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Reference on the Web

Military History

With the exception of War, Peace and Security Guide, which is a directory, we selected the following sites because they are good sources for images. Compiling this list underscored the Web’s role in providing greater access to information—some U.S. government facilities, such as the Naval Historical Center and the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum, have been closed to the public since September 11, so the only way to get to their collections is online. All sites were last accessed on November 27, 2001.

Map Library. [http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/dhistorymaps/MapsHome.htm].

The U.S. Military Academy’s Department of History is making available online a series of more than 1,000 maps and atlases developed over the years for a course called “History of the Military Art.” The collection can be searched by topic, from Ancient Warfare to Wars and Conflicts since 1958. Download times can be considerable, as some of the files are quite large.

Naval Historical Center. [http://www.history.navy.mil/].

This site, maintained by the U.S. Navy, is a good source for, among other things, online images related to naval and maritime history. The site’s arrangement is a bit confusing, but the Frequently Asked Questions page pulls together materials on popular topics, such as African Americans in the U.S. Navy.

Photos of the Great War. [http://listproc.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/photos/greatwar.htm#TOP].

There are more than 1,800 photos in this database, part of the WWI/WWW project at the University of Kansas and Brigham Young University. Images have been “scanned from contemporary photohistories (c. 1916–1920)” and are organized by topic. The site also offers links to documents and other World War I sites.

U.S. Air Force Museum. [http://www.wpafb.af.mil/index.htm].

Like the Naval Historical Center listed above, this site is rich in images, especially of weapons, equipment, and uniforms.

U.S. Army Ordnance Museum. [http://www.ordmusfound.org/].

Still another useful (though still quite small) collection of images, in this case focusing on the evolution and development of American military ordnance materiel.

War, Peace and Security Guide. [http://www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/].

Affiliated with the Information Resource Centre, Canadian Forces College, this site offers an extensive collection of links on military history. Users can search for online resources by time period, subject (e.g., Aviation History, Military and Diplomatic Biography), or war. A clickable time line offers another alternative. Though there are many useful links here, the site has not been updated since July 2000, and numerous links are dead. Selecting Search or Help sends one off into D-net, the Web site for the Canadian Department of National Defense, with no apparent way to get back.

—Mary Ellen Quinn

(Booklist/January 1 & 15, 2002)