Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whale Ship brings to life pages of a young girl's journal kept during her three-year journey aboard her father's whaling ship, the Roman. The 42 pages of Laura Jernegan's journal include a catalogue of items, pets, and people aboard the ship as well as reports on everything from Laura's schoolwork to the crew's processing of a whale. Details about family life, work, and play in the largely adult and masculine world of whaling offer glimpses into the complexities of life aboard the ship–the simultaneous sense of adventure and monotony, community and isolation, and certainty and uncertainty that she felt during her journey.

Martha Vineyard's Museum, the site's host, masterfully combines Laura's journal with memoirs of Laura and her mother Helen, boating logs, portraits, and other relevant items to recreate this rich and compelling story. Artifacts and pictures from the Library of Congress, the Nantucket Historical Association, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and others linked throughout the site contextualize and enrich not only Laura Jernegan's story, but the histories of whaling and childhood.

A nautically-themed homepage directs visitors the site's 14 primary links Large images of a whale with a harpoon and lance, a young girl, and an open diary link visitors to The Story of Whaling, Laura's Story, and Explore Laura's Journal, respectively.

Of these, Laura's Story will be the most compelling for scholars of childhood and youth. This section invites visitors aboard the Roman as the Jernegans pursued whales from Edgartown, Massachusetts, to the whaling grounds of the Pacific Ocean. Or follow Mrs. Jernegan and her children on their journey home aboard the steamer Ajax and the newly completed transcontinental railroad.

A particularly interesting section features a letter written by Laura to her grandmother highlighting the Jernegan's first five months at sea. In it, Laura shared details of her eight-day visit to Ohitahoo (an island in Polynesia) during which the queen invited the Jernegans to the royal palace for a feast including ten fruits—all of which Laura named.

Peppered throughout Laura's Story are delightful diary excerpts that will entice viewers to Explore Laura's Journal. There visitors can flip the journal's pages, zoom, use a "Magic Lens" to generate typed transcriptions of selected paragraphs, listen as the journal is read aloud, or link to a transcription of the full text. Laura's journal allows viewers to see growth in Laura's penmanship, writing style, and vocabulary. These sections are primarily narrative — neither Laura's Story nor Explore Laura's Journal offer much historical analysis of Laura's life, her journal, or childhood in general, and information found in The Story of Whaling is exclusively about whales and the people who pursued them.

Other icons link to "Interactivities" (interactive learning activities) to more fully understand Laura's story and whaling as a profession. Visitors may explore the pages of Laura's Journal, learn more About Whales, view a Map of Whaling areas, contextualize Laura's life with a Timeline, and Explore the Ship. This section relates primarily to whaling; only Laura's Journal includes information specifically related to children and youth.

Find limited content relating to childhood and youth by clicking on People and tracing the lives of Laura and her brother Prescott from birth to death. Scroll through the Everyday Life subsection under Artifacts to find a school slate with slate pencil, a geography book, and four children's literature books.

More About leads visitors to ten brief essays with bibliographies about the age of whaling, two of which, 19th Century Children's Literature and Schooling in the 19th Century, includes information relevant study of childhood and youth.

Hidden beneath the bottom tier are barely visible links that provide useful information for instructors and researchers. For Teachers links to three unit plans written by experienced educators with lessons that incorporate whaling into classrooms from first grade to high school. Of these, only "Whaling in Four Lessons," which suggests students compare and contrast their lives with Laura's, deals directly with childhood.

Unfortunately, there is no option to search directly for key terms like "children," "boy," or "girl." This significant oversight makes it difficult to find specific words or subjects. Despite this, Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whale Ship is useful for those seeking primary source material on the myriad of subjects with which Laura Jernegan's young life intersected and to students wishing to learn more about the whaling industry and the adventures of a young girl and her family aboard a whaling ship.

I was now in a way to be provided for; for though I was not a parish charge upon this or that part of the town by law, yet as my case came to be known, and that I was too young to do any work, being not above three years old, compassion moved the magistrates of the town to order some care to be taken of me, and I became one of their own as much as if I had been born in the place.

In the provision they made for me, it was my good hap to be put to nurse, as they call it, to a woman who was indeed poor but had been in better circumstances, and who got a little livelihood by taking such as I was supposed to be, and keeping them with all necessaries, till they were at a certain age, in which it might be supposed they might go to service or get their own bread.

This woman had also had a little school, which she kept to teach children to read and to work; and having, as I have said, lived before that in good fashion, she bred up the children she took with a great deal of art, as well as with a great deal of care.

But that which was worth all the rest, she bred them up very religiously, being herself a very sober, pious woman, very house-wifely and clean, and very mannerly, and with good behaviour. So that in a word, expecting a plain diet, coarse lodging, and mean clothes, we were brought up as mannerly and as genteelly as if we had been at the dancing-school.

I was continued here till I was eight years old, when I was terrified with news that the magistrates (as I think they called them) had ordered that I should go to service. I was able to do but very little service wherever I was to go, except it was to run of errands and be a drudge to some cookmaid, and this they told me of often, which put me into a great fright; for I had a thorough aversion to going to service, as they called it (that is, to be a servant), though I was so young; and I told my nurse, as we called her, that I believed I could get my living without going to service, if she pleased to let me; for she had taught me to work with my needle, and spin worsted, which is the chief trade of that city, and I told her that if she would keep me, I would work for her, and I would work very hard.

I talked to her almost every day of working hard; and, in short, I did nothing but work and cry all day, which grieved the good, kind woman so much, that at last she began to be concerned for me, for she loved me very well.

One day after this, as she came into the room where all we poor children were at work, she sat down just over against me, not in her usual place as mistress, but as if she set herself on purpose to observe me and see me work. I was doing something she had set me to; as I remember, it was marking some shirts which she had taken to make, and after a while she began to talk to me. 'Thou foolish child,' says she, 'thou art always crying (for I was crying then); 'prithee, what dost cry for?' 'Because they will take me away,' says I, 'and put me to service, and I can't work housework.' 'Well, child,' says she, 'but though you can't work housework, as you call it, you will learn it in time, and they won't put you to hard things at first.' 'Yes, they will,' says I, 'and if I can't do it they will beat me, and the maids will beat me to make me do great work, and I am but a little girl and I can't do it'; and then I cried again, till I could not speak any more to her.

This moved my good motherly nurse, so that she from that time resolved I should not go to service yet; so she bid me not cry, and she would speak to Mr. Mayor, and I should not go to service till I was bigger.

Well, this did not satisfy me, for to think of going to service was such a frightful thing to me, that if she had assured me I should not have gone till I was twenty years old, it would have been the same to me; I should have cried, I believe, all the time, with the very apprehension of its being to be so at last.

When she saw that I was not pacified yet, she began to be angry with me. 'And what would you have?' says she; 'don't I tell you that you shall not go to service till your are bigger?' 'Ay,' said I, 'but then I must go at last.' 'Why, what?' said she; 'is the girl mad? What would you be--a gentlewoman?' 'Yes,' says I, and cried heartily till I roared out again.

This set the old gentlewoman a-laughing at me, as you may be sure it would. 'Well, madam, forsooth,' says she, gibing at me, 'you would be a gentlewoman; and pray how will you come to be a gentlewoman? What! will you do it by your fingers' end?'

'Yes,' says I again, very innocently.

'Why, what can you earn?' says she; 'what can you get at your work?'

'Threepence,' said I, 'when I spin, and fourpence when I work plain work.'

'Alas! poor gentlewoman,' said she again, laughing, 'what will that do for thee?'

'It will keep me,' says I, 'if you will let me live with you.' And this I said in such a poor petitioning tone, that it made the poor woman's heart yearn to me, as she told me afterwards.

'But,' says she, 'that will not keep you and buy you clothes too; and who must buy the little gentlewoman clothes?' says she, and smiled all the while at me.

'I will work harder, then,' says I, 'and you shall have it all.'

'Poor child! it won't keep you,' says she; 'it will hardly keep you in victuals.'

'Then I will have no victuals,' says I, again very innocently; 'let me but live with you.'

'Why, can you live without victuals?' says she.

'Yes,' again says I, very much like a child, you may be sure, and still I cried heartily.

I had no policy in all this; you may easily see it was all nature; but it was joined with so much innocence and so much passion that, in short, it set the good motherly creature a-weeping too, and she cried at last as fast as I did, and then took me and led me out of the teaching-room. 'Come,' says she, 'you shan't go to service; you shall live with me'; and this pacified me for the present.

Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899 was created to publish records of the superior courts of New South Wales with the goal of recovering the records of colonial law. At present it concentrates on the decisions of the Supreme Courts and other courts of unlimited jurisdiction between 1788 and 1841.

This archival site is challenging to use, but worth the effort. There are several ways to locate information relevant to children. Searches using keywords such as "boy," "girl," "child," "children," and "family," produce a few hits; this should improve as more materials become accessible in digital form.

Interesting material on children is available, though, by browsing the subject index. A range of relevant topics emerge, including "child, failure to support," "children, defendants," and "children, evidence by." Other subjects include Aboriginal affairs, family law, infancy, infanticide, marriage of infants, children and oaths, Orphan School, and schools (and education laws).

"Other features" presents cases and groups of documents, such as Justice Burton's collected documents concerning Aborigines 1797-1840. This includes the key law that resulted in the "Stolen Generation," Original Document 5, "Proclamations &c Black Natives Establishment of Institution for Children Government and General Orders Government House Sydney: 10th December 1814." This law provided for the "civilizing" of the Aboriginal people by placing their children into state-run schools.

Photographs, recollections, legal records and commentary tell this harrowing story. Records document the school/orphanages that housed and educated Aboriginal children, warehousing them in military-style schools where they often lost touch with their identities and families. The schools trained boys for low-skilled work and girls for domestic service. An especially interesting feature is Dawn Magazine, "An introduction to the public face of the Aborigines Welfare Board (1952–1969) and the photos it reproduced."

Two factors about the public use of the site are noteworthy. First, many of the archives on Aboriginal communities are closed for 100 years due to sensitivity about the treatment of indigenous peoples of Australia who were deprived of their rights over their culture, lands, bodies, and children. The site also offers a finding aid for genealogical searches. New South Wales was the staging ground for the settlement of Australia by convicts brought from overcrowded British prisons. Many contemporary Aussies may be able to trace their genealogy back to those original settlers through the site.

This is a site that will increase in usefulness on children and other topics as the archive becomes more complete. In the meantime, dedicated searching will reveal significant material on the laws and implementation of those laws affecting many aspects of the lives of children.

The content on Art and Life in Africa is primarily the work and scholarship of Christopher D. Roy, Professor of Art History at the University of Iowa. There are rich materials on children, although finding them requires some creative searching.

The site design is not as elegantly organized or aesthetically pleasing as the rich content warrants. There are many broken links, such as the one to the Stanley Collection database. The link to a teacher's forum is also broken. Links to other sites do function.

What the site lacks in quality, however, it makes up in quantity of information. This includes photographs and videos that illustrate the landscape, arts, craft production, and everyday life of a wide variety of groups in the region and more than 60 streaming videos of craft production, dancing, singing and mask performances.

The site includes most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, which are designated on the map in black lettering. A database lists the names of 107 "peoples" (as the site designates these ethnic, clan, or tribal groups) in Africa. Each name links to a chart with information, a map of the territory, and sometimes the multiple countries they inhabit.

Materials on children appear throughout the site, but are not easy to find. The design includes an ALA search engine found only at the bottom of the index page—not on the home page. There is no easy way to navigate among sections of the site. Keyword searches such as "child," "girl," and "boy" yield only two general links, so the search engine apparently excludes a lot of site content. The keyword "doll," for example, which is found in at least a dozen articles, photo captions, and artworks, only returned the main website link.

The best strategy, then, is to browse the site looking in likely places. The beautiful and interesting pictures make this rewarding time spent. Key Moments in Life describes the stages from birth to initiation, marriage, old age and death, including both males and females, using photographs and art. Each is discussed in a paragraph with citation information.

A streaming video shows uninitiated boys in Boni and Lollio making masks out of millet stalks in imitation of the adults' elaborate masks. They play music, weave elaborate masks, and clown for the camera; in the evening they take part in the procession and dance. Watching this video is as interesting for the skill and intensity the boys bring to the process, as for the other children, both boys and girls, who mill around at the performance.

Many of the other videos and photos allow the viewer to catch glimpses of babies wrapped onto their mother's backs and of children and youth participating in daily activities or special occasions. A number of articles by Roy include information about children, the best example being the article on Mossi dolls. The article describes wooden figurines carved by blacksmiths for little girls that simultaneously fulfill the function of babies (biiga) for young caregivers as well as adult female role models.

This project is testament to a lifetime of work among people for whom the scholar Roy had great affection, and into whose lives he was able to gather deep insight. The materials here are based on a CD-ROM of the same name that is available for purchase on the site, but increasingly the CD content is available online.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace centers on a documentary about the events of Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989. There are links to selections from the documentary, as well as a huge archive of primary and secondary source readings about the events. A chronology of major events in 20th century China has its own page, broken into two sections: events prior to 1989, and then a more detailed listing of the events in the spring of 1989, beginning with the death of Former Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang. The site is easy to navigate, with links at the top and bottom of most pages.

The clips from the documentary include some background on Tiananmen Square itself, the Cultural Revolution, and some basic history of the People's Republic of China. The majority of the clips are about the events of June 1989, including the dramatic footage of "The Man Against the Tanks," showing both the official Chinese government's version of the events as well as the version of events as seen by the rest of the world. Most of the documentary is original footage interspersed with interviews of participants at the demonstrations. Parents of deceased demonstrators are also interviewed. Unfortunately, the clips display on a relatively small portion of the screen and cannot be expanded. A word of caution for teachers planning on using the site in their classrooms: some students may find the images of violence and of wounded teenagers disturbing. The final excerpt includes, "Aftermath of June 4th" a Chinese rock video with English subtitles (including some inappropriate language).

In addition to the clips from the documentary, there is a gallery of images in the Media Library, but as with the video, many of the images are very small and difficult to see, and cannot be enlarged. In the gallery there is a selection of images on Chinese Youth. While some of the images have captions, several do not, which would make teaching with them somewhat problematic. Some images have captions that are in Chinese, and no translation is provided. However, these images are bigger and much easier to view than others. The images are mostly propaganda, which could be used for an excellent lesson on how Mao cultivated his relationship with the youth in China.

The remainder of the site is very text-heavy. There is a section on additional sources, some primary and others secondary. Perhaps the best source is "The Truth About the Beijing Turmoil," which is the official government account of the events, published in 1990. Teachers and students could use this source in a variety of ways: they could compare this version with what is portrayed in the video excerpts or discuss it as a piece of propaganda. The reading could also be used in conjunction with the official presentation of the "Man Against Tank," as mentioned above.

With older, more advanced learners, teachers may wish to use the site to teach about bias. For the most part, the site does not editorialize; however, the selection of governmental sources indicates a strong opinion about the events in Tiananmen. A discussion about the point of view of the creators of the site and the documentary would be a valuable one.

Search terms such as "boys" bring the viewer to a section on Chinese rock music. The article in this section is written by a scholar at the Australian National University in Canberra. The article discusses the role of pop and rock in Tiananmen. There are some lyrics posted, but the great weakness of this site is that there are no audio files of the songs discussed in the article. The search term "girls" is not useful, as it only leads to two results, both of which are parts of descriptions of the events at Tiananmen. Searching for "children" results in many pages filled with background information that could be useful for teachers.