Primary Sources

  • Elementary Library Services
    Subject Links Page

    Primary Sources

    • Powerful primary sources
      links to a variety of primary source web sites including the American Memory Collection from the Library of Congress, historical speeches, interviews, ads, historical cookbooks and more. The specific web pages are located below as well.
    • NH Historical Society - Working with sources
      a wealth of resources for primary source material specific to New Hampshire.
    • Awesome Stories
      AwesomeStories.com uniquely uses the Internet to link its story content to hundreds of thousands of the world's best on-line primary sources. Enjoy an interactive learning experience as you see relevant maps, pictures, artifacts, manuscripts and documents, IN CONTEXT, within each story. Take advantage of human-based searches for a safe, fast and fun way to learn the real story behind historic events, famous people, heroic exploits, legends, disasters, movies, plus topics of current and general interest.
    • Primary Sources by State
      The Library of Congress provides this clickable map of the US which leads to primary source material available from each state.
    • National Archives: Docs Teach
      National Archives has both activities and more than 3000 primary documents for teachers.
    Why use primary sources in the classroom - a framework from the Library of Congress.
    learning.loc.gov/learn/lessons/fw.html
    Using primary sources in research papers and projects is a time-honored way to engage students with primary historical materials. Yet primary sources can be incorporated into all phases of instruction. This framework will help you use primary sources throughout your teaching.

    American Memory for teachers
    http://www.loc.gov/teachers/
    To find primary source material for American history units at every level, search this Library of Congress site first. The “Learning Page” for teachers includes lessons on the early colonies, the Civil War, and more.

    This Nation
    http://www.thisnation.com/library/
    ThisNation.com is dedicated to providing factual, unbiased information about government and politics in the United States of America. The primary source library includes many historical documents from including Supreme Court decisions, Executive Orders, War Messages, Inaugural Addresses, treaties, political essays, and much more.

    Today in History
    http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html
    Part of the Library of Congress´ “American Memory” site (see above), this page highlights an historical daily event and provides links to related primary sources. Have your middle to upper graders take turns presenting information to the class.

    Wonders From a World-Class Library
    http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
    Photographs of endangered animals, astronomical phenomena, and depression-era workers are just some of the resources available from this comprehensive site. Don't miss the “Maps, Atlases & Charts” section, which offers a glimpse of the evolutionary nature of map-making.

    Journey to the Ancient World
    http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman
    If you teach a unit on Ancient Greece or Rome, you'll find the digital collections available here helpful. There are links to hundreds of images, texts, and museum works, so you can easily show students Greek poetry, Roman coins, or whatever else you need to support your lessons.

    Digitized Collections from Duke University
    http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/collections/digitized/index.html
    Access rich resources for grades four and up, including Civil War Women, advertising, Women's Liberation Movement, sheet music and more. Kids will especially love looking at the nineteenth-century advertisements in “Ad*Access,” which you can use to teach history, media literacy, and critical-thinking skills.

    Africans in America
    www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
    This Web site component to the PBS series on “Africans in America” features an excellent collection of primary sources, including paintings, photographs, and documents. Click on “Resource Bank Index” to see portraits of abolitionists, slave narratives, and more.

    Feeding America: The historic American Cookbook project
    http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/
    Invite your students to explore American history by studying what Americans have eaten, from the Revolution onwards. This site has digitized hundreds of cookbooks, with special sections on regional and ethnic cooking. Weave together history and math lessons by sharing, for example, an 1881 recipe for “Jumble Cake.”

    Historical Speeches
    www.americanrhetoric.com
    This continually-updated site offers streaming audio and video of thousands of historical speeches, from Martin Luther King´s “I Have a Dream” to many of George W. Bush´s reflections on September 11, 2001. Check out “Figures in Sound,” a bank of historical speech clips each showcasing a different rhetoric device, such as metaphor, parallelism, and synecdoche.

    Legendary Interviews
    www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews
    At this online archive, part of the BBC´s site, students can listen to anyone — from late cartoonist Charles Schulz, explaining how he likes to get his readers´ attention, to Frances Crick, who describes discovering DNA. Interviews are broken down into small, labeled audio files, so there´s no hunting down the part you´d like to share.

    America's Story: Primary Sources for Primary Kids
    http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
    Created for younger students by the Library of Congress, this site is easier to navigate than the popular “American Memory” page, so it's perfect for students in younger grades. Children will love finding primary sources tied to their birthdays. They can also click on an interactive map of the United States to explore state histories.

    The Digital Classroom
    http://www.archives.gov/education/index.html
    The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration maintains a fantastic site for tracking down primary sources. Their “Digital Classroom” provides teachers with document analysis worksheets, professional development tips, and lesson plans on the Revolution, the Great Depression, and much more.

    Last revised: 6/21/11

    The links included within the Monadnock Regional School District (MRSD) web pages may let you leave the MRSD's Web site. The selection of links is limited to those that meet our educational purpose. The linked sites are not under the control of the MRSD and the MRSD is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. The MRSD is not responsible for Webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked site. The MRSD is providing these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by the MRSD.