From Deerfield, MA, Memorial Hall Museum's American Centuries is an attractive, image-heavy gateway to a wealth of artifacts documenting American history. Online since 2001, the site is kept fresh with features such as "This Week in History", programmed to retrieve collection items dating from the current week, such as a letter from Thomas Williams Ashley (1894-1918) to his father, Charles Hart Ashley, on May 14, 1917, in which Thomas tells of his early days in the Marine Corps soon after the United States entered World War I. The rest of the site is organized into categories, including the collection itself; things to do - both online and at the Museum; the Turns of the Century exhibit; and classroom materials. The interactive chronologies feature allows users to select a topic - such as Technological History, Children, or even Deerfield, MA - and view a timeline of relevant events. Visitors can also set up an account and use MyCollection to save and tag artifacts they wish to return to for another look.
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