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Leisure is Time for doing something useful: this Leisure the diligent Man will obtain but the lazy Man never.
~ Benjamin Franklin

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
~Bertrand Russell

This Primary Source Set includes images, sheet music, a motion picture and analysis tools to help teach about baseball across various sectors of American society.

Use these lesson plans (created by educators for educators) to explore topics about summertime with your students in your classroom:

When Work is Done - (Grade 11) Students develop albums that reflect a thesis about leisure time in the United States between 1900 and 1950.

Marco Paul's Travels on the Erie Canal - (Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8) Students trace Marco Paul’s 1840s journey through the Erie Canal.

Is there a title (or two) that you always read to (or with) your students when teaching about the topic of summertime? Are there invaluable reference books that you use when working with this theme? Staff from The Library of Congress have generously donated favorite titles for the "Summertime..." theme. We hope you will contribute your favorite titles to our growing bibliography!

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Create your own collaborative lesson plans using material related to this month's theme assembled from The Learning Page Collection Connections:

America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Search this collection using the word "summer" for songs related to the summer theme.

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915" - (Summary Only) Motion pictures document turn of the century leisure activities.

American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920, The - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Learn about vaudeville and entertainment between 1870 and 1920.

An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manual, ca. 1490-1920" - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Explore the role of ballroom dancing in American culture.

Baseball Cards, 1887-1914 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) These tobacco advertising cards document the popularity of baseball at the turn of the century.

American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, An - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Search this collection using the word "summer" to retrieve broadsides advertising train trips and summer tourist attractions.

Spalding Base Ball Guides - (Summary Only)

These terms may be useful when searching for items related to this theme in the American Memory collections.