For users interested in a detailed visual exploration of early life in New England, from paintings of historic figures down to board games and bed linens, this site provides infinite entries into the specific ephemera of this historically rich environment. This digital collection exhibits approximately 2000 objects and transcribed document pages on New England life—with a focus on Deerfield, Massachusetts—from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Appropriate for users from elementary school age to professional historians, the site offers a variety of ways to access material. Sets of interpretative texts (100–600 words), intended for different age groups, are provided for each image. Users can browse according to major themes, including children, entertainment, military, rituals, and work. These categories in turn are subdivided into even more specific themes, such as marriage, toys, and travel, making for an intuitive browsing experience that is thematically consistent. The site also highlights 64 people, places, and events, allows text and category searching, and includes interactive exhibits over three transitional time periods (turns of the century). There are also lesson plans and study guides for elementary, middle, and secondary levels.

The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has over 14,800 maps online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia and Africa are also represented. Collection categories include antique atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, county, city, pocket, wall, children’s and manuscript maps. Besides this tremendous amount of material, the site employs extraordinary viewing technology to turn the simple act of looking at a map into a dynamic, highly intuitive experience. This technology allows for extremely high-resolution scans that enable the user to examine endless details of each historical document. In many ways this site represents the future of cartography and the innovative techniques that can be employed for visual research.

The American Revolution Digital Learning Project showcases the immense and diverse collection of the New-York Historical Society. Focusing on the many elements of the American Revolution, the site covers events roughly from 1760-1810. There are thousands of documents and objects to browse through on your own, in addition to more organized games and activities that help contextualize the sometimes-overwhelming amount of material. Much of this visual material is presented with innovative viewing software that allows users to explore items in rich detail, including a 3-D object viewer that can, for example, let users examine a tiny crack on the inside of a teacup. The main strength of the American Revolution Digital Learning Project lies in its flexibility as an educational resource, as users are free to engage the copious historical ephemera in a variety of ways (from games for elementary school students to essay-writing activities for high school students). Through unique visual presentations and an attention to historical context, this site brings the American Revolution to life in impressive and often surprising ways.

Early American Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum collects, contextualizes, and displays works produced by American artists prior to 1830. The vast majority of the museum’s collection consists of portraiture, although there are also religious images, historical paintings, and landscapes to be found as well. Within this catalogue exist dozens of paintings by 20 different artists, all of whom were either born or active in the United States, including works by important early American artists Gilbert Stuart and Chester Harding. Users can browse this collection in a variety of ways (by artist, genre, place of origin, etc.), all of which employ useful thumbnails and descriptions that help guide the tour visually. In addition to these search functions, the site also arranges its entire collection on a digital time line that situates each piece within its historical context. While the scope of this exhibition is inherently limited to the Worcester Art Museum’s narrowly focused collection, the works are presented and elaborated upon in an innovative manner that constitutes an entertaining and useful site for students of U.S. history. The time line feature is particularly engaging as an educational tool, since it combines visual elements within a linear narrative, aiding comprehension of historical and artistic development over time.

George Washington: A National Treasure is a unique website that uses a single historical portrait as a gateway to explorations of the larger issues that surround the biography of America’s first president. The painting itself, known as the Landsowne portrait and painted by renowned American portraitist Gilbert Stuart, is presented as an interactive piece that allows for detailed investigation as organized by specific themes (symbolic, biographic, and artistic). As the user scrolls the mouse around the portrait, various links appear that lead to even more text and visual resources. Clicking on Washington’s sleeve, for example, conjures a brief description of clothing in the era’s art and other visual examples (portraits) as demonstration. Since this website is narrowly focused on a single historical figure, and particularly interested in the portrait as a means of historical evidence, its resources are somewhat limited to these central themes. However, the interactive nature of the portrait, which links to over 100 smaller descriptive sites with additional visual and audio presentations, makes for an effective and informative digital exhibition. Perhaps the best use of this site would be to demonstrate the interconnectedness of art and historical reality, since students can investigate the larger contextual motivations for specific aesthetic choices. This educational template may only depict a single, albeit iconic, portrait, but the techniques of critical thinking that it encourages are an effective means of artistic interpretation that can be transferred to a host of other works and disciplines.