Library of Congress
Loc: African American Identity in the Gilded Age
Examine the tension experienced by African-Americans as they struggled to establish a vibrant and meaningful identity based on the promises of liberty and equality in the midst of a society that was ambivalent towards them and sought to...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Titanic: Shifting Responses to Its Sinking
In 1912, popular media headlined the sinking of the world's largest luxury passenger ocean liner while on its maiden voyage. Newspapers captivated the world's attention with stories from survivors and about victims who did not survive....
Library of Congress
Loc: The Great Gatsby: Primary Sources From the Roaring Twenties
In order to appreciate historical fiction, students need to understand the factual context and recognize how popular culture reflects the values, mores, and events of the time period. Since a newspaper records significant events and...
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...
Library of Congress
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...
Library of Congress
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...
Library of Congress
Loc: Child Labor and the Building of America
Young scholars 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...
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
Students 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 students 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 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 instructional activity 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...
Library of Congress
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.
Library of Congress
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...
Library of Congress
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...
Library of Congress
Loc: 1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
To better understand the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, this interdisciplinary lesson plan integrates analyzing historical primary resources with literary analysis. Students work in groups and express themselves...
Library of Congress
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 instructional activity are designed to provide a window into the war years. Using primary sources,...
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? Students use American Memory photographs and documents to answer these...