Library of Congress
Loc: For Teachers: Analyzing Primary Source Documents
These student worksheets and activities help students analyze many different types of primary source documents. Life histories, objects, and photographs are all used to engage students.
Library of Congress
Loc: For Teachers: Classroom Materials Using Primary Sources
This excellent teacher resource features lessons that use primary source documents in an engaging way. Included are lesson plans created by teachers, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations and activities, and collections...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Learning Lab: Teaching With Primary Sources
Five lesson plans, complete with videos, primary sources, and document-based questions (DBQ) to encourage students to utilize primary sources and incorporate thinking and writing into daily learning. Topics include: Artifact &...
Library of Congress
Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf]
As the United States expanded westward, many cultural groups came into contact with one another, such as Native American tribes, Chinese, and various Europeans. In this set of exercises, students use primary source documents to explore...
Library of Congress
Loc: Web Guides: Primary Documents in American History
An extensive collection of primary source documents of early development of the new United States. Resources include a wide variety of details about the Northwest Ordinance.
Other
Links to Primary Documents & Classified Transcripts
Check out this page for a list of links to primary source documents regarding the last years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, many of which are declassified transcripts of conversations between Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger.
Library of Congress
Loc: 1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
To better understand the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, this interdisciplinary lesson integrates analyzing historical primary resources with literary analysis. Students work in groups and express themselves...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Using Primary Sources in the Classroom [Pdf]
This lesson provides guidelines for teaching students how to use primary sources such as images, text, or statistics (e.g., maps, census). Includes a document analysis worksheet.
University of California
Uc Irvine: Distinguishing Between Primary & Secondary Sources
This site has an online quiz to test your knowledge of primary and secondary sources.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: The Great Gatsby: Primary Sources From Twenties
Primary source documents, including photos and text, help young scholars understand the time setting of "The Great Gatsby" and, in turn, create their own piece of historical fiction. in the form of a newspaper project.
US National Archives
National Archives: Bring History to Life
How can you actually bring history to life? Here are some tools from the National Archives that allow students to create their own projects using primary-source based activities that develop historical thinking skills. Special historical...
University of California
University of California, Davis: The History Project
The History Project is a growing collection of lesson plans, teaching tools, digitized images, and documents for the teaching of history. Includes assignments for having students apply analytical skills to primary sources.
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center Displaced Persons Camps
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust primary sources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the...
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center After Liberation
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust resources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the Holocaust...
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center the Jewish World and the Holocaust
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust resources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the Holocaust...
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center the Free World and Holocaust Survivors
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust resources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the Holocaust...
Made From Media
History Hit: Twentieth Century World War Two
This site offers primary sources from World War Two including pictures and articles.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Primary Sources: The Census: Who We Think We Are
An hour-long professional development workshop on teaching the function and significance of the census through the use of primary source documents. Features experienced teachers. Materials and a complete lesson plan are also provided.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: The Gettysburg Address
The National Museum of American History has assembled a collection of resources that underscore the significance of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, including a draft of the speech in Lincoln's own hand, a video of the Lincoln Bedroom,...
Library of Congress
Loc: American Treasures: A More Perfect Union: Gallery B
This is a large site from American Treasures covering primary source documents from the early 1800s through the Civil War and on to Western Expansion.
Yale University
Avalon Project: The Louisiana Purchase 1803
A series of primary source documents all related to the Louisiana Purchase. Includes the text of the final agreement, speeches by Jefferson and others. Great stuff!
Library of Congress
Loc: Walt Whitman Notebooks
An amazing site, full of primary source documents, that offers a glimpse into the life and thoughts of American poet Walt Whitman. By paging through Whitman's notebooks, you can see a record of his ideas and witness lines of verse taking...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Evaluating Sources
[Free Registration/Login Required] Are all historical sources equally trustworthy? How might the reliability of a historical document be affected by the circumstances under which it was created? In this activity, students sharpen their...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian:sourcing Classroom Poster
[Free Registration/Login Required] Sourcing asks students to consider who wrote a document as well as the circumstances of its creation. Who authored a given document? When? For what purpose? This poster reminds students before reading a...