Scaffolding

Teaching Now: Scaffolding Primary Source Learning

This is a guest post from George Mueller, a high school U.S. history and world studies teacher at Dunbar Vocational Academy in Chicago, Illinois. As part of the CPS Social Science Academy, we were tasked with developing and implementing a lesson using primary sources from the Library of Congress. The TPS-Barat Primary Source Nexus has so…

Twelve Years a Slave

Primary Source Learning: Oral Histories & Personal Narratives

LOC.gov contains numerous oral history and personal narrative resources. Check out the lists below! Teaching resources Analyzing Primary Sources: Learning from Oral Histories Learning from the Source: Chicago Meatpackers & the Unions Learning from the Source: Digital Stories of Our Heroes Learning from the Source: Media & Migrant Laborer Perspectives Primary Source Learning: September 11,…

Altgeld, John P., portrait photograph

Today in History: John Peter Altgeld

Today in History–December 30–the Library of Congress features politician John Peter Altgeld, born on this day in 1847. A lawyer, Altgeld served as a city attorney and a county prosecutor before serving on the bench of Cook County’s Superior Court from 1886 to 1891. In 1892 he was elected governor of Illinois. A progressive, Altgeld passed penal and legal…

The Anarchist Riot in Chicago - A Dynamite Bomb exploding among the police

Primary Source Learning: Chicago Anarchists & the Haymarket Affair

Overview Haymarket Affair Digital Collection—presents original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts regarding the Haymarket Affair, an 1886 conflict between labor protestors and members of the Chicago police force. Materials document the events leading up to the May 1886 riot, the arrest and trial of those accused of throwing a bomb that killed several police…

The Red flag or the anarchists of Chicago

Guided Primary Source Analysis: The Red Flag or the Anarchists of Chicago

Using only specific details from this primary source, what type of person is an anarchist? Use the Primary Source Nexus search bar to find out more about the Chicago anarchists. Describe three things you learned and two things you would like to learn more about. There is a post on the Primary Source Nexus that features…

Emma Goldman, facing the camera

Today in History: Anarchist Emma Goldman

Today in History–February 11–the Library of Congress features anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman, who was arrested on this date in 1916 right before she was to give a lecture on family planning. A Russian immigrant, Goldman joined the labor movement after working in a New York garment factory. Later she would embrace anarchism–the political belief that all…

The Great fire at Chicago Oct. 9th 1871. View from the west side

Today in History: Great Chicago Fire

Today in History–October 8–the Library of Congress features the great Chicago fire, which began on this day in 1871. The fire took at least 300 lives, left nearly a third of the city’s residents homeless, and leveled more than 18,000 structures (Encyclopedia of Chicago). Learn more about this fire and others that burnt on the same day in Michigan and…