This simple site aims to display its unique collection of Civil War envelopes; that is, envelopes that were hand-printed during the Civil War by Americans eager to express the political divisions of the day. Users can click on any image to see a larger version. Users searching for introductory or contextual information on the conflict will not find it here, as the site provides little more than the images themselves. However, the images themselves project compelling and complicated historical meanings and serve as excellent guideposts for further research. Since this is a project of the Indiana State Library, the envelopes consist entirely of pro-Union sentiments, but the diversity of visual depiction is extraordinary, from a drawing of the Devil sewing a Confederate flag to a caricature of Jefferson Davis as a pig. Thus while limited in its contextual and historical content, this site is recommended for providing such a detailed local glimpse into a national phenomenon.

The Library of Congress has extensive and varied resources related to the campaign for woman suffrage in the United States. This selection of 38 pictures includes portraits of many individuals who have been frequently requested from the holdings of the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division. Also featured are photographs of suffrage parades, picketing suffragists, and an anti-suffrage display, as well as cartoons commenting on the movement--all evoking the visible and visual way in which the debate over women's suffrage was carried out. A hyper-linked timeline of women’s suffrage helps contextualize the events depicted in these images, and users can access the visual evidence in a variety of ways—through keyword searches, categorized galleries, or by simply browsing the thumbnails. As with all of the Library of Congress’ visual history sites, the cataloging and preservation of these important images is impressive, with extremely high resolution scans available for each image.

David Hunter Strother (1816-1888) was a successful magazine illustrator during the Civil War era. Aside from professional illustration work under the pseudonym Porte Crayon, made many drawings, some with a specific use in mind and others apparently for the sheer pleasure of doing them. These drawings afford insight into Strother's world: individuals, people at work or at play, friends, neighbors and assorted "characters," buildings, animals, carts, landscapes, and episodes he had seen or experienced at home or while traveling. Like the sketches of other nineteenth century graphic artists ranging from F.O.C. Darley to Winslow Homer, many of these drawings were considered to be primarily a means to an end in Strother's day; a preliminary, but all important, step in the production of mass produced wood engravings. They represent the artist's original inspiration. This site collects and presents over 600 of these sketches, capturing unique visual perspectives of mid-nineteenth century American history. Although contextual information is noticeably lacking, the high resolution scans and detailed cataloging of these images makes for an effective and diverse visual historical experience.

For many well-to-do American families in the late 19th century, national and international tours Continent were quite fashionable, and in some quarters, almost expected. The Brittingham family of Madison, Wisconsin, was no exception, and they spent a great deal of time documenting their travels (and home life) through a wide range of photographic images. This collection, created by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center, brings together over 1600 of these lantern slides, all of which were created between 1897 and 1922. In the collection, visitors will find images of scenic landscapes, street scenes, and domestic life from 22 states and 32 countries. Here visitors can see the entire clan at their homestead in Wisconsin or in Port Antonio, Jamaica. While the site offers little in the way of direct context for these images, it nevertheless provides important insight into both the life of the Brittinghams and the Gilded Age social and cultural world they inhabited.

The art and practice of quilt-making is among the world’s most ancient and pervasive textile traditions. The International Quilt Study Center (IQSC) was founded in 1997 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the donation of a personal collection of 900 quilts. Since then, the Center has grown to hold the largest collection of quilts in the world, offering research symposia, a graduate program in textile history, and numerous online resources. Users can search the collection using an advanced finding aid and search engine capable of delineating elements like primary pattern, quilt title, quilt maker, country of origin, and even specific quilt-making techniques. In addition, the site features a “Quilt of the Month” that highlights in great detail a particular piece from the collection, offering historical context and links to similar quilts styles in the collection. This is a virtually comprehensive and easy to use website about a very specific historical tradition and is highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.