History Websites

The Monarchs of England
http://www.britannia.com/history/h6.html

The Monarchs of England is one of the excellent websites produced by Rod Hampton and Seth Fox of Britannia. The site contains biographies and portraits of the sixty-nine kings and queens who have ruled England since 829. There is also a detailed account of Oliver Cromwell's period in power. The kings and queens are listed in the order of accession and this appears by the side of a two page overview of the British monarchy. There is usually two or three pages of information on each of the monarchs. Relevant links with other websites appear next to the biographies. A beautifully designed and easy to use website. No doubt will eventually become one of Britain's most popular websites. (KS2 CU2 KS2 CU3 KS3 CU1 KS3 CU2 GCSE British)

The Tower Of London
http://www.voicenet.com/~dravyk/toltour

The 'Virtual Tour of the Tower of London' was produced by a group of enthusiasts living in New York. It is an interactive project and the creators encourage users to send in photographs and information to be added to the website. There is an official tour but users can also create their own route. A menu allows visitors to select different parts of the castle. The Tower of London can also be explored by selecting from a list of famous people with links to the building. Certain words on the website have a question mark icon by them. By clicking these icons the user is taken elsewhere on the web. Difficult words and technical terms are linked with the Webster Hypertext Dictionary. There are also website links with individual people mentioned on the tour. This is an excellent website that has successful recreated what it is like to visit the Tower of London. I hope that education officers of Britain's castles and historic houses will take note of what can be done with a good website.(KS2 CU2 KS3 CU1 KS3 CU2)

Castles of Wales
http://www.castlewales.com/home.html

The 'Castles of Wales' is the work of Jeffrey L. Thomas and a couple of castle fanatics from Oregon, Lise and Brandon Hull. This attractively designed website enables the user to find out about 170 different castles. The creators provide a detailed history of each castle. As well as text there are numerous illustrations, for example, Beaumaris has twelve photographs and a drawing of the layout of the castle. To help the student there is an excellent online glossary of castle terms. There is also a section on Welsh Abbeys and a whole range of links with other sites including: 'A History of Wales', 'Royal Families of Wales' and 'Cultural Traditions'. Jeffrey Thomas has produced a splendid website that will be much imitated in the years to come.(KS2 CU2 KS3 CU1 KS3 CU2)

The American Presidency
http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/preshome.html

In the United States educational publishers are major suppliers of free teaching materials on the Internet. The Grolier Corporation 'The American Presidency' contains detailed biographies of a large collection of presidents, first-ladies and vice-presidents. These biographies are cross-linked with a range of different articles that appear under headings such as 'Presidential Scandals' and 'Presidential Programs'. There are also linked pages to the important political parties and pressure groups in the USA. As well as the results of the American presidential elections since 1789, there is an interesting database of political cartoons. The 'Grolier Online Exhibition Hall of Presidents' contains three short documentaries about Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. This part of the website also enables the user to hear speeches made by fourteen of the presidents, including one made by Grover Cleveland in 1892. (KS3 CU4 KS3 SB GCSE World)

Great Speeches
http://www.historychannel.com/gspeech/archive.html

A superb collection of important speeches provided by Sky's History Channel. Most of the extracts feature Americans but the collection is so large it has room for interesting contributions from Britain. This includes speeches by Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Edward VIII, Edward Heath, George Bernard Shaw and Prince Charles. A large number of the speeches cover important events since the end of the Second World War including Gandhi talking about Indian Independence, Trumaqn sending troops to Korea, Eisenhower's views on the Suez Crisis, John Kennedy's inaugural address, Joseph McCarthy on communists in the USA, Nixon on Watergate and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. (KS3 CU3 KS3 CU4 KS3 SB GCSE World GCSE British)

The Gunpowder Plot
http://www.bcp.lib.md.us

An attractive website produced by Conrad Jay Bladey and Larry Murphy at the 'Centre for Fawkesian Pursuits'. The story of the plot is told in six parts. Each section is accompanied by music of the period. The main strength of this site is the way it provides background information on a whole range of topics linked to the central topic. This includes food, clothes, music, culture and language. The website also explores relevant concepts such as political violence and includes a section on 'Terrorism in History'. The Gunpowder Plot would make a good base for project work on the period. (KS2 CU2 KS3 CU2)

The Irish Famine: 1846-1850
http://avery.med.virginia.edu

A comprehensive study of how the Irish Famine changed the social and cultural structure of Ireland. Liz Szabo's archive provides a series of interpretations of the famine that appeared in newspapers, diaries and novels of the time. The material can be explored in a variety of different ways. The primary sources are categorised by topics (hunger and disease, eviction, emigration, homelessness, etc.) and types of sources (newspaper accounts, photographs, drawings, etc.) The main emphasis of the website concerns the different interpretations of the Irish Famine. The primary sources are also organised under the headings: 'Voices from Ireland', 'Irish-American Commentary' and 'English Views of the Famine'. An excellent website for those teachers who want to use the Internet to look at Key Element 3 (interpretations of history). (KS3 CU3 GCSE British)

The Emancipation of Women: 1860-1920
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/resource.htm

The first section of 'The Emancipation of Women' provides photographs and biographies of thirty-five women who played a prominent role in the struggle for equality. At the end of each biography there is a bibliography and links with other relevant websites. The second section is a large database of sources produced by, or about, the thirty-five women. These sources are divided into twenty-five different sections: 'Childhood', 'Schooling', 'Adult Education', 'Marriage and Children', 'Women's Suffrage Societies', etc. The final section is a database of visual images that reflect the different views on the emancipation of women. There are plans to gradually expand the website by adding other women and sources to the database. (KS2 CU3 KS3 CU3 KS3 CU4 GCSE British)

Trenches on the Web
http://www.worldwar1.com/index.html

An evolving project being developed by Mike Lavorone of Illinois. New material on the war is being added all the time and this reflects the concerns and interests of the people who use the site and are willing to send in information. Mike Lavorone describes himself as a the trench-keeper: "a history technician, not a historian, recording these events with the tools currently available". Students can explore a wide variety of themes and topics. It is also possible to look at certain issues in great detail. The range and display of statistics in this website is especially impressive. For example, it is possible to display and print out the numbers of soldiers who were killed, wounded or went missing for every country involved in the war. The student is never allowed to forget the human tragedy of the conflict and heart-rending photographs appear next to the tables and graphs on the screen. The site is truly interactive with its 'WWI Discussion Forum' and the 'Trenches Guestbook'. The site is very large and sometimes slow to use. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British)

A History of Flight
http://www.nsmi.ac.uk/on-line/flight

'A History of Flight' is the first of the Science Museum's on-line exhibitions. The website starts with a time-line of the 'History of Flight'. The user can use this as a base to explore both the aircraft and the people involved in the development of this industry. Thirty-one people have been chosen and they range from King Louis XIV, who witnessed the early flight of the Montgolfier balloon, to Bill Bedford, one of the first jet test pilots. There are thirty-one aircraft on display. This usually involves a picture of the aircraft, background information on its development and technical details (span, length, weight, speed, power and armament). (KS3 CU4 GCSE British)

US Air Force Museum
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum

The US Air Force Museum based in Dayton, Ohio, has produced an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history of flight. The website has been organised in a similar way to the museum. Eight galleries display samples of aircraft from flight's earliest days to the latest jet fighters. Each exhibit displayed includes a photograph, a history of its development and technical details. There are also other galleries on topics such as 'Engines', 'Weapons' and 'Equipment'. Video clips are available in some of the galleries. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

World War Commemoration
http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii-mainpage.html

Another excellent website provided by the Grolier Corporation. The backbone of the site is a collection of articles from the Encylopedia Americana that enables the student to read about "the conflict, its causes, its heroes, and its long-term impact on history". The articles are usually based on important events and individuals. The site also includes a large database of photographs from the 'National Archives' and three World War II mini-documentaries. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British GCSE World)

World War II: The World Remembers
http://192.253.114.31/Home.html

This website has been created by the students and teachers of Patch American High School in Struttgart, Germany. Based at the Headquarters for the United States European Command, the school has been online since March, 1994. The team involved in producing this website claim that new material is added every day. The material main comes from the USA Government and Military archives. This includes articles from the 'Stars and Stripes' army newspaper, a collection of army and navy newsreels, famous speeches from the USA National Archives and a collection of maps and battle plans from the Centre of Military History. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British GCSE World)

Royal Genealogical Data
http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal

A database compiled by Brian Tompsett of the University of Hull that contains the genealogy of the British Royal family and those linked to it via blood or marriage relationships. As Brian Tompsett points out in the introduction, this means it is "the genealogy of almost every ruling house in the western world because of the intermarriage that took place between them at some time or another." The database includes details of over 21,000 individuals. The data is ordered alphabetically, by dates, by ruling house or title. The website is a tremendous resource for the historian and works really well when used with other websites as Monarchs of England. (KS2 CU2 KS2 CU3 KS3 CU1 KS3 CU2 GCSE British)

The Bayeux Tapestry
http://blah.bsuvc.bsu.edu/bt

This website provides the whole of the Bayeux Tapestry. Divided into thirty-five sections, each page depicts a 2.25 yard length of the tapestry. Users can also see close-ups of the tapestry where they will be able to observe the techniques used by the makers. Each student could be assigned one section of the tapestry and asked to provide a written description of what is happening in their pictures. This is a site that is probably best used with a good book on the subject. For example, Morgens Rud's 'The Bayeux Tapestry', provides a detailed commentary on the tapestry. (KS3 CU1)

The Secrets of the Norman Invasion
http:///www.cablenet.net/pages/book/index.htm

Nick Austin's website is a fascinating example of how one person's research can contribute to the educational understanding of a whole community. What started as a personal investigation into where the Normans landed in 1066, has turned into a rich resource for all students of the period. The website contains eleven sections of the Bayeux Tapestry. Each one is accompanied by a detailed commentary of the events shown in the section. Nick Austin also provides background information on those men who recorded the first ever descriptions of the Norman invasion. There are also several Domesday Maps that relate to the area where the Normans landed in 1066. Very useful site when dealing with Key Element 3: Interpretations of History. (KS3 CU1)

The Domesday Book
http://www.anglia.co.uk/angmulti/learning/history/domesday

A very useful website on the Domesday Book produced by the University of Hull and provided free by Anglia Multimedia. The material was specially designed for Key Stage 3: SU1. Contents include: 'The Norman Conquest', 'The Domesday Survey', 'Land, Wealth and Power', 'The King and the Church', 'The Anglo-Saxon and Norman Aristocracies' and 'Knights and Thegns'. The material is accompanied by a glossary and a Domesday data set for the country of Bedfordshire. (KS3 CU1)

The Britannia Lexion
http://www.britannia.com/history/resource/gloss.html

Another website provided free by Britannia company. The Britannia Lexicon is an on-line glossary of keywords used during the Middle Ages. Organised like a dictionary, the user can discover the meaning of legal, feudal, chivalric, monastic, military and architectual terms associated with the Medieval period. This is an open-ended project and Britannia intends to add lengthier enteries on particular events, wars, movements and organisations. (KS3 CU1)

The Gathering of the Clans
http://www.tartans.com

A collection of linking websites on Scottish History. This includes documents such as the 'Declaration of Arbroath' and a list of 'Early Scottish Kings'. There are also links with individual Scottish Castles. 'The Gathering of the Clans' also provides a gateway to websites such as 'The wars of Independence' and 'Scottish History'. There is also a good section on Scottish Culture. (KS3 CU1 KS3 CU2)

HMS Victory
http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/1797/Victory/index2.html

This site provides a tour of the HMS Victory. Sections include: 'The Weather Deck', 'Hands Aloft', 'Life on the Lower Decks', 'The Gun Deck', 'The Admiral's Cabin', 'The Sickbay', 'Food and the Galley' and 'Raising the Anchor'. Each section provides very detailed background information that is linked to the physical aspects of the ship. For example, 'Food and the Gallery' includes four pages about the food eaten by sailors on HMS Victory in the 19th century. (KS3 CU3 GCSE British)

British Prime Ministers
http://www.britannia.com/history/prime/primedex.html

A website provided free by Britannia. The site contains pictures and biographical details of seventy-three of Britain'' prime ministers. It starts with Walpole in 1721 and ends with a small section on Tony Blair in 1997. A biography of the prime minister is followed by a time-line of key events that took place during his/her period in office. (KS3 CU3 KS3 CU4 GCSE British)

The Penny Magazine
http://www.history.rochester.edu/pennymag/00.htm

Charles Knight of the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge believed that a literate working class created a potentially dangerous situation. He wrote in 1828 that this "could not be stopped although it might be given direction". Knight's answer to the problem was to publish the Penny Magazine. It was not long before Knight was selling 200,000 copies a week. This website intends to republish past editions of the magazine. So far there are twelve editions that were originally published between 1832 and 1835. The website is very attractively designed and easy to navigate. The user can read any of the articles for their chosen edition. A website that provides a fascinating insight into Britain in the 1830s. (KS3 CU3 GCSE British)

United States National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.si.edu/col/index.htm

The United States National Portrait Gallery contains over 100,000 pictures. At the moment only a small percentage of these portraits appear on the website. Organised under several different headings, these paintings are accompanied by a brief biography of the featured individual. The 'Hall of Presidents' is not as impressive as Grolier's 'The American Presidency' but other sections, such as 'Native Americans' and 'The Age of Revolution' include very useful information on less well-documented individuals from the past. (KS3 SUB GCSE World)

The Industrial Worker in the 19th Century England
http://ab.edu/~delcol_1/worker.html

A collection of documents on living and working conditions during the industrial revolution. Information is taken from Michael Sadler's 1832 parliamentary investigation of conditions in factories; the 1840 Royal Commission on Children's Employment and Edwin Chadwick's Report on Sanitary Conditions. Visually uninteresting but the site contains more in-depth information than is usually found in a school textbook. (KS3 CU3 GCSE British)

Historic Audio Archives
http://www.webcorb.com/test/audioarchive.htm

A collection of important political speeches made during the last sixty years. Politicians featured include Neville Chamberlain, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Joe McCarthy. This website tends to concentrate on post-war American politicians. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British GCSE World)

The History Channel Classroom
http://www.sky.co.uk/history/classroom/gcse/program.htm

The main objective of this website produced by the British Sky Broadcasting is to tell you about the television documentaries that can be found on their History Channel. However, in an attempt to encourage people to make regular visits to their website, the company provides a great deal of free educational material. This includes background information, time-lines, maps and photographs on topics such as 'The Russian Revolution', 'The Spanish Civil War', 'Fascism', 'Vietnam', 'Hitler', 'Churchill' and 'World War I'. The website also provides information on how teachers have used History Channel documentaries in the classroom. The History Channel website also contains a generous list of other good history websites on the Internet. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British GCSE World)

World War I Aviation
http://members.tripod.com/-Whitehead/index.html

This website is a series of linking articles on the subject of aviation in World War I. Organised under the headings of 'Pre-War Era and 1914', 'Aces and their Victories', '1915-1916', '1917-1918' and 'Picture Gallery'. Some of the information is very detailed. For example, 'Aces and their Victories' includes The website includes a clear explanation on how the synchronised machine gun worked and an interesting description of the first Zeppelin raid. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British)

Anne Frank: Her Life and Times
http://www.annefrank.com/anne/anne.html

A website dedicated to the life and times of Anne Frank. The main part of the website is a photo scrapbook of Anne's life and family. Another section deals with Anne's journal and explains how it survived World war II to become one of the most widely read personal accounts of the Holocaust. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British GCSE World)

Cybrary of the Holocaust
http://remember.org

'Cybrary of the Holocaust' provides a whole range of information on the subject. Sections include: 'The Camps', 'Witnesses', 'Children of Survivors', 'Historical Perspectives', 'Virtual Tour of Auschwitz' and 'Bookstore'. Part of the site is for educators and includes a 'Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust'. Cybrary of the Holocaust' also provides a gateway to other websites on the subject. (KS3 CU4 GCSE British GCSE World)

The Library of Congress
http://lcweb.loc.gov

'The Library of Congress' is a valuable site for anyone interested in American history. 'The American Memory' is an archive of documents, photographs, movies and sound recordings that tell America's story. The archive is listed in the following pathfinders: 'Events', 'People', 'Places', 'Time' and 'Topics'. There is also a search tip chart which gives plenty of ideas for possible project topics. This website also gives you access to the Library of Congress online exhibitions. (KS3 CU4 KS3 SUB GCSE World)

The People's Republic of China
http://www.edu.cn/china

The Chinese government website includes a history section with topics such as 'The Founding of the People's Republic of China' and the 3rd Five Year Plan'. The best part of this website is a fascinating case-study of the Nanjing Massacre. It includes an outline visit to the Nanjing Memorial Hall and contemporary accounts of the massacre. The site also contains a debate on distortion in history with contributions from Japanese politicians claiming that the Massacre did not take place. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

The American Experience: Vietnam Online
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/vietnam/index.html

This beautifully designed website provides the most comprehensive account of the Vietnam War on the Internet. The website was produced by the US Public Broadcasting Service to accompany their award-winning television series: Vietnam: A Television History. The website includes an interactive time-line of the war, basic statistics, maps, a glossary of terms and acronyms, texts of key U.S. government war documents, weapons used during the war and forty-two biographical portraits of key personalities in the war, including six from North Vietnam and a bibliography for further study. The website also contains 'Reflections on War', a collection of twelve first-hand accounts of the conflict and transcripts of all the television programmes. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

Vietnam Veterans
http://www.vietvet.org

'Vietnam Veterans' is a very impressive website on the war. The purpose of Bill McBride's website is to "honour Vietnam veterans, living and dead, who served their country on either side of the conflict". The website provides "an interactive, on-line forum for Vietnam veterans and their families and friends to exchange information, stories, poems, songs, art, pictures, and experiences in any publishable form." There is also a link to Bill McBride's other important Vietnam website 'Remembrance: Reflections, Memories and Images of Vietnam Past' (http://wmcbride.space.swri.edu/thepast.htm). 'Remembrance is a collection of galleries containing stories, poems, songs, maps and narratives about the Vietnam War. The website also contains listings of all US, Australian and New Zealand casualties of the Vietnam War. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

Vietnam Stories
http://www.pbs.org/pov/stories

'Vietnam Stories' is a marvellous source of information for any student studying the Vietnam War. The 'Vietnam Stories' site is designed as a gathering place for personal stories and a forum for opinions on the war. The 'Add Your Story' page enables visitors to add their stories, images, etc. to the vast databank of information on the war. 'The Stories' page contains excerpts of selected stories and is changed regularly. An excellent search engine enables the visitor to investigate all the narratives that have been submitted to 'Vietnam Stories'. For example, a search for the term 'friendly fire' found and listed fifty-two stories. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

The Wars for Vietnam: 1945 to 1975
http://www.vassar.edu/vietnam/index.html

A website developed around the course materials used by Robert Brigham on his course on the Vietnam War at Vassar College. The main part of the site is a nine page 'Overview'. This includes sections on 'The Geneva Peace Accord', 'South Vietnam Under Ngo Dinh Diem', 'The National Liberation Front', 'December 1961', 'Military Coup', 'Gulf of Tonkin Resolution', 'The War in America', 'The Nixon Years' and 'The Paris Peace Agreement'. The website also has a document section. The twenty documents range from NLF secret papers to Richard Nixon's speech to the USA public on 30th April, 1970 justifying the offensive in Cambodia. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

Vietnam: Yesterday and Today
http://www.oakton.edu/~wittman

Sandra Wittman has attempted to collect together a range of materials that provides insights into the Vietnam War. This is lusted under the categories: 'Vietnam War: Fiction', 'Vietnam War: Non-Fiction', 'Vietnam War: Fiction', 'Vietnam War: Films', 'Vietnam War: The Women's Experience' and 'The Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Perspective'. Sandra Wittman also provides a useful chronology of the Vietnam War and links to E-Journals and Discussion Lists on the Vietnam War. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

The Vietnam Generation
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/sixties

The 'Vietnam Generation' is a website devoted to providing a forum for people interested in "the Sixties in general and the Vietnam War in particular". The most interesting part of the site is the 'Sixties Project Web'. Visitors are encouraged to contribute a narrative of the experiences of the 1960s. These accounts can be read online or downloaded and include people's experiences of the US armed forces and the 'Anti-Vietnam War' protest movement. (KS3 CU4 GCSE World)

Vietnam Veterans Against the War
http://www.prairienet.org/vvaw

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is a national veterans' organisation that was founded in New York City in 1967 after six Vietnam vets marched together in a peace demonstration. It was organised to voice the growing opposition among returning servicemen and women to the war, and grew rapidly to a membership of over 30,000 throughout the United States as well as active duty GIs stationed in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War website enables visitor to read articles from past editions of The Veteran newspaper. The site also includes an excellent 'History of the Vietnam War' and a large collection of photographs.