Browse Website Reviews

Discover quality websites on a range of topics and time periods. If a website link is no longer active, consult this guide to website URL paths for tips on locating the original resource.

Gertrude Bell standing in a mosque's decorated arch

Gertrude Bell Project

In the teaching of world history, this site lends itself to exploring both the themes of women travelers and their writing, as well as the timely topic of European intervention in the Middle East, in particular Iraq.
The ruins of Great Zimbabwe's elliptical building

Internet African History Sourcebook

The site provides broad chronological and geographic coverage, with a particularly impressive list of sources for ancient Egypt and Greek and Roman Africa. It is a gateway to an abundance of information.
Map of Tiananmen Square from the site's virtual tour

The Gate of Heavenly Peace

In general, this website is strongest in fulfilling its original purpose—providing supplementary materials and information for an excellent documentary.
Map of Florence detail showing the river passing through the city

Florence Catasto of 1427

It provides a unique opportunity for students to explore the urban landscape and family life of Renaissance Florence in incredible detail, rare for a city in this period.
A close up of the ships outside the port Santo Domingo during a pirate attack

Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820

Students could speculate on who made the objects, who used them, and how they were used. This would give them a sense of the kind of interpretive work done by historians.
Hand-drawn map with mountains, rivers, and Japanese characters

Japanese Historical Maps

This collection contains high quality digital reproductions of roughly 100 historical maps produced in Japan from the 17th century to the 20th century.
Painting of men on a stoop reading a newspaper with shocked expressions surrounded by

Mexican-American War and the Media

The contrast between coverage of the war in the United States and in England is particularly striking.
Two men sitting, one has a stringed instrument and one has a drum.

Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative

By collecting and translating these folktales, the three interviewers preserved many oral traditions that may have otherwise been lost in the dynamism of a changing, 21st-century Turkey.
Painting of a man weighing coins on a scale and a woman sitting next to him.

Medieval and Early Modern Data Bank

The Medieval and Early Modern Data Bank provides straightforward database access to five sets of data on European currency exchange and commodities prices from the 13th through the 18th centuries.
Virtual scene of a long walkway over a river leading to a palace.

Virtual Angkor

The curated videos alone would be an engaging resource for teaching the history of Angkor, but the site goes further by providing three well designed teaching modules that make use of the sites' resources to explore scholarly themes.
Sketch of map with notes in Dutch

Sejarah Nusantara

The Sejarah Nusantara represents an invaluable digital archive for international researchers studying the history of Indonesia and maritime Southeast Asia.
Drawing of several buildings surrounded by a wall

Florilegium Urbanum

Inspired by the medieval concept of a textual anthology illuminating specific topics, Florilegium Urbanum allows the user to explore more than 200 short sources and excerpts from longer texts dealing with medieval English towns.
List of data on crops in Germany, UK, and France.

NBER Macrohistory Database

The NBER Macrohistory Database is one of the best resources and clearinghouses on the internet for economics and economic history, but it requires a little hunting to locate information.
Drawing of a woman sitting holding a fan

Broadside Ballads Online

This website highlights 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century broadside ballads. These were popular songs (frequently with lavish woodcut illustrations) sold at a relatively affordable price and widely circulated.
Image on stained glass of a woman reading a book

Fine Arts in Hungary

A handy feature of this site is the Guided Tours, designed to help users 'discover the territory of Hungarian fine arts.'
Painting of a group drinking around a table

COLLAGE The London Picture Archive

Reproductions of paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures provide more than a glimpse into the history of London and London life from the 15th century to the present.
Carving of a black wolf's head

LacusCurtius: Into the Roman World

Initiated in 1995, this site has developed into an impressive array of primary and secondary resources on ancient Rome
Photo of a battleship at sea

The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures

The collection calls attention to the way in which the emergence of the American Empire coincided with—and was in important ways shaped by—the birth of the cinema.
Portrait of a man sitting at a table

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy

The site is most valuable where it has gathered together extensive sources about a specific historical theme or event.
Painting of a crowded medieval scene centering on a battle

Internet Medieval Sourcebook

The great advantage of this site is that primary sources have been assembled and categorized by a trained medievalist and active teacher, so that they are appropriate for a wide range of introductory history courses.