Website Evaluation of USHISTORY.ORG
By Stephen Vanderpool
Content Area Social Studies 8-12



I. USHISTORY.ORG
II. www.ushitory.org
III. Copyright 1995-2007
IV. Independence Hall Association
V. This website is designed by the Independence Hall Association and has to do with the colonial and revolutionary periods in American history. It actually has quite a bit of information that helps the site make itself useful. It has a lot of information about Philadelphia. This is to be expected because the association that created it is located in Philadelphia.
In order to find this site I actually think you have to be looking for a good history website. In fact that is how I found it. It puts the information into its selected area and also has several facts and links on the homepage that help you to find specific areas on the site. It has links to historical documents of the time, a timeline, and also has links to other sites that are included in their group of websites. Some of the specific links that are located on the side of the page are a link to a section about Valley Forge, a link to a section solely about Benjamin Franklin, and a section devoted to the Liberty Bell. There is also a link to a store that is run by the organization. Some of the items that one can buy there are flags of the United States that are both present and past flags, replications of the Declaration of Independence, or maybe a replication of a recruiting poster for the Colonial Army of the time.
Next, this website is pretty simple to navigate. I would say that a novice computer user could actually use this site and not have any problems. In fact if you are a new computer user I would suggest this site. It has everything exactly where the link says it is.
VI. Moving forward, I would actually suggest this site to any history teacher that is teaching the subject of colonial history. This site includes many of the interesting topics of that time and those topics also have to do with the major ideas that many districts want their students to learn about. The information is quite informative and is helpful. I actually learned a few things from this website that I did not know.
Next, I would even suggest that students use this site if they are looking for information on this topic for a paper or even for a class project. It is easy enough to navigate that even a younger student could use this site and not have a problem finding the information that they need.
The only drawback to this site is that it does only seem to include information about the colonial time period. In fact at first glance if you were not looking for this information you might merely think that the site is about Philadelphia. This is its major drawback. If you are not looking for information on Philadelphia then you might miss some information that would actually help your paper or project.
The strongest thing that I felt the website had going for it was its concentration on the colonial period. This could also be considered its greatest weakness as well. Despite this problem I would strongly suggest the use of this site to teachers that in which their concentration is in a social studies or history setting.