NP heading west

[Doug Millison]

 Post-M&D (so nothing about that touring electric eel), but these look good.

Three from the New York Public Library Digital Collections
>http://www.nypl.org/west/
>Heading West: Mapping the Territory
>http://www.nypl.org/west/hw_subhome.shtml
>Touring West: 19th-century Performing Artists on the Overland Trails
>http://www.nypl.org/west/tw_subhome.shtml
>Surveyors of the West: William Henry Jackson and Robert Brewster Stanton
>http://digital.nypl.org/surveyors/
>
>The New York Public Library has three major digital exhibitions
>currently running to complement their in-house exhibits. Heading West
>examines the exploration and development of the West using maps from
>the library's collections. The accompanying text is well written and
>addresses itself to exploding some of the myths about the Frontier,
>including the myth of the West as settled by lone pioneers. The maps
>are fascinating and allow for viewing in several sizes. The 1859 map
>of the US and Mexico is worth a visit by itself; visitors can view
>both territories in their entirety or zoom in to a level where
>geographic features and the names of individual towns and territories
>can be made out. Touring West "celebrates the creators, promoters,
>and performers of professional theater, music, and dance who toured
>the American continent" from 1803 to 1893. The collection includes
>annotated postings of playbills, broadsides, handbills, souvenirs,
>postcards, and after 1848, photographs. These materials touch on the
>major historical events of the time including abolition, the
>development of the railroads, and the rise of certain American
>dramatic icons who made their names playing European heroes -- James
>O'Neill, father of playwright Eugene O'Neill, among them. Surveyors
>of the West features diaries, photographs, stereographs, and field
>notes related to the work of William Henry Jackson, a government
>photographer influential in the establishment of US parks in the
>West, and Robert Brewster Stanton, a civil and mining engineer who
>surveyed the Grand Canyon between 1889 and 1890, and who was chief
>engineer for the Denver Colorado Canyon and Pacific Railroad.
>Together, these three -- or should we say, four -- exhibits
>constitute a marvelous introduction to Western history via primary
>documents and images from the era. [DC]

from: The Scout Report for Social Sciences & Humanities -- May 15, 2001