The American West

The "Old" West Native Americans Women Art & Images Arizona Misc History

The "Old" West: American westward expansion and western art and artifacts are a few of the topics covered here. The site also offers access to clip art images from the National Archives and numerous useful links.
New Perspectives of the West: This is the cybercompanion to the PBS documentary by Ken Burns and Stephen Ives aired in 1990. It includes and interactive timeline, photos, commentary, and links to useful background materials.
Cybersoup's The Wild West: This site includes a series of particularly sections on Native Americans and Native American cultures. Many tribes are represented.
The Wild West: This site purports to separate fact from fiction in its account of the history of the era.
Rawhide: An Old West Theme Park in Scottsdale, featuring train, stagecoach, haywagon, jeep and horseback rides, an 1880Õs carousel, gunfights in the streets and live musical entertainment seven days a week.
The Silent Western: Site maintained by the American Studies Department at the University of Virginia, evaluates the mythology that evolved in Westerns.
Wyatt Earp Historical Hompage: This site offers, among other interesting details, a narrative of the famous showdown and includes various photographs.
The Sonoran Desert: 5000 Square Miles of Silence: This site includes links to information about the Sonoran desert's ecology, history, and natural history.
Sonoran Desert Sense of Place Project: This is an Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum outreach initiative that partners with community institutions in providing programs to preserve & celebrate the region's cultural and ecological heritage. We seek to incorporate views from both sides of the border and from our various cultures in promoting wise stewardship of natural and cultural resources found within communities of this region.
The Arizona Collection of Archives at ASU: The Arizona Collection contains materials in all formats. Its strengths include over 8,000 linear feet of manuscripts and personal papers; oral histories; a book collection of over 30,000 titles; and more than 500,000 photographic prints and negatives.
Arizona's Wild Lands: Here you'll find "the story of Tempe": the prehistoric Hohokam Indians the farmers who settled near the Salt River and started a community, and Charles Trumbull Hayden, who brought the first commerce and industry to the area.
Phoenix Art Museum: Phoenix Art Museum's Collection includes over 16,000 artworks that span the centuries. The Collection and its many galleries are divided into three areas of emphasis marked by portals: Art of Asia; Art of the Americas & Europe to 1900; and Art of Our Time: 1900 to the Present.
Phoenix Botanical Gardens: The purpose of the Desert Botanical Garden is to exhibit, conserve, study and disseminate knowledge of arid-land plants of the world, with a particular emphasis on succulents and the native flora of the Southwestern United States.
Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum: This museum commemorates the mining industry that helped build Arizona.
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument: Here you'll find the ruins of villages, irrigation canals and various artifactsof the prehistoric farmers-- te ancient ones the Pima call the Hohokam, "those who are gone"-- who inhabited much of the present-day state of Arizona. Among these ruins is the Casa Grande, or "Big House," one of the largest and most mysterious prehistoric structures ever built in North America.
Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records: See especially the Arizona History and Archives Division which "identifies, collects, preserves and provides access to the historical manuscripts, government records, books and photographs of Arizona and its peoples."

Women of the West

Women Artists of the American West

A distance learning course and Internet resource containing more than 1200 images and texts on women

artists, past and present, living west of the Mississippi.

Women of the West

This is a collection of llinks about women's lives on the frontier. Find information about the famous,

imfamous and unknown women of the west.


On This date in North American Indian History: 1000s of historical events, tribal name meanings and alternative names, calendar information, links to 1000s of other sites.
The Mechoopda Indian Tribe: In 1992 the government re-recognized this California tribe. Visit their site for information about their history and efforts to preserve their culture while strengthening ties among those who can claim Mechoopda ancestry.
Index of Native American Sources on the Internet: Read about various Native American oral and written histories, regional histories, timelines for the various tribes, photographs and links to photographic archives, links to tribal home pages, information on Native American art, films, language, and more. See also the NationalMuseum of American Indians.
The Heard Museum: A private, non-profit museum whose mission and philosophy is to promote appreciation and respect for Native people and their cultural heritage, with emphasis on the traditional cultures of the Greater Southwest and on the evolving Native American Fine Art Movement.
Art & Images: There are approximately 2,000 black and white photographs depicting exterior and interior views of hotels, eating houses, railroad stations and news stands operated by Fred Harvey. States represented are Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
Images of the Southwest
Doubletake Online: This amazing site is the online version of the Duke University affiliated journal of documentary photography and writing. This includes hundreds of images and articles to peruse as well as many links to other documentary and photography sites. A main focus is that of documenting American Landscape and place. Photographers featured include Doug Dubois, Wendy Ewald, Thomas Roma, Jocelyn Lee and John Moses.
Misc. History & Historical Sites
The History Channel: Look up historical events,view photos of historical figures, read thumbnail biographies, and access links to websites that delve into relevant areas, such as African American history, Women's history, or specific time periods
Timelines of History: Timelines by individual country and US states with universal timelines and -and local search engine. Also today in history and various subject timelines.
Huntington Library Land of Golden Dreams: An online exhibition of the Huntington Library's California gold rush documents. Includes more than 60 large JPEGs of primary documents.
The History Journals Guide: The History Journals Guide is a web directory for history journals. History is understood in a broad sense as the study of the past.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum: Stereoviews, engravings, maps, and documents illustrating the history of the first transcontinental railroad.)
Smithsonian Institute: The Smithsonian Institute site supports web access to lesson plans, museum information, and online exhibits from the Natural History Museum and other member museums and organizations.
Democracy in America: Tocqueville's America: This is an excellent site maintained by scholars at the University of Virginia. Click here to learn more about Tocqueville's life and work, and what he saw during his travels in the United States in 1831. Includes information on race, gender, religion, and domestic customs of that time, as well as a full transcript of Democracy in America.
Frederick Law Olmstead Web Site: Maintained by George Washington University Department of Geography, this page celebrates the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted, founder of American landscape architecture. It includes information on his life, extensive coverage of his work in numerous American cities, old maps of his work, and a bibliography for more information.
The Sierra Club: Founded in the 1890s by John Muir, the Sierra Club has been working to preserve our environment and defend wildlands since its inception. This site provides links to helpful websites and resources on topics as diverse as urban sprawl, the Lewis and Clark expedition, clean water, and population issues.

Misc.: More than 800 "great buildings" from around the world and across history are illustrated at this web site.
The Project for Public Space: PPS is a non-profit organization whose missionis to build communities by creating the special places that build community life.
National Parks
Folkways Recordings: This Smithsonian Institution Web site features information and sound recordings of various Folkways recordings tracks. You can order cassettes online of any of the 35,000 recordings in the online archive, which include recordings made across the U.S. and the world by such collectors as Moses Asch and Alan Lomax.