Economic History

• Africans in America — Companion site to the PBS series that examines the economic and intellectual foundations of slavery in America and the global economy that prospered from it. Includes a teacher’s guide.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
• America on the Move — An examination of how transportation shaped Americans' lives and communities.
  http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/
• American Currency Exhibit — The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco presents a well-illustrated history of U.S. currency.
  http://www.frbsf.org/currency/index.html
• American Economic History — University of West Georgia economics professor Carole E. Scott provides a rationale for studying economic history and transcripts of lectures on such topics as the effects of mercantilism in the colonies and the Great Depression.
  http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~cescott/economics.html
• Archive for the History of Economic Thought — Canada’s McMaster University presents the writings of nearly 200 economic thinkers, from John Stuart Mill to Thorstein Veblen to John Maynard Keynes.
  http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/
• Baker Library Historical Collections — Among the collections of the library at Harvard's Business School are manufacturers' trade cards from the late 19th century and documents and articles on women, enterprise, and society.
  http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820-Present — Smithsonian exhibition on this enduring issue in American economic/labor history.
  http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/
• Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency — This exhibit from the Louisiana State University Library explores the relationships among art, politics, and the economy in the Civil War era. Provides images of Confederate notes browseable by state.
  http://www.lib.lsu.edu/cwc/BeyondFaceValue/index.htm
• The Bisbee Deportation of 1917 — This site from the University of Arizona provides primary and secondary sources on the 1917 dispute between striking workers and copper mining companies.
  http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/bisbee/index.html
• Business History — The Harvard Business School provides access to articles, interviews, and book reviews related to business history.
  http://www.hbs.edu/businesshistory/
• Child Labor in America 1908-1912 — Classic photos of young workers with photographer Lewis W. Hine's original commentary.
  http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html
• Commodifying Leisure: The Business of Baseball in the Gilded Age — Discusses the professionalization of baseball throughout the Gilded Age. Created by Ben Lisle of the American Studies Department at the University of Virginia, the site presents a case study in the transformation of the economy in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/INCORP/baseball/corpbball.html
• Economic and Business History — The WWW Virtual Library presents links on economic and business history.
  http://www.neha.nl/w3vl/
• Economic Forces in American History — Outlines of 16 topics related to economic forces in U.S. history, from the economics of slavery to wars and the economy. Maintained by the Foundation for Teaching Economics.
  http://www.fte.org/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/efiahlessons/
• Economic History Services — Listing of databases in economic history, essays, discussion groups, and a collection of course syllabi. Maintained by Economic History Association.
  http://eh.net/
• Great Depression Curriculum — The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides this curriculum on the Great Depression, along with several articles relating the Depression to current economic problems.
  http://www.stlouisfed.org/greatdepression/
• Growing a Nation: The Story of American Agriculture — A robust site with teaching activities and background information. From Utah State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/index.htm
• Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History — This Duke University center provides access to databases of newspaper and magazine ads from 1911 to 1955 as well as a special collection on health-related advertising in the first half of the 20th century and a collection of advertising items from 1850 to 1920.
  http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/hartman/
• History of the Department of Labor, 1913-1988 — This government site provides insight into the parallels between the labor movement and changes in the U.S. economy.
  http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/hs75menu.htm
• History of Economic Thought — Essays, background information, and links from The New School.
  http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/
• The History of Social Security — From the Social Security Administration.
  http://www.ssa.gov/history/
• History of the Eighties: Lessons for the Future — The FDIC provides a lengthy analysis of bank failures in the 1980s and early 1990s.
  http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/history/index.html
• History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present — Detailed background information about the history of money, from Exeter professor Glyn Davies.
  http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/llyfr.html
• History of the Standard Oil Company — The full text of Ida Tarbell's classic 1904 book.
  http://archive.org/details/historyofstandar00tarbuoft
• Images from the McCormick-International Harvester Collection — Images that document the history of farming, advertising, and rural life.
  http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/feature/mccormick/
• Labor Arts — The library at NYU presents photographs, songs, posters, and other artworks documenting the lives of working people.
  http://www.laborarts.org/
• Labor Day — The History Channel provides this history of Labor Day, the labor movement, and labor leaders.
  http://www.history.com/topics/labor-day
• Labor Lost: Images of Vanished American Workers, 1900-1980 — A collection of 155 photographs of workers in jobs that no longer exist.
  http://www.lostlabor.com/
• Labor Press Project — This site explores the role of labor newspapers and periodicals, focusing on the Pacific Northwest. From the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington.
  http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/index.htm
• Museum of American Finance — Offers online exhibits examining the evolution of the Dow Jones and the fight against counterfeiting.
  http://www.financialhistory.org/
• New Deal Network — Covers the people who lived during the Great Depression into the early 1940s. Stories, radio broadcasts, and more.
  http://newdeal.feri.org/
• New England Economic Adventure — The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston provides this site on economic history designed for students. Teacher resources are also provided.
  http://www.economicadventure.org/
• Nobel Prize.org: Economics — This site presents information about the winners of the Nobel Prize in economics, along with their speeches and writings. The topics of the winners' work traces important developments in the discipline's recent history.
  http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/
• Oral History Project in Labor History — Transcripts of oral history interviews with nearly 70 labor leaders. From Roosevelt University.
  http://www2.roosevelt.edu/library/oralhistory/oralhistory.htm
• Program in Early American Economy and Society — The Library Company of Philadelphia supports research on the economy in the early years of the nation; the site features papers in economic history prepared for a series of program conferences.
  http://www.librarycompany.org/Economics/
• Progress Made Visible: American World's Fairs and Expositions — The library at the University of Delaware highlights six expositions held between the Civil War and World War I, with the technological and economic prowess of the United States as a major theme.
  http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/index.htm
• Secret History of the Credit Card — PBS's Frontline examines the credit card industry and its historical development.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
• Teaching with Historic Places — Many of the sites featured on this site from the National Park Service are part of the nation’s economic history. Lesson plans help students learn by examining sites like South Carolina rice plantations, a cotton mill in Lowell, MA, and the Johnson Lake, NV, mine.
  http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/
• This Great Nation Will Endure — The National Archives presents lessons using the WPA photographs taken during the Great Depression.
  http://www.archives.gov/southeast/education/depression-curriculum/
• Traders: Voices from the Trading Post — Oral histories and other resources on the history of trading on Indian lands in the Southwest, from 1860 to the 1990s. A 96-page teacher’s guide is provided. From Northern Arizona University.
  http://www.nau.edu/library/speccoll/exhibits/traders/index.html
• The Triangle Fire, Sweatshops, and Protective Legislation — Presented by the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in cooperation with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE!), this site looks at the multiple effects of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
  http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
• Virtual Museum and Archive of the SEC and Securities History — The title of this site explains its content—the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the securities industry.
  http://www.sechistorical.org/

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