History Buff - Narrated Panoramas of Historic Sites and More

History Buff is a neat website that teachers of US History should spend some time exploring. One of the best features of History Buff is a set of fifteen narrated panoramic tours of interesting and significant historic sites. Some of the panoramas you will find in the collection include Davy Crockett's childhood home, Appomattox Courthouse, Thomas Edison's birthplace, and Valley Forge.

Another good feature of History Buff is their online newspaper archive. The archive is organized by year and event. The earliest newspapers in the archive were published in 1707. The newspapers can be viewed in great detail through the zoom tool accompanying each newspaper.

Applications for Education
I like to use virtual tours like the ones hosted by History Buff to provide my students with better visual references than what they find in a textbook or through simple Google Image searches. I've found that the visuals in virtual tours often prompt students to ask questions that lead to good conversations about events and themes in US History.