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 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.

If you happen to be looking for federal primary sources from Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, or Illinois, a good spot to check is the Chicago office of the National Archives and Records Administration. Records available include bankruptcy records, Chinese Exclusion case files from Chicago and St. Paul, Michigan and Illinois Selective Service System Name Index records, and naturalization records. Other topics represented in the collections include, but aren't limited to, African American history, Depression era history, disasters, espionage, and maritime history.

Consider looking through the site's finding aids to get a sense of the collections available on location.

When visiting, be ready with an official photo ID and willingness to fill out a short form concerning your interests. Leave your pens behind (pencils are permitted), and prepare to leave your belongings in a locker or in your car.

Looking for more directed opportunities? Check out the archives' upcoming events. If you teach in Illinois or Indiana, you may even be eligible for continuing education credit.

In addition to the aforementioned public programs, there are workshops designed specifically for teachers. Find them (and more opportunities) under the Workshops heading.

Archivists are ready and willing to help your students define their research topics and select appropriate primary sources, for National History Day projects or other endeavors.

The National Archives and Records Administration: Rocky Mountain Region offers access to federal photographs, paper documents, architectural drawings, and maps created in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana between 1847 and the 1990s, as well as to archival materials from North and South Dakota created after 1972. Topics represented include homesteading, Indian agencies, reclamation projects, mining, naturalizations, the World War II homefront, territorial court records, railroads, bankruptcy, genealogy, and national parks, among others.

With so many topics, how can you find what you need? Luckily, the region offers a list of online finding guides, specific to their holdings.

In addition, the region offers tours of the facilities, presentations of their holdings and services to students, and internship opportunities. Tours and presentations require appointments, and presentations can be made at the Lakewood, Colorado, facility or elsewhere. Availability of presentations made anywhere other than the main facility is subject to travel budget considerations.

NARA's Rocky Mountain Region branch is dedicated to providing professional development opportunities for educators. With advance notice, the archives provides three workshops—"Using Online Resources of the National Archives," "Hands-On History: Incorporating Primary Sources in the Classroom," and "Finding Primary Source Documents at the Rocky Mountain Regional Archives." All workshops are free. However, off-site workshops outside of the Denver metro area may require payment of travel and expense fees.

Archivists are also available to assist in student research for National History Day projects and other undertakings.

The archives is currently creating primary source document lessons for each of its constituent states. Each lesson includes one or more primary sources, background information on the source, suggested teaching activities, and a description of the document's relationship to national and state standards. Lessons are available in CD and .PDF formats.

The Presbytere, originally called the Casa Curial (Ecclesiastical House), derives its name from the fact that it was built on the site of the residence, or presbytere, of the Capuchin monks. It was designed in 1791 to match the Cabildo, or Town Hall, on the other side of St. Louis Cathedral. The building initially was used for commercial purposes until 1834 when it became a courthouse.

Today, the Presbytere offers exhibits on New Orleans history and culture.

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the Museum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.

The museum offers exhibits, short films, research library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.

Idaho Territory was less than 10 years old when the territorial prison was built east of Boise in 1870. The penitentiary grew from a single cellhouse into a complex of several distinctive buildings surrounded by a high sandstone wall. Convicts quarried the stone from the nearby ridges and completed all the later construction. Over its century of operation, the penitentiary received more than 13,000 convicts, of whom 215 were women. Spurred in part by conditions that sparked a general riot in 1971 and an even more severe riot in 1973, the inmate population was moved to a modern penitentiary south of Boise and the Old Idaho Penitentiary was closed on December 3, 1973. Visitors begin with a video presentation recalling prison history, notorious inmates, and daily prison life. Once inside the Yard, they can imagine life in the foreboding sandstone cellhouses, see the contrasting beauty of the historic rose gardens, and view the effects of the 1973 riot. They may also visit Solitary Confinement, known as "Siberia," as well as Death Row and the Gallows.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, and educational programs.

Built in 1872, the Prison held some of the most notorious outlaws in the region, including Butch Cassidy. Visitors to the 190- cre facility can also enjoy the newly restored Warden's House and Horse Barn Exhibit Hall featuring rotating displays and a family-friendly scavenger hunt.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).