Sets of selected primary sources on specific topics, available as easy-to-print PDFs. Also, background material and tools to guide student analysis.
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Assimilation through Education
Photos, early film footage, federal government reports, cartoons, and maps tell the complex tale of the efforts to assimilate Native Americans through education
Baseball: Across a Divided Society
Song sheets, video clips, images, trading cards, and photographs tell the story of how baseball emerged as the American national pastime. Featured primary source items show Americans from different backgrounds and social experiences embracing the sport
Jim Crow in America
After the Civil War, most Southern states limited the economic and physical freedom of former slaves by enacting laws that came to be called Jim Crow laws. This primary source set presents popular views on, and the causes and effects of, these laws
Civil War Music
Sound files, sheet music, photographs, letters and maps help students better understand the American Civil War through study of the popular song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
Constitution
Newspaper articles, notes, and original documents trace the process of drafting and adopting the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Speeches and song lyrics show how later generations used and interpreted the original ideals of the United States
Dust Bowl Migration
Photographs, recorded music, and song lyrics document the daily ordeals of rural migrant families from the Great Plains during a decade marked by both the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression
Hispanic Exploration
Songs, maps, drawings, paintings, written documents and presentations outline the role of Hispanic explorers in the discovery, exploration, and development of America
The Inventive Wright Brothers
Wilbur and Orville Wright went from repairing bicycles to inventing the airplane. Photographs, newspapers articles, personal letters and telegrams, and official army documents record their experiences and their experiments
Immigration Challenges for New Americans
Photographs, maps detailing immigration patterns, official documents, song sheets and streaming audio recount the immigrant experience in America, their reasons for leaving their homelands, and the reactions of established Americans
Jamestown
Maps, images, and text tell the story of the first English settlement in North America, and how it came to be regarded in later years
Japanese American Internment During World War II
Official documents, newspapers, and images offer perspectives on the Japanese American experience of forced relocation to internment camps during World War II
Abraham Lincoln
Speeches, correspondence, campaign materials and a map documenting the free and slave states in 1856 chronicle Lincoln’s rise to national prominence
Found Poetry
Using primary source texts on a variety of subjects, students select words to retell the historical content in poetic form
Thanksgiving
Study photographs, paintings, letters, and official proclamations to discover historical perspectives on American Thanksgiving holiday traditions beginning with the pilgrims who came to North America on the Mayflower
Women's Suffrage
Sound files, sheet music, photographs, letters and maps help students better understand women's suffrage
