Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Acehlous and Hercules"
Analyzing a massive primary source? Divide it up! Teachers at the Smithsonian American Art Museum examine a Thomas Hart Benton mural.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Teaching with 19th-Century Art
Watch Suzannah Niepold of the Smithsonian American Art Museum guide teachers in analyzing four works of art.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Westward the Course of Empire"
Watch Suzannah Niepold guide TAH teachers through analyzing the differences between two versions of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Close Observation
Close observation and an inquisitive mind are all the tools you need to start analyzing primary sources! Teachers model analyzing works of art.
Paintings About Segregation
Textbooks describe segregation in a few pages, but these artists share complicated, personal views of how segregation looked and felt.
The Civil War in Art: Teaching and Learning Through Chicago Collections
Integrate these two guides into your curriculum to help students develop visual and textual analysis skills.
Which Witch?
Words constantly evolve and change over time. What did “witch” mean to these artists?
Elizabeth Glynn on Using Art to Create Interdisciplinary Classrooms
Use art to teach both history and how disciplines are interconnected, suggests TAH project director Elizabeth Glynn.
George Washington, A National Treasure
This website by the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery will help students analyze artistic works.
Picturing America
Analyze art in the classroom with these resources from the Picturing America initiative.
Forming Lesson Plans Around State Mandates
How do you teach the effects of WWI on art and literature? Transforming a content standard into a solid lesson plan.
Discovering Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus—a legend without a face? Answer these questions about depictions of Columbus.
Amy Trenkle on Experiencing the First Amendment
For Constitution Day, DC teacher Amy Trenkle’s 8th-grade class carved out their thoughts on the First Amendment.
Using Visual Fine Arts to Enrich Understanding
The socio-cultural impact of historic events or time periods and the interpretation through various forms of media.
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere: Fact, Fiction, and Artistic License
Did Revere’s ride really look like that? Use historical documents to analyze flights of artistic fancy.
Picturing America Program Unveiled at White House
Bring some of America’s greatest works of art into your classroom as teaching tools to foster historical thinking and analysis.