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Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs: Mark Twain's Interactive Scrapbook

For Students 9th - 10th
At this website, venture through the chapters of an interactive scrapbook detailing the life and writings of Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain. Includes several photographs, quotes, and audio clips. This scrapbook is part of a larger PBS...
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Website
Other

Barnum Museum

For Students 9th - 10th
This website gives information on P.T. Barnum himself and special exhibits like Jumbo, the African elephant, and Tom Thumb.
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Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: America at the Centennial

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan requiring student to analyze primary documents from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Students interpret what these historical artifacts say "about the lives and values of Americans in 1876" among other things.
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Handout
Other

Brown Quarterly: The Chinese and the Transcontinental Railroad [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
From The Brown Quaterly (1997) an article describing the role of the Chinese immigrant in building the railroad. Includes images of the Chinese railroad workers. (PDF - scroll down to page 7)
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Website
Authors Calendar

Author's Calendar: Mark Twain

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides a biography of Mark Twain which includes the origin of his pseudonym. Quotes from several of his books are included.
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Website
Authors Calendar

Author's Calendar: Zane Grey

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides a biography of the life of Zane Grey. Interesting information about his love and knowledge of the West is included as well as excerpts from his novels.
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Website
Washington State University

Washington State University: American Authors: William Dean Howells

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides links to some of William Dean Howells works. Includes a picture and some biographical information.
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Website
University of Virginia

University of Virginia: Mark Twain in His Times

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection from the University of Virginia provides a great deal of information about how Mark Twain created his works. Lots of recent reviews and articles are included.
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Website
Other

Oak Park Tourist:the Fertile Mind of Edgar Rice Burrough

For Students 9th - 10th
This article is about an exhibit at the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest highlighting Edgar Rice Burroughs. A brief biography is included.
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Website
Authors Calendar

Author's Calendar: Henry James

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides an in-depth biographical sketch of Henry James. Also takes a look at many of his novels and the characters he created.
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Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: America at the Turn of the Century

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A short report on America by 1900: "..the American nation had established itself as a world power. The West was Won. The frontier -- the great fact of 300 years of American history -- was no more."
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Handout
Other

Adrian Dover's Henry James Web Site

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides a brief summary of the life of Henry James. Its primary purpose is to provide electronic texts.
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Article
University of Houston

University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 1391: The Johnstown Flood

For Students 9th - 10th
The explanation of why the South Fork Creek dam broke causing the famous disaster. This is a transcript of an accompanying radio broadcast.
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Handout
Other

The Great Peshtigo Fire Page

For Students 9th - 10th
Forgotten in the fame of the Chicago Fire, Peshtigo suffered even more in the toll of dead, injured, and total destruction.
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eBook
Bartleby

Bartleby.com: Newspapers Since 1860

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A short summation of how Hearst and Pulitzer shaped the newspapers of their day by adding new features that would appeal to the populace.
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Website
Ibis Communications

Eye Witness to History: The Gibson Girl

For Students 9th - 10th
The Gibson Girl, an illustration done by Charles Gibson, became a fashion icon in the early 1900s. See some of Gibsons drawings and learn more about this social model for women in the early 20th century.
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Handout
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Norwegian Immigration in the Nineteenth Century

For Teachers 6th - 8th
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lesson plan about Norwegian immigrantion to the United States.
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Graphic
Boston College

Boston College: 19th Century Skyscrapers

For Students 9th - 10th
This site has many images of skyscrapers from the 19th Century made possible by steel technology.
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Primary
Curated OER

History Matters: Atlanta Compromise Speech, 1895

For Students 9th - 10th
Read an excerpt from Booker T. Washington's 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech, in which he stresses accommodation rather than resistance as way to deal with racism. Includes a short audio clip - the only surviving recording of Washington's...
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Primary
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Era of Expansion and Reform

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource, a speech by Woodrow Wilson to Congress on April 8, 1913, gives a great review of how the United States transformed from from a rural country to an urban one. It includes a review of industrialization, new inventions,...
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Article
Cornell University

Cornell University: The Rush to Oklahoma

For Students 9th - 10th
An observation printed in Harper's Weekly in 1889 about the Oklahoma land rush into the Indian Territory.
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Handout
Vassar College

Vassar College: 1896: The Popularity of Bicycles

For Students 9th - 10th
As part of the larger site about the year 1896, this article describes the bicycle craze at the end of the 19th century and includes newspaper articles and cartoons about this fad.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Education: Office Workers

For Students 9th - 10th
Briefly describes the shift in offices from male to female clerical workers. Details the progression of women in going from clerical positions to managerial positions.
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Handout
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Comission

Explore Pa History: Making Steel

For Students 9th - 10th
Examine the historical and economic impact of the Pennsylvania's steel industry. Included in this historical account are video, maps, and pictorial artifacts of this era.