Announcement of New Collections on American Memory

[danna bell-russel]

Good morning,

This announcement is being sent to a number of email lists. Please
accept our apologies for any duplicate postings. 

Two  Ameritech Competition Collection Winners added to American Memory
online collections

With a gift from Ameritech, the Library of Congress has sponsored a
three-year competition to enable public, research, and academic
libraries, museums, historical societies, and archival institutions
(except federal institutions) to create digital collections of primary
resources.  These digital collections which appear at the American
Memory Web site <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html> complement and
enhance the collections of the National Digital Library Program at the
Library of Congress. The most recent additions to the Ameritech
collections available online are "Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua
in the Twentieth Century" from the University of Iowa  and "Prairie
Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters" from the Nebraska
State Historical Society.

"Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century"
comprises 7,949 publicity brochures, promotional advertisements and
flyers for 4,545 events given by lecturers, teachers, preachers,
statesmen and politicians, actors, singers and opera stars, glee clubs
and concert companies, magicians, whistlers and other performers who
traveled the circuits at the beginning of the 20th century. The
brochures are drawn from the Redpath Chautauqua Collection, which is
housed at the University of Iowa Libraries. The collection home page can
be found at <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/iauhtml/>

"Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters" integrates
two collections from the holdings of the Nebraska State Historical
Society, the Solomon D. Butcher photographs and the letters of the Uriah
W. Oblinger family. Together they illustrate the story of settlement on
the Great Plains. Approximately 3,000 glass plate negatives crafted by
Butcher record the process of settlement in Nebraska between 1886 and
1912. Butcher photographed actively in central Nebraska including
Custer, Buffalo, Dawson and Cherry counties. The approximately 3,000
pages of Oblinger family letters discuss land, work, neighbors, crops,
religious meetings, problems with grasshoppers, financial problems, and
the Easter Blizzard of 1873. Uriah Oblinger came from Indiana to
Fillmore County, Nebraska in 1873 to claim a homestead for his family.
In the eloquent letters exchanged between Uriah and his wife Mattie, and
in letters to other family members, Oblinger expresses very personal
insight into the joy, despair, and determination in their struggle to
establish a home on the prairie. The collection home page can be found
at <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/>

For additional information about the University of Iowa project please
visit the page announcing Iowa's award at
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award/98award/iowa.html>

For additional information about the Nebraska State Historical Society
project please visit the page announcing Nebraska's award at
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award/98award/nebraska.html>

Those interested in learning about the Ameritech competition can locate
information at the following url:
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award/index.html>  

Please send any questions to ndlpcoll at loc.gov