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One hundred documents which reflect important events in American history. This site reflects the diversity and unity within our culture and its focus is highlighting, celebrating, and creating discussion that diversity and unity. It is not simply an archive of a broad collection of documents, but rather an archive which represents a vast range of American experiences.

Our documents includes 100 Milestone American historical documents compiled to span United States historical events from 1776-1965. Documents can be accessed by listing/year or visual/digital scroll bar. This resource would be valuable for intermediate elementary students through high school students as well as educators. Primary sources would be beneficial in U.S./American history and government education.

This website has many primary and government documents relating to the history of the United States.  One area that I really enjoyed exploring was the tools for educators.  Under that section, they had many tips for librarians such as creating book displays, bulletin board ideas, and a link to a poster so staff and students can vote on the most important American history documents.

Congress for Kids is designed for students to learn about American History and Government in an interactive way. Fifth graders focus on American Government, so this source fits right into their Social Studies standards. Students can learn about the branches of our government, citizenship, and elections. There is also a section of quizzes for students to test their knowledge of American Government.

This site provides primary sources with lots of topics for research. Students can browse through historic newspapers, old photographs, film, sound recordings, and more. Some of the topics include American history, maps and geography, religion and philosophy, and sports and leisure. There are even short webcasts that are very informative.

"The Library's mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity forthe benefit of the American people." http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Library of Congress site was designed to support Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people. This site allows its users to search collections that include: American memories, print and photography, historic newspapers, preforming arts, veteran's history, sound recordings, film, maps, and manuscripts. Users can access and research this information via digital collections (i.e.) podcast, websites, iTunes or they can search the library catalogs that will prompt them to do a basic search or guided search to ensure they are locating the correct information

The American Presidency Project has many documents of interest when researching our American presidents.  There are primary sources that may be of great value when studying a particular president at his time in history.  The conversations are invaluable because they give a completely true picture of what event was going on at the time.

This section of America's Story focuses on the Amazing Americans who have helped shape American History.  The people are categorized by their profession or what made them famous.  The biographical information for each person provides an great summary of why they were important, links to more stories, photos, and even a timeline of their life in relation to what was happening in America.  Students begin to learn about specific people in our nation's history in 3rd and 4th grade.  This site would lend itself to exploring more information about these people from the trusted source of the Library of Congress.

This site is interactive with options to research famous Americans, learn about events in the past, learn about the different states, and even listen to old songs and video clips. I watched a video of a gymnastic routine in 1894. They called it "Early Break Dancing". This site has appealing visuals and is easy to maneuver. There are also questions that engage the learner. I think this would be a fun site for students.

The Library of Congress: America's Story from America's Library is designed to allow students to have fun with history while learning at the same time. The site provides five specific categories that allow the user to search by people, era, American pastimes and celebrations, and music and entertainment. The site promotes learning through games, trivia questions, true/false quizzes, and links that spark curiosity. It is easy to navigate and designed for all level of learners in elementary school.

I LOVE this website for my younger students - and older kids can have fun with it also. It is bright and active - but has tons of information on American history that is a little off the beaten path.

This website focuses on the 1930s and the New Deal which was passed under the F.D.R.'s administration. Using a collection of letters, newspaper articles, photos, and documents, it has autobiographical stories and interviews about living during that time period. For grades 7-12, lesson plans and discussion panels are included in this resource, making it great for an American History class.

The New Deal Network is a website that focuses on the history of The Great Depression. Documents, photos, speeches, and articles can be found for teachers and students to use when researching this era of American History.

This site has many features including podcasts, audio, and video as well as photo, print, and other primary source documents arranged by era. Users can search from the beginning our country to the present. One of the most unique features of the site was the collection Battle Lines: Letters from America's Wars. This section has 5 different categories of letters from soldiers, one from each era. There is a digital copy of the letter as well as an audio recording of the letter. This would be great to use with second language learners or struggling readers since the text is read to the user. Next to the picture there is also a photograph or print from the same era as the letter. A description of the letter's author is also printed next to the letter. A transcript which is easier to read than the original is also available.

This site focuses on original letters and contains audio files from the battlelines starting at the Revolutionary War to the Iraq War. Through these correspondences, a student will be able to have a better understanding of what war is like for the soldiers and their families from daily happenings to major events. Grades 6 +. Photos, print documents, a teachers guide, and a section called "teachable documents" help makes this a great site to help learn about different eras in our nation's history.

LOVE this website.  Letters from most American wars from Revolutionary War to Iraq.   Each letter appears on the screen and includes a recording of the letter read aloud.  Very powerful to hear the types of details soldiers wrote.  Each page also includes information about the solder. 5 categories to choose from with many letters in each.  The categories are enlisting, comforts of home, love, combat, and the end of the war.

5th graders learn about explorers in social studies and we do a research unit in media.  This site is very cool because it has actual documents that contain personal accounts by American explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders and settlers.  I love reading the actual words from these famous pioneers from long ago.  I think it gives kids something "real" to relate to when studying history.

This site offers primary sources, lesson plans, digital narratives and a host of other features for the classroom. It would be a great asset to anyone studying the American South.

This website is a collection of manuscripts, letters, maps, printed pamphlets, etc. ranging from 1943 through the present time. This site seems to mainly focus on the Revolution, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras. One nice feature for educators is their unit lessons on popular historical events in history. Each unit is provided with visual aids, primary sources, and other learning tools associated with the topic. 

The Gilder Lehrman Institute provides users access to information regarding American history. The sight provides a tab that allows the user to search by era (i.e.) The Civil War or World War II. It also allows the user to access historic documents by collection or access through online exhibitions and encouraging the use of interactive learning tools such as videos, testimony, and timelines. The site also provides students with the neat opportunity to submit their work into essay contests and compete against students from all over the United States.

This website offers a wide variety of source documents relating to American history, such as photos, maps, letters, diary excerpts and pamphlets, from the 1400's through today.

Colonial Williamsburg online is a great resource for information on life in the 18th century, ranging from people, place, trades, etc. They have a feature where you can tour the town of Colonial Williamsburg in 3D and experience audio, video, photography, and other features of the town. The Colonial Williamsburg site also has biographies, essays, articles, and other primary resources from Americans on their day-to-day living in the 18th century.

The American Civil War Homepage gathers together in one place hypertext links to the most useful identified electronic files about the American Civil War (1861-1865). This site has everything from battle plans to genealogy.

Digital History has documents and photos that cover most of the topics taught in American History. Students can search by category or use the online modules that are arranged by topic. The modules include primary sources such as photos and documents. Also included in the modules are a fact sheet, website recommendations, and other books and films that have to do with the topic. An especially fun part of the site is the "You Choose the Headline" feature, which allows students to choose an event from a list and see the actual newspaper headline from that day.

This site is one of my favorites.  It is one of those sites that is packed with so much interest that you don't want to stop exploring.  The set up is very appealing and the appearance of the site is beautiful.  The images, accounts, exibitions and multimedia are so rich and authentic.  There is so much here: guides for teachers, interactive timeline, historical music and more.  This is a must see if you teach social studies.

Digital History offers many sources for teachers and high school students. A section of primary sources that include historic newspapers, documents, court cases, and other sources are available. Visual, multimedia, and interactives are available to enrich student's learning and research process.

Through audio files, this website is a collection of speeches in United States History from various political figures and activists . These sources give a glimpse into events and viewpoints in our history such as the Civil Rights Movement or the Challenger's disastrous flight. Middle School students will be able to listen to what was really said by that individual and what it meant for that time period.

American Rhetoric allows students to take a step into the past and feel as though they are living in a particular time period. I can imagine a class closing their eyes and listening to the powerful words of JFK in his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, or the determination in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Transcripts of each speech are also available on the site, as well as photos that help the students visualize the speaker and the time period. Extremely motivating!

This is part of the American Memeory Project. This combines two archival collections from the Nebraska State Historical Society. It has corespondence and photographs that relay a dipcition of settlement life in Nebraska. This is great for the foruth/fifth grade state projects.

This site is a collection of songs from early American History, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and westward expansion after the war. This would be useful for a unit on any of those eras, especially for a music teacher, however it could be used by a classroom teacher or school librarian as well. I think listening to music from the past really helps students get a better feel for what it was like then. They may be able to picture that time and place in their mind a little clearer while listening to music they would have heard then.

A database of several trials in key points of American and world history are found here. High school students can explore transcripts, photos, indictments, and other documents of several famous trials. Instead of just reading about a famous trial, students can explore several angles of a trial.

The Nebraska Partnership for American History Education provides a variety of primary source resources by theme, time period, photos (1850-1938), and bibliographic collections. This site is useful for Nebraska history, United States history, women's history, Native & African American histories. It would definitely be appropriate for intermediate elementary students through high school students and all educators (lesson plans can be found here).

Online access to Federal Government documents.   Picture of the documents and a description.  Great for teaching early American history or learning about government.