Voice of the Shuttle at UC Santa Barbara

Are you searching for resources in the humanities? The Voice of the Shuttle at UCSB has been reworked (actually is still in the process of being updated, so you might encounter a few glitches) and promises to be one of the most comprehensive websites for humanities research.

Take a look and see what you think.

The Victorians Are Here!

The Young Queen Victoria

Franz Xavier Winterhalter 1842

Queen Victoria reigned longer than any other British monarch, from June 20, 1837 until her death on January 22, 1902. This period is known simply as the Victorian era.

For those lifelong learners interested in this period in British history, this course at Lewis & Clark College is a gold mine of information. For his research seminar, Hist 450 The Victorians, Assistant Professor of History, David Campion, has done an enormous amount of work. He says, "The goal of this seminar is the development of a substantial and original research paper addressing one aspect of the British experience in India."

He gives you all the resources you need to be able to fulfill that goal, if you choose to do so. But, regardless of whether you write that research paper or just use the information he provides on this website for your study of Bristish history, you'll certainly come away with a much better understanding of the Victorian Era.

Thank You Google

This addition to our learning toolbox may seem obvious to all you lifelong learners. No drum roll of expectation here. However, Google Books has to be at the top of the list when you're ready to do research on the Internet.

I was reminded again today just how many nineteenth century volumes with full view are now available on Google Books. My favorite discoveries are little unexpected snippets of history that show up almost every time I do a search in Google Books.

For instance, I've been doing research on both the Lowell Institute (started because in the Lowell Observatory library there is a display that mentions Lowell Institute) and Amelia Blanford Edwards (started because I wanted to confirm when this monumental figure in Egyptology started her first American lectures.) I certainly didn't expect the two to be mentioned in the same sentence. But here it is, "The efforts made to secure a place for Miss Amelia B. Edwards as one of the lecturers before the Lowell Institute in Boston have been unsuccessful. No woman has ever yet delivered a Lowell course. The coming of Miss Edwards to America is anticipated with much interest." This popped up in on page 128 of The Literary World, Boston, April 13, 1889.

When one would normally read something to the effect that Amelia Edwards gave her first series of lectures in the United States in 1889, little jewels like this add a backdrop, a sense of what the atmosphere actually was at the time. I guess it could be called "timely local flavor."

As you can tell, it doesn't take many words to make this everyday scholar happy. I hope you enjoy Google Books as much as I do.