Other
Kansas Collection Articles: Orphan Trains of Kansas
This site, presented by The Kansas Collection, provides insight into the westward expansion of orphan children from New York City. The page houses links to stories, newspaper articles, history, and graphics associated with the Orphan...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Chinese Immigrants and Mexican Americans
Like Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Chinese immigrants suffered harsh consequences due to relentless westward expansion by whites in the nineteenth century.
Library of Congress
Loc: Nation Expansion and Reform: Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843 1860
Primary source information about traveling the Overland Trails, both to Oregon Country and California.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Liberty for All? Webisode 3
Webisode 3 - Liberty for All? The history of the United States is presented in a series of webisodes, within each are a number of segments.Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: African American Settlers
This presents an overview of African Americans moving and settling in the West.
Library of Congress
Loc: Billy the Kid: Perspectives on an Outlaw
This lesson relates to the westward movement in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students analyze the role that gunfighters played in the settlement of the West and distinguish between their factual...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Mormon Migration
The sources in this set help place the Mormon migration in geographic, political, religious, and cultural contexts, including other westward movement motivated by Manifest Destiny.
National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art: Rolling on the River
Students will explore how westward expansion increased the number of jobs available in the nineteenth century, including being a flat boatman through a painting by George Caleb Bingham.
California Digital Library
Loc: Chinese and Westward Expansion
The Chinese in California, 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. Included are photographs, original art, cartoons...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Our America: Western Expansion
Reviews of children's literature, student activities, and interactive games from Scholastic that enrich a student's understanding and appreciation of western expansion before the Civil War.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
This exhibition explores the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad and its impact on American westward expansion.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Movement South and Westward
Following Eli Whitney's invention in 1793 of the cotton gin -- a machine that separated raw cotton from seeds and other waste -- the cotton market boomed. Planters in the South bought land from small farmers who frequently moved farther...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts, Grade 12: Undaunted Courage
Students explore ideas prominent throughout westward expansion and American literature: myth versus reality. The texts present various perspectives of the West. Students consider the idealism and romance of the American spirit versus the...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Seeds of Empirebuilding
Essay on European-American westward expansion and the conflict new settlement created with Native Americans. Author describes the development of a hierarchical structure in which indigenous peoples were exploited and unprotected.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Art to Zoo What Can You Do With a Portrait?
This is the very first published issue of Art to Zoo. Unlike later issues, it features three separate topics instead of one larger theme. In this issue you can find information and resources for teaching westward expansion and its impact...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Infectious Disease
Investigate the spread of infectious diseases from whites to Native Americans during the westward expansion of the 1800s, and compare cholera to Ebola and other infectious diseases.
The History Cat
The History Cat: u.s. History: The Oregon Trail
A glimpse at life on the Oregon Trail during 19th-century westward expansion. Written humorously with teen learners in mind, students can view original photographs and read excerpts from pioneer diaries for a sense of the arduous journey.
Tom Richey
Tom richey.net: The Trials of the Jeffersonians [Ppt]
Presents key ideas for examining the impact of westward expansion on concepts of nationalism and democracy. Covers the Louisiana Purchase, conflict with native peoples, the War of 1812, and other events.
Library of Congress
Loc: Merica's Story: Oregon Territory
Read about the settling of Oregon country and how westward expansion prompted Congress to make it a territory.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Quiz 1
A five-question quiz mainly over westward expansion in the late 1800s.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Full Steam Ahead: The Steam Engine and Transportation in the Nineteenth Century
This primary source set uses illustrations, documents, and photographs to tell the story of how the steam engine transformed the railroad industry and played crucial roles in the Industrial Revolution and westward expansion.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: Chinese Immigrants and Mexican Americans
Discusses the conflict with Mexican American and Chinese groups as white settlers pushed westward in the nineteenth century. Explains what brought so many Chinese immigrants to America and the roadblocks and discrimination that they had...
US Mint
U.s. Mint: Our Goal Pole [Pdf]
In this four-part lesson, students will demonstate knowledge of the sequencing of events by studying the westward journey, use terms that indicate the sequence of events and demonstrate an understanding of certain historical figures in...