In this activity, students will analyze a historical map showing percentages of enslaved people by county following the 1860 Census. Students will form an understanding of the distribution of slavery in the southern United States prior to the Civil War.

This site recounts the struggle for control of Hawaii between native Hawaiians and American business interests in the late 1800s. This 1897 petition and a lobbying effort by native Hawaiians convinced the U.S. Congress not to annex the islands. But months later the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana and the Spanish-American War began. The U.S. needed a mid-Pacific fueling station and naval base.

Primary source images, standards correlation, and teaching activities are included in this resource.

Photo of a Aerial view of a complex of Long Island highways that provide access to New York City (1946)

Students match posters, photos, and documents with the ways in which Americans were asked to contribute to the war effort during WW1.

Students analyze a letter written by Jackie Robinson to the White House in 1972. Students are guided to understand that racial equality still had not been achieved during this time. Students analyze tone, audience and context and draw conclusions. Background about Jackie Robinson's role in the Civil Rights movement should be provided to students.

Students analyze a photograph of child laborers and make inferences about the impact of the photograph on the photographer based on the message he was trying to convey. Background information about child workers during the Progressive Era included.

In this activity, students will focus on a letter written to Congress about Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. Students will see that, due to television coverage, the author, Mrs. Jackson, was very aware of the events that day even though she was in a different part of the country: Brooklyn, New York. Students will also look at the author's tone and word choice to discern the kinds of images shown on television.

This is an activity that involves analyzing a map of the Louisiana Purchase. Guiding questions are offered.

The following artifact analysis worksheet was designed and developed by the Education Staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. You may find this worksheet useful as you introduce students to artifacts and primary sources of material culture, society and history.

In this activity, students examine photographs from an Alaskan Native Tribe who converted to the Anglican faith; they look for evidence of cultural assimilation and provide an opinion as to whether or not this type of cultural assimilation is beneficial or harmful to the tribe.

Prerequisite: Students need to have studied the Dawes Act of 1887 and the breaking up of reservations. In this activity, students analyze primary resources to determine how the federal government tried to assimilate Native Americans. Online activity. Focus: Compare and contrast.

In this 1949 photo from the National Archives an automobile is shown with a man on horseback.

Students analyze two letters written by FDR in order to determine the significance that baseball played during WW1 and WW2 in uplifting morale.

In this activity students will identify and define seven key ideas contained in the U.S. Constitution by making matches from the grid. They will then analyze documents that demonstrate each big idea in action.

This activity is designed to prepare students for the Constitution-in-Action Learning Lab at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is a part of a package of pre-visit activities associated with the lab experience.

The Constitution might never have been ratified if the framers hadn't promised to add a Bill of Rights. The first ten amendments to the Constitution gave citizens more confidence in the new government and contain many of today's Americans' most valued freedoms.

Students analyze a picture of the Boston Tea Party. This can be used as an introduction to the American Revolution. Students observe details of the image and develop questions for discussion.

Students match documents with types of civil disobedience and then describe how civil disobedience has been used throughtout American history to inspire political or societal change.

The cartoon analysis worksheet was designed and developed by the Education Staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. This worksheet will be useful when introducing students to cartoons as sources of historical, social and cultural information.

Particularly applicable when teaching first semester government classes, discuss with students Constitution Day and the importance of recognizing and celebrating it. Students can virtually sign a Constitution and the page also links to various resources, including a playlist of videos on different aspects of the Constitution and Constitution Day. Students and teachers can find a transcript of the Constitution, as well as a great overview of the document through "America's Founding Documents: Constitution." In addition, teachers will find a variety of teaching resources, all of which are free.