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
Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982
35mm slide, Branding Costume, April 1980, Carl Fleischhauer, Library of Congress

Learn about ranching culture and everyday life in northern Nevada's Paradise [...] »

Penn Museum Online Collections

Exploring the material culture of Native Americans in North and South [...] »

Jefferson's Blood
Image, Jefferson's Blood: The Jefferson Enigma, WGBH educational foundation.

Learn about Jefferson's forgotten descendants, children of his slave [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
Baseball in Black and White

Baseball might be America's favorite past time, but it has not always been [...] »

Reading Photographs: MacArthur and Hirohito

How would you have planned this photograph if you were General MacArthur? [...] »

Close Up on Hispanic American Heritage

Take a look at these fragments from U.S. history. What are they? Where do [...] »

Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
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, [...] »

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?

[...] »
Women's Reform Movement
Print, A downright gabbler, or a goose that deserves to be hissed, 1829

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 reflected the voices of [...] »

National Resources

Federal teaching resources
U.S. Marine Corps

Why are the Marines known as "America's 911 Force"? Explore this division of [...] »

U.S. Fire Administration
Photo, Angel Island Fire, Behind Alcatraz, October 12, 2008, LeeLeFever, Flickr

Give historical fires perspective through modern statistics.

[...] »
National Museum of Natural History
Photo, . . . trephining [sic]. . . , 1926, Library of Congress

Don't let "natural history" scare you away! The museum covers anthropology [...] »

Ask a Historian

Menu for the First Thanksgiving
The First Thanksgiving, Jean Louis Gerome Ferris

Only two eyewitness accounts of that first Thanksgiving remain.

[...] »