http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/

From La Strada to L'Auberge Epsagnole, European cinema has delighted audiences for well over a century. This remarkably wonderful site brings together over 80 films from 15 different European countries, and while cineastes will be well served by the offerings, even casual visitors will find much to admire here. With substantial support from a number of organizations (including the MEDIA Programme of the European Union), this online film archive includes films held by institutions like the British Film Institute and Filmarchiv Austria. What is perhaps most impressive about the site is that visitors can search for films of interest by country of origin, genre, sound (silent, soundtrack, or other), and film archive. While the site warrants a number of visits, new visitors may wish to check out the 1947 French animated feature "Anatole à la Tour de Nesle" and the 1958 "Once upon a Tram", a wistful look back at the Irish tram that linked the tiny villages of Howth and Sutton on the County Dublin coast. The site is rounded out by a clutch of educational resources designed for use in the classroom. [KMG]

http://content.lib.washington.edu/garweb/

Shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War, Union veterans formed the Grand Army of the Republic, or the G.A.R. Through the Reconstruction era and the Gilded Age, the G.A.R. was a powerful organization that lobbied the federal government for federal and state Soldiers Homes for invalids, advocated for the creation of Memorial Day, and also provided support for soldier reunions. This digital collection created by the University of Washington Libraries peers into the faces of some of these veterans by offering up this photograph album originally created by the Stevens Post #1 of the G.A.R., based in Seattle. The album contains over 100 portraits, and visitors can browse through them at their leisure. Visitors can zoom in and out on each photograph and they can also use a number of other tools to get the best view of each photograph for their own purposes. Also, while many of the photographs have complete provenance information, some do not, and visitors are welcome to write in with any insights they might have. [KMG]

http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr206.pdf

Funded by Congress, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) works to prevent and resolve violent international conflicts and promote post-conflict stability and development. Part of their mission also involves providing high-quality research reports and fact sheets addressing current and ongoing political situations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In June 2008, USIP Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin researched and wrote this report that details how Iran extends its sphere of influence across the Middle East. In this report, readers will learn that this includes developing and maintaining ties with Shiite clerics and providing financial aid for humanitarian and political causes. Additionally, visitors can listen to an audio recording of a public event held at the USIP headquarters featuring Slavin and three discussants who also work in this area. [KMG]

http://www.library.northwestern.edu/africana/winterton/

The website of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University offers visitors to its site a digital feast of images of East Africa from 1860-1960. A portion of the Winterton Collection of East African photographs, acquired by the library at the end of 2002, has already been digitized, and the entire collection of photographs has been inventoried and is available in a PDF document, under the Inventory tab. The photographs currently available on the website are divided into album views and individual sample images from the collection. The sample images are a mixture of landscapes and portraits, both formal and informal. By clicking on a photograph, a visitor can see a larger image of the photograph, as well as a caption that includes a date, location, and description, if known. The album view, with its black background and white text, extremely high quality image scans, and excellent organization makes it easy to navigate and enjoy. The photographs were scanned directly from the albums' pages, so a visitor almost feels as if they are paging through the physical albums. The photographs' original captions are legible in the albums when the photograph is magnified, but are also reprinted underneath the albums, with no zooming required. [KMG]

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb253/index.htm

Signed into law on July 1, 1968, the historic Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) was a major step towards creating a world that had the potential to be a bit safer from the threat of nuclear annihilation. This particular collection of documents related to the NPT was brought together through the diligence of staff members at the National Security Archive's Nuclear Documentation Project and released to the public in July 2008. The site starts off with a narrative essay which describes the backdrop to the signing of the NPT in 1968, along with offering a bit of additional context about the international political climate at the time. The site's real gems are the 34 documents which include State Department cables, internal planning documents, and other items that reveal the nature of the political machinations involved with this process. [KMG]

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/parks/index.html

Like many aspects of life in the Lone Star state, the parks in those parts defy easy description and they include lands around the Rio Grande River and Palo Duro Canyon. This particular digital exhibit created by the Texas State Library & Archives Commission tells the story of the Texas State Park system through historical images, first-hand recollections, and short essays. The exhibit is divided into eight sections, including "The Texas State Parks Board", "Texas Parks Go to War", and "Contemporary Issues". If visitors look at nothing else at the site, they should check out the "Early Years" area. Here they can learn about the early struggle to preserve the Alamo and also look at the original foot print of the building on an old fire insurance map. Overall, the site is more than a bit fun, and it also does a nice job of putting some of the issues facing parks in Texas into a broader national debate about the administration of state and national parks across the country. [KMG]

http://www.momahomedelivery.org/

The Museum of Modern Art's multimedia exhibit, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling offers a selective historical survey of prefabrication in architecture, including patent drawings and films about early prefab architects. The exhibit emphasizes the importance of prefabricated architecture, especially homes, due to its sustainability and affordability. It also demonstrates that the utility of prefab architecture is far from being exhausted. The most compelling components of the exhibit are the five prefabricated homes, built by five different individuals or architectural firms on a lot west of MOMA. In addition to the sample photographs of the projects, visitors to the site will want to read the entries in the installation journal written by the people involved in each project. Watching the videos of the installations of the prefab structures on the west lot complete the experience of this very stimulating exhibit. [KMG]

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?col_id=522

This lovely addition to the expanding universe of web-accessible, digital versions of primary sources, was created by the New York Public Library and includes color lithographs, engravings, and other types of prints documenting the history of dance in Italy, collected by Walter Toscanini (son of the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini). The collection is named for the younger Toscanini's wife, ballerina Cia Fornaroli. Visitors will find over 100 portraits of dancers and patrons of the arts, as well as 263 images of sets, ballet theaters, and dancers in various roles. For example, there are images of the Spanish dance the Cachucha as danced by Fanny Elssler, as well as her contemporary, Marie Taglioni, and other unidentified dancers. [DS]