Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Historical context: timelines are only the beginning


There's nothing wrong with a timeline as long as we don't confuse it with real life or real history. A list of historical events that happened to happen at the same time as our ancestors were going about their business may not be helpful or relevant. Here are some resources I came across recently that go beyond timelines:
  • The J. Paul Getty Trust has made some 4689 high-resolution images available as part of its new Open Content Program -- "free to use, modify, and adapt for any purpose," including the above portrait of three unknown women circa 1849. There is a short questionnaire accompanying each download. Some downloads are quite large. Click on "View Record" for a given image to see if it can be used under this program. The images can be browsed in many different ways; 2929 are from Europe, 92 from the United States.
high-resolution images of the Museum’s collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose. - See more at: http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/open-content-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/#sthash.2lee4UGU.dpuf
roughly 4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum’s collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose. - See more at: http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/open-content-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/#sthash.2lee4UGU.dpuf


Photo caption information: Unknown maker, American, daguerreotypist, Portrait of Three Women, about 1849, daguerreotype (1/4 plate Image: 6.7 x 8.4 cm [2 5/8 x 3 5/16 in.] Plate: 7.9 x 9.9 cm [3 1/16 x 3 15/16 in.] Mat: 8.3 x 10 cm [3 1/4 x 3 15/16 in.]); The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Michael Gagnon, Transition to an Industrial South: Athens, Georgia, 1830-1870 (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2012), reviewed at EH.net by John Majewski.

Sara Jo Peterson, Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).

University of Chicago Library, "Planning Maps of Midwestern Cities in the 1920s and 1930s" (http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collections/maps/midwest/ : viewed 13 August 2013).

Harold Henderson, "Historical context: timelines are only the beginning," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 14 August 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

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