Other
Pony Express: History of the Pony Express
Read about the beginnings of the Pony Express, the requirements to be a rider, and find out why this mail delivery system ended.
Other
Collector's Guide: Indian Territory: Phoenix Rising From the Trail of Tears
A discussion of the art forms preserved by the Native Americans who were resettled by the U.S. government in the Indian Territory.
Other
Colorado College: Tutt Library: Sand Creek Papers 1861 1864
Provides links to images of the actual pages of documents involving the Sand Creek Massacre.
Yale University
Avalon Project: Northwest Ordinance; July 13, 1787
A copy of the entire Northwest Ordinance document is given.
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...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Who Were the Cowboys Behind 'Cowboy Songs'?
This article and audio report [9:05] covers the origins of American cowboy folk songs. Uses popups. Also includes a brief video clip of a 19th century folk song being performed.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Conflict of Cultures: President Polk and the Taking of the West
Lesson and activity on conflict of cultures in which students study U.S. overtaking lands of Mexico and California and form policy on property rights and citizenship of conquered cultures. Activity guidelines, questions for discussion...
CPALMS
Florida State University Cpalms: Florida Students: Captains of Industry: Second Industrial Revolution
This tutorial looks at the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States and the most famous and successful industrial entrepreneurs of that time. A PDF file of the tutorial is available.
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...
US Department of State
Office of the Historian: Proclamation Line of 1763
Tensions between the colonists and Britain were on the rise at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War. Policies put in place by Britain to control colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains led to resentment among the...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Manifest Destiny
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation students use nineteenth-century maps and art, and consider the roots of American exceptionalism.
Library of Congress
Loc: The First American West: Ohio River Valley, 1750 1820
This site describes the early history of the Ohio River Valley. Topics covered include: Contested Lands, Peoples and Migrations, Empires and Politics, Western Life and Culture, and Constructing a Western Past. Links to primary source...
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.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: High Falutin' Beef
This is an impressive history of the introduction of beef to the Great Plains region complete with videos, photos, and lesson plans.
Museum of the City of San Francisco
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco: Fremont Conquest of California
This first-person account by John Bidwell and his dealings with John Fremont in California.
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Washington's Rise Begins: A Journal of a Noteworthy Journey
In this lesson, 5th graders examine letters and entries from George Washington's diaries to understand more about his character and ambitions, and the conflict and cooperation that existed between the French and English colonists and the...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Coming to California [Pdf]
In this lesson, 4th graders examine entries from Juan Bautista de Anza's diary and other documents to understand the experiences and obstacles he and his companions faced as they traveled from Arizona to California in 1774. Student...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Women P Ioneers in American Memory
This is an online resource from the Library of Congress discussing Women Pioneers. Includes some audio and internal links for more information.
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library and Chicago History Museum: Lincoln at 200
This is resource provides information which allows users to examine key aspects of Lincoln's life and legacy, such as the circumstances of his birth, his views on slavery, and his assassination.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Homestead Acts
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Homestead Acts.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian: National Museum of the American Indian: Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of Little Bighorn made an immense impression on American society and culture. Americans became obsessed with this battle and created artworks, shows, postcards, and dime novels. View primary sources from this era to understand...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Torn in Two: Mapping the American Civil War
This exhibition tells the story of the American Civil War both nationally and locally in Boston, Massachusetts, through maps, documents, letters, and other primary sources.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Staking Claims: The Gold Rush in Nineteenth Century America
This exhibition explores the Gold Rush, a group of related gold rushes to Western territories in the second half of the nineteenth century, and its impact on American history and culture.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Lewis Cass: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
An argument by the Michigan Territorial governor, Lewis Cass, that claimed state laws superseded the rights claimed by Native American tribes like the Cherokee.
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