Group items tagged

This website from the Immigration History Research Center and the University of Minnesota has collections of digitized letters written by immigrants and to immigrants. It contains original images of the letters as well as translations, since most letters are in languages other than English. This website allows students a first person perspective of the challenges faced by immigrants to the U.S.

This site talks about the causes of the Civil War and has letters, memoirs and diaries of people that lived through the Civil War. It would give kids a better feeling about how people felt at the time the war was going on.

This cite shares differing points of views during the civil war. This site includes letters to and from family members, soldiers, slaves, women and children. It would be interesting to compare the letters to the social studies books kids use in class.

This site is part of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. It would be extremely useful for civil rights units. This is a nice collection of some of Eisenhower's most important correspondence during the Little Rock High School integration crisis. It is also neat to read them because they are scans of the actual typed documents and not just transcriptions. It seems more authentic when students can see the real thing. His notes, diaries, telegrams, letters and press releases really help to show how Eisenhower handled the situation. (Note: There is even an exchange of letters between Jackie Robinson and the president in which they discuss how blacks need to be patient for civil rights)

This site caught my attention because the letters are from an Iowa soldier. He was actually from my grandmother's home town. The site shows pictures of the soldier and the women he was sending them to. It has the original letters along with lesson plan ideas for teachers how to use them with a class.

This fascinating site is filled with information about spies during the America Revolution. Users can explore the letters of spies (both in their original format and a transcribed version) and their stories and techniques. In addition, the site offers a timeline, more information about people of the revolution, and a teacher's lounge with activities and suggestions for using primary sources with all students.

This site compiles the best primary resources that are available to help teach different American history events. The documents include: letters, speeches, books and articles from important people from the different eras of American history.

This site is full of links that can be used when studying the American Revolution. It covers key individuals, spies, battles, causes of the war and a lot more. There is also a timeline link that could be used to teach about timelines.

This website is linked with a lot of information and resources. What I thought was awesome about this site is that it has actual letters written by soldiers and families of soldiers. During a unit on the Revolutionary War, materials like these are priceless and so much more meaningful that words from a textbook.

This site is a large collection of primary documents related to the Cold War.  There are presidential letters, decrees, memorandums, and meeting notes.  There are also documents pertaining to Hiroshima. This site would be great for a high school history or government class to use when studying the Cold War. 

This site is presented by the Virginia Center for Digital History and the University of Virginia Library. It showcases two communities during the Civil War. One count was in the north, and one was in the south. It provides an interesting case study of life on both sides of the war. Students and teachers can use this site to compare maps, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, speeches and records in both communities. It also organizes the war into three eras: the eve of war, the war years, and the aftermath.

This gov doc focuses on the experiences of two families as they settled on the Nebraska prairie between 1886 and 1912. Through primary source letters and photographs it documents the joys and challenges of homesteading in Nebraska.

This site is hosted by the Alabama Department of Archives and History. It contains lesson plans and primary documents to be used in the lessons about the Civil Rights Movement. Primary documents included are letters, newspaper articles, legal documents, and links to photographs.

This site draws from a number of collections (University of California Berkeley, The California Historical Society, and hosted by the Library of Congress). It includes photos, artwork, letters, diaries, and legal documents. The documents touch on the Immigration experience for people coming to the West Coast from China as well as document many of the contributions made by Chinese Immigrants.

Similar to our own Nebraska Memories site, this site provides a wealth of information dealing with Kansas history. This includes photos, letters, diaries, government records and much more. They also have the documents organized in a number of ways including topically and by date in addition to search capabilities. This site could be especially helpful when learning about Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War and Plains settlement.

Some key primary sources regarding the Vietnam War are included on the site along with some helpful suggestions for teachers. There are quite a few interesting reflections on the war and information from "the trenches" included on this site as well.

This site would be extremely useful for history teachers when teaching about Vietnam. There are letters, maps, as well as first-person accounts from people who were in Vietnam.

The Harry S. Truman Library website has a plethora of primary sources in audio, video and government documents. The videos alone contain 500 films from 1934 to 1984, Many feature Truman in some way. Their online documents are organized by important topics. For instance, there is a collection of primary source/govt docs relating to the atomic bombings in Japan. One is even a letter from Einstein to Truman. These documents would be very useful in connection with the 8th grade Nebraska social studies curriculum, where they discuss WWII. The collection on Japanese Americans in WWII would also be great for the high school American History courses.

This site is a WEALTH of information on the history of the United States. It includes letters, documents, photos, audio and video that are all in the public domain (and there fore also legal to use) since they are all owned by the U.S. government. Using the search box will yield many results. My favorite search on this site is to find primary sources about the great depression. A search tip: be sure to click "gallery view" when you look at your search results. It helps you know what type of source you are looking at.

search: Oregon Trail first person accounts and maps that help to explain trails and settlements Lincoln Public - grade 4 - Social Studies * Major rivers and terrain determined trail paths and settlement sites * Motivation varied (Oregon = land, California = gold, Mormon = religious freedom)

There are some great sites at this source. Their topics run from Women's history to Native American history. There are even maps. This would be a big help for upper elementary to 12th grade.

This website has archival photos, documents, letters, videos, and maps that tell the history of Nebraska. Resources can be accessed through a table of contents with lesson plans/activities or by a timeline ranging from pre-1500 to the present. The timeline has sections for Nebraska events as well as national and international events at the time. This website is supported by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, the Nebraska Department of Education and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

To find original historical documents this is the site to visit. It contains the most famous Bill of Rights and US Constitution as well as famous letters such as one written by Elvis to President Nixon and speeches like the WWII Infamy speech given by FDR. Students viewing these actual documents will help bring reality to the people and events in history.

This interesting site provides photographs, letters, newspaper articles, quotes, and famous speeches all related to the life of Gandhi. While the text is probably best suited to middle and high school students, younger students could use other parts of the site to learn about Gandhi for biography projects or studies of passive resistance.

Though sponsored by Random House publishers, this site has a lot of primary source information on popular middle school author Gary Paulsen. Live video clip interviews, biographical information, book list, and synopsis of selected books too. If your Language Arts students are doing author letters or research, this is one site to access for some facts about Paulsen.