This exhibit from the Library of Congress is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the speech by Secretary of State George Marshall that led to the formation of the Economic Recovery Program [ERP] of United States economic aid to post-World War II Western Europe. The site features more than 30 documents, including photographs and cartoons from the Prints and Photographs Division and photographs, letters, memos, and printed material from the papers of Averell Harriman, the ERP special representative in Europe from 1948 to 1950. These materials, accompanied by brief commentary and a list of key dates, document the origins and effects of this successful international initiative. A useful introduction to the subject.

Providing a host of resources on U.S. history survey, the three main features are: WWW.History, Many Pasts, and Making Sense of Evidence.

WWW.History provides an annotated guide to more than 1,000 high-quality websites covering all of U.S. history. Users can browse websites by time period or topic and can search by keyword.

Many Pasts offers more than 1,000 primary sources in text, image, and audio, from an exchange between Powhatan and Captain John Smith to comments by the director of the Arab American Family Support Center in Brooklyn after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Making Sense of Evidence offers eight guides with interactive exercises designed to help students learn to analyze various kinds of primary sources, including maps, early film, oral history, and popular song. These guides offer questions to ask and provide examples of how to analyze kinds of evidence. There are also eight multimedia modules that model strategies for analyzing primary sources, including political cartoons, blues, and abolitionist speeches.

DocsTeach, a National Archives and Records Administration project, recognizes the need to bring primary sources into your classroom. To assist in the effort, NARA has pulled together thousands of primary sources, as well as a selection of pre-made activities and tools for building your own primary-source-centric activities.

Documents offers exactly what it sounds like it would—primary sources. The sources are divided into chronological categories—Revolution and the New Nation, Expansion and Reform, Civil War and Reconstruction, Development of the Industrial United States, Emergence of Modern America, Great Depression and World War II, Postwar United States, and Contemporary United States. Results can then be narrowed further by selecting audio/visual, charts/graphics/data, image, map, or written document. If you prefer, you can use a keyword search. All search results are shown with thumbnails to give you a small preview of the sources for your consideration.

Activities provides pre-made classroom activities. These require access to a computer, and are based on the same tools which the site provides for making your own activities. You can also sort them by historical thinking skill—chronological thinking, comprehension, analysis and interpretation, research capabilities, and issues-analysis and decision-making. Registering gives you access to a much larger collection, many of which are created by other educators. There is no registration cost.

If you're registered, consider making your own activity for use by yourself and others. There are tools which help students to create sequences, participate in analytical discussion, connect documents, geographically map documents, use documents to gain an understanding of the bigger picture, weigh evidence, and examine source context.

Take a moment to peruse the Teacher Resources as well. Here, you can find information on national history standards, using DocsTeach activities in the classroom, Bloom's taxonomy, and the National Council of Social Studies.

Read our Digital Classroom article on DocsTeach for more detailed information on using the site.

This website presents historical sources and teaching materials that address notions of childhood and the experiences of children and youth throughout history and around the world. Primary sources can be found in a database of 200 annotated primary sources, including objects, photographs and paintings, quantitative evidence, and texts, as well as through 50 website reviews covering all regions of the world. More than 20 reviews and more than 70 primary sources relate to North American history.

The website also includes 20 teaching case studies written by experienced educators that model strategies for using primary sources to teach the history of childhood and youth, as well as 10 teaching modules that provide historical context, strategies for teaching with sets of roughly 10 primary sources, and a lesson plan and document-based question. These teaching resources cover topics ranging from the transatlantic slave trade, to girlhood as portrayed in the novel Little Women, to children and human rights. Eight case studies relate to North American history, as do two teaching modules.

The website also includes a useful introductory essay outlining major themes in the history of childhood and youth and addressing the use of primary sources for understanding this history.

This archive provides material from Harper's Weekly relating to the 1868 impeachment of Andrew Johnson, including 90 editorials by George William Curtis and 47 articles by other writers. There are 27 political cartoons, 17 by Thomas Nast, and 47 additional illustrations of people and events. The site provides biographical essays (300-500 words) and portraits of 28 major figures in the impeachment. John Adler, Harper's publisher, wrote five essays (100-600 words) to introduce visitors to the site and the political issues affecting the impeachment. There are 24 sections on the arguments involved in the hearings. Within each section, there are between five and 100 articles from Harper's discussing issues such as conspiracy, moral judgment, the New Orleans riot, partisanship, statesmanship, and the tenure of office act. Articles and editorials are also arranged chronologically. An "Impeachment Simulation Game" is provided for use in the classroom. This site is easy to navigate and will be a useful resource for anyone researching Johnson's impeachment or late 19th century politics.

Featuring primarily maps, texts, and images, this gateway site is designed to be a resource for those interested in the history of the greater Cleveland area. The site includes approximately 35 journal articles (from journals such as the Saturday Evening Post) on the history of Cleveland, its newspapers, its railroads and industries, and a few prominent citizens; 36 digitized books; seven manuscript collections (three merely describe the contents of the collection, while four offer digitized resources); an audio file and a video file; two cartoon collections; and nine photograph collections, containing about 600 photographs. Although many of the collections are located on outside websites, visitors can access the collections by subject, date, geographic location, or format.

For educators, the site includes 20 lesson plans, under such categories as American Heritage and Democratic Process. The classroom activities are well-conceived; they feature problem solving and critical thinking exercises like the Mystery Photo Album, in which students attempt to figure out where in the Cleveland area historical photographs were taken, and By the Neck Until Dead, an e-book that details the history of Cuyahoga County, OH, hangings. The site also maintains a list of local history websites.

This archive and virtual museum offers papers, photographs, and oral histories on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its role in U.S. and international markets from 1929 to the present. There are 742 papers, reports, letters, notes, memoranda, transcripts of Congressional subcommittee hearings, and other documents organized chronologically by decade. Also available are 761 photographs arranged alphabetically. These include portraits, group photos, and photos of important events in the history of the SEC. There are edited transcripts and audio recordings of 33 oral history interviews and seven SEC roundtable discussions (some include essays and video). An interactive timeline allows visitors to explore important events in the history of the SEC.

A galleries section combines text and images in narratives exploring themes or important periods in the SEC's history. Each includes an introductory essay by the exhibit curator and primary materials, including papers, images or video clips, and oral histories. There are edited transcripts and audio of 21 original programs broadcast from the site as well as links to 38 related websites. Search is limited to keyword searches across the entire site. This site provides useful resources for studying the history of business and is an excellent starting point for those interested in the history of the SEC or those studying the history of business, businesspeople, or corporations

These printed materials are representative of the public campaigns of the Anti-Saloon League from 1893 to 1933. A six-page history of the League and the Temperance movement and six biographical essays of movement leaders provide context. Facsimiles of 89 fliers produced by the League advocate temperance with arguments that include the effect of alcohol on puppies and German Emperor William II's opinion of drinking. A periodical section reproduces three covers, three sample articles, and one complete 1912 issue of American Patriot, a temperance magazine, and one cover of American Issue.

Other material includes 14 wet and dry maps of the U.S. produced by the League, three temperance anthems, transcriptions of nine anti-alcohol stories, and 12 pro-temperance cartoons. In addition, six entries from the Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem, published between 1925 and 1930, offer the Temperance perspective on communion wine, whiskey production, and alcohol use in China.