Library of Congress
Loc: America Singing: Nineteenth Century Song Sheets
Song sheets, which containedonly lyrics, were a popular form of printed music. The Library of Congress holds over 4,000 of these from the 1800s that can be viewed online.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Full Steam Ahead: The Steam Engine and Transportation in the Nineteenth Century
This primary source set uses illustrations, documents, and photographs to tell the story of how the steam engine transformed the railroad industry and played crucial roles in the Industrial Revolution and westward expansion.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Race and Identity in Antebellum America
This unit features authors of Antebellum America and how they portray the American identity through their literature. Click on the tabs to explore the various resources available to enhance this unit.
The College Board
Driven to the City: Urbanization and Industrialization in the 19th Century
Scholarly article discussing the trend towards urbanization in the United States and other industrialized countries in the nineteenth century.
National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art: Little House in the Valley
Learners will explore nineteenth-century life in the White Mountains of New Hampshire through a tale of a family who lived there by analyzing a painting by Thomas Cole and reading a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: Gilded Age: America Moves to the City
Discusses the urbanization that took place at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Includes questions for students at end.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: America Moves to the City
The industrial boom of the late nineteenth century led Americans and immigrants from the world over to leave farming life and head to the city.
Contemplator
Popular Songs in American History: Ben Bolt: 19th Century Folk Song
This site contains the lyrics to a popular nineteenth century folk song. A MIDI file of the song is also available to download.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Child Labor in America
Historical photographs provide learners with a firsthand look at the issue of child labor during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In this lesson, students will use photographs to further understanding of the politics,...
Schools of California Online Resources for Education
Score: Nativism in 19th C. America
In this lesson, students explore the reasons people immigrated to America in the nineteenth century, the urban growth that resulted, the development of public education, the contributions of immigrants, the wave of nativism, and the...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Norwegian Immigration in the Nineteenth Century
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lesson plan about Norwegian immigrantion to the United States.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Progress, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
Eighteen primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the industrial, racial, and technological progress of the late-nineteenth century.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Charles Sellers: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
A secondary account from a contemporary historian that examines early nineteenth century forces and the interplay of markets and territorial expansion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Hezekiah Niles: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Magazine excerpts that celebrate the government sponsored internal improvements of the early nineteenth century and the market economy that they fueled.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Gross Clinic, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
Thomas Eakins's controversial painting that reflects the skill of professional, scientific practitioners during the late-nineteenth century.
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...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: War and International Law: America's Foreign Policy: A Brief History
Explore the history of foreign policy in the United States from the nineteenth century through to the present. Identify what values and principles have helped its formation over the years. Includes discussion questions.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Wake Up, America: Women's Suffrage [Pdf]
A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that examines the political and educational limitations women faced in early America. Students will describe early developments in the progression...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Early Photography: Niepce, Talbot and Muybridge
Photography is a controversial fine art medium, simply because it is difficult to classify-is it an art or a science? Nineteenth-century photographers struggled with this distinction, trying to reconcile aesthetics with improvements in...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Associations (I), Making of African American Identity: V. 2
Newspaper articles that illustrate how benevolent and charitable societies fostered racial solidarity among African Americans in late-nineteenth-century America are provided. Links to these articles can be found on the second page.
Library of Congress
Loc: Nineteenth Century Women: Struggle and Triumph Lesson Plan
Journals, letters, and narratives reveal a part of America's history not revealed in textbooks, the story of women, namely the women of the 1800s. With this lesson, learners gain understanding of women and history through various primary...
University of Michigan
Making of America: Ballads of New England
This site from the University of Michigan provides access to online text for "Ballads of New England," an 1870 collection of Whittier's poetry. Poems can be viewed in plain-text format or as page-by-page images from the original work.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Technology of the 1800s
[Free Registration/Login Required] Article considers the inventions and innovations in communication, transportation, and manufacturing that drove America forward in the nineteenth century. Includes a link to an interactive history of...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Spirit of Nationalism: Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley, an African-American slave, is featured for her neoclassical poetry of pre-nineteenth century America. Click on "Phillis Wheatley Activities" for more resources.