The hot dog is a powerful symbol of Chicago's past culinary triumphs, and it makes sense that it is one of the first things that visitors to this delightful site will encounter. This interactive site was created by the Chicago History Museum, with funding provided in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The site includes historical fiction stories that help illuminate Chicago's past...

From great culinary moments (the birth of the hot dog) to the rise of the skyscraper, Chicago has been privy to a number of important historical events. This award-winning website created by the Chicago History Museum allows visitors to explore the city's diverse past through historical fiction stories and artifacts from their collections. On the site, visitors can click on sections that include...

The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, and it was completed in 1959. This website details the activities of the Seaway System, and visitors with an interest in transportation and public policy will find the site both useful and interesting. At the top of the homepage, visitors will find the five primary sections of the site, which include "Management of...

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has created this excellent resource on the culture, history, and geography of the Great Smoky Mountains. The resource was created as part of a collaboration with the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project, and it includes digital collections, a regional bibliography, and a comprehensive listing of organizations in the region. The Digital Collections area...

It's pretty hard to argue with Professor Frank W. Elwell's list of great social theorists, as he brings together Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and other intellectual heavyweights on this site. The purpose of bringing together these luminaries and their writings is "to promote greater understanding of classical macro-social theory." A rather laudable cause indeed, and...

Some organizations like to promote the teaching of history through architecture, immigration patterns, or transportation innovations. This project encourages students to learn about history through "the enticement of solving historical cold crimes." It's a compelling and intriguing premise, and the project, initiated in 1997, builds on the ideas of document-centered inquiry and "active learning"...

Housed at the University of California, Berkeley, the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) is "devoted to the scientific understanding of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior." To achieve this goal, the GGSC enlists a broad range of scholars from various disciplines, publishes a quarterly magazine ("Greater Good"), and maintains an outreach program that...

The Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network (GPGN) is a project by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries designed "to develop a web-based repository of geographically organized historical information about Philadelphia, its geography, its buildings, and its people." It's quite an impressive endeavor, and anyone with a love for the City of Brotherly Love will want to...

Based in New York, the people behind the Green Atlas have been going "green" since 1995. The Green Map system is an "adaptable framework for charting nature and culture in hometown environments." Recently, they published the Green Map Atlas, and now visitors can access the entire publication on this site. The Atlas includes maps of Jakarta, Kyoto, New York, Milwaukee, Toronto, and six other areas...

While it is still common to send postcards from one's travels, today more and more people might just opt to send images via their smartphones. But a century ago, major postcard companies produced hundreds of postcards for cities small and large. Milwaukee was no exception: years ago, visitors could send images of the Milwaukee County Zoo, the homes of Astor Street, or the 3rd Ward. This digital...