I\u2019ve long been a fan of American history and the Old West and enjoy reading accounts and memoirs of people from times past. Making history come alive is one of a fiction writer’s jobs. Researching is easy with the Internet. Here are a few sites for other aficionados:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.rarenewspapers.com\/<\/a> – this is a collection of rare vintage newspapers you can buy. Although one cannot see the whole paper – typing in words such as \u201cMail Order Bride\u201d or \u201cSlave\u201d will bring up any newspapers with those words in them. You can then read the headlines and sometimes part of the leading article. There is a nice \u201cperiod\u201d feel to the partial articles, you can see, and in fact, many of the newspapers are reasonably priced, if one wants to delve into deeper research. <\/p>\n http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/archive\/whmi\/history.htm <\/a>– The Whitman Mission National Historic Site. Lots of Old West Links, Oregon Trail Links, and information on missionaries who traveled West. Some information on Washington State, its archives and the Native American Indians of the area. <\/p>\n http:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/m\/moagrp\/<\/a> – \u201cThe Making Of America\u201d site! The digital library of 19th century books and journals, available to read online. You can read religious tracts, temperance papers, short stories, almanacs, foreign trade, birds\u2026it\u2019s all here for the serious student of history. A delightful collection of papers and books.<\/p>\n http:\/\/homepages.rootsweb.com\/~hornbeck\/disease.htm<\/a> – Roots.web\u2019s list of \u201cold\u201d diseases in alphabetical order, with explanations of their modern symptoms, causes and current names, if applicable. At the bottom of the document is a list of major epidemics and where they took place. Excellent resource for historical writers. <\/p>\n http:\/\/www.westernoutlaw.com\/<\/a> – The Western Outlaw Lawman Association \u2013 the site has Adobe Acrobat downloadable .pdf files of some famous Western characters. <\/p>\n http:\/\/www.coax.net\/people\/lwf\/WESTERN.HTM<\/a> – The black experience on the Western frontier. An incredible amount of rare history, all in one place!<\/p>\n www.kstrom.net\/isk\/stars\/starmenu.html<\/a> – Native American Astronomy \u2013 Star Maps with their Lakota names, Lakota spirituality stories, Medicine Wheel studies. <\/p>\n www.ewebtribe.com\/NACulture\/history.htm<\/a> – Important dates in Native American history. Specific information on various American Indian tribes and archeology of the Western regions. <\/p>\n www.archives.gov\/index.html<\/a> – The National Archives And Records Administration. You can search for descriptions of NARA\u2019s nationwide holdings and view digital copies of many important documents. Photographs, paintings, documents from Susan B. Anthony\u2019s suffrage criminal case file, files from the Rosenbergs espeionage case file, Eisenhower\u2019s D-Day statement to the Allied Expeditionary Force, a letter from Jackie Robinson, and the authorization giving Francis Gary Powers orders for the last U-2 flight over Russia, just to name a few of the types of historical documents available.<\/p>\n