A Wonderful Resource for Travel and History Sites

One of my most favorite activities is looking at old photos.  Perhaps it’s because I have a pretty active imagination.  Just looking at them inspires me to think about what life was like years ago.

When you have a history site or a travel site, dredging up old pictures and stories from the past allows you to create unique and interesting content that people will truly enjoy.

You can easily find remarkable material at the American Memory Project, which is a part of the U.S. Library of Congress.

For instance, let’s say I’m putting together a travel piece about towns and places in Arizona that used to be military posts.  From personal knowledge, I already know there is one called Camp Verde in Yavapai County.

At the America Memory Project, I typed in Yavapai County and found almost one hundred historic photos, reports and other entries.

There are pictures of the old Army post in the search results.  Here’s one of an officer’s house from 1933.

You will frequently run across old diary entries, travel reports and other  pieces at the American Memory Project.  You’ll also find archived Congressional records and presidential proclamations from the 1800s.  For instance, there are some about the appointment of U.S. postmasters, Native Americans, creation of national monuments and parks, and so on which can add some flavor to your travel or history site.

As far as reproduction rights go, the Project contains links about where you can get more information. Some of them have no restrictions, but in some instances, you need to get authorization.  Here’s an example of one of the restrictions for old photos.  While you can use the photo free of charge, you need to first get permission before publishing it on the web.

The reproduction rights are clearly stated throughout the site, which is a very nice feature that adds to peace of mind from a web publishing point of view.

Chances are, you may have a lot of PLR articles about different vacation spots or places on your hard drive.  You can spice up that type of content by using interesting historical information.  This will make your site much more engaging and relevant for your readers.

Not only can you create an interesting web site with the wealth of information you’ll find at the American Memory Project, but you might discover some interesting places to see in your personal travels.  I’ve used it to find off-the-beaten path ghost towns on my road trips.  In many cases, these places have been more memorable and interesting than my main destination.