Library of Congress
Loc: A Russian Settlement in Alaska
In the early 19th century, most of the land that is now Alaska was claimed by the Russian empire, and its most significant community was Novo-Arkhangelsk, which today is called Sitka. From 1808 until the sale of Alaska to the United...
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Loc: Migration During the Great Depression: Living History
Most people in Central Florida came from somewhere else. Students first analyze life histories from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 to learn oral history techniques. They then interview...
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Loc: Natural Disasters: Nature's Fury
People have always tried to understand the natural world in which they live. In early times, they created myths to explain their experiences with fire, flood and other violent forces. Over the centuries, new scientific discoveries added...
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Loc: Child Labor and the Building of America
Students are immersed in primary source materials that relate to child labor in America from 1880-1920 to gain a personal perspective of how work affected the American child within a rapidly growing industrial society. This project is...
Library of Congress
Loc: Found Poetry With Primary Sources: The Great Depression
Students explore poetry using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 collection of American Memory, which covers personal stories collected by the Works Progress Administration. In particular,...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Huexotzinco Codex
Learners will analyze a set of pictograph documents created by native peoples of Puebla, Mexico in 1531. Students will take on the role of historians, study the documents, and create a scenario to explain what these documents were for,...
Library of Congress
Loc: Waldseemuller's Map: World 1507
The 1507 World Map by Martin Waldseemuller is one of the world's most important maps. For the first time, this map labels America and shows the continent as a separate land mass. It is often referred to as America's Birth Certificate....
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...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads
The debate over damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park marked a crossroads in the American conservation movement. Until this debate, conservationists seemed fairly united in their aims. San Francisco's need for a...
Library of Congress
Loc: World War I: What Are We Fighting for Over There?
The Great War of 1914-1918 significantly shaped the course of the twentieth century, both at home and abroad. How can this pivotal event be personalized and brought to life for students in the new millennium? Unfortunately, increasingly...
Library of Congress
Loc: Immigration and Oral History
The primary goal of this activity is to give students the genuine experience of oral history in order to appreciate the process of historiography. We identified immigrants in our community who reflect the ethnic diversity of our student...
Library of Congress
Loc: Explorations in American Environmental History
These lessons introduce learners to historical perspectives of nature and the environment, drawing on the American Memory collections, other digital resources, readings, and writing exercises. Students examine materials in a variety of...
Library of Congress
Loc: Slavery in the United States: Primary Sources
This lesson introduces students to primary sources- what they are, their great variety, and how they can be analyzed. The lesson begins with an activity that helps students understand the historical record. Students then learn techniques...
Library of Congress
Loc: Oral History and Social History
This lesson plan presents social history content and topics through the voices of ordinary people. It draws on primary sources from the collection, American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.
Library of Congress
Loc: Billy the Kid: Perspectives on an Outlaw
This lesson relates to the westward movement in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students analyze the role that gunfighters played in the settlement of the West and distinguish between their factual...
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Loc: Civil War Photojournalism: A Record of War
This lesson will analyze Civil War photographs and explore how and why the American Civil War was photographed.
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Loc: Change in Early 20th Century America: Doing the Decades
This unit provides a flexible investigative structure for the study of selected themes in U.S. history and culture using the American Memory collections and related resources. Core goals are the development of relationships between...
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Loc: Music and u.s. Reform History: Stand Up and Sing
Throughout American history, popular music has reflected the mood and opinions of the times. By exploring sheet music, students analyze issues related to industrialization and reform to answer the essential question, "How does society...
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Loc: 1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
To better understand the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, this interdisciplinary lesson integrates analyzing historical primary resources with literary analysis. Students work in groups and express themselves...
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Loc: Japanese American Internment
What was the World War II experience like for the thousands of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast? The activities in this lesson are designed to provide a window into the war years. Using primary sources, learners will explore a...
Library of Congress
Loc: German Immigrants: Their Contributions to the Upper Midwest
Why did Germans immigrate to the Upper Midwest in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century? What contributions did they make to the region's cultural heritage? Young scholars use American Memory photographs and documents to answer...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Civil War: The Nation Moves Toward War
Examine the causes of the Civil War using primary source documents. This lesson plan gives background on the Civil War, includes a timeline, and a bibliography for further reading. Primary source documents include music, newspapers,...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Grapes of Wrath: Voices From the Great Depression
By examining primary sources, including songs, newspapers, interviews, and photographs of migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression, students create a scrapbook from the point of view of a migrant worker, providing...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Women's Suffrage: Their Rights and Nothing Less
Primary sources reveal the true resistance suffragists faced as they fought for women's right to vote. Through this collection of lessons, learners will "understand the societal role of women from 1840 to 1920" and explore the history of...