The History Department of Hanover College created the Internet
Archive of Texts and Documents in 1996 to make online
primary texts and secondary sources more easily available for use
in history and humanities classes. Prof. Frank Luttmer was
the driving force behind this pioneering project.
As it was conceived in 1996, the Internet Archive would
be a bibliography of recommended sources for topics from every
major civilization from ancient times to the present. For each of
hundreds of topics and individuals, Hanover faculty and students
provided a list of links to primary sources and reputable
secondary sources then available on the web. At that time --
before google -- finding useful material online was often
cumbersome, and thus guides like ours provided an essential
service. (You can visit the Texts and Documents page as it existed on June
20, 2000, through the Wayback Machine.)
As the web grew ever larger, Hanover history faculty and students
could not keep pace with what was available, nor could we keep up
with the dead links that developed as other websites moved or
deleted sources that we had recommended. On July 15, 2000, we
reduced the Internet Archive
to just a few pages (mostly topics that faculty could maintain in
connection with their own research). A sampling of
those pages are below. Now that google and other search
engines make it easy to search billions of webpages, we are no
longer updating our guides.
Meanwhile, in 1995, the History Department had begun a sister
project, the Hanover Historical
Texts Project, in which Hanover faculty and students make
available online primary sources previously available only in
print form. We continue to maintain that collection and to
add to it.
The Italian Renaissance
John Knox
Reference
Material (i.e. dictionaries and related sources)
