Documents from National Archives available to download for free in July

By Ralph Pokorny

Herald-Tribune

Nevada, Mo. -- History buffs with internet access are in for a treat.

They'll love the assortment of Revolutionary War documents that footnote.com. through a partnership with the National Archives, will have available for free for the first time during the month of July.

And anyone looking for a book to read for pleasure or for information, will likely find something of interest during the second annual World eBook Fair that started on July 4 and runs until Aug. 4. The eBook fair is sponsored by the World Public Library on the Internet.

The Revolutionary War documents are part of The Birth of America collection on the footnote.com Web site through a special arrangement with the National Archives. According to their Web site, these documents have never before been published on the Internet and for the month of July anyone can take look at digital copies of original documents of historical significance.

Documents like the Declaration of Independence, secret journals, papers from the Continental Congress and intercepted British letters, as well as, writings by Jefferson, Washington and Franklin.

These documents just scratch the surface of the over 13 million digital copies of original source documents, many of which have never been available on the Internet before. Some of the documents are available free, like this portion of their collection, however there is a $60 annual fee for access to the entire repository. Footnote was founded in 1997 as iArchives, Inc. and changed its name to Footnote in January 2007 and launched their new Web site, http://www.footnote.com.

Under their agreement with the National Archives, which is the U.S. Government's document repository, Footnote will purchase microfilm copies of documents over time digitize much of the Archives collection of 9 billion documents and make them available on Footnote's subscription Web site. After five years the documents will be available on the National Archives website at no charge.

The Archive does not have the money to digitize these documents, so the Archives readily agreed to the partnership, she said.

In return the National Archives and their patrons who visit the Archives research rooms or their regional centers get free access to footnote.com.

Footnote is the only web site wholly devoted to making digital images of American historical documents, said Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Archives.

"We think it is a very good deal for the American people," Cooper said.

The Web site has a wide variety of documents including ones from the Lincoln assassination and papers from the FBI's predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation, including a file on publisher William Randolph Hearst's alleged ties to Mexican Rebels.

They will also have the Mathew B. Brady Civil collection of Civil War photography on line.

This collection of about 6,000 glass plates the War Department acquired from Brady in 1874-1875 is one of the most frequently researched collections of Civil War photography anywhere.

If you have ever wondered if UFOs are real, you can take a free look at the collection of 13,000 documents that comprise the government's Project Bluebook and make up your own mind.

This collection consists of the records and case files the Office of Special Investigations collected during its investigation of unidentified flying objects between 1947 and 1969.

If your are already convinced that there is something out there, you can spend some time in July perusing the collection of science fiction books that Baen Books had contributed to the second annual World eBook Fair that runs from July 4 to August 4. All of the books can be accessed on the Internet at http://worldebookfair.com.

The World Public Library is sponsoring this event again and this year is offering free access to over 600,000 books and documents in 129 collections, covering about any genre of fiction and non-fiction literature you can think of. Many of the books are out-of-copyright volumes, however, there are about 100,000 commercial eBooks that are also available. The Internet Archive, which is one of the collections, provides access to about 220,000 eBooks.

Other collections have electronic versions of classic works of literature, including works by Jules Vern, Aristotle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain,

They have 74 science fiction books from the Baen Library Collection from authors like Andre Norton, David Drake and Murray Leinster.

As well as digital books, they have 2,300 audio books to download in MP3 format, some use computer voices and others professional readers.

If you prefer watching movies, to relaxing with a book, they have an assortment of videos to download, ranging from over 1,200 advertising, educational, industrial and amateur films made between 1927 to the present, computer animations, and the "World at War."

These films will let you take a trip down San Francisco's Market Street in 1905, before the 1906 earthquake and fire or see a compilation of footage from Nazi concentration camps immediately after World War II.

There is also a collection of feature films that are available to download ranging from "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock," a 1925 Harold Lloyd silent movie, to "Rock, Rock, Rock," the 1956 rock and roll movie with Chuck Berry, Connie Francis, the Moonglows and Tuesday Weld.

Or you can take a look at a "The Power of Nightmares," a film about the origins of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Middle East and Neoconservatism in America in the 1940s and '50s and their effects on the world.

Other, better known movies like the comedy western "McClintock," with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, "Kansas Pacific" or "Cold Sweat" with Charles Bronson are also available for download.