NARA's Mid Atlantic regional archives holds federal records dating from as early as 1790 and pertaining to the states of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Areas of emphasis include 1790 through 1800, the Civil War, the World Wars, civil rights, maritime history, industrialization, graphic arts, agriculture, national parks, legal history, popular culture, inventions, and the 1876 Centennial exposition in Philadelphia.

In addition to access to these holdings, the archives offers free public programs on a variety of topics, such as the United States Colored Troops (USCT) history and using local library map collections. Do not be discouraged by the heading "Genealogical Events," as many of the listed programs do not in fact have a genealogical focus. Other options include off-site lectures on customizable topics and both permanent and rotating physical museum exhibits.

Web exhibits explore the influence of Benjamin Franklin and documents related specifically to slavery.

The archives also offer research assistance for students and workshops for educators.

The Northeast branch of the National Archives provides access to historic documents from the states of New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, in addition to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Research can be conducted at two main locations in Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City, as well as within a microfilm research area in Pittsfield, Massacusetts (Silvio O. Conte National Records Center, 10 Conte Drive).

The Boston-area archives holds documents from 1780 to present pertaining to the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts. Records include, but are not limited to, census and naturalization records, Dawes Commission final cards of the Five Civilized Tribes, Chinese Exclusion cases, and passenger arrival lists.

Topics of emphasis within the collection include port commerce, desegregation, War of 1812, the Amistad case, naval stations, lighthouses, the Chinese Exclusion Act, MIT and Harvard World War II research projects, and arms manufacturing. With so much information at your fingertips, a pre-visit look through the available finding aids may be a wise time investment.

Interested in researching military records or conducting genealogical research? Access a listing of upcoming genealogical workshops. All workshops are free, but require advance registration.

Earn PD points by attending five free, monthly Thursday night programs for educators, or attend other in-service teaching with document programs. Access the calendar to plan which events to attend. Large groups can request that workshops be conducted at their own location.

In the Boston area? Plan a free, hands-on archival field trip for your class, be it kindergarten or high school. Programs are customizable, designed to meet state curriculum standards, and include a behind-the-scenes tour. Example programs address the 54th Mass. Colored Regiment, the Revolutionary War, Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson, the Constitution, and migration and immigration. Please schedule ahead. The site is handicap-accessible and contains a lunchroom.

The phone and fax numbers to the left are for the Boston/Waltham location.

The New York City location holds documents from 1695 through the 1990s pertaining to New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Online finding aids are an excellent way of determining whether or not the archives may have the type of documents which you desire.

The archives offers an extensive series of public programs, including tours conducted upon request, open houses, and workshops. Workshop topics can include census records, Chinese Americans, customs records, maritime history, Civil War prize cases, and more.

Attend free professional development workshops appropriate for teachers (including home school teachers) and administrators.

Consider ordering a free CD correlating the contents of Our Documents to New Jersey and New York educational standards.

You can also schedule K-12 field trips complete with hands-on research and tours of the archives' facility.

The Northeast archives hosts a collection of online exhibits, ranging in topic from the real life von Trapp family to the Slocum tragedy.

Finally, download packets consisting of documents, transcriptions, related questions and activities, and information on how the topic relates to the standards. Teachable Texts is upgraded regularly.

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum describes itself as a "participatory museum of history, science, and technology." History-related permanent exhibits emphasize local history.

The museum offers planetarium shows (including "Sky Legends of the Three Fires"), film screenings, self-guided tours, and 20-min. walk-in history demonstrations, as well as hands-on, in-museum workshops. As of April 22, 2010, social-studies-relevant workshops included "Secrets in the Sky, Secrets on the Ground: The Story of the Underground Railroad in Michigan," "Three Fires Native Americans," "Geography," and "Pioneer Life."

The Southeast branch of the National Archives offers the opportunity to research documents—texts, photos, maps, and architectural drawings—made between 1716 and the 1980s, which pertain to the history of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, and Kentucky.

This online exhibit includes a selection of the types of documents you can find in the archives—early records, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary documents, draft registration cards, Tennessee Valley Authority and Tuskegee photographs, and court and genealogical documents, among others. Give the finding aids a chance to see what the archives may hold in areas of interest to you.

If you are teaching on slavery, particularly in South Carolina, you may find the list of slave manifests useful. For 20th-century history, the archives' website includes a collection of scanned draft registration cards with names that you know. How much more attentive will your students be if the draft card they are analyzing belonged to Houdini? Babe Ruth?

In addition to research opportunities, the archives offers public programs, such as lectures and workshops. Check early and often to find new programs, and register for events that require you to do so.

Download a PowerPoint presentation of letters written to Wehrner von Braun, space program pioneer, director of NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center, and chief architect of the Saturn V rocket. Teachers are invited to submit their ideas for using these documents in the classroom.

Perhaps your students are on the younger side? Consider looking at essay contest entries for inspiration to create your own oral history and essay assignment.

The Southwest branch of the National Archives provides access to documents—such as letters, photographs, architectural drawings, and maps—which originated from federal agencies and courts. Documents on the premises date from the 1800s to late 1900s; and were created in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

Areas of collection emphasis include Native American removal, westward expansion, Chinese exclusion, segregation, repatriation, the World Wars, economic history, oil, the Civil War, slavery, and the U.S. space program.

Groups and classes are welcome to visit—with advance notice—for activities such as research, tours, internships, exhibit viewing, lectures, learning to teach history with primary sources, and genealogy workshops.

Educators may be interested in available professional development workshops on archival holdings and using primary sources. If the workshop does not take place at the archives, travel expenses may require payment.

You may also want to check the main page for links to the latest annual K-12 education newsletters.

If you are looking for a way to bring the archives into your classroom, rather than taking your class to Fort Worth, several digital options are available. For one, you could make use of student activities, such as an examination of historical U.S. census documents. You can also explore lesson plans on the domestic slave trade or illegal Chinese immigration, created by teachers; or you can even submit you own, inspired by the archives' sources. Finally, you might consider scheduling a roughly hour-long distance learning program. Available topics vary, but all programs are document-based and provided free of charge.

Interested in art? Looking for more lesson plans? Consider taking some time to explore Art and Archives, a collaboration between the Southwest branch of the National Archives and the Sid Richardson Museum. The website defines primary and secondary sources, offers art and archival vocabulary lists, and contains a collection of lesson plans which utilize art to think about history. Topics include Lewis and Clark, westward expansion, the Louisiana Purchase, cowboys, Wounded Knee, and black soldiers in the Civil War. These lesson plans are generally for middle and high school students. However, a version of the Louisiana Purchase lesson plan is listed for grade five.

The Central Plains regional branch of the National Archives holds federal and court records from Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa. Collections include Leavenworth Penitentiary mugshots and files, World War II draft cards, naturalization records, federal land records, and records from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, among other topics.

On site, you can conduct research, take in exhibits, make rubbings of well-known signatures, and watch an 11-minute film. Prior to visiting you can arrange a facility tour (for adults or for children) and/or children's activities. Take a look at this handy .PDF file for an overview of the archives and descriptions of source types. The archives even provides a list of local restaurants to make visiting easy. Additional visit preparation resources include online finding guides for looking through a portion of the available records and a current exhibit listing.

In addition, the archives offers a calendar of free public events. Reservations are required.

The Central Plains archive branch emphasizes hands-on activities for students, which can be customized to meet your current curricula needs and meet either at the archives or your school. Other visit options include guided or self-guided exhibit tours, complete with pre-visit curriculum packets and information on how the exhibits related to state standards, and professional development workshops

In addition to on-site opportunities, you students can also participate in one of five interactive distance learning programs. Topics include using documents, the Civil War, history online, westward expansion, and National Archives online resources. You can also request a free annual primary source CD with documents, information on their relationship to national standards, teacher notes, suggested activities, and analysis worksheets. While you're waiting for the CD to arrive or if you are interested in looking at a sample of its contents, try teaching suggestions on industrialization and/or the Civil War or Constitution Day lesson plans.

The National Watch and Clock Museum, according to its website, houses "the largest and most comprehensive horological collection in North America," with over 12,000 artifacts. The museum's holdings focus on 19th-century American clocks and watches, but the exhibits proceed chronologically through the development of timekeeping devices worldwide.

The museum offers exhibits, self-guided and guided tours for school groups, hands-on programs for school groups, youth activity kits and traveling trunks, research library access, workshops, and other recreational and educational events. It also offers a free museum pass for educators.

The Heritage Center preserves and presents the history of the Cherokee County region, displaying artifacts from pre-contact, the Civil War, World War II, and the timber industry, as well as other times and subjects.

The museum offers exhibits.

The Amon Carter Museum houses paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, artists who focused on the American West. It also presents exhibits of artwork by other American artists, on subjects ranging far from the original collection's American West focus.

The museum offers exhibits, self-guided and guided tours for student groups (including custom tours and tours for AP students), professional development opportunities for educators, videoconference outreach programs, teaching materials borrowable by Texas educators, research library access, and other recreational and educational events.