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.

FIND OUT MORE »

Website Reviews

Find quality websites & primary sources
First Century of the First State University: The Creation of UNC
Illustration, Invitation to the 1843 Commencement Ball, May 1843, UNC.

Primary sources document the history of the University of North Carolina at [...] »

Envisaging the West: Thomas Jefferson and the Roots of Lewis and Clark
Map, A map of the British and French dominions in..., 1755, J. Mitchell, LoC.

Follows Jefferson's life, political participation, and accumulation of [...] »

African Americans in Massachusetts
Cartoon, Colored Scholars Excluded from Schools, 1839, Anti-Slavery Almanac.

Compare perspectives on educational desegregation. How did it affect the [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
Black Days in the Market

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 opened the curtain on the Great Depression. [...] »

Spot the President: Presidential Campaign Ads

Decide whether these statements on the more-than-50-year-old tradition of [...] »

Memorial Day: The Poppy Puzzle

Do you know the history of this symbol?

[...] »

Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
Denmark Vesey
An official report of the trials of sundry Negroes, 1822

Tried and executed in 1822, along with many other slaves, for a plotted [...] »

Labor and Trade in Colonial America
Photo, Weavers at Colonial Williamsburg, May 29, 2010, animalvegetable, Flickr

Was colonial trade really triangular? What kinds of work did colonists do, [...] »

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
Government Printing Office
Photo, Headlines posted in street. . , 1940, Jack Delano, Flickr Commons

GPO is the Federal Government's resource for preserving and providing access [...] »

Los Alamos National Laboratory
Photo, Kids watching rockets at the Summer Adventure, LANL site

Follow the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction through the protection [...] »

Central Intelligence Agency
Glass negative, "Belle Boyd," Confederate spy, Between 1855 and 1865, LoC

You've seen spy movies, but what is the real history of U.S. [...] »

Ask a Historian

Freedom and the National Debt
1837 mock bank note

Old Hickory's hard currency—what are useful focal points in Jacksonian-era [...] »