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What is a 'Multimedia History'?
Unlike a traditional encyclopedia entry or journal article, which is largely text-based, a multimedia history is a secondary source that blends images, audio, video and graphics with text.

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Take a Look at our Video Histories
We have three new Multimedia Histories presented in streaming video: This is the Enemy, The Louisiana Purchase and Responses to Immigration

Featured Multimedia History
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Un Povero Uomo: An Immigrant's Odyssey in America
Twenty year old Bartolomeo Vanzetti arrived in New York City on a sultry summer day in 1908. As he passed through Ellis Island, he joined the vast army of immigrants - 20 million people - who came to the US in the early days of the twentieth century.
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This is the Enemy
This is the Enemy investigates the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the second World War; streaming video (Flash) or Windows Media Video download (7.7MB)
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The Human Machinery of War
Typically when we think of WWII, we think of soldiers, killed or injured on foreign soil, but America’s production soldiers, the men and women who manned the nation’s factories, mills, and mines, also suffered heavy physical losses during the conflict. This Multimedia History explores both the experiences of disabled soldiers and industrial workers during WWII, battlefield medicine, industrial safety campaigns, and rehabilitation programs.
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The Louisiana Purchase in the Age of Revolution
In April of 1803 the United States acquired more than eight hundred thousand square miles of territory from France in what has come to be known as the largest real estate transaction in history. France’s cession of the Louisiana territory nearly doubled the size of the United States and guaranteed America’s economic and physical expansion across the Mississippi River Valley and beyond.
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Purchasing the American Dream: Buying a Home in 1960 Chicago
A home in the suburbs is the hallmark of the American Dream. Homeownership became a reality for many people after World War II. The demand for housing increased rapidly as veterans returned from the war and started families. The federal government subsidized the private building industry's efforts to supply the enormous demand
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Responses to Immigration
Since the 1880s, immigration patterns have changed in a number of ways, but what about Americans’ responses to immigration? This video examines the various reactions to newcomers around the turn of the century and during the world wars. It also urges the viewer to compare present-day responses to those of earlier times
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Turn of the Century Columbus
A collection of photographs and information about turn-of-the-century Columbus, Ohio; Most of the text and the images in this Multimedia History are taken from The Story of Columbus: Past, Present and Future of the Metropolis of Central Ohio, Practical Demonstration of its Development by the Reproduction of Rare Historical Photographs
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History of the American Steel Industry and its People
Articles and many images from McClure's, World's Work, Everybody's Magazine, and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper regarding the American Steel Industry between 1891 and 1909
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Excerpts from The Pittsburgh Survey
An overview of The Pittsburgh Survey along with excerpts from Volumes 3, 4, and 6 with images and articles on steel workers in Pittsburgh in 1909
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Cartoons in United States History
An interesting collection of historical political cartoons from The Ram's Horn, The Verdict, and cartoons from the presidency of William McKinley
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The Ram's Horn
The Ram's Horn was published in Chicago, Illinois during the 1890s and the early years of the twentieth century. The Anti-Saloon League and other dry organizations often reprinted cartoons by Frank Beard that appeared in The Ram's Horn. They are useful in highlighting a social gospel viewpoint important during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
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The Strike at Homestead
The Strike at Homestead, 1892: Articles and images covering the strike in Homestead, Pennsylvania from The Illustrated American, McClure's Magazine and Homestead: A Complete History of the Struggle of July, 1892
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Coal Mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
From Coal: Information on the American Coal Industry and Child Labor and Child Labor Reform in American History
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Clash of Cultures in the 1910s and 1920s
The roaring twenties. The popular stereotype of this crucial decade largely obscures its greater cultural and historical significance. From a cultural and historical perspective, the 1910s and 1920s were marked by a deep clash of cultures
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Immigration at the Turn of the 20th Century
'The Changing Character of Immigration' and 'Americans in the Raw', 2 illustrated contemporary accounts from 1900 taken from The World's Work: Scribners Monthly, an Illustrated Magazine for the People
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Child Labor and Child Labor Reform in American History
From the Child Labor Bulletin (7 volumes published between June 1912 to February 1919 by the National Child Labor Committee); includes Mr. Coals' Story and The Story of My Cotton Dress as well as images from the Child Labor Bulletin
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Labor Management Conflict in American History
Labor-Management Conflict from Haymarket Square in 1886 to the Chicago Strike of 1905; Haymarket Square, Coke Regions, Molly Maguire Movement, Homestead Strike and more
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The Ohio Dry Campaign of 1918
Although prohibition was a popular reform in the state, the issue deeply divided Ohioans. Ohio was the birthplace of both the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1874) and the Anti-Saloon League (1893)
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The Era of William McKinley
The Era and Presidency of William McKinley through articles, photographs and political cartoons (including Mark Hanna and Horace Taylor)
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Lynching in America
Focused on a lynching in Urbana, Ohio (1897); lynching is most often associated with race relations after the end of the civil war and the destruction of slavery
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1912: Competing Visions for America
The 1912 presidential election was a significant and substantive discussion about the future of the United States. The four major presidential nominees offered choices unimagined in today's political world. These pages are about those events and the vision for the future of democracy that they represented
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World War II Interactive
An overview of the major events of the second World War, including the conferences, participants and battles, complete with a timeline
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(re)collections
"collections + (re)collections" is based on the memories of William Yenofsky, an 89-year-old American veteran of World War II. The timeline spans from his 1940 induction into the Armed Forces, through the harrowing Anzio invasion of 1944, to the final liberation of Dachau in 1945
Temperance and Prohibition
This is a link to an external site maintained by the OSU Department of History, covering the prohibition era and temperance movement in the United States
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All images and content are the property of eHistory at The Ohio State University unless otherwise stated.
Copyright © 2008 OSU Department of History. All rights reserved. [citation and copyright information]
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