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 If a website link is no longer active, consult this guide to website URL paths for tips on locating the original resource.

Black and white photograph of what appears to be a black family from what appears to be the antebellum period, with several children and a few adult men and women, standing in front of a white house with a chimney. Behind the house is a wooded area.

Saving Slave Houses

The author [discusses things] such as preservation and documentation, to show the relevance and impact of work that deals with the history of enslavement.
Image of a map showing the east coast of the United States

Running Reality

This site is great for teaching students about geographical analysis and how historical events affect the physical environment and territories of people and groups.
Black and white photograph of six school girls

Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran

One of the key features of the website are the digital collections related to women’s lives during the Qajar period with sources and collections from both private family collections as well as archival holdings.
Image of a trefoil tracery in the cathedral ceiling at Sainte-Chapelle

Paris Past and Present

This site works as a supplement to classroom discussions about urban architecture in medieval France, or even for [those] who want to see visual reconstructions of the historical buildings.
Photograph of the Khafre pyramid

Digital Giza: The Giza Project at Harvard University

The website itself has 3D reconstructions...a glossary which gives brief descriptions of people and places, terms, and acronyms... [and links to] NEH lesson plans, Egyptology videos, blogs, and other related sources.
Vintage illustration of a woman plucking fruit, with the words Works for Victory, 1945 below in italicised font

Historic Government Publications from World War II

Easy to use, chockful of useful content, and easy to access even when offline, Historic Government Publications from World War II shows that repositories do not need to be overly complicated to achieve good things.
Drawing of two men, with a white man that is presumably Thomas Clarkson in the foreground, and a black man in the background. They are both dressed in colonial-era clothing.

The Abolition of Slavery Project

By breaking up the site into different areas of focus, such as enslavement itself and abolition, it allows itself to be easily navigable by students and scholars alike.
Image of Chinese characters

Chinese Text Project

largest database of pre-modern Chinese text digitally available...[which] focuses specifically on pre-Qin and Han dynasty works, as well as post-Han dynasty texts.
Image of a colored choropleth map

Lynching in the United States: 1883-1941

...this source expands the subject of lynching's to include other minority groups in the US beyond black Americans, as well as white Americans.
Illustration of a red windmill

Colonial North America at Harvard Library

Colonial North America at Harvard Library is an ambitious project that seeks to digitise Harvard’s vast collection of materials related to the North American colonies, circa the 17th and 18th centuries.
Portrait of one of the Mancini sisters

The Letters of Marie Mancini

The site’s great strengths currently lie in its annotated translations and ease of use, with the team having obviously given some thought to how users might want to explore these letters.
Three youth carrying hoes against a green background

The Blavatnik Archive

...the Blavatnik Archive site does a great job of ensuring that a range of important archival material can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection
Black and white engraving of free people of colour in Saint Dominigue, two women and a man.

A Colony in Crisis: The Saint Domingue Grain Shortage of 1789

...the site’s method of limiting each translated entry to about 1000 words is a great way to foster greater engagement with these sources without being too much to handle at once.
People standing in a semi circle looking at the name of the website, Mapping the Republic of Letters in bold and cursive font

Mapping the Republic of Letters

Browsing the site, users are able to gain a deeper appreciation for how data visualisation can help academics examine previously well-known and well-utilised primary sources in new, innovative ways.
Part of a map of Scotland overlaid with illustrations of women, meant to signify witches, being placed at particular points.

Witches

Witches is well-conceived and equally well-presented project that takes our understanding of Scottish witchcraft one step further
Ilustration of a nurse against a red background

History of Medicine and Medical Humanities

...the Portal team are doing an excellent job of making the site a one-stop resource for everyone interested in the medical humanities
Cvliacanae, Americae regionis, descriptio. Hispaniolae, Cvbae, aliarvmqve insvlarvm circvmiacientivm, delineatio. Credit: dLOC

Digital Library of the Caribbean

Educators, students, and scholars interested in understanding the strategic conflicts between European powers, the experience of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, the emergence of the modern capitalist system, and the rise of neoliberalism would find in dLOC a wealth of content to draw from for their studies and projects.

Crosby child's chair, made using multi-coloured moulded polyurethane resin and metal. Designed by Gaetano Pesce, made by Fish Design in New York.

Victoria and Albert Museum

The video series How Was it Made? demonstrates a variety of craft methods: Japanese hikihaku obi, medieval stained glass windows, and book printing and binding.
Outline of a man and woman running away, set against a background of advertisements.

Freedom on the Move

Freedom on the Move is a crowdsourced, multi-institutional effort to create and maintain a database of ‘runaway ads’.
Watercolour of a ship in a port, with the title Consolation Prize above it in brown text.

Consolation Prize

Consolation Prize is a fantastic podcast that comes highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in American history, or even for those who just enjoy well-told, solidly researched stories.