From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:
"Alice Kessler-Harris is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History at Columbia University, in New York City. She specializes in the history of American labor and the comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of women and gender."
A.E. Dick Howard, White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, analyzes the changes in the Supreme Court from the Warren Court of the 1960s to the Rehnquist era.
Vincent Ferrara, Professor of International Politics at Mount Holyoke College, compiled this list of 117 primary source documents relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some of these are links to documents on other sites. Documents include memoranda, telegrams, meeting notes, and audio clips. The site also contains five links to other sites about the crisis and 12 articles written in the last 15 years that discuss the crisis.
The site provides no introduction, no index, and no background on the documents. It is not organized thematically, alphabetically, or chronologically. It will be helpful to those looking for the most important documents of the missile crisis and less so for those who are not already involved in researching the topic.
Introduces the National Women's History Project, "a non-profit organization dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the diverse and historic accomplishments of women by providing information as well as educational material and programs." Includes a 5,000-word essay on the history of the women's rights movement and a 7,000-word timeline. The site gives detailed information about the organization's activities, including efforts to bring women's history into public life, a list of curricular ideas for teachers, material concerning National Women's History Month, and a 15-question quiz on Women's History.
Perhaps most valuable, the site furnishes approximately 200 partially annotated links, arranged into 12 broad categories such as "Politics," "World History," and "Math and Science." Though lacking in primary source material, this site provides useful beginning resources for the study and practice of women's history.
The Ad Council has been producing public service announcements attempting to affect change in society and serve the public interest for nearly 70 years. The campaigns take the form of print, radio, and television advertisements. They have run the spectrum of societal issues, from "Rosie the Riveter" and the campaign to place women in war jobs to contemporary ads related to predatory lending. The Ad Council has brought us memorable characters like Smokey Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and Vince and Larry (the two crash test dummies who convinced us to wear seat belts). But what do these public advertising campaigns say about America? How can we use these ad campaigns to better understand U.S. history?
Through analyzing the ads we can isolate time periods in history and understand what were believed to be the most pressing societal issues of the time. These campaigns tried to decrease behaviors that were believed to lead to social problems or promote behaviors that would lead to a better society. Thus, in seeking to understand the advertisements, we can help students uncover the contemporaneous sociology of the ad campaign.
You can begin by exploring the Ad Council's Historic Campaigns that highlight some of the more notable campaigns in the last 70 years. Each campaign is complete with background information and some have links to PSA videos associated with the campaign. An even more complete retrospective of past advertising campaigns is maintained by the Advertising Educational Foundation and can be accessed here.
I have found the site particularly useful in helping students understand more recent history. For instance, few would disagree that, socially, the 1980s were rocked by the AIDS epidemic. The site highlights PSAs to prevent the spread of AIDS, which represent a dramatic shift in societal norms with the public call for condom use. The ads on crime prevention featuring McGruff the Crime Dog also help illuminate the 1980s. These ads coincide with America's "war on drugs" and emphasis on law and order during the 1980s. 1970s culture was epitomized by environmental awareness featuring Ad Council PSAs showing Native Americans distraught to find their territory littered. These ads and more can be found in the Historic Campaigns section.
Teaching with advertisements as primary sources is beneficial in two ways. One, students are exposed to yet another example of primary sources that come with their own unique set of historical questions. Two, by learning how to unpack the intent of advertisements on people of the past, students are more apt to be able to recognize advertising manipulation in the present. The Ad Council dedicates a page of resources for educators that includes useful links and frequently asked questions. These pages also identify current advertising campaigns, which might be useful for students to identify some of the important topics of today compared to the important issues they find in earlier decades.
Before having students analyze advertisements as primary sources, it is important to model for students how advertisements should be read. Students should also be made aware of the strengths and limitations of using advertisements to understand the past. An excellent overview of these strengths and weaknesses can be found on page 11 of this guide to primary sources, from the Smithsonian's History Explorer, along with questions to guide students in analyzing advertisements.
A natural fit to teaching U.S. history through public service announcements would be to have students create their own PSAs. Students could be given a list of pertinent social issues to a particular time period or could be asked to research important topics on their own. Students could write a script and use a pocket camcorder to record their PSA. Editing could be done using iMovie, Windows MovieMaker, or any number of free online video editing tools. The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand the changing nature of social issues in the United States.
Another idea is to have students research the effectiveness of given historic campaigns. The Ad Council maintains a database of reports and figures related to the success of various PSAs. This is a condensed version highlighting the impact of the Ad Council's more famous campaigns. The purpose here is to help students see how effective advertising not only convinces people to buy products, but also can convince people to change behavior for the common good.
The Ad Council works to address the most significant social issues of the day. With that purpose, the Ad Council offers a unique look into making sense of our social past by revealing important issues of the time. Advertisements offer students an opportunity to interpret an overlooked type of primary source of the past and establish connections to the present.
Looking for more guidelines on using ads in the classroom? Historian Daniel Pope helps you make sense of advertisements, and historian Roger Horowitz analyzes historical documents behind 1950s potato chip advertising campaigns. This syllabus from a university history course also walks you through the steps of analyzing an ad.
Search our Website Reviews using the keyword "advertisement" for reviews of more than 200 websites featuring archived advertisements.
This extensive archive offers more than 13,200 photographs taken in California between 1921 and 1965 by Jervie Henry Eastman. The collection includes photographs, negatives, and postcards "for a wide variety of northern California locations and events, including dam construction, logging, mining, food processing, and community buildings and activities." Eastman established his photo studio in 1921.
Clicking on the thumbnail images brings up a larger version of the photograph with descriptive data. For some of the images it is necessary to select "more information about this image" to find the specific subject of the photograph. This selection also provides a subject cross-reference list. Search is by keyword only. The collection is of interest to those researching the history of northern California and those interested in urban history or historical geography.
Dr. Kevin Yuill, Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sunderland, lectures on the black power movement, looking at its emergence, the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X's relationship with the movement, and the effects of the movement. For part two of this lecture, click here.
Free registration is required to view the video. Audio and video options are available.
From the History Faculty website:
"In 1924 Congress passed the Johnson-Reed, or National Origins, Act, declaring racial and ethnic background as the most important determinant in gaining American citizenship. Those with Asian backgrounds were barred altogether. This session examines both the run-up to this crucial legislation and its impact on immigration up until it was superseded in 1966."
Dr. Kevin Yuill, Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sunderland, presents this lecture. To access part two of this lecture, click here.
Free registration is required to view the video. Audio and video options are available.
This extensive archive offers approximately 150,000 pages of letters and diaries from colonial times to 1950, including 7,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Highlighted material includes extracts from the Journal of Mrs. Ann Manigault (1754-1781), the Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, letters of Phyllis Wheatley, letters of Ellen Louisa Tucker to Ralph Waldo Emerson, letters of Margaret Fuller, and the memoirs and letters of Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison.
Search the database by keyword or use the advanced search to find material by such fields as author, race, religion, age, occupation, date of writing, document type, historical event, or subject. More than 80 fields have been indexed. This website is available either through one-time purchase of perpetual rights or through annual subscription (your library or institution may have a subscription). This collection is a useful archive of material for teaching about the history of women as well as for research in women's studies, social history, and cultural history.
Reconstruction after the Civil War was America's first attempt at an interracial democracy. DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University Eric Foner explains why an understanding of Reconstruction—and why it failed—is critical to understanding the civil rights movement of the 20th century.