American Culture

Saline Historic Homes is a collection of photographs from a Historical and Architectural Survey that includes all structures built up to 1944 within the city limits of Saline, Michigan. Conducted in 1994 by Kosky and Glynn Associates, this survey is the result of the City’s intent to comply with the Certified Local Government requirements. The objective of the survey was to research, photograph and map all structures built within the City of Saline between 1829 and 1944. The completed project includes a survey card and black and white photograph for each structure, a map of all surveyed structures, and historical and architectural text encompassing the study period.

The Archives of Michigan EAD (Encoded Archival Description) Finding Aids site provides access to finding aids or descriptive inventories for archival records and manuscript collections at the Archives. The project is still in infancy, but more finding aids will be added periodically.

Published by the MLA, James L. Harner's Literary Research Guide offers information about reference sources for doing research in all areas of literary studies. The electronic edition of the Guide, based on the fifth print edition, allows you to look up materials in WorldCat, Google Books, and your library’s online catalog. Use the personalization feature to save searches and individual entries and to write notes about them for later reference. Since the initial release of the electronic edition in 2009, the author has revised the Guide twice a year. The online Guide, which will continue to be updated and revised regularly, now includes over 1,000 entries; refers to nearly 1,700 additional books, articles, and electronic resources in annotations; and cites more than 700 reviews.

Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema explores the pivotal era in entertainment history when previously static images came to life and moved for the first time. The database features printed ephemera, programmes, sheet music, cigarette cards, postcards, games, toys and other merchandise from the pre- and early-cinematic years. The printed books in this collection range from technical magic lantern manuals to children's shadow play whilst the periodicals range from the scientific to early celebrity gossip. Moving Pictures has been digitized in colour and is entirely full-text searchable.

Subjects include: 

• Early visual entertainment such as shadow play, optical illusions, metamorphic pictures and protean views.
• Panoramas and dioramas
• Optical or philosophical toys
• Peepshows
• Magic lanterns and image projection
• Pioneers of cinema: Thomas Alva Edison, the Lumière Brothers, Eadweard Muybridge
• Early inventions such as the cinematograph, phonograph, and zoopraxiscope
• Emerging film industry
• The first film stars
• Original film footage from 1894-1926

The database also features a virtual exhibition entitled Optical Delights which showcases a selection of the most interesting optical entertainment artifacts and even some video clips of the devices in action!

This material is sourced from the Bill Douglas Centre; a unique treasure trove of pre- and early -cinematic memorabilia based at Exeter University, and the BFI National Archive.

 

 

This collection is created from the Library Company of Philadelphia's acclaimed Afro-Americana Collection. When complete, this unique online resource will provide researchers with more than 12,000 printed works. These essential books, pamphlets and broadsides, including many lesser-known imprints, hold an unparalleled record of African American history, literature and culture. This collection spans nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. Critically important subjects covered include the West's discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; descriptions of African American life -- slave and free -- throughout the Americas; and slavery and race in fiction and drama. Also featured are printed works of African American individuals and organizations. **At present, the online collection is only 8% complete.**

Can be cross-searched by keyword with African American Newspapers, African American Periodicals and other Archive of Americana series, using the Archive of Americana link below.

1535-1922

OntheBoards.tv is an on-demand website for HD-quality contemporary performance films available for streaming, download or mobile viewing. Launched in January 2010, this first-of-its-kind site brings contemporary work to a wider public by filming top caliber performances with multiple high-definition cameras, editing the film collaboratively with the artists, and delivering them online as feature-length performance films. OntheBoards.tv has more than doubled in size with plans to continue adding multiple new performance films each year. Filmed at On the Boards, as well as in peer theaters across the country, the performances present a snapshot of the best new works by current leaders in dance, theater and music. The films consist of compelling international and northwest contemporary performance, including works by artists who are rarely seen in the US and works that will never be performed again.

Initial Funding for OntheBoards.tv provided by The Wallace Foundation. With additional support from: DanceUSA, National Endowment for the Arts, The Paul G. Allen Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

This is the searchable collection of Saline Valley Farms photographs. Saline Valley Farms was an economic experiment in cooperative living and farming that was developed by Harold Gray in 1932. Detailed in the 150 photographs, the farm was a thriving cooperative that lasted until 1953. The Saline Valley Farms digital project was produced by Saline District Library, Jim Cameron and David Vaughn. Funding was provided by the Carl F. Schrandt Endowment Fund.  Original photographs and cataloging courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library.

The Pictorial History of Ann Arbor collection includes over 400 historical images of Ann Arbor from 1824 to 1974, plus searching and browsing access to the text of The Pictorial History of Ann Arbor, 1824-1974, edited by J. Fraser Cocks, III, c.1974, Michigan Historical Collections, The University of Michigan.

Students on Site is designed to use local history and geography as a site of innovative teaching and learning for students and teachers at all three education levels. This archive is a collection of historical and contemporary materials such as maps, photographs, personal letters, and government records.

This is the searchable collection of photographs from the Archives of the Ypsilanti Historical Society. Photographs date from the 1850s to the present. Images included cover people, buildings, homes, events, celebrations and other subjects.