New York Public Library
In Motion: African American Migration Experience: Western Migration: To Kansas
From the extensive site about African-American migrations, this part of the site focuses on Exodusters and African-Americans who moved to Kansas after the Civil War. Read first-person accounts and see photographs of these hardy...
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: Grand Canyon: Powell's Expedition Colorado River
Part of the main feature called "Lost in the Grand Canyon," follow scientific explorer John Wesley Powell on his expedition down the Colorado River in 1869. This interactive map with its accompanying journal entries details the course of...
US National Archives
Our Documents:president Jackson's Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal' (1830)
On December 6, 1830, President Jackson spoke to Congress about his position on relocating Indians in order to make way for settlers in the west. This paved the way for government policy in dealing with native peoples even after his...
![Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf] Lesson Plan](http://content.lessonplanet.com/resources/thumbnails/410042/large/bwluav9tywdpy2symdiwmduymc0ymjm1lwl2exnyai5qcgc.jpg?1589985000 "Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
Library of Congress
Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf]
As the United States expanded westward, many cultural groups came into contact with one another, such as Native American tribes, Chinese, and various Europeans. In this set of exercises, students use primary source documents to explore...
University of Virginia
Uva Electronic Library: Letters of a Woman Homesteader
This site offers the full text of "Letters of a Woman Homesteader," by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. The work is a compilation of letters written by a young woman who was a homesteader in Wyoming.
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History: The Old West
This resource provides first-hand accounts and background information on the Old West. Content touches on crossing the plains, cowboys, train robberies, Dalton Gang's Last Raid, Custer's Last Stand, the Death of Billy the Kid, and much...
Smithsonian Institution
National Postal Museum: Moving West
The National Postal Museum provides an intimate look at how America's postal service expanded to meet the needs of westward-moving settlers during the nineteenth century. Content includes a selection of letters written at the time, a...
OpenStax
Open Stax: u.s. History: The Westward Spirit
From a chapter on America's expansion westward in a history textbook. This section looks at how Americans felt about westward expansion in the mid-1800s, and ways that the federal government promoted migration. Includes review questions.
Indiana University
Victorian Women Writers Project: A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1881)
Provides the text of the book, "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains," by Isabella L. Bird.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The West, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
Four nineteenth-century landscape paintings that suggest the meaning of the West in American life.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: New Frontier, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
A speech and an essay that alternately praise the acquisition of foreign territory by the U.S. and that raise questions about the costs and value of these imperialistic adventures.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Last Frontier
Describes the various forces and events that shaped the expansion of the western frontier in the mid- to late 1800s.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Alaska Purchase: Debating the Sale
The 1867 Treaty of Cession, in which the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian empire, marked an unusually peaceful transition. The purchase of Alaska was done under amicable circumstances, and both Russia and the U.S. felt...
US National Archives
Our Documents: Check for the Purchase of Alaska (1868)
Interactive images of two documents important in Alaska's history: the check written for its 1868 purchase from Russia and the Russian Treaty of Cession (an English transcript is provided), which concluded the deal.
Have Fun With History
Have Fun With History: Pioneers and the Frontier
Learning module with a variety of video and other resources on the expansion westward as pioneers settled new frontier in the 1800s.
Other
Hillcrest High School: Us History: Expansion in Texas [Pdf]
This chapter covers a time in Texas history during the mid-nineteenth century when Mexico offered land grants to American settlers, but conflict developed over religion and other cultural differences.
Other
Texas Beyond History: Texas and the Western Frontier
Read about the expansion of the frontier in and around Texas during the middle of the nineteenth century as the Civil War was coming to an end.
Other
Women in History: Mary Fields
This site contains facts about the life of Stagecoach Mary Fields (1832-1913).
Oklahoma State University
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: All Black Towns
Read about the all-black towns that were settled in Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory in the mid-19th century.
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History; Crossing the Plains, 1865
Article offers the diaries of Sarah Raymond as she treks across the Great Plains. Describes the many hardships encountered on this long journey.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Reasons for Westward Expansion
Learners will examine a variety of documents that reference reasons why Americans living in the East migrated west of the Mississippi immediately before, during, and right after the Civil War. Documents cover the mining industry, new...
US Department of State
Biographies of the Secretaries of State: William Henry Seward (1801 1872)
Brief biography on William Henry Seward who was appointed Secretary of State by Abraham Lincoln on March 5, 1861, and served until March 4, 1869. Seward carefully managed international affairs during the Civil War and also negotiated the...
Other
Course Notes: Us History: 1840 1877: Expansion and Slavery
A list with short descriptions of the issues and events that impacted the expansion of the frontier, with slavery being the most significant issue.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Arizona Became a New Territory
This 2-page article provides information about how Arizona became a new territory on February 24, 1863, and the corresponding silver and gold rush that encompassed the area.