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
Abraham Lincoln Papers
Image, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Home Page Graphic Captions, Library of Congress.

Approximately 20,000 documents provide a window into President Abraham [...] »

Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture

Explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as the American [...] »

Center on Congress

What is Congress? Why should anyone care?

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History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
Give Me (Nuclear) Shelter

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

[...] »
Women's History Month: Picturing Pocahontas

What do you picture when you hear her name?

[...] »
Thanksgiving Dinner in 1943

What traditional Thanksgiving foods would have been hard to come by during [...] »

Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
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?

[...] »
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 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 [...] »

National Resources

Federal teaching resources
Federal Judiciary

Can’t tell an affadavit from an acquittal? Learn the legal lingo.

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National Postal Museum
Ink on paper, Kodak advertisement, c. 1942, National Postal Museum

When going postal is actually a good thing! Explore the Museum's extensive [...] »

National Park Service
Screencapture, FDR Memorial, National Park Service homepage

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

Ask a Historian

Taxation to Revolution
Print, Darley & Felix Octavius Carr, The Stamp Act Denounced, NYPL

It was reasoned that no colonists could fear an act that made them drink [...] »