. The site includes letters, manuscripts, and other digitized texts written by or to Jefferson; The Jefferson Cyclopedia, containing Jefferson’s views on government, politics, law, religion and other subjects; and a collection of Jefferson’s quotes. There also is an electronic text of B. L. Rayner’s Life of Thomas Jefferson, a biography published eight years after Jefferson’s death.
Women
The Bluestocking Archive .
http://www.faculty.umb.edu/elizabeth_fay/archive2.html An archive of texts related to the Bluestockings, a mid-eighteenth century group of British women who held “conversations” with men to encourage the pursuit of literary and intellectual interests.
The English Bride: The Eighteenth Century Gentlewoman’s Guide to Marriage .
http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/wedding_bride/index.html This is one of several Web sites about eighteenth-century England created by and for literature students at the University of Michigan. The site describes marriage laws and customs of the period, including advice on how to snag a baronet, a gentleman’s view of marriage, and information on bridal fashion and marriage ceremonies.
The Hannah Snell Home Page .
http://www.users.bigpond.com/ShipStreetPress/Snell/ An account of Hannah Snell, a eighteenth-century British woman who disguised herself as a man and served in the Royal Marines.
Make Your Way as a Woman in Eighteenth-Century England .
http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/make_your_way/index.html Another site designed by and for literature students at the University of Michigan. The site provides an overview of how English women lived, describing the lives of a single woman and a wife and mother. There is also information about two common career paths for eighteenth-century women: domestic service and prostitution.
The Penn State Archive of Women Writing Before 1800 .
http://www.hn.psu.edu/Faculty/KKemmerer/18thc/women/main.htm The archive features works by women poets that were previously unavailable to the public. It contains separate pages for each poet, with links to examples of her poetry.
Women Artists: Self-Portraits and Representations of Womanhood from the Medieval Period to the Present .
http://www.csupomona.edu/%7Eplin/women/womenart.html California State University, Pomona, sponsors this Web site about women artists and their depiction of women. The site features portraits and brief biographies of women artists and is arranged chronologically, with one page devoted to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists, and another page featuring information about artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Women of the American Revolution .
http://www.americanrevolution.org/women.html This site, adapted from the book of the same name by Elizabeth F. Ellet (1848), contains biographical information and portraits of notable women, including Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, and Flora MacDonald. This information is part of American Revolution.org (see United States above).
Subscription Web Sites
The following sites are posted on the World Wide Web but are only available to paying subscribers. Many public, college, and university libraries subscribe to these sources; readers can ask reference librarians if they are available at their local libraries.
General
Oxford Reference Online .
http://www.oxfordreference.com A virtual reference library of more than one hundred dictionaries and reference books published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference Online contains information about a broad range of subjects, including art, architecture, military history, science, religion, philosophy, political and social science, and literature. The site also features English-language and bilingual dictionaries, as well as collections of quotations and proverbs.
Oxford Scholarship Online .
www.oxfordscholarship.com Oxford Scholarship Online currently contains the electronic versions of more than 980 books about economics, finance, philosophy, political science, and religion that are published by the Oxford University Press. The site features full texts of these books, advanced searching capabilities, and links to other online sources.
Art
Grove Art Online .
www.groveart.com This authoritative and comprehensive site provides information about the visual arts from prehistory to the present. In addition to its more than 130,000 art images, the site contains articles on fine arts, architecture, China, South America, Africa, and other world cultures, as well as biographies and links to hundreds of museum and gallery Web sites.
British Isles
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
http://www.oxforddnb.com/ The online version of the recently revised Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a highly authoritative reference source of biographical information. According to the site’s description, the dictionary contains “50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2001.”
History
Daily Life Through History .
http://dailylife.greenwood.com/mkting/history_product.aspx The site, created by Greenwood Press, describes the religious, domestic, economic, material, political, recreational, and intellectual life of people throughout history. It contains information from The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life and other sources, and features maps, illustrations, chronologies, and primary documents.
Music
Grove Music Online .
www.grovemusic.com The online version of the highly regarded The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians features thousands of articles on musicians, instruments, musical techniques, genres, and styles. In addition to its articles and biographies, the site provides more than five hundred audio clips of music, and links to images, sound, and related Web sites.
Science
Access Science: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Online .
http://www.accessscience.com An online version of McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology and McGraw Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, containing the information found in the latest editions of those books. Users can access biographies, articles, and science news.
Electronic Databases
Electronic databases usually do not have their own URLs. Instead, public, college, and university libraries subscribe to these databases and install them on their Web sites, where they are only available to library card holders or specified patrons. Readers can check library Web sites to see if these databases are installed, or can ask reference librarians if these databases are available.
General
Gale Virtual Reference Library The database contains more than eighty-five reference books, including encyclopedias and almanacs, allowing users to find information about a broad range of subjects.
Biography
Biography Resource Center The database, produced by Thomson Gale, includes biographies of more than 320,000 prominent people from throughout history and throughout the world.
Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated Produced by H. W. Wilson Co., this database offers more than one hundred and twenty thousand biographical profiles, more than 32,000 images, and bibliographies of prominent people throughout history.
History
History Reference Center A product of EBSCO Information Services, the History Reference Center is a comprehensive world history database. It contains the contents of more than 750 encyclopedias and reference books, the full text of articles published in about sixty history periodicals, thousands of historical documents, biographies, photographs, and maps, and historical film and video.
History Resource Center: U.S. This database, produced by Thomson Gale, provides primary source documents, reference materials, and articles about United States history from colonial times to the present.
MagillOnHistory Available on the Ebsco platform, Salem Press’s MagillOnHistory offers the full contents of its Great Lives from History series as well as its ongoing Great Events from History and entries from its many history and social science encyclopedias, such as the award-winning Ready Reference: American Indians and its decades series, The Fifties, The Sixties, and The Seventies. Full-length essays numbering in the thousands are designed to cross-link coverage of historical events and biographies of the movers and shapers of the world, from ancient times to the twenty-first century.
World History FullTEXT A joint product of EBSCO Information Services and ABC-CLIO, this database offers a global view of history contained in the full-texts of more than one hundred and fifty books. Information is available on a wide range of topics, including anthropology, art, culture, economics, government, heritage, military history, politics, regional issues, and sociology.
World History Online Facts On File, Inc., has created this reference database of world history, featuring biographies, time lines, maps, charts, and primary source documents.
Literature
Literature Resource Center Literature Resource Center, produced by Thomson Gale, includes biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from a wide range of literary disciplines, countries, and eras. The database also features plot summaries, the full text of articles from literary journals, critical essays, plot summaries, and links to Web sites.
MagillOnLiteraturePlus Available on the Ebsco platform, MagillOnLiteraturePlus contains more than 160 volumes of information. Salem Press’s comprehensive integrated literature database incorporates the full contents of its many title- and author-driven series and is continuously growing as new titles are added. As of 2005, these included Masterplots (series I and II), Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Cyclopedia of Literary Places, Critical Surveys of Literature, Magill’s Literary Annual, World Philosophers and Their Works, Magill Book Reviews. Updated quarterly, the database examines more than thirty-five thousand works and more than ten thousand writers, poets, dramatists, essayists, and philosophers. Most essays are several pages in length, and nearly all feature annotated bibliographies for further study. Essays feature critical analyses as well as plot summaries, biographical essays, character profiles, and authoritative listings of authors’ works and their dates of publication.
