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
Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey and Engineering
Photo, Front elevation, March 3, 1937, John P. O'Neill, Library of Congress.

Government organizations document historic sites in drawings, photographs, [...] »

History of the American West, 1860-1920
Photograph, Where gold was first discovered in Colo., 1890, L.C. McClure, Denver

More than 30,000 photographs capture life in Colorado from 1860 to 1920.

[...] »
Liberty Rhetoric and 19th-Century American Women
Illustration, Keep Within Compass, 1785-1805, Winterthur Museum.

Compare early women's rights campaigns to the rhetoric of the American [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
To the Source!

Where do historians turn for historical evidence?

[...] »
Constitution Day

Securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and for posterity—answer [...] »

Give Me (Nuclear) Shelter

How much do you know about these iconic emblems of Cold War fears?

[...] »

Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
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 [...] »

Slavery
Photo, "An ex-slave," 1897, New York Public Library Digital Gallery

What was it like to be a slave in 19th-century America? Accounts contrast. [...] »

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
Society for History in the Federal Government
Transparency, U.S. Capitol exteriors, c. 1920-1950, Theodor Horydczak, LoC

Represents historians across executive, judicial, and congressional [...] »

Social Security Administration

Explore both the history of the SSA itself and that of the Social Security [...] »

National Atlas

Explore maps that enable you to better understand the country that you live [...] »

Ask a Historian

Colonial Teenagers
New England Kitchen a Century Ago, 1876, Library of Congress

Young people in their teens were not thought of as a distinct group, but as [...] »