About this Site

Our Documents

A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service

We invite all Americans to participate in a series of events and programs to get us thinking, talking and teaching about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our democracy. At the heart of this initiative are 100 milestone documents of American history. These documents reflect our diversity and our unity, our past and our future, and mostly our commitment as a nation to continue to strive to “form a more perfect union.”

We want everyone—students, teachers, parents, and the general public—to read these milestone documents, consider their meaning, discuss them, and decide which are the most significant and why. This initiative creates a number of ways to do that—through classroom activities and competitions, and votes.

This web site includes everything you need to participate in the Our Documents initiative.

• Review the list of 100 milestone documents

• Hang up the 'Our Documents' poster in your classroom, library, or office

• Create an entry for National History Day’s student competition

• Develop a lesson plan for National History Day’s teacher competition