The US Army Military History Institute site says up‐front “Mission: preserve the Army’s history by ensuring access to historical research materials”. That is what this site attempts to do. It was posted and is maintained by the Army. I last visited the site on November 11, 1998; and the site was last updated on July 9, 1998. The home page has few graphics and loads quickly. It has several sections, including an e‐mail address for technical help, and Historical Photographs Online (test sampler). The photos are thumbnails which can be loaded at high or low resolution. Both ways are slow. They are nice photos, but difficult to search. The screen has pull‐down menus of “historical eras” and another for “image type”; i.e. individuals, group shots, etc. There is no way to look for a specific photo, for example one of U.S. Grant. The thumbnails can be clicked for a larger view; but these load so slowly that many people will give up on them. An order form and price list is provided, so people can order desired photos from the Institute by mail.
Finding Aids has Reference Bibliographies, Archives Database, Photo Collection Database, US Army Unit History Bibliographies, American Civil War Biographical Bibliographies, and American Civil War Unit History Bibliographies. These are very difficult to search, because, although they accept keywords, they assume an OR between each word. For example, a search for William Tecumseh Sherman pulls up all documents containing any of the three words entered. Explicitly adding an AND does not help. It also gives access to the Army War College Library online catalog. Books and documents there can often be obtained through interlibrary loan. The online catalog accepts keywords and assumes an AND between them; so it is very easy to search. A new feature called “Experimental Web access CATSgate” has a pull‐down menu and supports limited Boolean searching; but this is apparently under construction at the moment (although one is not told this on the screen), and it does not work.
Historical Documents Online is extensive in range: from Airborne Armor to Surrender Invitation ‐ WWII. These are photographic reprints of the actual documents and can be enlarged for reading.
MHI Programs contains Perspectives in Military History which are lectures given at Carlisle Barracks, PA, and dates and times of the lectures are provided. A link for Oral Histories Online is under construction at the time of this writing. Contacting MHI provides several e‐mail addresses and one postal address and phone number for users to contact MHI.
Other Relevant Sites (last updated September 3, 1998) contains many links, including some for the Army, Marines, Navy, NASA, military museums and historical parks, more military history, and “International sites.” This area is very helpful, as it allows the researcher to search for other useful sites.
Overall, the Military History Institute site is an excellent source for a researcher, academic or nonacademic, looking for information on military history. I highly recommend it.
