Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of the American Indian: African Native American Lives
A fascinating exhibition on the history of Americans of both African American and Native American ancestry. The exhibit looks at policies and laws that affected them, how they have formed and managed communities, their resistance...
American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association: Social Media's Growing Impact on Our Lives
Media psychology researchers are beginning to tease apart the ways in which time spent on social media is, and is not, impacting our day-to-day lives and our psychological well-being. They are looking at whether time spent on social...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690 1763
Primary source documents, including text and art, provides a look at the diversity and identity of the people in the New England colonies.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: History and Literature
Discusses the state of literature and written history in the 1800s as they related to the development of a national identity, and the role Romanticism played. With the passage of time, more serious literature emerged and authors began to...
Other
Memorial Hall Museum: American Centuries: Kids' Home Page
An extensive interactive that looks at clothing from the 17th through early 20th centuries, furniture, documents, and old tools.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: American Revolution: Rediscovering Britain
Article on colonial attitudes toward Britain and their own political and cultural identity.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Attacking Stereotypes, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Two images that express the growing militancy of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. This article explains how Joe Overstreet (1934-) and Betye Saar (1929-) went head to head with the formidable Aunt Jemima and with wit and irony...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Marching, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This resource by the National Humanities Center discusses the role of physical protest in the civil rights movement. Its primary focus, the print "Freedom Now," by Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), depicts the massing of bodies in the name of...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Writing, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Articles that examine the goals of black literature. It primarily focuses on the advent of the New Negro Movement and critics assertion that black writing should abandon its explicit social and political purposes in favor of more...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Images, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This article review examples of black protest in art by Claude Clark and Charles White. Links to images and supplemental resources are provided here as well.
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Garifuna Americans
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of Garifuna Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Guyanese Americans
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of Guyanese Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Virgin Islander Americans
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of Virgin Islander Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Chaldean Americans
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of Chaldean Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The History of African American Social Dance
Why do we dance? African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and retain a sense of inner freedom. They remain an affirmation of identity and independence. In this electric...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The American Negro and His Fatherland
Read excerpts from this speech given by Re.v. Henry McNeal Turner, a bishop in the AME church, who, by the late 1890s, supported the Back to Africa movement and felt that African Americans would have a better life in Africa.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Louisa May Alcott: Transcendentalism
Explore the impact of transcendentalism on the life of Louisa May Alcott and American society in this video [4:00] from the American Masters film Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind 'Little Women.' Emphasizing self-reliance, civil...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Democracy in America: The Constitution: Fixed or Flexible?
This unit explores the timeless qualities of The U.S. Constitution, the opportunities to amend it, and how it is a pillar of the American identity, through these activities, videos, and outside resources.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Leaving, 1960, Making of African American Identity: V. 3,
This exercise examines black migration from the South in the 1960's through the perspective of Alice Walker's "Roselily." A PDF accompanies this resource, reviewing the deeper meaning behind a passage from this text.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Empire and Identity in the American Colonies
In this lesson plan, students will consider "Empire and Identity in the American Colonies." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
Tramline
My America Field Trip
Have fun learning about what it means to be "American." At this site discover all the privileges you have being an American citizen. There is also a complete list of teacher resource links.
Digital History
Digital History: Why Did the Colonists Rebel and the British Resist?
An interesting look at the make-up of Americans who supported separation from Great Britain, and some explanation of the push-back by Great Britain.
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Face to Face Blog
A blog written by a National Portrait Gallery team highlighting stories of American people, art, and history.
Success Link
Success Link: Famous Faces and Places
Play this Bingo game with early elementary students to help them learn about famous Americans, symbols, and landmarks. The clues are provided, as are the pictures that go with the clues.
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