The Iowa Heritage Digital Collections

Billy Robinson flying biplane (1913). Billy Robinson Collection. Filename: aeroplane18.

The Iowa Heritage Digital Collections (IHDC) is envisioned as an online collection of Iowa history and culture created by bringing together documents, images, maps, finding aids, interpretive and educational materials, and other media from collections held by a wide range of organizations throughout Iowa. These organizations will include colleges and universities, public libraries, schools, historical societies, museums, archives and other appropriate groups. Access to IHDC will enable searching across these multiple collections while at the same time maintaining the identity of each individual organization.

University of Maryland -- World's Fair Overview

This print, from a set of 25 photogravures of drawings, depicts the Electricity Building at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.

This exhibit is a sampling of the Ephemeral and Graphic Materials in the World's Fair Collection owned by the Architecture Library at the University of Maryland, College Park. The site contains a virtual exhibition gallery for each fair in the collection.
The collection contains books as well as ephemeral and graphic materials for over 30 fairs and international expositions.

Aerial Photographs of Colorado

Location: Boulder County, Colorado. Identifier: BOW1-18 Date: 5/8/1938.

Aerial photographs dramatically portray the changing landscape of Colorado: a mountain valley can be seen where there is now a reservoir; changes in the vegetation and ground cover can be traced over the years, and the growth of towns and cities documented. This website provides access to over 1,700 digitized aerial photographs of Colorado taken by the U.S. Forest Service in the years from 1938 to 1947.

Memory of the Netherlands

Peaceful polderland of water and windmills (1950/75). Collection: ReclameArsenaal RA0.

Memory of the Netherlands is a gigantic digital treasury, full of information about the Dutch past. Visitors to the Memory website have access to hundreds of thousands of superb images, recordings, film footage and texts that have been classified under some fifty digital collections. Materials include illustrations, photographs, texts, film and audio fragments, all of Dutch making. Together, they offer a unique and varied picture of the history and culture of the Netherlands.

Special Collections, University of Nevada, Reno Library

Dressler family (ca. 1907). Image id: UNRS-P1984-23-9. Special Collections Department, University of Nevada, Reno Library. Image retrieved November 26, 2007 from http://contentdm.library.unr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/spphotos&CISOPTR=227&REC=16

The photographic image collections in the Special Collections Department of the University of Nevada, Reno Library contain more than 200,000 images. These images document life in Nevada and the surrounding region from the 1860's to the present. Subjects images of people, places, events, and the state's major industries, including mining, water, ranching, divorce, gambling, recreation and railroading.

Pacific Northwest Olympic Peninsula Community Museum

Northwestern Olympic Peninsula communities and The University of Washington worked together to create this Web-based museum to showcase aspects of the rich history and culture of the region. A searchable archive of over 12,000 images and artifacts.

Arizona Memory Project

Berta Coveney (n.d.) Image id: SSL-AMP025. Arizona Historical Foundation Photograph Collection, Biography Series, FP B-306. Retrieved November 26, 2007 from http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ahfsaints&CISOPTR=5&REC=15

The Arizona Memory Project is an online effort to provide access to the wealth of primary sources in Arizona libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions. This initiative provides the opportunity to view some of the best examples of government documents, photographs, maps, and objects that chronicle Arizona's past and present. Contains images, sound and text from pre 1863 to the present.

Wikimedia Commons

A database of 2,189,292 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.

Natural History Picture Library

31864 Falco peregrinus, peregrine falcon

The Natural History Museum's online Picture Library offer a comprehensive range of natural history images from the Museum's work and vast collections, which includes an incredible assortment of gems, minerals, mammal, reptile, fish, bird, plant and insect specimens gathered from around the world. This diverse library features unrivalled dinosaur pictures, images of human evolution, pictures of extinct species and remarkable fossil remains. They have extraordinary magnified views of life as seen through a microscope plus a collection of travel pictures taken as part of our scientists' fieldwork across the globe. We also hold one of the world's largest collections of natural history artworks, including original watercolour sketches from the Cook voyages, Waterhouse's designs for the main Museum building, and notebooks of key scientific discoveries.

Smithsonian Galaxy of Images Collection

Christiaan Huygens(1659). Systema Saturnium; sive, De Causis Mirandorum Saturni Phænomenôn, et Comite ejus Planeta Nova [Saturnian system]. Image ID: SIL4-1-52a.

The thousands of images on this site represent only a small portion of the more than 1.5 million printed books and manuscripts in the collections of Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The images available on this site represent a broad cross-section of the Libraries' collections. Additional images and collections are added regularly.

Gilmer Civil War Maps Collection

Gilmer, Jeremy Francis, 1818-1883. Goldsboro-Wilson-Smithfield area map. Local Identifier: 276/229.

The Gilmer maps are an extensive group of Civil War maps, including both manuscript maps and printed maps with manuscript annotations and engineers' drawings of military construction, housed in the Manuscripts Department of The Wilson Library. This site currently includes 161 maps representative of the entire southern region, with particularly large groupings of North Carolina and Virginia maps. Most of the maps are dated 1861-1865.

PICMAN at the State Library of New South Wales, Australia

Terra Nova (merchant ship). (n.d.). Original : PXE 722/3882.

An online catalogue to pictures and manuscripts. The State Library of New South Wales pictures collection contains over 100 000 watercolours, prints and drawings, approximately 2000 paintings, over 75 000 architectural plans, over one million photographs, and 2300 museum objects.

Open Video Project

Images from: Moon Segment 02, NASA footage.

The Open Video Project is sponsored by and developed at the Interaction Design Laboratory at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities. Researchers can use the video to study a wide range of problems, such as tests of algorithms for automatic segmentation, summarization, and creation of surrogates that describe video content; the development of face recognition algorithms; or creating and evaluating interfaces that display result sets from multimedia queries. Because researchers attempting to solve similar problems will have access to the same video content, the repository is also intended to be used as a test collection that will enable systems to be compared, similar to the way the TREC conferences are used for text retrieval.

Kansas Memory

Cowboys bathing in a pond, Seward County, Kansas (1891-1912). Image no. 11993.

Kansas Memory has been created by the Kansas State Historical Society to share its historical collections via the Internet. It supports the mission of the Society--to identify, collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate materials and information pertaining to Kansas history in order to assist the public in understanding, appreciating, and caring for the heritage of Kansas.
The value of the site is in its rich content—letters, diaries, photographs, government records from the State Archives, maps, museum artifacts, and historic structures in Kansas. Content will be added continually.

Wisconsin Historical Society

1977 Scout Traveler with Terry Camper in the Mountains. (1977). Image ID: WHi-8768.

Wisconsin Historical Images provides a rich pictorial view of Wisconsin and United States history. The collection consists of 19th and 20th century photographs, paintings, posters, advertising material, ephemera, and political cartoons. Images online represent only a fraction of the 3 million images in the Archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The ALBATROSS dredging. In: "Report on the Construction and Outfit of the United States Fish Commission Steamer ALBATROSS", by Lieutenant-Commander Z. L. Tanner, U. S. N. United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Part XI. Report of the Commissioner for 1883. Plate I, p. 111. Image ID: ship0405.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the descendant of America's oldest science agencies, the Survey of the Coast formed in 1807, the Weather Service formed in 1870, and the forerunner of today's National Marine Fisheries Service formed in 1871. The foundation built by these great organizations has given rise to an agency whose realm extends from the surface of the sun to the bottom of the sea, whose concern for life in the sea extends from microscopic creatures to the great whales, and whose reach in time extends from thousands of years in the past to decades in the future with global change studies and observations.
More than 10,000 new images including ocean exploration photographs, coral reef photographs, polar regions photographs, Hurricane Katrina images, historical photographs, lightning photography, and images detailing the Treasures of the NOAA Library.

Alaska and Western Canada Collection at University of Washington Libraries

Dobbs, B. B. (n.d.) Eskimo in a umiak, or skin-covered boat, on ice floe with whale catch, Bering Straits. Order no. AWC1580.

The Alaska Western Canada and United States collection is a digital collection of historic photographs documenting the geographic area of Alaska, Western United States and the Canadian provinces of Yukon Territory and British Columbia. The collection features images of the Oregon, Idaho, and areas of interest in Alaska and the Yukon Territory relating to the Gold Rush of 1898-1900. Included also are images of mining activities, street scenes, Eskimo and Native Americans of the region, hunting and fishing, transportation, and World War II installations.

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest at University of Washington Digital Collections

Tlingit Chief Shakes' house with totem poles, Wrangell, Alaska (n.d.). Viola Garfield Collection no. 130. Negative no: NA3701.

This site provides an extensive digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures, complemented by essays written by anthropologists, historians, and teachers about both particular tribes and cross-cultural topics. The digital databases includes over 2,300 original photographs.

Bond Photo Library at University of Chicago

Bond, Frank (1944). A Cremation Ceremony.

The Bond collection consists of photographs taken during World War II by Frank Bond while serving in the Army Air Corps, 40th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, stationed in India and Burma. Bond was an avid photographer in private life and his passion and experience informed both his military work and his personal photographs documenting aspects of daily life in India.

Smithsonian Cross Catalog Searching Center

Anonymous Lakota student drawing of steam ship under attack by smaller boat (ca. 1893). Local Number: NAA INV 08515300.

The Cross Catalog Searching Center allows you to search descriptive records from dozens of Smithsonian libraries, archives and specialized research units. Search over 1.7 million records, with links to images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from all across the Smithsonian.

State Library of Tasmania

Title: Frank Long, the discoverer of Zeehan silver fields. (18-). ADRI: AUTAS001125882472. Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts.

The Tasmaniana Library holds mainly published material (books and pamphlets, maps, postcards, posters and printed ephemera) relating to Tasmania.

American Journeys - Wisconsin Historical Society

Kayak Island seen from the southeast. Cape St. Elias and Pinnacle Rock seen from the west. The western shore of south-central Kayak Island seen from the west.

Read the words of explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders and settlers as they lived through the founding moments of American history. View, search, print, or download more than 150 rare books, original manuscripts, and classic travel narratives from the library and archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Human Ecology Historical Photographs at Cornell University

The records of the New York State College of Home Economics at Cornell University document the history of the College, and its activities, events, and personalities. The collection, housed in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of the Cornell Library, includes administrative records and correspondence that document the College’s involvement with government, educational, and private organizations at the national, state, and local levels; the College’s involvement in World War I and II, defense and relief committees; student and alumni activities; extension and outreach work; College committees and activities including the Farmers’ Institute, Farm and Home Week, Honors, and Home Economics Institutes; and blueprints, sketches, and samples relating to the construction of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall. The collection also includes personal papers of Martha Van Rensselaer. Additionally over fourteen hundred photographs of students and faculty, buildings and scenes portray the College from its founding through 1969.

The European Library

Tailteann Games 1928. Two handball players (1928). Library Reference Number: INDH897. National Library of Ireland.

The European Library is a free service that offers access to the resources of the 47 national libraries of Europe in 20 languages. Resources can be both digital or bibliographical (books, posters, maps, sound recordings, videos, etc.). Image searches can be limited to specific national libraries, or specific collections of materials.

Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian

F. Scott Fitzgerald to Charles Green Shaw, 1927 June 21. Letter : 2 p. : handwritten ; 33 x 22 cm. Charles Green Shaw papers, 1874-1979. Archives of American Art.

In February 2005, the Archives received an award of $3.6 million from the Terra Foundation for American Art to dramatically increase the accessibility of its resources. The grant is being used to fund a comprehensive, five-year program to digitize a substantial cross-section of the Archives' most important holdings. These include the papers of a highly diverse range of artists and arts-related figures, from the 18th century to the present. At the end of the project, an estimated 1.6 million digital files will be available to the public.

Greater Cincinnati Memory Project

Ohio River and Kentucky Hills. (n.d.) Identifier ocp003169pccpc. Cincinnati Postcard Collection.

The Greater Cincinnati Memory Project is currently in the second phase of development. While the first stages of the project successfully established the online database and made an initial 5,884 images available, new content is also being made available. Continuing with the theme of pre-1940 photos, postcards, and slides of area landmarks and events, the Project has been expanded to include images of Cincinnati area people.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology - animal sounds and associated video

Avian naturalist and Professor of Ornithology, Arthur Augustus Allen. (n.d.).

The world's largest archive of animal sounds and associated video. The Macaulay Library is a principal source of sound recordings for basic research, education, conservation, habitat assessment, media, and commercial projects. The collection is strongest in New World species but also has substantial holdings from Africa and Madagascar, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South East Asia. The Library archives and preserves an exhaustive sampling of the behaviors of each animal species using digital video and audio recordings.

Queens College -- Waterways of New York V 2.1 Fall 2006/Spring 2007 Digital Imaging class work

Canal & River at Freemen's Bridge, Schenectady, N.Y. (n.d.). Waterways Post Card Collection of Thomas T. Surprenant. Publisher: Graduate School of Library and Information Studies--Queens College (CUNY), New York, New York.

This is a collection of historically significant cultural heritage materials documenting the waterways of New York state. The intent of the collection is to provide a visual record of the history and culture of the many cities and towns that were associated in some way with the waterways of New York. Students, teachers, researchers and those interested in waterways will find this rich resource a valuable addition to the history of what made New York the "Empire State." This collection mainly comprises early twentieth century postcards depicting the Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Canal.

Virtual Mitchell

Prince's Dock (c.1905). Record number C1682.

The photographs in this digital collection are mostly from the Archives and Special Collections housed in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. The images feature Glasgow's buildings and streets as well as people going about their daily lives. Great interest to local historians, people researching their family history and anyone who would like a glimpse of Glasgow in days gone by. Searchable by area, street or subject.

Tobacco Bag Stringing

Mrs. Flossie Johnson, Reidsville, N.C. (1939). Filename VC331.76_S93s_091.tif.

University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill's Digital Collections include the Tobacco Bag Stringing digitized collection. Throughout the tobacco-growing regions of the American South during the Great Depression, individuals and families earned much-needed income by sewing drawstrings into small cotton tobacco bags. This website presents images and text from a report in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill documenting tobacco bag stringing work in North Carolina and Virginia in 1939.

Matapihi

Dog Chris, listening to the gramophone, Antarctica.[ca Jan 1911]. Reference number PA1-f-067-099-2.

Matapihi is the online digitized collections of a number of New Zealand cultural organizations, which allows searching across a variety of digital collections from one website. The collections represented are about New Zealand, made in New Zealand, created by New Zealanders or held in New Zealand collections.

Picture Australia

Horticulture - Tropical fruit - plastic bags being used to protect bananas (1954). Image no.: A1200, L16660.

A service hosted by the National Library of Australia to provide a single access point to the digitized pictorial collections of a wide range of Australian resources. Direct access to over 1.3 million images.

Prelinger Collection

Still from Heavenly bodies (1927).

Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.

Ohio Historical Society, African-American Experience in Ohio 1850-1920

House of John P. Parker (1910). Call number SC489.

The African-American Experience in Ohio 1850-1920 is a digital collection brought together from a number of individual sources specifically for this project. These sources include manuscript collections, newspaper articles, serials, photographs, and pamphlets.

New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Jackson, William Henry. Crater of the Castle and the Crested Hot Spring. (1875?-1885?). Image number 1106.

NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 550,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.

American Memory at the Library of Congress

First Ladies Aid of Highland Church, Nekoma, N.D..(1899?). Reproduction no. Hult.441. Fred Hulstrad and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections.

American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

Collect Britain

Diagrammatic Zonal World Map, 9th Century. British Library Shelfmark; Harley MS 2772, f. 70v.

This website showcases thousands of items from the British Library. You can browse our collections, tours and exhibitions, or search the site in many different ways. Collections include maps of London, wildlife recordings, early photographic book illustrations, stamps, sheet music collections, manuscripts and more.

Image platform of the Austrian National Library

Kaiseradler: Junger Vogel wird vom Innsbruckner Falkner Holzer abgerichtet. (n.d.) US 10.578/1.

The image platform of the Austrian National Library contains 50.000 historical images from the holdings of the Austrian National Library, the historical archive of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, the Association for the Study of the History of the Labour Movement and the archive of the Austrian Society for Contemporary History of the University of Vienna. Those images are available online for scientific research, for commercial and editorial use.

Prints & Photographs Division at the Library of Congress

Pinkey & the camera (1888). Image ID: LC-DIG-ppmsc-04897.

The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) provides access through group or item records to more than 50% of the Division's holdings, as well as to some images found in other units of the Library of Congress. Many of the catalog records are accompanied by digital images--about one million digital images in all.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Wonderland Arcade, 1200 Grand Ave., Kansas City, Missouri, 1968 (ARC ID 283784). NARA's Central Plains Region (Kansas City).

Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries. Searches in the catalog can be limited to digitized images -- there are currently 58,184 still pictures in ARC.