Women's History Month: Picturing Pocahontas
What do you picture when you hear her name?
The New World: A Stage for Cultural Interaction
Religion and profit were driving motivations behind European colonization. Discover how Spanish, French, and Dutch explorers differed in their attempts to accomplish these goals.
Teaching Thanksgiving 2011
Prepare for Thanksgiving with our spotlight page on the holiday!
Which Witch?
Words constantly evolve and change over time. What did “witch” mean to these artists?
European Explorers in North America after Columbus
Who else left Europe following the call of wealth, fame, religion, or other lures?
Resources for Columbus Day
Is Columbus Day just another school day (or day off), or a teachable moment?
Columbus Day: Stories of Exploration
Which tales of daring exploration do you believe?
Ron Gorr on Socratic Seminars with Primary Documents
Anchor Socratic seminars in primary sources and watch your students work together to arrive at historical understanding.
What Do You Mean?: How Language Changes Over Time
This creative lesson transforms language into a historic artifact and enables students to analyze how language changes over time.
Trade Routes and Emerging Colonial Economies
The direct and indirect impacts of various trade routes during the 16th through 19th centuries.
Amy Trenkle's Columbus in the Capital
Come Columbus Day, DC 8th-grade teacher Amy Trenkle introduces her class to the man himself—or, at least, one of the nation’s many memorials to him.
Charters for Colonies
To legally exist, English colonies needed charters from the monarchy. Answer these questions about colonies and charters.
Discovering Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus—a legend without a face? Answer these questions about depictions of Columbus.
Europe Encounters the Western Hemisphere
Can you answer these questions about the “exploration race” that brought Europeans to North and South America?
New World Wonders
How did explorers describe the plants and animals they discovered in America?
American Myths: Christopher Columbus
In 1492, what did Columbus really do?
In Our Own Time: Native American Timekeeping
Pre-Columbian calendars were very different from the ones we use today. Are these statements about Native American timekeeping true?
Jamestown: The Starving Time
Only 60 settlers out of 600 survived the winter of 1609–1610 in Jamestown Virginia. Was “the Starving Time” due to natural circumstances or planned extermination?
Exploration and Innovation
Crossing vast oceans required specialized tools and knowledge. Discover more about navigation and exploration.
Early American Artifacts
What did people living in what is now known as North America leave behind? Answer these questions about archaeological finds.
American Indian Women
Different kinds of power in different cultures. Perceptions of dignified and proper work vary across time and place.
Mundane Lives and Extreme Adventures
What were the primary concerns of English colonists in early 17th-century America?
Religious Orders of Women in New France
Lives dedicated to teaching and nursing.
Cherokee Law of Blood
A Cherokee Nation Supreme Court document reveals the fluidity of racial identity.
Virginia Historical Society
View the Virginia Historical Society’s extensive collection of materials documenting Virginia history.
Historical Maps of the United States
A collection of U.S. and military maps useful for a variety of research.
Discovery and Exploration [Maps]
A collection of maps which chronicle the age of European discovery.
The American Colonist's Library
This extensive database contains influential documents and literature spanning from 500BC to the 1800s.
Map History/History of Cartography: The Gateway to the Subject
A collection of 3,000 historical maps and information about the history of cartography.
NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art
Learn about Native American technology, including wigwams, beadwork, pottery, and tools.
Spain, The United States, and The American Frontier: Historias Paralelas
If you need primary sources on the Spanish in North America, try this site.
National Postal Museum
The mail always comes, rain or shine; but how?
University of Missouri-Columbia: Digital Library Collections
A hodge podge of history: England, Missouri, and the greater U.S.
Best of History Websites
Find top notch history web resources, as well as advice on using technology for teaching.
Museum of Musical Instruments (MoMI)
Find out about the guitar players who came before you, and perhaps, even perfect your own abilities.
Physical Sciences Collection: Surveying and Geodesy
What tools do men use to turn wilderness into private property?
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
One convenient source for major historical U.S. documents.
Brief Timeline of American Literature, Music, and Movies
Explore film, music, and literature in its social context and chronology. Understand the cultural dynamics that lent themselves to the media.
The Yale Map Collection: Online Maps
What kind of map might you have used as an explorer? An early urbanite?
The Luso-Hispanic World in Maps
Peruse maps of Spanish and Portuguese colonization, exploration, and military ventures.
HistoryWired: A Few of Our Favorite Things
What American history items do Smithsonian curators like best?
Today in History Web Resources
Need to check a date? Have students report on their birth dates? Try here.
Heading West and Touring West
View maps of the West, while simultaneously looking into the lives of traveling performers.
Private Passions, Public Legacy: Paul Mellon's Personal Library
Enjoy this sneak peek at the Mellon Collection of Virginia history.
History Cooperative
Catch up on the latest scholarly research, and learn and incorporate new scholarship or innovative findings into the classroom.
Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Rare Books c. 1820-1910
Explore Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin life through rare books.
Florida Heritage Collection
Explore Florida state, regional, and local history.
New Perspectives on the West
Peruse lesson plans about the West on this companion site to a Ken Burns documentary.
Common-Place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life
Immerse yourself in early U.S. history with this scholarly journal.
The History of Sanitary Sewers
Few engineering feats are so overlooked by history as the creation of sewers worldwide.
The Pill
How has the birth control pill altered sexuality and feminine gender expectations?
The Story of Virginia
State standards require you to teach VA history? Worry not! This site covers Virginia history from prehistoric times to the present.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
How can you incorporate digital technology into your teaching, study, or understanding of history?
Rare Map Collection
Explore maps from throughout America’s history, with a special focus on 19th century Georgia.
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Learn about the history of the United States up to 1815 with this website dedicated exclusively to early American history.
NativeWeb: Resources for Indigneous Cultures Around the World
A unique website designed to foster communication regarding all of the planet’s native peoples.
History: The National Park Service
Visit this website to learn the history of many of the 384 areas under the stewardship of the National Park Service.
WWW-Virtual Library, History Central Catalogue
This large gateway site provides a starting point for any and all historical research.
Words and Deeds in American History
View primary documents that helped to shape America’s history.
1492: An Ongoing Voyage
Featuring a variety of secondary sources, this website chronicles the history of early American exploration.
Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery
Explore slavery in America from nine thematic perspectives.
Slavery and the Making of America
An extensive glimpse into slave life and the history of slavery in the United States.
Ancient Architects of the Mississippi
How did the Moundbuilders create the massive earthworks for which they are known?
Medicine in the Americas, 1619-1914
Access works on medicine and health by Clara Barton, Benjamin Coleman, Benjamin Rush, and others.
Portal to Texas History
Texas educators, looking for primary resources on state history? Search this portal for thousands of images and documents drawn from Texas-based archival collections.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Access more than 5,000 biographies, maps, and images relevant to African American history.
Evaluating the Validity of Information
Did the Chinese discover America before Columbus? How would or does this impact our understanding of European explorers and exploration?
American Experience: We Shall Remain
Coming soon to your local PBS station: a new look at the Native American experience.
From Medieval Europe to Colonial America
What did Colonial America and Medieval Europe have in common?
Menu for the First Thanksgiving
Only two eyewitness accounts of that first Thanksgiving remain.
A Look at Slavery through Posters and Broadsides
How to identify the author, audience, date, and message of historical posters.
Images of Native Americans
Illustrations follow European interpretations of Native Americans, through images from popular culture, literary and political observations, and artistic representations.
France in America
In French and English, explore the history of the French in North America from the 1500s through the 1800s.
Cultural Readings: Colonization and Print in the Americas
Examine texts about the Americas produced in Europe from the 15th to 19th centuries.
Center for Archaeological Studies
Showcases archaeological excavations at Mobile and elsewhere in Alabama through images and exhibits.
American Journeys
Firsthand accounts of exploration range from Viking stories to early 19th-century trappers’ journals.
Africans in America
Trace the history of Africans in America through Reconstruction, with 245 images, maps, and documents.
Using Maps as Primary Sources
A 4th-grade teacher shows strategies for encouraging and supporting student analysis of maps.
American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850
Explore the mid-Atlantic region with more than 1,852 maps created before 1850.
Virtual Jamestown
Experience firsthand accounts of Jamestown and colonial history, dating from 1570 through 1720.
The Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake
Peruse 60 primary and secondary materials concerning the voyages of Sir Francis Drake.
Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
Showcases more than 1,230 images depicting the enslavement of Africans, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and slave life in the New World.
Archive of Early American Images
Collects more than 4,000 images from books created in Europe between 1492 and 1825.