History Resources

 

Useful Tools

ChatGPT

1920s

https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/america-in-color-the-1920s/56898

JSTOR.  Full text articles from the leading journals in American History.

South Texas Studies The Papers of the John Stormont Lecture Series (1990-2010)

Papers of the NAACP.  Available through Lexis Nexis.

Images of American Political History.  This is a collection of digital images from 1750 to the present.

Houghton-Mifflin Outline Maps of the World. This is a selection of outline maps. Good for studying locations.

United States Historical Census Browser. This is a wonderful site for anyone interested in the demographic past. The browser allows you to manipulate and display U.S. decennial census data in a variety of different ways.

California 30- & 60-minute Historic USGS Topographic Maps.  This site contains actually images of the historic U.S.G.S. Topographic Maps of California.

Rumsey Collection.  This site has scanned images of a variety of historic maps and images.

Handbook of Texas Online. Great source for basic Texas history.

Texas Almanac Online.  A good general reference on Texas.

Inflation Calculator. This calculator adjusts any amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 1998.

General Land Office Patents. This is a great place to look for land records. It accesses Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States. Image access is provided to more than two million Federal land title records for Eastern Public Land States, issued between 1820 and 1908.

Family Search. This is the LDS Church's genealogical search engine. It's a great resource for conducting family histories (whether they be your own or someone else's).

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. This is an extensive list of passenger lists for ships arriving in the United States during the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Olive Tree Genealogy Index to Passenger Lists. Contains an extensive collection of immigrant passenger lists.

Census Maps of Race and Ethnicity in Texas.  This is a collection of maps related to race and ethnicity which I have compiled using the U.S. Census Browser.

Camtasia Test

 

Camtasia Test 2

Historic Blues

(These are links to YouTube videos, they may be ephemeral)

 

Dockery Plantation

 

Charly Patton

·         Shake it Don’t Break it

·         Moon Goin’ Down

 

Blind Lemon Jefferson (1894-1929) had a unique style that was extremely popular in East Texas in the early 20th century.  His influence on Texas blues is debated by music historians, but Jefferson did encourage such blues legends as Sam “Lightnin” Hokins and Hudde “Leadbelly” Ledbetter.  Much intrigue still surrounds his mysterious death in Chicago in 1929.

·         He Arose from the Dead

·         Black Snake Moan

·         Bad Luck Blues

Robert Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938)

·         Sweet Home Chicago

 

Chester Arthur Bennett, “Howlin’ Wolf” (1910-1976)

·         Smokestack Lightnin’

 

John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) is one of the kings of Mississippi Delta Blues.  His later work incorporated a lot of electric guitar but I really like his early acoustic work.

·        Maudie and Tupelo

·        Tupelo

·        Hobo Blues

·        One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

·        It Serves Me Right to Suffer

 

Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter (1888-1949) was born in Louisiana but moved to Texas as a young boy.  In the 1930s, after spending several years in prison, he traveled to New York where his musical talent was “discovered.”

·         Pick a Bale of Cotton (1945)

·         Where did you Sleep Last Night?

 

Sam “Lightnin” Hopkins (1912-1982) was in some ways the godfather of Texas Blues.  His lyrics reflect aspects of life for African Americans in Jim Crow Texas.  At the age of 8 Blind Lemon Jefferson reportedly asked Hopkins where he learned to play so well, his alleged response was “I just got the blues in me”

·        I Can’t Stay Here in Your Hometown

·        Goin Down Slow

·        Cotton

 

Mississippi John Hurt (1892-1966) is one of my favorites.  He was a soft spoken man known less for his vocals than his guitar picking.

·        Spike Driver Blues

·        The Candy Man Blues

 

 

Sonny Terry (1911-1986) was a blind harmonica player from North Carolina.  He was noted for his upbeat tempo and the hooting that accompanied his playing.  He teamed up with guitarist Brownie McGhee and together they recorded several records.

·        Hootin the Blues

·        Key to the Highway

·        Easy Rider

 

Isaiah “Dr. Ross” (1925-1993) was a one man band from Mississippi who was especially known for his harp playing (his nickname was Dr. Ross the Harmonica Boss).

·        Feels So Good

 

My Heart’s in Texas, Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King

 

 

Professional Organizations

The American Historical Association.

Organization of American Historians

The Western History Association

 

Closed Captioning Test

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