History of Higher Education: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers
Help students understand the different types of universities and colleges in the U.S. by examining and analyzing a wide range of photographs from the Library of Congress
1916 Children's Code of Morality: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers
Primary sources from the Library of Congress help students explore a fascinating episode from U.S. history: the campaign to teach children to be more moral.
Mormons and Westward Expansion: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers
Teachers guide students to create interactive digital maps detailing the migration of Mormons using Library of Congress primary sources.
Religion and the Labor Movement: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers
Engaging Library of Congress primary sources that connect religion and organized labor.
Religion and the Civil War: A Guide for Pre-Service Teachers
Help students understand the how religious beliefs shaped Americans’ understanding of the Civil War using sheet music from the Library of Congress.
Abraham Lincoln and the Jews
Students learn about the sixteenth president’s relationship with Jewish Americans and his policy of religious tolerance.
American Tourists and the Holy Land, 1865-1900
Help students make connections between religion, technology, and American culture in this teaching module.
On a Mission: Junípero Serra in New Spain
Discover how missionary work impacted Native Americans.
Instigating a Ban on "Spirituous Liquors"
Discover the motivations fueling the 19th-century temperance movement.
Preparing for the Days of Remembrance
How do people talk about and understand the Holocaust today in the U.S. and around the world?
Which Witch?
Words constantly evolve and change over time. What did “witch” mean to these artists?
Guampedia
Guam is often left out of discussions of U.S. history. Remedy the situation!
The Jewish Americans
This site, produced by PBS, uses multiple resources to examine the history and influence of Jewish culture in the U.S.
Puerto Rico Encyclopedia/Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico
Connect with your ELL students with this bilingual Puerto Rico Encyclopedia!
Bland County History Archives
Looking for proof that students can handle extensive local history projects? You’ve found it.
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909
Peruse an extensive collection of pamphlets related to African-American life leading up to, during, and following the Civil War.
Yale Digital Commons
A wheeled pull toy depicting Nixon with a crown? If you’re looking for a unique object to bring up in class, start with the digital commons.
Black-Robed Regiment
Not technically a military force, the “Regiment” proved integral to the success of the American Revolution.
Divining America: Religion in American History
Use this essay on Jewish immigration to flesh out a unit on the Civil War or immigration.
The Salem Witch Trials
Absolving the guilty and punishing the innocent. Historian Elizabeth Reis looks at primary sources recording testimony in witchcraft trials.
Virginia Memory
Are you a Virginia educator teaching VA state history? My your task easy! Explore the Library of Virginia’s 70 collections of digitized primary sources.
Keep Your Top Eye Open
Boston abolitionists on the lookout for slave-catchers in 1851.
Separation of Church and State
The Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Naming Colonial History
Everyone knows what “American Revolution” means. But can you identify these other labels used in naming colonial history?
History of the Occult in America
Historians studying the hidden spirits of religion in America
TeacherServe
Attention Secondary teachers! Searching for essays on religion, the environment, or African Americans in U.S. history? TeacherServe is here for you!
Charters for Colonies
To legally exist, English colonies needed charters from the monarchy. Answer these questions about colonies and charters.
New England Puritans
Trying to build a New Jerusalem on the coast of Massachusetts.
Textbook Twisters: Salem Witch Trials
Burn the witch! Discover how historical coverage of the Salem Witch Trials has changed over time.
A-mouldering in the Grave
“John Brown’s Body” keeps reappearing. What do you know about the song?
The Era of Reform
Was the antebellum period the height of reform movements in U.S. history?
A History of Fundamentalism
What does fundamentalism mean and how has that meaning changed over time?
New Jersey's Quakers and the American Revolution
Did you know the Quakers were pre-Revolution abolitionists?…
The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Public Discourse
Examine this 1877 massacre from a total of 40 different perspectives.
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.
Anacostia Community Museum
What is community? What does it do for us, and how does it shape who we are?
Frederick Douglass's Autobiographies
Use autobiographies to deconstruct views of slavery and historical heroes.
Protestant Immigration to Louisiana
On the trail of French Calvinists—apocryphal stories and actual immigrant populations.
Now What a Time : Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943
Listen to African American Blues from the Fort Valley Music Festivals of 1938-1943.
African American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
View 1,300 pieces of sheet music composed by and about African Americans.
Material History of American Religion Project
Learn about American material culture and its relation to the nation’s religious history.
Divining America: Religion and the National Culture
A comprehensive history of religion and major religious events within the United States.
17th-Century Colonial New England
Explore the history of 17th century New England and, more specifically, the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Jewish American History on the Web
An impressive website for the study of Jews and Judaism in the United States.
Hispano Music and Culture from the Northern Rio Grande
Learn about Hispanic culture with the Juan B. Rael collection of upper Rio Grande folk music.
The American Colonist's Library
This extensive database contains influential documents and literature spanning from 500BC to the 1800s.
The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
A comprehensive guide consisting of over 240 primary source items detailing African American history.
Salem Witchcraft Hysteria: A National Geographic Interactive Site
An interactive website which takes visitors through the Salem witch trials.
American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
What impressions did the average citizen or foreigner form of early America and its people?
The Official Leonard Bernstein Site
Explore the life of a major classical conductor.
University of Missouri-Columbia: Digital Library Collections
A hodge podge of history: England, Missouri, and the greater U.S.
Images of African Americans from the Cook Collection of Photographs
What might your life have been like as an African American in Virginia c. 1900?
Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts
What questions have past censuses posed? What were the results?
Worthington Memory, Online Scrapbook
Explore the history and development of a small town. The online scrapbook provides an uncanny lens into town life.
Digital Archive of American Architecture
Explore U.S. architectural styles and ornamentation, or date the buildings in your town.
WPA Life Histories, Virginia Interviews
Explore Depression-era, ex-slave, and urban youth life stories.
Meeting of Frontiers
How does the settling of the Siberian frontier compare to that of the U.S. West?
World War I History Commission Questionnaires
How did World War I change soldiers’ attitudes, religious beliefs, and employment prospects?
History of American Education Web Project
Explore the history of education within the U.S, through writings and images.
Student Voices from World War II and the McCarthy Era
Imagine traveling from a university to work on a farm.
The Hartford Black History Project
Follow the formation of the African American community in the city of Hartford, CT
Living Voices, Voces Vivas
How do Native Americans preserve their heritage in the world of today?
Lift Every Voice: Music in American Life
What work can be accomplished through music?
American Colonization Society Collection: Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870
View maps of Liberia acquired during efforts to restore freedmen to Africa.
Democratic Vistas: The William Clyde DeVane Lecture Series
Look to the past to consider the prospects of democracy in the U.S.
Texts from Collections of the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Access a selection of rare 19th-century books online.
An American Family: The Beecher Tradition
Did you know that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s family was also involved in abolitionism?
Hannah Arendt Papers
Do you read German? Not to worry. Select documents are available in English.
Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Rare Books c. 1820-1910
Explore Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin life through rare books.
Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
What do the songs people sing tell us about their lives?
The 19th Century in Print: Periodicals
What magazines do you read? What did people read in the 1800s?
The 19th Century in Print: Books
What were people reading around the time of the Civil War?
Web de Anza
Check out this site to see “how the West was won.”
The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925
How did the Protestant Church become central to Southern African American communities?
SDA: Survey Documentation and Analysis
Observe statistical trends in U.S. beliefs and demographics from free speech to zodiac signs.
American Roots Music
Discover blues, country, bluegrass, gospel, Cajun, Zydeco, Tejano, and Native American music.
Samuel F. B. Morse Papers, 1793-1919
Explore the thoughts of Samuel F. Morse, artist and father of the electromagnetic telegraph.
Jonathan Edwards Online
Jonathan Edwards was the grandfather of Aaron Burr, and entrenched in the Great Awakening movement.
Women Working, 1800-1930
What did women think of their work at home, in the arts, and in business?
The New Georgia Encyclopedia
Need a comprehensive site on Georgia history? Why, here you go!
Women of Valor
Meet international anarchist and women’s rights activist Emma Goldman.
Mission to Arizona, 1916–1940: Father Augustine Schwarz, O.F.M.
View 179 images of Catholic missionary and Native American life in Arizona.
Bethlehem Digital History Project
Imagine life as a Moravian in Bethlehem, PA.
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.
The Internet African-American History Challenge
A great website for introducing African American history to young or new students.
WestWeb: Western Studies and Research Resources
This gateway site provides a wealth of resources pertaining to the American West.
American Women's History: A Research Guide
Speed up your online search for resources on American women’s history with this research guide.
Excerpts from Slave Narratives
The 46 first-person accounts on this website effectively chronicle slavery in the United States.
Hitting the Sawdust Trail With Billy Sunday
The life of famous evangelist Billy Sunday is chronicled on this website.
African American Women
Read the memoirs and letters of three 19th-century African American women on this website.
First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
Learn about the American south in the late 19th century through 141 firsthand texts.
A Cybrary of the Holocaust
Visit this website for a firsthand view into the horror of the holocaust.
Children in Urban America: A Digital Archive
Imagine what it might have been like growing up over 100 years ago.
Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection
Explore campus protest ephemera and the youth movements of the 1960s and 70s.
From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America
Peruse this online exhibit on the history of Jewish life in the United States.
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.
Freedom Now! An Archival Project of Tougaloo College and Brown University
Immerse yourself in the historical struggle for the African American vote in Mississippi.
Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words
Get to know Benjamin Franklin through his own writings, cartoons, and letters.
Library of Congress: Webcasts
Access more than 500 webcasts from the Library of Congress.
Vincentian Postcards
Explore 200 years of postcards which document the Vincentian religious order of educators and nurses.
A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life
Explore Jewish heritage outside of the Mid-Atlantic or the Holocaust.
Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles Collection
Search Wisconsin newspapers mainly from 1860 through 1940.
The History Box
Have a question about New York City or state history? More than 750 articles available.
Florida Folklife Collection
Explore the folk lore of Florida—from musical performances and art to occupational lore.
Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution
What roles have Jewish women played in the Second Wave of feminism?
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.
U.S. Census Bureau
The U.S. Census counts everyone! It creates a current image of the nation with its diversity and class variations.
Teaching Future Historians: U.S. History Lesson Plans Using Primary Documents
A diverse array of Antebellum, Civil War, and Gilded Age lesson plans for your convenience.
Illinois During the Gilded Age
Listen to, read, and sing sources from the Gilded Age canvassing women, religion, and more.
Harlem History
Explore the politics, neighborhoods, culture, and arts of Harlem.
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.
Home Sweet Home: Life in 19th-Century Ohio
Examine 19th-century domestic life through sheet music and audio song files.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
Uncover novels, readers, hymnals, almanacs, diaries, maps, treaties, and more from between 1801 and 1819.
StoryCorps
Connect 20th-century events and daily life with real human experiences through oral history audio files.
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760-1900
Explore American life through advertisements, literature, poetry, Civil War envelopes, and more!
Life After the Holocaust: Stories of Holocaust Survivors After The War
Can you imagine starting your life over in the U.S. following the Holocaust?
Atlanta in the Civil Rights Movement
What was Atlanta’s role in the larger African American civil rights movement 1940 through 1970?
Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage
Explore the history of Maryland, from Edgar Allen Poe to the War of 1812.
Red White Blue & Brimstone: New World Literature and the American Millennium
Texts throughout U.S. history have featured imagery from the Book of Revelations, including the the documents on this site.
First Century of the First State University: The Creation of UNC
Primary sources document the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first U.S. public university.
John Brown, Harpers Ferry, Students, History and Technology
Middle school students interpret history at Harpers Ferry.
Baptist Origins
Protestant or not?
Jewish Immigration During the Revolutionary War
Just before the Revolution, between 2,000 and 3,000 Jews lived in the colonies.
From Medieval Europe to Colonial America
What did Colonial America and Medieval Europe have in common?
African-American Perspectives: Pamphlets from 1818-1907
Pamphlets and documents from 1875 to 1900 highlight African American leaders and organizations.
Oral History Digital Collection
In full-text narratives, more than 2,000 people from northeast Ohio discuss issues significant to the state and the nation.
Osher Map Library
History can be revealed through the study of maps, as these exhibits containing more than 600 maps and related documents explain.
Jewish Women's Archive
Learn more about American Jewish women’s contributions to their communities and the wider world with these exhibits and resources.
Thomas Paine National Historical Association
Explore the life and works of one of the most famous revolutionaries—Thomas Paine.
Making of America
Provides more than 1.5 million pages of text in an effort to digitize more than 11,000 volumes and 100,000 19th-century journal articles.
Kentuckiana Digital Library
Collects photographs, texts, and oral histories drawn from 15 Kentucky colleges, universities, libraries, and historical societies.
Documenting the American South
Nearly 1,400 documents covering Southern life from the 18th to early 20th centuries.
Colonial Connecticut Records, 1636-1776
Explore the 15-volume Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, from April 1636 to October 1776.
Florida State Archives Photographic Collection
Presents more than 137,000 photographs of Florida on specific localities from the mid-19th century to the present.
Historical Thinking Matters
Presents four guided investigations—on the Spanish-American War, the Scopes Trial, Social Security, and Rosa Parks—designed to teach students to read primary sources and construct historical narratives.
1896: The Presidential Campaign
Follow the contentious election of 1896 with close to 100 political cartoons related to the presidential campaigns.
Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce
Presents the letters and diaries of Kate and Sue McBeth, late 19th-century missionaries and teachers among the Nez Perce Indians.
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.
Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
Get up close-and-personal with western migrants. Explore personal accounts of westward treks from the perspective of 45 men and four women.
Online Archive of California
Explore California from Japanese American internment or the Free Speech Movement to oral histories.
Internet Moving Images Archive
Reproduces a privately held collection of American ephemeral films produced between 1927 and 1987.
Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
Examine the verbatim transcripts of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.