three-step activities spanning subjects and grades
Use the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool to analyze this image. What did you discover? What is the Washington Chapter and what are they doing? What more can you learn from the bibliographic record? Review some related historical newspaper articles to find out more. What did you learn? In what ways did your…
Take a close look at the collection of images above (.pdf). What common theme can you identify? Note similarities and differences between the images. Now take a look at the bibliographic records of each image by clicking the links below. What is the function of the main object in each image? Choose one of these and investigate…
Zoom into left half of this map (.pdf or online) to answer the following questions about the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. Where is it and how would you get there from where you live? Why did the National Park Service choose this location? What would you do if you visited the park? Why is it important…
Zoom into this old map. Do some math, how many acres in total are listed on this map. There are 640 acres in 1 square mile. Approximately how many square miles is this farm? Look for clues on the map to see if you can determine when it was made and by whom. Make a…
Zoom into the selected section of the primary source shown above. Look closely at the details and answer the questions below. What do you see? What is happening in this scene? How do you feel when you look at this scene? What do you wonder about? Now look at the complete primary source and answer the questions below….
The image above is small part of an illustration. Look carefully and make a hypothesis about the topic or theme of the larger illustration. Point to specific details that led you to this hypothesis. Next, zoom into a larger section of the same illustration. What additional details do you see? Refine or rewrite your hypothesis about the topic or…
The San Francisco Call. (San Francisco [Calif.]), 20 Dec. 1903. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. Articles (Click the page image above to zoom in and then use the page arrow buttons to read the articles in this section or click the links below.) Boy’s Christmas Aboard a Whaler The Heart of a Child…
Zoom into this political cartoon (.pdf). Fill out a primary source analysis tool to help you look deeply at this source and discover what information it was attempting to convey. In your analysis, did you recognize any of the people? Read the curator note to find out the names of the people the creator depicted in…
The Leavenworth Echo. (Leavenworth, Wash.), 24 Nov. 1916. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. Articles (Click the page image above to zoom in and read the articles or open this .pdf document.) The Nation’s Thanksgiving New York “Kids” on Thanksgiving A Happy Thanksgiving Song of the Glad Folks
The page shown above comes from a transcript of a 1930s oral history interview with George Strester who remembers a memorable Thanksgiving time when his father, a preacher, tried farming in Nebraska in 1873. Click the links below to browse through some related images, then read Strester’s whole story. Describe how the images enhanced your understanding…
Read the lyrics to the song shown above, written by Sylvia Fine. What is the main message of the song? What is the tone of the song? Which words help set the tone? How does the tone influence the feeling you get from this song? Now compare these song lyrics to a draft of the lyrics (.pdf…
Zoom into this 1888 presidential election document online or in a .pdf document. Look closely at the graphical elements of the complete document and compare and contrast the presentation of information in the Harrison and Cleveland maps. Which is more pleasing visually and why? How does the visual presentation affect the tone of each map? Describe…