Media Resources

A video interview series conducted with Sam Mihara, a Japanese American incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Wyoming during WWII, that includes primary sources and other materials.

Selma, Alabama served as a major site of civil unrest in response to the disabling conditions of Jim Crow laws for Black Americans in the South. This page outlines Selma’s history, the Bloody Sunday massacre, and the ensuing responses to these racial injustices. Testimonies from activists and foot soldiers recorded by faculty and graduate students at Auburn University offer a comprehensive survey of Selma’s civil rights history and maps the legacy of these protests onto social justice movements in the twenty-first century. 

Digital archives have the power to bring library and museum collections directly to your screen! In this video, experts from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the New York Public Library share information about their digital collections and how they can best be used for project research.  

Anne Petersen, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (Santa Barbara, California), addresses why multiple perspectives are important to developing a rich understanding of historical events and topics. The video includes how maps and primary documents available at the Santa Barbara Trust can be used to analyze multiple and competing perspectives in history.

This video guides researchers through the basics of using the Chronicling America database, including entering search terms, filtering by year and state, sorting results, and sharing and saving articles.

Sometimes the hardest part about sharing your research is deciding what not to include. In this video, experts from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the New York Public Library explain the importance of editing when working on a research project. Part of a series of videos made in collaboration with National History Day. 

Jeffrey Ludwig, Director of Education at the Seward House Museum (Auburn, New York), discusses the benefits of wide research when developing any project. The video includes examples of primary sources and other resources available at the Seward House that illustrate how wide research works. 

Chris Brown and Jason Deitch discuss the NEH-funded project "War Ink," which collaborates with veterans and libraries to tell the stories of veterans' tattoo art.

Learn about an eclectic assortment of culinary traditions in this episode of BackStory, funded in part by the NEH.

By investigating the lives and events recorded in newspapers, official documents, and personal correspondence from this collection, students will immerse themselves in the past and discover the fears, friction, and turmoil that shaped these tumultuous times.