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 Singing: 19th-century Song Sheets
Song sheet, Let me kiss him for his mother, Charles Magnus, LoC

How did people learn the latest music trends without electronics?

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National Jukebox

Dance the jitterbug, or enjoy lunch break to the sounds of a brass band.

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Union Army Project
Photographic sketch book, Head Quarters guard..., c. 1865, A. Gardner, Flickr

Presents medical and mortality statistics and records on 35,747 white males [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
New World Wonders

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

Alien Invasions

For each pair of animal and plant species, identify the one that is not [...] »

Food 50 Years Ago

Is your favorite food a recent invention?

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Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
The Modern Civil Rights Movement: A River of Purposeful Anger
Dynamics of Idealism- Volunteers for Civil Rights, 1965-1982 432x240

Textbooks are silent about defining race and racism, even though the modern [...] »

Panic of 1873
Panic as a Health Officer Cleaning the Streets

Beginning in Europe, the Panic of 1873 quickly spread to the United States [...] »

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?

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National Resources

Federal teaching resources
U.S. Mint

A magician may be able to pull coins out of thin air, but most of us can't [...] »

Indian Health Service
Photo, "Baby being weighed by nurse," IHS, 1887-1969, Dept. of Health

Disease ravaged colonial-era Native American populations. What health [...] »

U.S. Geological Survey
Photo, Brown Bat, June 20, 2008, Al Hicks, U.S. Geological Survey

How has land use altered over time, and what did the explorers encounter? [...] »

Ask a Historian

Whites of Their Eyes
Photography, At the Ready, 15 Sept 2007, Flickr CC

Who said, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes?"

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