National Geographic Online: The Underground Railroad
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/
Just in time to celebrate Black History Month, this multimedia educational Web site from National Geographic offers a diverse set of materials that describe the Underground Railroad, the famed network of individuals who helped transport African-Americans to freedom before the abolition of slavery. Students will want to start by taking The Journey, which, with the aid of visual materials (such as historical photographs of slaves and abolitionists) and audio selections (such as popular spirituals of the day), allows young people to make decisions about what to do in order to reach the North and freedom. Next, visitors can look at a map of the Underground Railroad routes, including those specific to Harriet Tubman. Also, a nice timeline provides some context to the history of slavery in the New World, beginning with the importing of slaves by Spaniards to Santo Domingo in 1501, and concluding in 1865 when slavery was abolished by the passage of the 13th Amendment. The site is rounded out by a number of educational resources for teachers, divided by grade levels. [KMG]
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Chateau de Versailles
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/
Generally considered some of the most lavish royal residences in all of Europe, the grounds and buildings at Versailles have existed for close to three hundred and fifty years. While Louis XIII built a small hunting lodge on the site in 1623, the landscape is most closely associated with the Sun King, his son, Louis XIV. The status of Versailles was solidified in 1682 when it became the official residence of the Court of France, effectively supplanting the palaces at the Louvre and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The official web site offers some helpful photographic essays about the buildings and grounds, most notably 360 degree panoramas of the Hall of Mirrors and the King's Bedchamber. Moving through the site, visitors will want to visit the four main thematic sections, which cover the grounds and their exquisite landscaping; the lives of the royals during the ancien regime; and a photo gallery of the sculptures, paintings, and objet d'arts that line the Chateau. Finally, there is detailed information about visiting the grounds and buildings in France, along with opening and closing hours. [KMG]
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Milwaukee Art Museum
http://www.mam.org/
The Milwaukee Art Museum has experienced something of a rebirth in the past few years, which may be in no small part due to the addition of a new building named the Quadracci Pavilion, designed by the well-regarded Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. To start, the Museum has placed a selection of different artworks on display here on their Web site, organized under the thematic divisions that are common to many art museums, such as early European art and photography. Along with these selections, more practical information about the cost of admission, upcoming exhibits, and hours can also be found from the site's main page. A highlight of the site is certainly the online exhibit dedicated to the ground breaking work of long-time Milwaukee industrial designer Brooks Stevens. Here, visitors can view detailed images of some of his most famous designs, which include the Miller Brewing logo, the Evinrude outboard motor, and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. For those looking to learn more about the feel and appearance of the Quadracci Pavilion (which opened in 2001), a photo gallery featuring the building from many different of angles and perspectives will be an integral part of their visit to the Web site. [KMG]
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AncientMexico.com [Flash]
http://www.ancientmexico.com/
For thousands of years, numerous cultures flourished within the region known as Mesoamerica, and their contributions to human civilization have been well-documented by a host of historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Maintained by Patrick Olivares, AncientMexico.com offers a number of thematic exhibits, primary documents, and images that will provide a good overview of the groups that have lived in this region. The first place to begin is the detailed clickable map where users can click on close to twenty different cities of pre-Columbian Mexico. Some of the city Web pages are "under excavation," but many of them contain schematic representations of their urban form and photographs of the numerous structures (such as ballcourts and temples), along with explanations of their place within the culture. The Gods of Ancient Mexico area features images of gods central to the religious practices of the Maya people, including the Rabbit Scribe and the Water Lily Jaguar. Particularly helpful for educational purposes are the primary documents, which include Hernando Cortes's recollection of his meeting with Montezuma and a poem by Nezahualcoyotl (Hungry-Coyote), the poet and king of the Aztec city of Texcoco. [KMG]
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Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963 [.pdf]
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/contents.htm
Sponsored by the Jane Addams Hull House Museum and the University of Illinois at Chicago, this online project contains a variety of primary source documents, documentary photographs, and scholarly essays that explore the legacy of social reform movements in Chicago and the community's history. There are several ways to proceed through the exhibit, though visitors may want to read the introductory essay in order to better understand the general layout of the site. Most of the substantive material on the site is contained within the 11 chapters that constitute the Historical Narrative section. Looking through any one of the chapters provides visitors with the opportunity to read a brief orientation essay, and proceed to a closer examination of the primary documents for a more multifaceted understanding of the social welfare and reform movements. Finally, there is a search engine for the entire database, which can be queried by author, keywords, date, and publication type. [KMG]
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FilmSound.org
http://www.filmsound.org
Hosted and maintained by Sven E. Carlsson, a Swedish educator, this Web site is an excellent source of information about that one element of filmmaking that is sometimes overlooked due to its ubiquity: sound. Persons curious to read a brief overview of film sound will want to start with an essay titled "An Introduction to Film Sound," by Jane Knowles Marshall. After this, they may want to look over the glossary on the right-hand side of the main page, which features definitions and explanations of terms such as "Ambience," "Foley," and "Production Sound." The sites other highlights include numerous essays by Oscar-winning sound designer Walter Murch (who won for The English Patient and Apocalypse Now) and Randy Thom (who won for The Right Stuff and has been nominated six times in total). Along with other essays on the use of sound in Indian cinema and the history of film sound, there are 10 essays (and sound samples) on the use of sound and sound effect design in the Star Wars trilogy. Visitors may be particularly interested to learn that the language of the Ewoks was created by altering and layering Tibetan, Mongolian, and Nepali languages. [KMG]
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Classical Language Instruction Project [Shockwave]
http://www.princeton.edu/~clip/
Developed by Christian Wildberg at Princeton University, the Classical Language Instruction Project is designed to function as a resource for college undergraduates hoping to gain some insight into the pronunciation and elocution of ancient Greek and Latin. As the rationale for the Project states on the site: "There may be considerable debate among scholars about the most 'authentic' way to pronounce Greek or Latin; yet it is certain that the texts from the ancient world reflect a vivid and complex spoken language, not a lifeless code." With that in mind, the site features different classical scholars reading passages by a number of writers, including Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Seneca. As the scholars read, students can follow along, view the passage in English, and pause the recording in order to develop an understanding of the text and its pronunciation. Finally, the site also includes a brief essay on rhythm and meter in Greek and Latin. [KMG]
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