For Us the Living
A series of five primary source based learning modules that encourage high school students to explore American history through the stories found in Alexandria National Cemetery.
Prohibition: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick
What did the effects of the 18th Amendment look like? Explore 1921 through 1933 through images and film.
Children's Lives at Colonial London Town
Invite young students into colonial history with the stories of children from three very different families.
The History of (American) Health
Health is both a public and a private concern. Get your students considering the history of health with these resources!
Guampedia
Guam is often left out of discussions of U.S. history. Remedy the situation!
Puerto Rico Encyclopedia/Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico
Connect with your ELL students with this bilingual Puerto Rico Encyclopedia!
Open Yale Courses
Looking for a little professional development? Miss your college classes? Try Yale’s.
Throughout the Ages
Looking for a primary source website created especially for elementary teachers?
Diary of a Civil War Nurse
What was life like for Amanda Akin, Civil War nurse in Washington, DC?
Joe Jelen's Ads as Primary Sources: The Ad Council's Historic Campaigns
Advertisements don’t always use ideas to sell products—sometimes they use ideas to sell ideas. Explore the ideas the Ad Council’s PSAs have sold, Joe Jelen suggests.
Practicing Medicine on the Presidents
When the presidents’ maladies threatened to affect their performance.
The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself
What we know and what we don’t about the origin of the famous line in Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address.
Martha Ballard
Learning about the life of a midwife in 18th-century Maine through her diary and other sources.
Vaccinations: Rites of Passage
Have you had your shots? Which childhood diseases do these public health announcements address?
Paradise in a Breakfast Bowl
A morning meditation on flakes: Do your morals and values help you decide which cereal to eat in the morning?
Back to the Future . . .
In the year 1900, what did Americans think the next century would bring?
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?
History of Hidden Killers: Epidemics in America
Wherever people go, disease is sure to follow. Answer these questions about U.S. epidemics.
Stumbling Down the Road to Health
It seemed like a good idea at the time . . . which “healthful” ingredients and inventions that had unintended consequences?
Back to School
Binders, buses, and backpacks—consider the history of these back-to-school basics.
Snuff ‘n Sniff
Cities as olfactory factories and what, historically, humans have thought and done about it.
The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918
Influenza scares can be deadly—check out 16 documents and images from the 1918 flu epidemic.
Religious Orders of Women in New France
Lives dedicated to teaching and nursing.
Missouri Digital Heritage
Missouri teachers looking for primary sources, look no further. Explore this portal for resources from libraries, universities, archives, and heritage sites throughout the state.
Peace Corps
Explore world and U.S. history simultaneously through universal development issues.
U.S. Fire Administration
Give historical fires perspective through modern statistics.
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series
View 22 census data samples and 65 million records from 13 federal censuses.
The Perilous Fight: America's World War II in Color
Explore World War II’s color film footage.
Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in WW II Arkansas
What was life like during Japanese American internment?
Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection
Discover the men, ideas, and process behind discovering that mosquitoes transfer yellow fever.
Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts
What questions have past censuses posed? What were the results?
Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry
Listen to the recordings of the creator of the microphone and gramophone player.
The Joshua Lederberg Papers
What contributions has bacterial geneticist Joshua Lederberg made to science and healthcare?
U.S. Army Signal Corps Photograph Collection
Take a peek at 1940s military life in Hampton Roads, VA.
World War I History Commission Questionnaires
How did World War I change soldiers’ attitudes, religious beliefs, and employment prospects?
Encyclopedia Britannica: The 1911 Edition
Find out what people thought of everything from ablation to vinegar in 1911.
History of American Education Web Project
Explore the history of education within the U.S, through writings and images.
U.S. Steel Gary Works Photograph Collection, 1906-1971
Relive the construction of the city of steel—Gary, Indiana.
History Through Deaf Eyes
What has the U.S. deaf population experienced?
Characteristics of Census Tracts in Nine U.S. Cities, 1940-1960
How many hospital beds did New Orleans have in 1960? Was it able to accommodate the poor and sick?
HistoryWired: A Few of Our Favorite Things
What American history items do Smithsonian curators like best?
Phillip Morris Advertising Archive
What tactics has the tobacco industry used to sell smoking to the populace?
Today in History Web Resources
Need to check a date? Have students report on their birth dates? Try here.
AdFlip
Nostalgic for X-ray glasses advertisements?
Democratic Vistas: The William Clyde DeVane Lecture Series
Look to the past to consider the prospects of democracy in the U.S.
NBER Macrohistory Database
Looking for historical economics statistics? The NBER Macrohistory Database should be a central resource for you.
Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century
Compare global statistics on topics from infant mortality to literacy.
Kellogg African American Health Care Project: The Oral Histories
What was health care like during segregation?
The 19th Century in Print: Books
What were people reading around the time of the Civil War?
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.
Conversations with History
Brush up on your understanding of international relations with these interviews.
Access to Archival Databases
Delve into more than 85 million records related to U.S. history.
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
More than 50 virtual exhibits ranging from Julia Child to West Point.
WTO History Project
Take a peek at Seattle protest history through the WTO Ministerial Week.
SDA: Survey Documentation and Analysis
Observe statistical trends in U.S. beliefs and demographics from free speech to zodiac signs.
The Barbara McClintock Papers
Meet Barbara McClintock, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist best known for discovering genetic transposition.
Pittsburgh City Photographer
See Pittsburgh, PA, the way it appeared as early as the 1890s.
Reston Collection Images
Explore the planned community of Reston, VA. Gain a better sense of the town that has become a burgeoning suburb.
Harrisburg's Old 8th Ward
Visit the businesses and meet the people of Harrisonburg, PA’s 8th Ward.
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?
Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition, History
What would your life have been like as a housewife in 1850?
Indian Health Service
Disease ravaged colonial-era Native American populations. What health challenges do they face today?
Federal Highway Administration
Do you fit today’s transportation norms? Do you reside in a suburb or a city?
Center for Working-Class Studies
Begin your study of working class and labor history with this website.
Emma Spaulding Bryant Letters
Explore husband-wife relationships through this late 19th century series of letters.
Children in Urban America: A Digital Archive
Imagine what it might have been like growing up over 100 years ago.
Alaska's Digital Archive
View images related to Alaskan statehood and Native Americans.
Vincentian Postcards
Explore 200 years of postcards which document the Vincentian religious order of educators and nurses.
Helen Keller Kid's Museum
Present Helen Keller’s story in more detail with photographs and historical background.
Anne Sullivan Macy: Miracle Worker
When teaching about Helen Keller, why leave out her friend and educator Anne Sullivan Macy?
The History Box
Have a question about New York City or state history? More than 750 articles available.
Folkstreams
View streaming videos on American folk culture from fox hunting to Zydeco.
Medicine in the Americas, 1619-1914
Access works on medicine and health by Clara Barton, Benjamin Coleman, Benjamin Rush, and others.
U.S. Census Bureau
The U.S. Census counts everyone! It creates a current image of the nation with its diversity and class variations.
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
Did you know that Micronesia was once a U.N. trusteeship administered by the United States?
The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II
What alternatives were suggested to dropping nuclear weapons on Japan? What is radiation poisoning?
Liberian Letters
What was life like for freed slaves returned to Africa? Read letters to former owners.
Dolley Madison Digital Edition
Read Dolley Madison’s personal correspondence from her youth through her widowhood.
Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North Pacific Coast
View more than 400 Native American objects selected and presented by the 11 represented communities.
LexisNexis
Search news articles, court cases, journals, broadcast transmissions, polls, data compilations, magazine articles, and more.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
How did recreational drug use grow into a U.S. drug culture? How did it become such a hot topic and a social concern?
Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse
Review litigation studies ranging from mental health facilities and jail conditions to equal employment.
Madison: Celebrating 150 Years
Learn about Madison, WI, from early settlement through its time as the “queen of bootleggers.”
The Adoption History Project
Did you know that adoption was only recognized as a legal U.S. operation in 1851?
Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Harned Walt Whitman Collection
Experience personal accounts of Civil War hospitals and read poetry drafts in Walt Whitman’s journals.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
For when those historical figures suffered conditions you don’t recognize.
National Atlas
Explore maps that enable you to better understand the country that you live in, and the land that surrounds you.
Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)
Looking for ways to use fiction in your elementary history curriculum? Read on for suggestions!
Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia 1876
Primary sources from Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exhibition provide a view of the U.S.’s industrial development.
Profiles in Science
Explore the profiles of 26 scientists, physicians, and experts in biomedical research and public health.
Eugenics Archive
Traces the history of the eugenics movement in the United States.
Alcohol, Temperance, and Prohibition
More than 1,800 primary sources provide a window into the Temperance Movement and Prohibition.
AIDS at 20
New York Times articles from 1981 to 2001 follow the development of the AIDS epidemic.
Anti-Saloon League, 1893-1933
Printed materials preserve the public campaigns of the Anti-Saloon League from 1893 to 1933.
Union Army Project
Presents medical and mortality statistics and records on 35,747 white males who served in the Union Army.
Kentuckiana Digital Library
Collects photographs, texts, and oral histories drawn from 15 Kentucky colleges, universities, libraries, and historical societies.
Teach Women's History Project
Provides teaching and reference materials on the women’s rights movement of the past 50 years.
Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
Showcases more than 900 Work Projects Administration (WPA) posters produced as part of the New Deal.
Historic Government Publications from World War II: A Digital Library
Includes more than 300 U.S. government pamphlets and books on home front issues from World War II.
Disability History Museum
Explore the experiences of those with disabilities through documents and images dating from the 18th century to the present.
Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963
Peruse this collection of over 900 items relating to Chicago’s Hull House to discover its influence on 20th century urban development.
Margaret Sanger Papers Project
Selected materials by and about the “birth control pioneer” Margaret Sanger.
Sunday School Books: Shaping the Values of Youth in 19th-Century America
Provides full-text transcriptions and page images of 1815–1865 Sunday school books addressing religious instruction for youth.
Online Archive of California
Explore California from Japanese American internment or the Free Speech Movement to oral histories.
Do History: Martha Ballard's Diary Online
Explore the diary of midwife Martha Ballard and the creation of two modern historical studies based on the diary.