Resources for Flag Day

Date Published
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Envelope, Elmer Ellsworth with sword, pistol, and flag, c.1861-1865, LoC
Article Body

Do you celebrate Flag Day? Though not an official federal holiday, June 14 (one week from today) memorializes the day when the Second Continental Congress approved the first version of what evolved into our modern national flag.

Since 1777, the flag has gained 37 stars and exact specifications for color and design, but it's always been recognizable. Red, white, and blue, it has waved over people, places, and events throughout U.S. history. How much do your students know about the flag and its history? If you ask them to share what they know, do they offer stories about Betsy Ross or the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner"? Use these stories as starting points or explore other pieces of flag history with free online resources.

On Teachinghistory.org
  • Historian John Buescher describes the history of the flag—and the history of the story of Betsy Ross.
  • Historian Alan Gevinson looks at the design of the Confederate flag and how it differs from the U.S. flag.
  • In Lesson Plan Reviews, we explore the strong points of a Smithsonian Institution lesson on "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the War of 1812.
The Wider Web
  • The Smithsonian National Museum of American History lets you interact online with the flag that inspired the national anthem.
  • The Smithsonian exhibit July 1942: United We Stand looks at ways the image of the flag was used in World War II.
  • You can find more flag-related artifacts on the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's History Explorer.
  • OurStory, another project of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, offers a reading guide for the picture book The Flag Maker, which looks at the flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
  • The Library of Congress suggests questions to ask students about the flag and related primary sources.
  • When Alaska and Hawaii became states, the 48-star flag needed two new stars. The National Archives preserves two possible designs sent to the White House by citizens.
  • Every year, the president proclaims Flag Day. Read recent proclamations at the White House website.
  • EDSITEment offers crosscurricular lessons on the flag as a symbol and other symbols of the U.S.
For more information

Looking for resources for other holidays? How about heritage months? Check out Teachinghistory.org's spotlight pages! Spotlight pages are available all year long and update constantly.

The Early Conservation Movement

Question

Was it successful for everyone?

Textbook Excerpt

Most begin by describing how industrialization marred the environment and wasted natural resources. They then describe how President Theodore Roosevelt secured new laws that gave the federal government power to curb environmental abuses and manage natural resources.

Source Excerpt

Sources show how conservation laws designed to protect wasteful and damaging uses of natural resources created entirely new categories of crime. They redefine traditional “pioneering” activities such as carving farmland out of the public domain, building log cabins, and hunting animals for food as the crimes of squatting, timber theft, and poaching. They also reveal how conserving Yosemite and the Grand Canyon for public enjoyment carried significant costs for Native Americans who called these places home.

Historian Excerpt

Historians describe the conservation movement as significantly more diverse, both geographically and politically, than textbook accounts suggest. They tend to emphasize the movement’s strong ties to the larger Progressive movement, explore conservation’s national scope, and highlight the work of local grassroots leaders. Historians have also emphasized the significant human costs and unintended environmental consequences of key conservation policies.

Abstract

Textbooks celebrate the conservation movement as an unalloyed success: New forestry laws prevented widespread clear-cutting, erosion, and fires. Game preservation laws protected wildlife from overhunting. Reclamation laws reformed the haphazard use of scarce water resources in the American West, enabling agricultural expansion. Preservation laws protected areas of scenic beauty from privatization and tacky commercial development. Yet historians have depicted the conservation movement much more broadly—and have assessed its legacy more critically. Why?

The Civil War in American Memory

Description

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"Gary Gallagher, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia, discusses the different Civil War narratives that emerged in the popular consciousness in the century after the war. From the 'Lost Cause' rhetoric of the defeated Confederacy, in which an unapologetic South found honor in defeat, to the 'Emancipation Cause' advanced by the Union, which held that the North went to war in order to liberate slaves, Gallagher explains that these narratives drew both on fact and myth and were critical in the formation of regional and national American identity."

The Three Constitutions

Description

In this lecture from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Professor Cornell examines the three distinct phases of the Constitution. "The first is the Constitution in the 18th century as imagined by the Founding Fathers. The Constitution went through another incarnation after the Civil War. Professor Cornell will then look at the Constitution in the decades after the New Deal to the present."

Helen Keller Kid's Museum

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Photo, Helen and Anne playing chess, 1900, American Foundation for the Blind
Annotation

The main feature of this website is an exhibit presenting the story of Helen Keller's life through five exhibits. Each exhibit offers text and photographs that examine a different period of her life from childhood through her career as a champion of the blind and a world figure. Together, the exhibits contain more than 30 photographs. "Who Was Helen Keller" offers a short Helen Keller biography; a recommended reading list with 19 books, including seven works by Helen Keller; a link to a free version of Keller's The Story of My Life; some fun facts and quotes; and a link to the Helen Keller Archives. The site also includes a chronology of Keller's life. This website is an excellent aid to teaching children the inspiring story of Helen Keller's life.

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Images
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Splash Pullout Women's Month
Learn Women's Month
Women's History Month
Devel. of the Industrial US, 1870-1900
Emergence of Modern US, 1890-1930
Great Depression & WWII, 1929-1945
Postwar US, 1945-Early 1970s
Education
Health & Medicine
Reform
Science & Tech.
Women

Anne Sullivan Macy: Miracle Worker

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Photo, Anne Sullivan stands with Helen Keller, c. 1893, AFB
Annotation

This website is dedicated to the life and legacy of Anne Sullivan Macy, who, in the words of the site's authors "was a pioneer in the field of education." The exhibition tells her story through an introduction and five galleries, each focused on a different period in the inspiring story of Macy's life, including galleries on her childhood and her work teaching Helen Keller that became the basis for the play The Miracle Worker. The galleries feature excerpts from Macy's correspondence and writings, quotes contained in various biographies, and passages about Macy from Helen Keller's Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy. The full-text of many of Macy's letters are available. All 47 images can be viewed in a larger size and are accompanied by descriptions. The site also offers a brief, one-page biography of Macy; a chronology of her life; and a recommended reading list with 10 books (two for children). An outstanding introduction to the life of this extraordinary teacher.

Literary Sources
Personal Accounts
Photographs
Images
Text
Video
Splash Pullout Women's Month
Learn Women's Month
Women's History Month
Civil War & Reconstruction, 1850-1877
Devel. of the Industrial US, 1870-1900
Emergence of Modern US, 1890-1930
Great Depression & WWII, 1929-1945
Education
Health & Medicine
Ideas & Ideologies
Science & Tech.
Women

Reconstructing the Capitol

Description

Senior Architectural Historian Carl Lounsbury tells the story of Williamsburg's Capitol's reconstruction, early in the 20th century. The architects overseeing the reconstruction at the time focused more on issues of aesthetics and polished completion than on social historical accuracy.

Click here to discover more about Colonial Williamsburg's Capitol building.

Architectural Research

Description

Ed Chappell, director of architectural research at Colonial Williamsburg, talks about the research required to restore buildings to their colonial-era state, and how perception of how a building should be restored and presented changes over time and with the appearance of new information.

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