Curated OER
"The Father of Lavish Advertising": P.T. Barnum
Students examine the life and work of P.T. Barnum. They discover his advertising techniques and business practices. They examine his use of people with disabilities for amusement.
Curated OER
Environment: Mock Trial
Students role-play a trial regarding the taking of family property for a new water purification plant. Among the roles are the judge, attorneys, witnesses, plaintiff, mayor, and jury members. Once both sides present their case, the...
Curated OER
Explorers of the Mighty North
Students access the Internet to research the journey made by Rear Admiral Peary and Matthew Alexander Henson to the North Pole. They locate the North Pole on maps and globes. They present oral reports to classmates on their research.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Slates, Slide Rules and Software
Did you learn to calculate using a 7-foot-long slide rule? Did you learn about the properties of numbers using brightly colored Cuisenaire rods? Ever wonder who invented the graph paper you used in geometry class? Go back to the...
Smithsonian Institution
Tween Tribune: This House Told a Story About the African American Experience
A historical home acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture has quite a story to tell.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: History and Literature
Discusses the state of literature and written history in the 1800s as they related to the development of a national identity, and the role Romanticism played. With the passage of time, more serious literature emerged and authors began to...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: American Railroads in the 20th Century
A brief history of the last century and more of American railroads, from the early locomotives from the mid 1800s to today's fast passenger trains.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Lands of Promise
Outline about the promising economic times of an expanding America during the 1800s, including changes taking place in New England, the South, the Midwest and West.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Frontier, "West" and the American Experience
Outline of the American frontier and pioneer experience during westward expanison in the 1800s.
Milwaukee College Prep
African American History: North and South, Slave and Free
An overview of the status and experiences of African Americans in the mid-1800s, both free and enslaved. Includes references to Frederick Douglass and his efforts to enlighten people about the discrimination and prejudice faced by...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Things to Do at Home
Families can come together through games designed to make history something fun and integral to family life. Build a sod house like prairie settlers did in the 1800s. Go back in time to visit five families that lived in the same house...
OpenStax
Open Stax: American Foreign Policy 1890 1914: Turner, Mahan, and Roots of Empire
Examines the development of American foreign policy in the latter part of the 1800s, and what Frederick Jackson Turner and Alfred Thayer Mahan did to further American imperialistic interests.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Technology and Change
Oultine of the changes in industry and technology during the 1800s, bringing tremendous growth of big business, urbanization and railroads.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Revolution in Agriculture
Article outlining the extraordinary achievements in agriculture during the 1800s.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Colonization in Texas: Cultivation of Cotton and Wheat
Discusses the cotton economy in the Lower and Upper South of Texas in the 1800s, and the role transportation played in its growth, or lack thereof in some regions. Wheat was more widely grown in the Upper South where the yeomen farmed.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: Touring Turn of the Century America
This collection contains thousands of photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company and gives viewers the opportunity to explore America from the period of 1880 to 1920. Images include rural America, city life, men and women at work,...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Taming the American West
Comprehensive teaching unit that explores the settling of the American West in the late 1800s and the challenges these settlers faced. Contains video and text materials, web interactives, student oriented activities, and a timeline of...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Two Philosophies
Explains what the 'Scottish philosophy' was and how well it fitted with American sensibilities in the 1800s. Over time it evolved into the American philosophy of Pragmatism. The other philosophy that took hold in some groups of society...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Quest for Nationalism
Describes the struggle of Americans to develop a unified sense of national identity in the 1800s.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Intellectual Climate
Discusses the intellectual atmosphere in the 1800s as America struggled to find its identity. The influences of the Enlightenment and Romanticism are described, and the ideas of various writers and philosophers.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Steamboat Indiana's Last Voyage
The 'Indiana' steamboat sank in Lake Erie in the mid-1800's. The story of the ship is told through artifacts and maps.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Community Dreams: Santa Cruz, California 1876
Discover how connecting Santa Cruz, California to the national railroad network in the late 1800s helped the town prosper and change.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Delivering the Goods: Watsonville. California 1895
Railroads changed agriculture. As railways linked farms to a wider commercial world, city dwellers could buy fruits and vegetables year-round. Farms became commercialized, often specializing in single crops and tied to the ups and downs...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Bicycle
Take a virtual field trip to the Smithsonian and see its historical collection of bicycles and various bicycle memorabilia. Access to 449 archived items are provided, beginning with the Victory Bicycle from 1886 to present-day bicycles...