Library of Congress

An outstanding and invaluable site for American history and general research. Includes primary and secondary documents, displays, map collections, prints and photos, audio recordings and motion pictures. The Library of Congress American Memory Historical Collections, a must-see, comprises the majority of digitalized materials, but the Exhibitions Gallery is enticing and enlightening as well. The Library of Congress also offers a Learning Page that provides tools, activities, thoughts, and attributes for educators and students.
The Library of Congress American Memory in particular is an outstanding resource for American history and general studies. Contained are multimedia collections of photos, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text that is unread. Use the Teachers department to explore main set collections and themed resources. Teachers can get updates on new tools, professional development opportunities, and Library programs, events and providers.
The Library of Congress: Teachers
The new Library of Congress Teachers page provides resources and tools to using Library of Congress primary source records in the classroom and contain excellent lesson plans, document analysis tools, online and offline activities, timelines, presentations and professional development resources.
Center for History and New Media: History Matters
A Creation of this American Social History Project/Center of Media and Learning, City of University New York, along with the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, History Matters is an Excellent online resource for history teachers and pupils. Among the many digital tools are lesson plans, syllabi, links, and displays. The Center for History and New Media’s resources include a listing of”best” internet sites, links to syllabi and lesson plans, essays on history and new media, a link for their excellent History Matters web site for U.S. History, and more. The CHNM History News Network is a weekly online magazine that features articles by several historians. Resources are designed to benefit professional historians, higher school teachers, and students of history.
Teaching American History
This is a fantastic assortment of thoughtful and comprehensive lesson plans and other resources on teaching American history. Each project was created by teachers in Virginia in a Center for History and New Media workshop. All projects include a variety of lesson plans and tools, and some even offer instructional videos on supply analysis. The lesson plans cover a range of topics in American history and utilize interesting and engaging resources, activities, discussion questions, and assessments. Take your time browsing–there are many to select from.
National Archives and Records Administration
The NARA offers federal archives, displays, classroom tools, census records, Hot Topics, and much more. In addition to its newspaper holdings (which will circle the Earth 57 days ) it’s over 3.5 billion electronic records. Users can research individuals, places, events as well as other popular themes of interest, as well as ancestry and military documents. Additionally, there are features exhibits drawing from many of the NARA’s favorite sources. One of the most asked holdings are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, WWII photos, and the Bill of Rights.
The National Archives: Teachers’ Resources
The National Archives Lesson Plans section comprises incorporates U.S. primary files and its excellent teaching activities correlate to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government. Courses are organized by chronological era, from 1754 to the present.
Digital Vaults
The National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults is an interactive exploration of background that examines thousands of files, photos, and pieces of history that were incorporated in a digital format. Upon entering the homepage, the user is given eight random archives to choose from. Clicking on one provides a description and a brief history of the record, as well as exhibits a large assortment of archives that are similar. The user has the ability to shuffle, rearrange, gather, and research archives, in addition to search for specific points in history using a keyword search. Although too little initial organization or indicator might seem overwhelming, Digital Vaults is a wonderfully imaginative resource for investigating history in a digitally compiled way.
Teach Documents With DocsTeach, educators can create interactive background activities that incorporate more than 3,000 primary-source materials in many different media in the National Archives. Tools on the site are designed to teach critical thinking abilities and integrate interactive components such as maps, puzzles, and charts.
Our Records Offers 100 milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, and drawn primarily from its nationwide holdings, which chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965. Attributes a teacher’s toolbox and competitions for teachers and students.
PBS Online
A great source for advice on a myriad of historical events and personalities. PBS’s assorted and varied web displays supplement their television series and normally include a summary of every episode, interviews (often with sound bites), a timeline, primary sources, a glossary, photos, maps, and links to pertinent sites. PBS productions include American Experience, Frontline and People’s Century. Go to the PBS Teacher Source for lessons and activities — arranged by subject.
PBS Teacher Resource Proceed to the PBS Teacher Source for classes and activities — arranged by subject and grade level — and then subscribe to their newsletter. Categories include American History, World History, History on Television, and Biographies. Many lessons include primary sources. Some courses require viewing PBS video, but many do not.
Smithsonian Education
The Smithsonian Education site is divided only into three main classes: Educators, Families, and Students. The Educators section is key word searchable and includes lesson programs — many pertaining to background. The Students section features an interactive”Keys of the Smithsonian” that teaches about the special collections in the Smithsonian.
The Cost of Freedom: Americans at War
This Smithsonian website logically incorporates Flash video and text to examine armed conflicts involving the U.S. from the Revolutionary War to the war in Iraq. Each battle includes a brief video clip, statistical advice, and a set of artifacts. There is also a Civil War mystery, an exhibition self-guide, and a teacher’s guide. The New American Roles (1899-present) segment includes an introductory movie and short essay on the battle as well as historic images and artifacts.
Edsitement — The Best of the Humanities on the Internet EDSITEment is a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities. All sites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. This impressive site features reviewed links to top websites, professionally developed lesson plans, classroom activities, materials to assist with daily classroom planning, and search engines. You are able to search lesson plans by subcategory and grade level; middle school lessons are the most numerous.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
There is a lot of quality stuff for art students, educators, and fans at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art web site. Begin with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History, a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world. Each timeline page includes representative art from the Museum’s collection, a chart of time periods, a map of the region, a summary, and a listing of important events. The timelines — accompanied by world, regional, and sub-regional maps — provide a linear outline of art history, and allow visitors to compare and contrast art from around the globe at any moment ever. There is plenty more here besides the Timeline:”Just for Fun” has interactive activities for children,”A Closer Look” examines the”hows and whys” behind Met items (like George Washington Crossing the Delaware),”Artist” enables visitors to access biographical stuff on a selection of artists in addition to general information regarding their work, and”Topics and Cultures” presents past and current cultures with special features on the Met’s collections and displays.
C-SPAN from the Classroom
Access C-SPAN’s complete app archives including all videos. C-SPAN from the Classroom is a free membership service which features advice and resources to aid educators in their use of source, public affairs video out of C-SPAN television. You don’t have to become a member to use C-SPAN online tools in your classroom, but also membership includes entry to teaching ideas, tasks and classroom applications.
Digital History
This impressive site from Steven Mintz at the University of Houston comes with an up-to-date U.S. history textbook; annotated primary resources on United States, Mexican American, and Native American background, and slavery; and succinct essays on the background of ethnicity and immigration, movie, private life, and science and technology. Visual histories of Lincoln’s America and America’s Reconstruction include text from Eric Foner and Olivia Mahoney. The Doing History feature lets users rebuild the past through the voices of kids, gravestones, advertising, and other primary sources. Reference resources include classroom handouts, chronologies, encyclopedia articles, glossaries, along with an abysmal archive including speeches, book talks and e-lectures by historians, and historical maps, songs, newspaper articles, and graphics. The site’s Ask the HyperHistorian feature lets users pose questions to professional historians.
Civil Rights Special Collection
The Teachers’ Domain Civil Rights Collection is produced by WGBH Boston, in partnership with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Washington University at St. Louis. Materials are free but you have to register. Features an impressive selection of audio, video, and text sources out of Frontline and American Experience shows, Eyes on the Prize, along with other resources. Also offers an interactive Civil Rights movement deadline and four lesson plans: Campaigns for Economic Freedom/Re-Examining Brown/Taking a Stand/Understanding White Supremacy.
Science and Technology of World War II
Some of the most impressive technology improvements of the modern age occurred during World War II and the National World War II Memorial has 8000 objects directly linked to science and engineering. This impressive display includes an animated timeline, activities (such as sending encrypted messages), expert audio answers to science and engineering questions, lesson plans, a quiz, essays, and more. An impressive presentation.
Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008
Voting America examines long-term patterns in presidential elections politics in the United States in the 1840s to now in addition to several patterns in recent congressional election politics. The project offers a vast spectrum of animated and interactive visualizations of how Americans voted in elections within the last 168 years. The visualizations may be used to research individual elections past the state level down to individual counties, allowing for more complex analysis. The interactive maps emphasize exactly how significant third parties have played in Western political history. You can also find expert analysis and comment videos which discuss a few of the most intriguing and important trends in American ideology.
Do Background: Martha Ballard
DoHistory invites you to explore the process of piecing together the lives of regular men and women in the past. It is an experimental, interactive case study based on the research that went to the book and PBS film A Midwife’s Tale, which were both based upon the remarkable 200 year-old diary of midwife/healer Martha Ballard. There are thousands of downloadable pages from initial records: diaries, maps, letters, court records, town records, and more and a searchable copy of this twenty-seven year diary of Martha Ballard. DoHistory engages users interactively with historic artifacts and documents from the past and introduces people to the critical questions and problems raised when”doing” history. DoHistory was developed and maintained by the Film Study Center at Harvard University and is hosted and maintained by the Middle for History and New Media, George Mason University.
The Valley of the Dead The Valley of the Shadow depicts two communities, 1 Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project focuses on Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and it poses a hypermedia archive of thousands of resources that makes a social history of the forthcoming, fighting, and aftermath of the Civil War. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Students can learn more about the conflict and write their own histories or reconstruct the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families. The project is meant for secondary schools, community colleges, libraries, and universities.
Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association/Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, Massachusetts has established a rich and impressive site that focuses on the 1704 raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, with the goal of commemorating and reinterpreting the event from the viewpoints of all of the cultural groups who were current — Mohawk, Abenaki, Huron, French, and English. The site brings together many sources — historical scenes, stories of people’s lives, historical artifacts and papers, essays, voices and tunes, historic maps, and a deadline — to light broad and rival perspectives on this dramatic event.
Lewis and Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition
The Missouri Historical Society has developed an extensive award-winning web site and on-line program designed to match their own Lewis and Clark, The National Bicentinnal Exhibiton. Written for grades 4-12, the components focus on nine important themes of the exhibit and feature tens of thousands of primary sources from the display. The program uses the Lewis and Clark expedition as the case studies for larger themes like Diplomacy, Mapping, Animals, Language, and Trade and Property. It presents both the Euro-American standpoint and a distinct Native American perspective. The internet display has two sections. One is a thematic approach that highlights the content from the main galleries of the display. Another is a map-based journey which follows the expedition and presents primary sources along the way, such as interviews with present-day Native Americans.
The Sport of Life and Death
The Sport of Life and Death has been voted Best Site for 2002 by Museums and the Web and has won a slew of other internet awards. The site is based on a traveling exhibition currently showing at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey and bills itself as”an online travel to the ancient spectacle of gods and athletes.” The Sport of Life and Death features dazzling special effects courtesy of Macromedia Flash technologies and its overall layout and organization are excellent. There are helpful interactive maps, timelines, and samples of art in the Explore the Mesoamerican World section. The focus of the site, however, is that the Mesoamerican ballgame, the oldest organized sport ever. The sport is explained through a gorgeous and engaging combination of images, text, expert commentary, and movie. Visitors can even compete in a competition!
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory
A first-rate exhibition created by the Chicago Historical Society and Northwestern University. There are two big components: the history of Chicago in the 19th century, and also the way the Chicago Fire was recalled over time. Included are essays, galleries, and even sources.
Technology in the U.S. History in the Classroom
Here are some creative, engaging and technology-infused classes & internet sites on U.S. History:
“Day in Life of Hobo” podcast
This interdisciplinary creative writing/historical simulation action incorporates blogging and podcasting and requires students to research the plight of homeless teenagers during the Great Depression and then create their own fictionalized account of a day in the life span of a Hobo. This project will probably be included in the spring edition of Social Education, published by the National Council of Social Studies.
“Telling Their Stories” — Oral History Archive Project of the Urban School
See”Telling Their Stories” and see, watch, and listen to perhaps the best student-created oral history project at the nation. High School students at the Urban School of San Francisco have generated three impressive oral history interviews featured at this website: Holocaust Survivors and Refugees, World War II Camp Liberators, and Japanese-American Internees. Urban school students conducted, filmed, and transcribed interviews, generated countless movie files associated with every transcript, then posted the full-text, full-video interviews on this public website. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has recognized Urban School’s Telling Their Stories project with a Leading Edge Recognition award for excellence in technology integration. Teachers interested in running an oral history project can contact Urban School technology manager Howard Levin and ought to think about attending his summer teacher workshop.
Student News Action Network
This student-produced current events diary includes contributions from around the world and is directed by five student-bureaus: The American School of Doha, Bishops Diocesan College, International School Bangkok, International School of Luxembourg, and Washington International School. The pupils have cleverly adopted the free Ning platform and far-flung students work tirelessly to create an interactive, multimedia-rich, and student-driven online paper.
“Great Debate of 2008″
Tom Daccord created a wiki and a personal online social network for the”Great Debate of 2008” job, a student exploration and discussion of candidates and issues surrounding the 2008 presidential elections. The project connected students across the country in a wiki and a private online social media to share ideas and information related to the 2008 presidential election. Pupils post advice on campaign issues into the wiki and partake in online discussions and survey together with other students in the private online social networking.
The Flat Classroom Project
The award-winning Flat Classroom project brings together large school and middle school students from all over the globe to explore the ideas presented in Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat. These collaborative projects harness the most powerful Web 2.0 tools available including wikis, online social networks, digital storytelling, podcasts, social bookmarking, and much more.

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