The raw materials of history breathe realism and immediacy into learning. Housed, protected and now digitized by the Library of Congress, such primary sources are available and free to anyone.
This vast collection—some 13 million items and counting—is a treasure for educators and students at all levels to explore, rather than the domain of top scholars and archivists alone.
Teachers who use primary sources catapult students into high-level thinking and meet the demands of standards-based education in new and creative ways. Complete set of independent activities to get to know the Library of Congress resources at your own pace Level_1_Arizona.pdf
We recommend that you use a document to keep the resources you find. You can copy the image to remind you of what it looks like. To make sure you can find it on the Web again, scroll to the bottom of the resource's page and copy that location exampleDIGITAL ID rbpe 2180050b http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.2180050b
The Learning Center (the "Teachers" link on the main page of memory.loc.gov)
Over the past five years Teaching with Primary Sources - Colorado has worked with some amazing educators, and as a result, has acquired a wealth of resources. All of the resources on this site are free to manipulate and use in your classroom.
Below are twenty-five ideas for student projects using American Memory and other primary source collections. Remember to begin with objectives and essential questions. The projects (and fun) begin later!
1.Design a scrapbook of articles on a theme, time period, or geographical location. Include captions as if you were living during that time.
2.Collect articles from one newspaper from a single year. Create a series of vignettes to be acted out in the manner of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
3.Make a thematic photographic exhibition complete with captions and a background essay.
4.Find artifacts and texts about a famous person. Write a letter to that person incorporating information from the primary sources.
5.Create a “Biography in a Box” filled with student-made artifacts that the famous person might have carried or used.
6.Send an e-mail message to a famous person asking for more specific details about an event or time period. Request an e-mail reply from a classmate. The reply should be based on primary and secondary research.
7.Design a Web page to display a primary source analysis of an article or issue.
8.Memorize and present an editorial, poem, or announcement from a historic document.
9.“Walk in the shoes” of an early reporter by writing a short play or interview based on an article or oral history interview. Play the role of the reporter.
10.Make a three-dimensional museum exhibit or diorama that illustrates an event or local happening.
11.Write and illustrate a children’s book about a historical event based on a primary source. Search for pictures in American Memory, or draw your own “old-time” pictures.
12.Reenact a scene from a primary source with a world, national, or local focus.
13.Create a society column based on local news in a historic newspaper.
14.Write a “Dear Abby” advice column that reflects concerns of the time.
15.Write a letter to the editor responding to an event in a primary source document. Refer to the original document, of course.
16.Design a two-dimensional display of pictures, ads, and articles that represent a particular time period.
17.Dress up as a historic person and present a dramatic interpretation of an event or situation in that person’s life. Use period music.
18.Draw an advertisement for a product today using the style and words of past advertisements.
19.Set up a classroom museum with handmade artifacts, copies of newspaper articles, explanatory notes, and knowledgeable tour guides.
20.Search for a famous person’s name and make a timeline of primary sources that, taken together, explain that person’s impact on history.
21.Make a collage to compare and contrast advertisements from yesterday and today.
22.Pick an event from the past, and try to discover how the citizens of Colorado or the United States learned about it. Who first reported the event? What were the opinions of the newspaper publishers? What proof of local reaction can you document?
23.Pick a tourist destination (Pike’s Peak, Denver Mint, Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde, etc.) and locate items that would help early tourists. Create a travel brochure.
24.Search for evidence about early ethnic groups, immigrants, or Native Americans. Be sure to use search terms from the time period. Look for bias in language. How have attitudes toward these populations changed or remained the same?
25.Find a political cartoon. Research why it was published and what opinion it represents, and try to infer why it was funny, ironic, sarcastic, or timely.
Suggestions for using primary sources were compiled from the National Digital Library's Educators' Forum held in July, 1995 and from the Library staff. Educators at the Forum, like many throughout the country, know that history comes alive for students who are plugged into primary sources. These suggestions for student activities can help you enhance your social studies curriculum using authentic artifacts, documents, photographs, and manuscripts from the Library of Congress Historical Collections and other sources.
Make a hypothesis about the uses of an unknown object pictured in an old photograph. Use online and library research to support or refute the hypothesis. Make a presentation to the class to "show and tell" the object, hypothesis, search methods, and results.
Use old photographs to study fashion trends. How has fashion changed over time? How did clothing styles reflect people's work and their roles in society? What clothing styles have carried over into present times?
Study old photographs to trace the development of an invention over time (examples: automobiles, tractors, trains, airplanes, weapons). What do the photographs tell you about the technology, tools, and materials available through time? Who used the invention in the past? How is the invention used today?
Sample Primary Sources: tombstones
Write an obituary for a person memorialized on an old tombstone. Use information from the epitaph and research about the era in which the person lived. Research the meaning of stone carvings that appear on the tombstone. Study epidemic illnesses or other circumstances the might explain common causes of death at the time.
Use a historic photograph or film of a street scene. Give an oral description of the sights, sounds, and smells that surround the scene, presenting evidence from the photograph itself and other sources about the time period. Examine the image to find clues about the economics and commerce of the time.
Select a historical photograph or film frame. Predict what will happen one minute and one hour after the photograph or film was taken. Explain the reasoning behind your predictions.
To encourage focus on detail, show a photograph or film frame to the classroom for three minutes and then remove it. Have students draw the contents of the image on a piece of paper divided into a grid of nine sections. Repeat this exercise with new images and watch students' ability to recall detail improve.
Sample Primary Sources: fine art
Select a piece of fine art that appeals to your senses. Research the artist, the date of the piece, and the medium. What does information about the artist, the medium, the subject, and the composition tell you about the prevailing attitudes and conditions of the time period? (For example, what symbolism is used? how is perspective used? in what roles are people portrayed? what is left out of the composition?)
Research your family history by interviewing relatives. Use letters, audio recordings, and videotape to compile a report on an important time for your family. Make note of differing recollections about the same event.
Work in teams to record interviews of older citizens in the community. Focus on and compile interviews on one aspect of community life such as work, family, or schools. Combine class reports with historical images and documents to produce a documentary on the history of your community.
Sample Primary Sources: music
Research and study lyrics of popular songs from the periods of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. What do the lyrics tell you about public attitudes toward the war? Interview veterans of these wars about their perception of the accuracy of the information in the lyrics.
Have students search for events that have inspired lyrics in current popular music. Have students compare present day events and music to lyrics from the past inspired by historical events. What are the similarities and differences between present day and historical songs and the events that inspired them?
Sample Primary Sources: audio recordings
Introduce an audio recording of a famous political speech. Ask students to think about and write down impressions while they listen to the speech. What is the speaker's key message? What is the speaker's point of view? How does the speaker's oratory style affect the impact of the message? If the text of the speech is available, have students compare impressions from hearing the speech to impressions from reading the speech.
Have students listen to audio recordings from old radio broadcasts. Compare the language, style of speaking, and content to radio and television programs today. How does the content of the older radio broadcast exemplify the events and prevailing attitudes of the time? How does modern radio and television programming exemplify events and attitudes of the present time?
Sample Primary Sources: census data, land surveys, maps, ordinances, blueprints, or architectural drawings
Study historical maps of a city, state, or region to find evidence of changes in population, industry, and settlement over time. Use other resources to find and report on causes for the changes you find. Use maps to illustrate your descriptions of these changes.
Choose a famous, historical, public building in your area. Research blueprints or architectural drawings of the building. With help from an architect or librarian, compare the plans to the building as it exists today. What changes do you see? Why do you think the changes occurred?
Research the recipe for a common food (examples: bread, cake) in cookbooks of different times. Report on differences in the vocabulary of the cookbooks over time. How have terms for measurement, ingredients, portion size, and accompaniments changed? Prepare the food from recipes of two of the time periods you find. Hold a taste test of the end results.
Select a cookbook from another era. Look at the ingredients lists from a large number of recipes. What do the ingredients lists tell you about the types of foods available and the lifestyle of the time?
Sample Primary Sources: advertisements
Use old catalog pages to research fashion trends, household articles, cost of living, and lifestyles of a particular period. Use other sources of information to reconstruct a picture of family life at the time. Who did the household purchasing? What were considered necessities of the time? What were considered luxuries? How do the catalog pages highlight attitudes of the time?
Use newspapers over time to analyze advertising. Have students research advertisements for a particular type of product (clothing, tools, household appliances, automobiles) through history. What information do the advertisements contain? What claims do they make? Who is the target buyer? How has advertising for this product changed over time? What social changes are reflected by changes in advertising for this product?
Find first hand accounts of historical events written by children or young people (example: Diary of Anne Frank). Analyze how first hand accounts give context to historical events. Have students begin keeping their own journals with an emphasis on including current events topics in their entries.
Select a time period or era. Research and read personal letters that comment on events of the time. Analyze the point of view of the letter writer. Compose a return letter that tells the author how those historical events have affected modern society.
Read a personal diary from a historical period. Analyze the individual's character, motivations, and opinions. Explain how the individual changed over the course of the diary. How might that person react if they were dropped into the present time?
Sample Primary Sources: documents in the original handwriting or language
Decipher the original text of a famous document (examples: The Constitution, The Bill of Rights) by decoding historical lettering, spelling, grammar, and usage. Compare the original writing with printed versions of the document today. What has changed?
To help illustrate the writing process, study draft copies of famous documents. Look at how side notes, additions, and crossed out words were used to edit the document. Discuss how the changes affected the meaning of the finished work. Have students practice editing their own writing using similar tools.
Sample Primary Sources: family photographs (of ancestors and their homes), memorabilia, souvenirs, recipes, ancestors' clothes, ancestors' papers, oral histories, local historical societies, genealogical information
Make a record of family treasures (books, tools, musical instruments, tickets, letters, photographs) using photographs, photocopies, drawings, recordings, or videotapes. Put the treasures into the larger historical context of local, state, country, or world events. What was happening in the world when ancestors were using the family treasures? How did those events affect your family?
Find original letters from an ancestor. Read the letters and then research the time and events surrounding the letters in other sources. Analyze the opinions and views of the letter writer based on the time and events of the period.
Trace your ancestry to a country or countries of origin. Research customs, language, dress, foods, and cultural traditions of your ancestral country or countries. Prepare a class presentation of your cultural background. Include exhibits and recipes or prepared foods from your ancestral country. Describe how your family came to live in your community today.
Prepare a community time capsule with the class. What primary sources will you include to describe your present day community for future generations? What important information do you wish to convey? Which primary sources will get your message across? When should your time capsule be opened?
Sample Primary Sources: physical surroundings
Research the history of famous buildings and popular sites in your community through the local library or historical society. Use disposable cameras to make a visual record of those sites in the community as they appear today. Compare historical descriptions and older pictures of sites with your own photographs. What changes have occurred? Why?
Trace the age of buildings in your community. What is the oldest structure? What is the newest structure? Research styles of architecture, commonly used building materials, and the role of buildings through time. How do your community's buildings reflect the evolution of architectural styles and community institutions?
With the help of a local historical society, organize a tour of older homes in your community. Research the age and historical period of interesting houses you find. Who lived in these homes when they were first built? How do the style and location of the homes reflect the role of the original owners in the community? Research and describe furnishing and decorating styles from the time the homes were built. Do the homes look different today?
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