Spotlight on Elementary Education

History has been shaped and influenced by the out come of ancient trials—such as the Trial of Socrates in 399B.C.—to Rosenberg Trial in the 1950s. This site offers a comprehensive look at 50 prominent court trials throughout history and its resources can be used to give young learners an introduction to the history of the modern judicial system.

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Website Reviews

Find quality websites & primary sources
The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925

How did the Protestant Church become central to Southern African American [...] »

Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North Pacific Coast
Wood. . . , Nuxalk Sinaaxwmuxw (Headdress), c. 1860, Listening to. . . site

View more than 400 Native American objects selected and presented by the 11 [...] »

Making of America
Book illustration, The archaeological..., 1876, Charles Rau, Making of America.

Provides more than 1.5 million pages of text in an effort to digitize more [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
New World Wonders

How did explorers describe the plants and animals they discovered in America [...] »

Practicing Medicine on the Presidents

When the presidents' maladies threatened to affect their performance.

[...] »
America's Love for the Automobile

An Exciting Whiff of Danger or La Belle Dame sans Merci?

[...] »

Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
Coal and the Industrial Revolution
Photo, At the close of the day, January 1911, Lewis Hine, Library of Congress

How can the story of coal help students understand the nature of today's [...] »

The Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
photographic print, Second atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 1945 August, LOC

Controversial issues are often simplified in textbooks. Discover the facts [...] »

20th-century Jewish Immigration
Dry plate negative, approx. 1920-1930, Jewish colonies and settlements, LOC

Divided into two waves of immigration by textbooks, the continuity of [...] »

National Resources

Federal teaching resources
U.S. Coast Guard
Art, Auxliarist, Lew Jackson, U.S. Coast Guard

Who protects U.S. interests in international and domestic waters?

[...] »
National Park Service
Screencapture, FDR Memorial, National Park Service homepage

Lesson plans, essays, multimedia, activities, and artifacts of U.S. heritage [...] »

National Portrait Gallery

Allow students to "meet" their favorite historical figures.

[...] »

Ask a Historian

Trade Routes and Emerging Colonial Economies
Print, Fairholt, F. W., 1814-1860, The case of the tobacco-merchants, NYPL

The direct and indirect impacts of various trade routes during the 16th [...] »