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Additional resources for this
issue of History Now
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Technology of the 1800s
General resources for the whole issue:
This book will serve you well for general knowledge
of 19th century science and technology:
Licht, Walter. Industrializing America: The Nineteenth
Century. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1995.
You’ll turn to these websites again and again
for all of the essays in this issue:
Wikipedia’s entries on 19th century science and
technology are generally reliable. Go to this online
encyclopedia’s “Main Page” and type
in your keyword at “Search”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
“Scientific Revolution,” the website of
Robert Hatch at the University of Florida, provides
resources for teaching the history of science for secondary
school teachers:
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/
The “Innovators” section of PBS’s
“Who Made America” website provides biographical
sketches of dozens of American inventors, with links
to articles expanding on implications of their work:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/
From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology comes
the “Invention Dimension” website of the
Lemuel–MIT program. It provides materials for
both the study of science and the history of science
and technology. Take a careful look at its homepage:
http://web.mit.edu/invent/invent-main.html
If you don’t have time to see it all, focus on
the “Science and Invention Education” page:
http://web.mit.edu/invent/r-archive-1.html
The archives of their “Inventor of the Week”
series provide solid biographical sketches of most of
the figures discussed in this issue and dozens more:
http://web.mit.edu/invent/i-archive.html
About.com, although a highly commercial site, has done
a really good job with materials for science and technology.
Be sure to visit the “About: Inventors”
section at its website. The site’s timeline of
major inventions of all centuries provides links to
articles about specific inventions mentioned:
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111100a.htm
Scan the “Topics” in the menu at the left,
and you’ll find articles on specific subjects,
lesson planes. The “Timelines” are very,
very useful:
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/
The “Today in History” feature even has
a timeline showing which inventions were patented on
every day of the year:
http://inventors.about.com/od/todayinhistory/qt/day_in_history.htm
For all technology-related documents in the Gilder Lehrman
Collection, go to:
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/search_results.php?
simple=simple+search&keyword=techgroup&simple=simple+search
Resources for Dr. Glass' essay:
If you’re interested in pursuing the history
of the evolution of American patent law, go to:
Walterscheid, Edward C. To Promote the Progress
of Useful Arts American Patent Law and Administration,
1798-1836. Littleton, Colo.: F.B. Rothman, 1998.
This book studies the history of a specific, highly
significant group of mid 19th century patents:
Schimmelman, Janice Gayle. American Photographic
Patents 1840-1880: The Daguerreotype & Wet Plate
Era. Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz Pub., 2002.
You’ll find History Now’s issue
on the American West http://historynow.org/09_2006/index.html
helpful for the study of the nation’s physical
and demographic expansion in the 19th century. The websites
I’ve suggested for biographical sketches of major
figures will take you to more information on the inventors
and industrialists mentioned here.
Virginia Tech’s exciting new "Digital History
Reader" is very much a work in progress, so keep
an eye on the home page for additions. It’s aimed
at the needs of high school and college classrooms,
but it promises to be full of ideas for teachers at
any level. Right now, there are only ten American history
"modules," but two of these will come in handy
for pursuing topics discussed in this issue of History
Now such " How Did Abolitionism Lead to the Struggle
for Women’s Rights?" and "Industrialization
and its Discontents: The Great Strike of 1877":
http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/us/index.html
As yet, there aren’t "Teachers Guides"
for all of the modules, but take a look at the ones
they’ve mounted. I think you’ll be pleased
and excited about the future of this site:
http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/teachersguide.html
This book is your best source for the development of
steam power:
Hills, Richard Leslie. Power From Steam: The History
of the Stationary Steam Engine. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1989.
For discussions of the mechanization of American agriculture
in the 19th century, try these books:
Ferleger, Lou, ed. Agriculture and National Development
Views on the Nineteenth Century. Ames: Iowa State
University Press, 1990.
Holbrook, Stewart Hall. Machines of Plenty: Pioneering
in American Agriculture. New York: Macmillan, 1955.
Yes, it’s fifty years old, but very readable.
McClelland, Peter D. Sowing Modernity America's
First Agricultural Revolution. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press, 1997.
One of David McCullough’s earliest books, and
one of his best, if you ask me, is his study of the
Brooklyn Bridge. Thirty-five years after its publication,
it’s still in print – the last edition came
out in 2001:
The Great Bridge. New York: Simon and Schuster,
1972.
Supplement this, if you can, with Ken Burns’
PBS documentary:
Brooklyn Bridge. Produced by Florentine Films
in association with the Department of Records and Information
Services of the City of New York and WNET/Thirteen.
Los Angeles, CA: Direct Cinema, 1990.
Not surprisingly, PBS’s “For Educators”
page for this special is your best bet for lesson plans
and suggestions for further readings and web resources:
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/brooklynbridge/educators/
For those of you interested in the broader question
of the development of new methods of processing iron
and steel that made the bridge possible, go to:
Gordon, Robert B. American iron, 1607-1900.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
While we no longer think of Pennsylvania as the nation’s
primary source of oil, there are sources dealing with
the decades when Titusville and Oilville dominated that
industry:
Giddens, Paul Henry. Early Days of Oil, A Pictorial
History of the Beginnings of the Industry in Pennsylvania.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948.
The Drake Well Museum in Titusville, Pa., has a “Little
Squirts” website with materials for K-4:
http://www.drakewell.org/little_squirts_children.htm
and a useful “History” of Edwin Drake and
the Titusville site:
http://www.drakewell.org/History%20of%20Drake%20Well.doc
I’ll have to restrain myself in offering sources
for the Crystal Palace exposition and later “world
fairs.” I’ll start with the most recent
book length studies:
Giberti, Bruno. Designing The Centennial : A History
of the 1876 International Exhibition in Philadelphia.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
Hobhouse, Hermione. The Crystal Palace and the
Great Exhibition Art, Science and Productive Industry:
A History of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition
of 1851. London: Athlone Press, 2002.
Muccigrosso, Robert. Celebrating the New World:
Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Chicago:
I.R. Dee, 1993.
Wikipedia has first rate entries on the London Crystal
Palace, with excellent links to other websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace
Wikipedia also has good entries on the Philadelphia
exposition of 1876 and the 1893 fair in Chicago. The
University of Maryland Library has good webpages on
the New York Crystal Palace and the Philadelphia and
Chicago Fairs:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/ARCH/honr219f/1853nyci.html
http://www.lib.umd.edu/ARCH/honr219f/1876phil.html
http://www.lib.umd.edu/ARCH/honr219f/1893chic.html
American Memory at the Library of Congress provides
good classroom materials on the 1876 Exposition in its
“Learning Pages”:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/00/centen/index.html
The sources I’ve given above for brief sketches
of inventors and innovators may not include these recent
additions to the literature on Samuel F.B. Morse:
Israel, Paul. From Machine Shop To Industrial Laboratory
Telegraphy and the Changing Context of American Invention,
1830-1920. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1992.
Silverman, Kenneth. Lightning Man: The Accursed
Life of Samuel F.B. Morse. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 2003.
The American Memory website includes images of Morse’s
papers at the Library of Congress. Use the homepage
links to a good biography of Morse and discussion of
the invention of the telegraph:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sfbmhtml/sfbmhome.html
To broaden your knowledge of American labor history
of the period:
Laurie, Bruce. Artisans Into Workers: Labor in
Nineteenth-Century America. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1997.
Nicholson, Philip Yale. Labor's Story in the United
States. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press,
2004.
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