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Teaching Resources

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1940
The Library of Congress collection includes 2,900 documents representing the work of over 300 writers from 24 states. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents consist of drafts and revisions, varying in form from narrative to dialogue to report to case history. The histories describe the informant's family education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous observations.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

Africans in America
A companion to Africans in America, a six-hour public television series. The Web site chronicles the history of racial slavery in the United States -- from the start of the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century to the end of the American Civil War in 1865 -- and explores the central paradox that is at the heart of the American story: a democracy that declared all men equal but enslaved and oppressed one people to provide independence and prosperity to another.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

African American Perspectives: Pamphlets of the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
The Library of Congress collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African-American history and culture, spanning almost one hundred years from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, with the bulk of the material published between 1875 and 1900. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, and Emanuel Love.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html

African American Odyssey
The Library of Congress collection exhibition showcases the incomparable African American collections of the LOC. Displaying more than 240 items, including books, government documents, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, plays, films, and recordings, this is the largest black history exhibit ever held at the Library.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html

American Memory Gateway
American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html

Library of Congress Map Collections, 1500-2002
The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress holds more than 4.5 million items, of which Map Collections represents only a small fraction, those that have been converted to digital form. These images were created from maps and atlases and, in general, are restricted to items that are not covered by copyright protection.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
This map collection contains to date over 8,000 maps online and focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America cartographic history materials.
http://www.davidrumsey.com/

Teaching US History in South Carolina
The official web site of the South Carolina Teaching American History Project. The site provides an interactive resource for teachers which links historical content to South Carolina social studies standards, effective teaching strategies, lessons, traditional and authentic assessments, and primary historical sources from South Carolina cultural institutions.
http://www.teachingushistory.org/

American Experience Online
American Experience Online has produced over 60 feature sites that complement the American Experience, PBS television's longest-running, most-watched history series. The websites enhance students' viewing experience by encouraging in-depth exploration of the issues surrounding each documentary subject beyond the television screen.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/index.html

Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South is a collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. It is organized into the following projects: First-Person Narratives of the American South; Library of Southern Literature; North American Slave Narratives; The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865; The Church in the Southern Black Community; The North Carolina Experience, Beginnings to 1940; and North Carolinians and the Great War.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/

National Archives and Records Administration
The NARA Digital Classroom not only provides access to historical documents (such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and and the Bill of Rights, among others), but also gives guidance on teaching with documents, conducting research, and locating publications in the National Archives.
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html

The Best of U.S. History Websites
History teacher Thomas Daccord's website provides access to history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories. In addition to links organized by historical period (from Pre-Colonial to Post Cold War), the site offers links to specific topics, including Native American, African American, Women, Government, and Immigration.
http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory.shtml

EDSITEment: The Best of the Humanities on the Web
EDSITEment, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities and the MarcoPolo Education Foundation, is an educational partnership that brings online humanities resources from some of the world's great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to the classroom. Materials are divided into four subject areas: Art and Culture; Literature and Language Arts; Foreign Language; and History and Social Studies.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/

Smithsonian National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History website has exhibitions that explore major themes in American life, from the end of the American Revolution to the present day. The Museum's collection of over 3 million artifacts document our national heritage in technology, military history, transportation, textiles, costume, domestic life, sport, the arts and entertainment, and community life.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/

U.S. History.org
Created and hosted by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, the website features 18th-century American-related content. Currently the collection of websites includes the following: America's Most Historic Mile, Betsy Ross Homepage, Carpenters' Hall, The Electric Franklin, Liberty Bell, Historic Valley Forge, Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine, Philadelphia Oddities, Documents of Freedom, Philadelphia Postcards, and Philadelphia Architects, among many others.
http://www.ushistory.org/

U.S. History Resources at Emporia State University
Website for Teaching History, a refereed journal, aims to provide history teachers at all levels with the best and newest teaching ideas for their classrooms. The site's American History resources include sections on US Government, US Elections, the Holocaust, Science and Technology, Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Teacher Resources.
http://www.emporia.edu/socsci/journal/american.htm

Valley of the Shadow Project
The Valley of the Shadow Project takes two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project is a hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/choosepart.html

Teaching History Online Newsletter
A newsletter that includes news, reviews of websites and articles on using technology in the history classroom.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/history.htm

Organization of American Historians Magazine of History
The magazine focuses on a theme or topic of recent scholarship in American history, and provides readers with informative articles, lesson plans, and current historiography.
http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/

History Matters: U.S. Survey Course on the Web
Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses, this site serves as a gateway to web resources and offers useful materials for teaching U.S. history. The website includes primary documents and guides for analyzing them, articles and resources that help link the past with current ideas and events, and example syllabi and assignments.
http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/

American Social History Project New Media Classroom
The New Media Classroom is a faculty development program designed to help teachers integrate new media -- the latest technological tools -- into their history curriculum. The site includes materials on getting started, online syllabi, humanities websites, classroom activities, scholarship, and web tools.
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu/index_new.html

Teaching with Historic Places
Teaching with Historic Places uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. These include a series of lesson plans; guidance on using places to teach; information encouraging educators, historians, preservationists, site interpreters, and others to work together effectively; and professional development publications and training courses.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/

Making of America
The Making of America website is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection (currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints) is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/

American History at The History Net
A history website with a considerable collection of history materials and resources, including an archive of all the articles from American History currently on TheHistoryNet, as well as sections on the Civil War, the American West, World War II, and Vietnam.
http://www.thehistorynet.com/ah/

Gilder Lehrman History Online
A website created by professional historians to help teachers at all levels to integrate the latest historical scholarship into their classes. The site includes a hypertext history of the United States, a timeline of key events that made American History, an archive of annotated primary source documents, essays on major historical controversies, essays on the history of the diverse ethnic groups that make up the American people, interactive exercises designed to build student skills, and handouts and study guides created by master teachers.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/

United States History Gateway: Teaching American History
An huge collection of annotated links to history materials and resources on the web. The collection is alphabetized, beginning with "Africans in America" and ending with "Virtual Jamestown."
http://www.academicinfo.net/histusteach.html

WebQuest Site at San Diego State University
A site is designed to serve as a resource to those who are using the WebQuest model to teach with the web. site is designed to serve as a resource to those who are using the WebQuest model to teach with the web.
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html

Learning With WebQuests Site at the University of Richmond
Another site housing WebQuests, these written by students preparing to become teachers.
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/as/education/projects/webquests.html

Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT)
MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Links to online learning materials are collected here along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments.
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

Kathy Schrock's Guide for History Teachers
A humongous list of links to history resources, sites, and materials on the Internet. This catalogue features links to numerous thematic and period-related sites, such as America in the '30s, American currency, the Alaska Gold Rush, railroad history, the fur trade, the New Deal, and the Supreme Court.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/history/hista.html

Internet Modern History Sourcebook
The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted North American and Latin American historical texts for educational use in Modern Civilization courses.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html

History Cooperative Journal Links
Tables of contents of nine peer-reviewed American history journals.
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals.html

Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework
Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework that was approved by the Board of Education in October 2002
http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/hss/1022prepub.pdf

Talking History
A thirty-minute weekly radio program produced by the Organization of American Historians that separates fact from fiction and myth from reality through interviews with nationally recognized historians and writers, such as James Loewen, Stephen Ambrose, and William Leuchtenburg. Programs are in RealAudio or MP3 format.
http://www.talkinghistory.org/