may12b.indd C&RL News May 2012 290 Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@ willamette.edu I n t e r n e t R e v i e w sJoni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost Civil War 150: National Portrait Gallery. Access: http://npg.si.edu/exhibit/cw/np- gcivilwar.html#. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln be- came the 16th President of the United States. Less than six weeks later, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, beginning the conflict that divided a nation and defined a presidency. In a planned four-year commemoration of the sesquicentennial anniversary of this tumultu- ous period in U.S. history, the Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum and research complex and often called the na- tion’s attic—has assembled an immense array of primary source materials and documents located throughout its vast collections. Civil War 150 is the National Portrait Gallery’s con- tribution to the Smithsonian’s combined series of online events and exhibitions scheduled to run until May 2015. Visitors to this portal site will find a wealth of information and educational material related to the Civil War, as told through the portraiture and photography of the period. Built on a permanent collection of more than 400,000 visual images held in the Smithson- ian’s Catalog of American Portraits, the seven planned exhibitions feature representations of both legendary and little-known histori- cal figures. The first of these presentations, titled “The Death of Ellsworth,” recounts the early days of the war. Future exhibits will include Mathew Brady’s photographic series on Union generals; Washington, D.C., during the war; the role of African Americans; and a comparison of Generals Grant and Lee through various paintings, photographs, and documents. The anniversary events conclude with a look at the work of photographer Alexander Gardner, whose iconic cracked plate portrait of Lincoln was taken as the war drew to a close. Additionally, visitors to the site may search for portraits and other artifacts in both the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian’s Civil War collections, using EDAN, the Smith- sonian’s own robust metadata index and digital asset manager. Other resources available from this site are prerecorded lectures, podcasts, video tours, blog postings, lesson plans, and further discussion related to the exhibitions. Civil War 150 is an attractive and expertly curated site that skillfully delivers the Na- tional Portrait Gallery’s collection of Civil War artifacts and related information to a global audience. Recommended.—Linda Frederik- sen, Washington State University Vancouver, lfrederiksen@vancouver.wsu.edu Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Access: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/. It is impossible to provide a detailed description of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History in the space allotted for these reviews. Meticulously researched and cited, well-conceived and beautifully realized, this is an art history “text- book” worth reading from “cover to cover.” Launched in 2000, the Heilbrunn Timeline extends from 8,000 BCE to the present. The museum’s curators, conservators, and educa- tors—authors of the Timeline—continue to expand its scope and depth to “reflect the most up-to-date scholarship.” There are a variety of approaches to this wealth of content. Under “Works of Art,” each entry includes related timelines, the- matic essays, and supporting materials. Users can also search by artist, title, material, and technique, etc. This section is composed of more than 6,000 works (each with a photo- graph) featured on the Heilbrunn Timeline. Another entry point is the “Timelines” them- selves—300 in all, which provide a linear outline of art history. May 2012 291 C&RL News Users can access the “Thematic Essays” by category, geographic region, time pe- riod, artistic movement, archaeological sites, empires, civilizations, themes, and concepts. This is invaluable for any art history teach- ers or students who want to break free from a chronologically based approach to the subject. “World Maps” are selected by one of ten regions and are accompanied by regional maps. For example, West Asia is divided into “Anatolia and the Caucasus,” “The Eastern Mediterranean,” “Iraq (Mesopotamia),” “Iran,” and the “Arabian Peninsula.” Each is then defined and described by its present- day political boundaries. “Indexes” offer access by chronology, geography, theme, and subject. The ex- tensive “Bibliography” of more than 3,000 Metropolitan Museum of Art publications is supplemented by other publications whose primary focus is on Metropolitan Museum works of art. For a site with so much information, it is surprisingly easy to navigate, thanks to good tabs and descriptive links. The timelines are the centerpiece of the site, but each section provides so much detail that it is impossible to imagine the site without all of its beautifully illustrated components. The enthusiastic art history student will want to bookmark almost every page. This is an invaluable reference and re- search tool for students, teachers, artists, and scholars. It is also a rich site for anyone even casually interested in history, art history, and related subjects.—Shannon Van Kirk, Blue Mountain Community College, shannon. vankirk@bluecc.edu Understanding Evolution. Access: http:// evolution.berkeley.edu/. Without a basic grasp of evolutionary processes, the university life sciences stu- dent cannot successfully advance into upper division courses in biology, ecology, and biochemistry. Understanding Evolution, an outstanding collaborative project of the Uni- versity of California Museum of Paleontology and the National Center for Science Educa- tion, will prove invaluable to such students and, in general, may advance objective sci- ence instruction. The site provides a concep- tual framework for understanding evolution and how it functions in nature, how research is conducted in this field, and how ideas have changed over time. Understanding Evolution is divided into five key topical areas: “Evolution 101,” “Teaching materials,” “Resource library,” “Evo in the news,” and “Highlights.” The instruc- tional component, “Evolution 101,” would well complement a traditional introductory course in the life sciences and consists of seven sections: a general introduction, history of life, mechanisms, microevolution, specia- tion, macroevolution, and big issues. These sections contain extensive visual materials that enhance the user’s understand- ing of evolutionary biology and present complex concepts and ideas in simple terms. In “History of Life: Looking at the Patterns,” for example, a colorful graphic wheel illus- trates the branching pattern of evolutionary relationships and changes among species over time. The following pages then combine graphics with text to help the user understand phylogenies, to explain genetic variation and mechanisms at work in speciation, and to il- lustrate important events in the history of life. “Teaching materials” includes excellent topical ideas for K–12 teachers, college life sciences students, and university instructors, including information on correcting miscon- ceptions about evolution and tips on dealing with objections to teaching this most funda- mental aspect of the life sciences. The monthly “Evo in the news” section includes articles written by leading scientists, citations to primary literature on each topic, related news articles, discussion questions, links to complimentary Web sites, and a list of references for the topic. “Resource library” includes interactive, Web-based modules, tutorials, case studies, more topical explorations, and research pro- (continues on page 295) May 2012 295 C&RL News files of scientists. The “Highlights” section fol- lows the steps of leading scientists in the field and documents their research, from explana- tions of mass extinctions to the evolution of plants in the Amazonian basin to the evolu- tion of the eye. A glossary of more than 200 Historical Publications and Records Commis- sion (NHPRC) will now begin a two-year ef- fort to digitize the 40,000-plus items—includ- ing correspondence, photographs, posters, slides, and audio interviews—contained in the archive. In the 1960s, Herman Baca be- came a prolific Chicano activist, political or- ganizer, printer, and founder, as well as chair- man, of the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR). Baca, who brought the emerging Chi- cano movement into local electoral politics through his work with the Mexican-Ameri- can Political Association (MAPA), is known for his community-based grassroots organizing in support of civil rights and political and judicial equality. In the 1970s, not- ing the lack of Chicanos represented by either the Republican or Democratic parties, Baca organized the San Diego County chapter of La Raza Unida Party, a national third-party effort to increase the number of registered voters and political candidates in the Chicano community. Over the years, Baca worked closely with other lead- ing figures of the Chicano m o v e m e n t — i n c l u d i n g César Chávez, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Humberto Noé “Bert” Co- rona, Francisco “Kiki” Martinez, and José An- gel Gutiérrez—to address immigration, civil and political rights, educational opportuni- ties, and other issues affecting Chicano com- munities. Over the nearly 40-year time span represented in the archive, Baca gathered a variety of materials, from meeting minutes and fundraising brochures to court case files and Chicano artworks, tracing the grassroots activities and events that defined the Chicano movement. The archives of the Cleveland Play House (CPH) have been acquired by Kelvin Smith Li- brary at Case Western Reserve University. The collection, consisting of more than 1,000 boxes of materials, includes letters, manuscripts, research documents, notes, legal and financial records, printed materials, photo- graphs, video and audio tapes, CDs and DVDs, post- ers and flyers, and artifacts, dating from the formation of CPH to present day. Founded in 1915, CPH is America’s first professional regional theater. Some key items in the archive donat- ed from CPH include: thou- sands of letters to artistic directors—many from play- wrights, including Tennes- see Williams and George Bernard Shaw—and scripts with director notations; original programs, artwork posters, stage drawings, and costume sketches; the complete records of the organization, including board minutes, sub- scriber ledgers, charitable gifts, and notes and correspondence detailing productions; photo- graphs (including some negatives) of actors and artists, such as Helen Hayes, Joel Grey, Margaret Hamilton, and Paul Newman. terms relevant to evolution studies includes numerous illustrations and photographs. Highly recommended for university life sciences students and faculty and especially for anyone engaged in science education.— John Creech, Central Washington University, John.Creech@cwu.edu 1954-1955 season Cleveland Play House production of Best Food Forward. Ac- tors shown: Dom DeLuise (standing), Sam Lloyd, Eve Roberts. Photograph by Hastings-Willinger & Associates (“Internet Reviews,” cont. from page 291)