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
America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915
Image, America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915, LoC.

Collects 150 1894–1915 motion pictures on work, school, and leisure [...] »

Nineteenth-century California Sheet Music
Illustrated cover, A china heart, 1899, Maribel Seymore, CA Sheet Music Project.

Scanned images from more than 2,700 pieces of sheet music provide insight [...] »

We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement

Which locations, open for visitation, are most relevant to the civil rights [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
Go West, Young Woman!

Men and women both settled the West. Answer these questions on women’s [...] »

Voices of Women's Reform

There’s more to it than Seneca Falls.

[...] »
Presidential Valentines

The politics of love—answer these questions about valentines to and from U.S [...] »

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 [...] »

Causing the Civil War
Postcard, Train Load of Cotton for Export, South, 1902-1903, NYPL

Did King Cotton cause the Civil War? Or should you look further?

[...] »
The Early Conservation Movement
photographic print, Quentin Roosevelt Planting a Tree, c1904, Edward S. Curtis,

The "go-green" movement is rampant in modern America. However, support for [...] »

National Resources

Federal teaching resources
National Portrait Gallery

Allow students to "meet" their favorite historical figures.

[...] »
Smithsonian
Negative, Dinsmore, Frances. Of Smithsonian. . . , 1915, Harris & Ewing, LoC

What can 19 museums, nine research centers, and the National Zoo offer your [...] »

U.S. Census Bureau

The U.S. Census counts everyone! It creates a current image of the nation [...] »

Ask a Historian

Stonewall Jackson and the Battle of Chancellorsville
woods blown apart by artillery fire at Chancellorsville

The Confederate battle plan at Chancellorsville was extraordinarily daring [...] »