Primary Source Learning: U.S. History by Time Period

The U.S. History Primary Source Timeline spans nearly 400 years, covering 9 time periods. Each time period includes an overview and several subsections and each of these, in turn, provide background information and a selection of curated primary sources.

• Colonial Settlement, 1600s – 1763
• The American Revolution, 1763 – 1783
• The New Nation, 1783 – 1815
• National Expansion and Reform, 1815 – 1880
• Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
• Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900
• Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929
• Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945
• The Post War United States, 1945-1968

Another resource is the U.S. History by Time Period page. It is divided into 21 time periods and contains a curated set of links to Library primary source collections and resources and Primary Source Nexus posts. Learning activities and lesson plans accessible from this page are highlighted below.

Transatlantic Encounters & Colonial Beginnings

• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Virginia by Capt. John Smith
• Hispanic Exploration primary source set & teaching guide
• Jamestown primary source set & teaching guide
• Beyond the Bubble: The First Thanksgiving
• Primary Source Learning: The Pilgrims, the Wampanoag & the First Thanksgiving
• Teaching Now: Separating Myths from History
• Who Celebrated the “First Thanksgiving”?

Colonial North America

• Geography and Its Impact on Colonial Life
• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Poor Richard Illustrated – Lessons for the Young and Old
• Teaching Now: Zooming In on the Benefits of Primary Source Analysis Using Google Forms

American Revolution

• Primary Source Learning: American Revolution

The Early Republic

• Alexander Hamilton primary source set & teaching guide
• Collection Connections: Thomas Jefferson Papers
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • Jefferson’s Pasta Machine
  • Lewis & Clark Compass & Magnet
  • Steam engine, cam ring & hammer shaft
• The Meaning of the Federalist Papers
• Primary Source Learning: U.S. Constitution
• The Star Spangled Banner K-2
• The Star Spangled Banner 3-5
• Timely Connections: James Madison & Slavery
• Timely Connections: Slavery & Compromise

Territorial Expansion & Manifest Destiny

• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • Eagle map of the United States
  • States & Territories in Population
  • The Way They Go to California
• Indian Territory Resettlement
• Journeys West
• Marco Paul’s Travels on the Erie Canal: An Educational Voyage
• Primary Source Trail of Western Migration
• A Russian Settlement in Alaska: A Community at the Meeting of Frontiers
• Teaching Civic Ideals Using Primary Sources: Cherokee Removal and Federalism
• Westward Expansion: Links to the Past

Transformation in Antebellum America

• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Illustrating America
• Primary Source Learning: Slavery (U.S.)
• Teaching Now: Using the Primary Source Analysis Tool

Civil War & Reconstruction

• Primary Source Learning: Civil War
• Primary Source Learning: Civil War & Reconstruction Primary Source Set
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • The Carpet-bagger
  • First Post-War Legislature
  • Has the war ruined the country?
  • Strong-Weak Government

Origins of the New South

• African American Identity in the Gilded Age: Two Unreconciled Strivings
• After Reconstruction
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  •  An Airship with a “Jim Crow” Trailer
  • Condition of the Descendants of Former African Slaves
  • The Constitutional Amendment
  • Hayes vs. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 1876-1877
  • First Post-War Legislature

Western Expansion

• The Alaska Purchase: Debating the Sale from Russian and U.S. Perspectives
• Comparing Reports of the Battle of Little Bighorn
• Explorations in American Environmental History: The Photographer, the Artist, and Yellowstone
• Guided Primary Source Analysis: A Preacher Tries Farming
• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Presenting Party Platforms
• Indian Territory Resettlement
• Literature Links: My Daniel – Hunting Dinosaurs in Nebraska
• Westward Expansion: Links to the Past

The U.S. & the World Around the Turn of the 20th Century

• 1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
• Around the World in 1896
• Booker T. Washington address to the country (Atlanta Exposition speech): questions to consider (audio excerpt)
• W.E.B. Du Bois argument against Booker T. Washington’s credo of humility and accommodation primary source activity (The Souls of Black Folk; Essays and Sketches)
• Chicago Anarchists & the Haymarket Affair
• Children’s Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
• Collection Connections: Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers teaching resources
• Exploring the Scientific Method: “Mr. Watson – Come Here – I want to see you.” lesson plan
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • 1894 Telephone Lines
  • 1900 Gold Medal Flour Ad
  • Chinese Citizenship in Hawaii
  • Concerning the American Girl
  • East Coast of Florida Is Paradise Regained
  • El Mosquito Americano
  • Hippodrome Theater
  • The immigrant. Acquisition or detriment?
  • Poor Illinois!
  • Taft About to Eclipse Bryan
  • Twentieth-century Transportation
  • Washington D.C. Invites You to the Opening of Congress
  • When Women are Jurors
• Perspectives on U.S. Expansion
• Primary Source Learning: Immigration
• Primary Source Learning: Women in Baseball
• The Spanish-American War: The United States Becomes a World Power
• Thank you, Mr. Edison electricity, innovation, and social change
• Thomas Edison, Electricity, and America lesson plan

Populism & Progressivism

• The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads: The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • Everybody’s Doing It!
  • Goal!
  • Massachusetts Did It
  • Monopoly Brothers Supported by the Little Consumer
  • School Strike
  • Tariff Triumph of Pharaoh Wilson
  • The Woman Whom Justice Brewer Would Make Mayor
• Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: Dangerous Jane by Suzanne Slade
• Primary Source Learning: Labor
• Primary Source Learning: Progressive Era Primary Source Set
• Primary Source Learning: Protest & Reform Primary Source Set
• Primary Source Learning: Women’s Road to the Vote

World War I

• Primary Source Learning: World War I

The 1920s

• The Great Gatsby: Primary Sources from the Roaring Twenties
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • Biggest Business in the World
  • The Brownies’ Book
  • Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St Louis” Airplane
  • Hello, Earth! Hello!
  • Tesla’s 1922 Future Tech Predictions
• The Harlem Renaissance primary source set & teaching guide
• Literature Links: The Great Gatsby & Primary Sources from the Roaring
• The Negro Speaks of Rivers
• The Tulsa Race Massacre Then and Now
• Why did Congress Reject the League of Nations?

The Great Depression & the New Deal

• American Memory Timeline: Great Depression and World War II
• Amateur Night @ the Apollo Race Relations
• Dust Bowl Songs & Photographs
• Infrastructure and Primary Sources: Posters from the Works Progress Administration
• The New Deal primary source set & teaching guide
• Primary Source Learning: Great Depression
• Primary Source Learning: Teaching with Primary Source Posters
• Zooming into Documentary Photography

World War II

• Primary Source Learning: World War II

The Cold War

• Book Backdrop: Countdown
• The Origins of the Cold War Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
• What are the props behind propaganda?

The 1950s

• Baseball, Race Relations and Jackie Robinson
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
• Cornell-Liberty Safety Car
• I Am an American Day
• Literature Links: Ruth and the Green Book

The 1960s

• Cartoonist Commentary-Vietnam War
• Cesar Chavez & Good Citizenship
• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Dedication by Robert Frost
• Primary Source Learning: Civil Rights

Politics & Economics Toward the End of the 20th Century

• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Spiro Agnew parody

Society & Culture Toward the End of the 20th Century

• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • Grand Canyon Tourist Map
  • Indian Timothy Memorial Bridge

The U.S. & the World in the 21st Century

• Border Spaces Across Time
• Fake News & Civic Reasoning
• For the People Act
• Examining Social Justice Through Historical, Classic and Contemporary Sources
• Guided Primary Source Analyses
  • Engine Company 54 lost 15 men, 9/11/01
  • Great Presidential Puzzle
  • Shrinking Glaciers
  • States of the Union
  • Immigrant Soldiers