20th Century decades resources

Local Resources | 20th Century Livebinder | General Sources
Multimedia: Audio/Music/Radio | Multimedia: Image | Multimedia: Video and Television
20th Century 1900-1999
Research Project Tools (WJH)

LOCAL RESOURCES

• SWAN Libraries (77 west and south suburb collections)
  
• Westmont Public Library Online

20TH CENTURY LIVEBINDER
20th Century Livebinder links to all of the sites below under one browser tab

GENERAL

• 20th Century Games and Toys 1920s-1990s (People's History) NEW
• Advertisements of the 20th century
  • AD Access Duke University Libraries (Print ads from 1911-1957)
  • Adclassix.com (Vintage advertisements under a variety of categories)
  • Classic TV Commercials (Internet Archive)
  • Vintage Ad Browser (100,000 vintage ads under a wide variety of categories)
• 20th Century Innovation Timeline - The Great Idea Finder (Courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, original source no longer available) NEW
  
• American Architecture of the 20th Century NEW
  
• American Aviatrixes: Women with Wings (Digital Public Library of America) NEW
  
• American Cultural History: The 20th Century NEW
  No longer available on the LSC-Kinwood site, this resource can now be found on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The content is a great summary of every decade and in the past was a reliable resource. Some links may not work, but it is something to investigate.
  
• American Experience (PBS - features, films, and videos)
• American Masters A-Z List (PBS) (American cultural artists past and present)
• American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara)
  
• Authentic History Center (Artifacts and sounds of popular culture)
• Bad Fads Museum

• Biography Resources
  • 10 Most Influential Technologies Invented by Women (MakeUseOf) NEW
  • Academy of Achievement
  • American Authors
  • American Masters (PBS - Outstanding cultural artists past and present)
  • American Presidency Project (U. of California at Santa Barbara)
  • American Presidents: Life Portraits (C-SPAN)
  • Biography.com
  • Encyclopedia of World Biography
  • Illinois Authors Directory
  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  • U.S. Presidents (History.com)
  • U.S. Presidents (University of Virginia Miller Center)
  • Web Museum, Paris
  • Women's International Center Biography Index

• Consumer Electronics (Computers. Media, Internet) NEW
  • Before Netscape: the Forgotten Browsers
  • Brief History of Computers (Explainthatstuff) NEW
  • Computer History Museum
  • History of Mobile Phones (U Switch) NEW
  • History of Mobile Phones 1973-2008 (Know Your Mobile)
  • History of the Internet (Internet Society)
  • Internet Archive Software Collection NEW
    
  • Multimedia: Video and Television Resources
  • Triumph of the Nerds (PBS)
  • Video Game History (History.com) NEW
• CrazyFads.com
• Digital Comic Museum
• Digital History
• Ellis Island (National Park Service) NEW
• Eyewitness to History
• Famous Trials by Professor Douglas O. Linder NEW
  Site contains other resources not just the professor's summary.
  Many (but not all) individual trials of the century are posted under individual decades.

• Fashion and Food Resources
  • 20th Century Fashion NEW
    A good resource it is now only available on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)
  • 20th Century Fashion Timeline (DK Find Out!) NEW
  • 100 years of American Food NEW
  • Fashion History and Costume Era
  • The Food Time Line (Morris County Library, Whippany, N.J.)
  • History of Fashion (Victoria and Albert) NEW
  • Soulmates: The Century in Shoes
  • What Americans Use to Eat (Priceonomics) NEW
• FBI History
• Google Cultural Institute (Exhibits of artifacts, photos, manuscripts and video of cultural history from 1905-2013)
• Historical Dictionary of American Slang NEW
• History Matters: the US Survey Course
  
• History of Comics
• The History Place
• Humans in Space: History (NASA) NEW
• Immigration (Library of Congress)
  
• Infoplease.com Year by Year
  
• Interesting Facts about Ellis Island (Family Search) NEW
  
• Landmark Cases of the Supreme Court NEW
  
• Library of Congress Digital Collections
• Life Magazine (Time-Life Historic Moments)
• NAACP (History.com) NEW
• NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom NEW
• National Archives Research
• Olympic Games NEW
• People History (News, events, prices and popular culture 1920 to today)
• People's Century 1900-1999 (PBS)
• Picturing the Century ( National Archives and Records Administration)
• Prices and Wages by Decades NEW
• Skooldays: Home of Nostalgia
• Science and Technology Resources
  • History of Science and Technology (Franklin Institute) NEW
  • History of Vaccines (College of Physicians - Philadelphia) NEW
  • Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
  • Sweetsearch History
• TimeSearch History
• UShistory.org

MULTIMEDIA: Audio/Music/Radio Resources
Remember free doesn't mean copyright free. Copyright is implied!

• 100 Years of Rock Visualized
• American Popular Music
  No longer available on the LSC-Kinwood site, this resource can now be found on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The content is a great summary of every decade and in the past was a reliable resource. Some links may not work, but it is something to investigate.
  American Popular Music 1900-1950
  American Popular Music from 1950-2000
• American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank ​
• Citizen D.J. NEW
  Make music using the free-to-use audio and video resources from the Library of Congress.
  
• Digital History: Music
• Golden Age of Radio (Digital Public Library of America) NEW
• Greatest Speeches of the 20th Century (Archive.org)
• History of the Radio Industry to 1940  NEW
• Jazz (Ken Burns Video - PBS) NEW
• Music Playlist Sites (Decades Project Tools)
• Music Smasher
  (Find any song on radio, Spotify, Grooveshark, Soundcloud, YouTube, Mog and/or Bandcamp)
• Music Timeline (Google Research)
• Musicals 101 (The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film)
• National Jukebox (Historical recordings from the Library of Congress)
• Nostalgia Machine (Get your childhood jam 1951-2015)
• Old Time Radio Shows
• Super Cartoons NEW
• Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century ( American Rhetoric)
• Paul's Video Jukebox (Songs from the 40s to 80s)
• Voices of the 20th century (Eyewitness to History)

MULTIMEDIA: Image Resources
Remember free doesn't mean copyright free. Copyright is implied!

• American Memory Collection (Library of Congress)
• Biography Channel Photo Gallery
• Digital Public Library of America NEW
• Getty Images
• In Focus: The Evolution of the Personal Camera (Digital Public Library of America) NEW
  
• Library of Congress Photostream on Flickr
• Life Photo Collection NEW
• Photos for Class (Storyboard That) NEW
• Picsearch

MULTIMEDIA: Video and Television Resources
Remember free doesn't mean copyright free. Copyright is implied!

• American Experience On-Line VIdeos (PBS)
• American Memory Collection (Library of Congress)
• Biography Channel Videos
• CBC Digital Archives (Canadian Broadcasting Centre)
  On the left side click on Archives Timeline to select historical events
  
• Citizen D.J. NEW
  Make music using the free-to-use audio and video resources from the Library of Congress.
  
• Classic TV Database
• Crazy About TV (Show information by decade or genre from 1940's through 2013)
• ​Decades.com: Through the Decades NEW
• Digital Public Library of America NEW
• Entertainment Magazine Free Public Domain Movies
• Film History by Decade (Filmsite.org)
• History Channel
  • History by Topic
  • Videos by Topic
• Internet Archive (Searching required - not arranged chronologically)
• Museum of Broadcast Television (Search the Archive!!!!) NEW
• My 70's TV
• My 80's TV
• My 90's TV
• Paul's Video Jukebox (Songs from the 40s to 80s)
• Television: the First 75 Years (Television set history)
• TV Party
• We Didn't Start the Fire Official Billy Joel Video (YouTube)
• We Didn't Start the Fire Flash Video by Ye Li (Wayback Machine)

Updated October 19, 2021