National History Education Clearinghouse

The creators of the Public Broadcasting Series (PBS), Antiques Roadshow developed this guide to integrating material culture into the classroom.

The following document analysis worksheets were designed and developed by the Education Staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. They include written documents, photographs, cartoons, posters, maps, artifacts, motion pictures, and sound recordings.

This guide offers an overview of advertisements as historical sources and how historians use them; a brief history of advertising; questions to ask when interpreting ads as historical evidence; an annotated bibliography; and a guide to finding advertisements online.

Making Sense of American Popular Song provides a place for students and teachers to begin working with songs as a way of understanding the past.

Making Sense of Documentary Photography provides a place for students and teachers to grapple with the documentary images that often illustrate textbooks but are almost never considered as historical evidence in their own right.

Making Sense of Films offers a place for students and teachers to begin working with early twentieth-century film as historical evidence.

This guide offers an overview of letters and diaries as historical sources and how historians use them; tips on what questions to ask when reading these personal texts; an annotated bibliography; and a guide to finding and using letters and diaries online.

Making Sense of Maps offers a place for students and teachers to begin working with maps as historical evidence.

Making Sense of Numbers provides a place for students and teachers to begin working with quantitative historical data as a way of understanding the past.

Making Sense of Oral History offers a place for students and teachers to begin working with oral history interviews as historical evidence.