http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/front.html

The American Studies group at the University of Virginia has a long and distinguished history, and during the past few years it has created this online archive of materials related to the spirit of the American experience in that tumultuous decade of the 1930s. The material is divided into thematic sections, such as “On Film” and “On the Air”. Within each section, visitors can view various projects created by students studying in the American Studies program. For example, the On Film area contains such online exhibits and topical examinations that include “Crime Pays: The Hollywood Gangster from 1930-1938” and “New Frontiers in American Film Documentary”. The section dedicated to American radio programming during this decade is quite nice, as it affords users the opportunity to learn about these shows and listen to some of the old shows, including Little Orphan Annie, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and Jack Benny. [KMG]

http://www.clarkart.edu/mystery/

This entertaining site created by the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute turns one of the primary tasks of museum curators and archivists--establishing the provenance of the works in their collections--into a game. Using a group of late 15th century Dutch paintings with an uncertain history that depict the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, the game attempts to answer four questions: What are the origins of the paintings? How do the paintings relate to each other? What did the paintings mean in the 15th century? Who was the Master of the Embroidered Foliage? (the paintings were attributed to the Master of the Embroidered Foliage in 1926 by a German art historian, Max Friedländer) The research presented at the site reveals that probably all the paintings were not created by the same artists, as hypothesized in 1926, but still leaves tantalizing questions unanswered. [DS]

http://www.fugitiveimages.com/

Parks, buildings, sidewalks, dumpsters, and other pieces of the urban fabric offer a canvas for some to express their artistic side, and in many cases, also allow individuals the opportunity to offer a visual reminder of different social and cultural struggles within different urban communities. While certain cities have yet to document these various expressions, New York City is a place where many have sought to create a record of these different murals, drawings, and stencils. As a statement on the homepage announces, “Fugitive Images exposes conversations held on city surfaces that begin to describe the stylistic, social, cultural, and political perspectives of New York’s neighborhoods”. The site utilizes a rather user friendly and visually pleasant interface that allows users to search the city’s many neighborhoods to view some of the hundreds of pieces they have documented thus far. Additionally, visitors may leave comments and additional information on each piece, if they so desire. So far, most of the images contained within the site are located in Manhattan, but with any luck, the project should continue to grow exponentially in the future. [KMG]

http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/

Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion of the world, is the subject of a new documentary by the well-regarded filmmaker Ken Burns. The program recently aired for the first time on PBS, and this companion website offers a number of primary documents, short essays, and educational materials that will be of great interest to the Web-browsing public and educators seeking to use the documentary in the classroom. On the site, visitors can learn about the life of this rather remarkable man, and also learn about the broader social and cultural milieu of the times in which he found himself, both in terms of race relations and in terms of the history of the sport of boxing. One particularly well-developed feature here is the section that deals with “The Fight of the Century”, which pitted Johnson versus Jim Jeffries, who at that point was the retired white heavyweight champion of the world. The site is rounded out by a number of lesson plans and additional resources (such as books and other online sites) for educators. [KMG]

http://www.manybooks.net/

There are a number of places to get books online, but this recent addition to that cadre of websites is definitely worth a look. The staff members at Manybooks.net have adapted the e-texts created by the Project Gutenberg DVD and placed them online in a host of formats, including pdf, eReader, and as Palm document files. Visitors can begin by browsing by author, title, category, or language. Some of the languages covered in the database include Dutch, Esperanto, Swedish, Tagalog, and Welsh. Satisfied visitors can also submit a list of five of their favorite books so that other users may take advantage of their favorite reads. Some of the recently recommended titles include Jude the Obscure, Silas Marner, Ecce Homo, and New Grub Street. Persons attracted to this site should also take a look at the ebook cover page, where they can peruse the covers of some of the many books contained within the archive. Some of the more compelling covers include those for As a Man Thinketh authored by James Allen and a rather lovely cover for Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott. [KMG]

http://www.newsdesigner.com/blog/

While billed as just a weblog “about newspaper design, journalism, yadda, yadda”, this particular weblog is a rather useful resource for those who seek to keep on top of current trends in newspaper design and the nature of journalism more generally. The blog itself contains helpful hypertext links to new newspaper designs and a number of commentaries that take a critical eye on the careful (and not so careful) juxtaposition of text and images. Some of the more recent topics covered include the war in Iraq and the nature of newspaper coverage of the tsunami that wrecked havoc on South and Southeast Asia. Also, the left-hand side of the page features links to a host of international newspapers, recent entries, the weblog archive, and links to the weblogs of other journalists. [KMG]

http://www.urbis.org.uk/default.asp

Located in the Millennium Quarter in Manchester, Urbis is a museum that “explores urban culture and the cities of today and tomorrow”. The museum's very distinct and novel building was designed by the noted architecture firm of Ian Simpson, and is noted for its glass facing and location within the popular Cathedral Gardens. To get a sense of the building’s design and context, visitors should take advantage of the QuickTime virtual tour offered on the website. Moving on from that part of the site, users can learn about their creative and well-designed exhibitions that profile different aspects of urban life from around the world. The resources page also offers webcam perspectives on other cities, including Singapore, Tokyo, and London. [KMG]