Roots Odyssey

Primary Source Spotlight: Black American History & Heritage

Primary source sets with teacher guides Story maps Curated resource sets – primary sources & secondary too Individuals Groups Topics African American Studies Research Guides Library collections Additional collections outside the Library Online exhibitions Veterans History Project Spotlights, features & special presentations Image Sets Historic African-American newspapers Music & Dance resources Congressional activity Library blog…

Story Maps

Finding Resources: Story Maps

Story Maps are immersive web applications that tell the incredible stories of the Library’s collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps. The story maps are created within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based software platform created by Esri. Story Maps are chock full of primary sources, including photographs, illustrations, texts, newspaper articles, and even maps. “I find story…

Primary Source Learning: Inaugural Poems & Poets

Primary Source Learning: Inaugural Poems & Poets

Poetry has a long history of addressing and illuminating public issues and events but a disjointed and relatively short history of inclusion in presidential inauguration ceremonies. These moments, however, provide additional nuance to the state of the country during these important transitional moments in our nation. Use the links below to read and listen to…

inauguration

Primary Source Spotlight: U.S. Presidential Inaugurations

“I Do Solemnly Swear…” U.S. Presidential Inaugurations primary source sets “I Do Solemnly Swear…” Inaugural Materials from the Collections of the Library of Congress online exhibition Inaugurations: Stepping into History presentation An Orderly Transition The Inaugural Address Looking Back and Looking Ahead Select historical newspaper articles The Inaugural–The Past Reign, the Coming Reign The Herald…

LOC.gov Lesson Plans

Primary Source Learning: LOC.gov Teacher-Created Lesson Plans

The Teacher’s section on LOC.gov features close to 100 teacher-created lesson plans. As you can see from the image above, lesson plans are listed in alphabetical order and there is a handy search bar to help you easily conduct a keyword search. Use the links below to jump to select groupings of the LOC.gov lesson…

LoC-Halloween-Frida-Kahlo

Primary Source Spotlight: Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead

Día de Muertos & Halloween Research Guide Hallowe’en and Dia de Muertos primary source set 2010 Dia de los Muertos Parade Flickr photo album | Note: Walker’s Point, a neighborhood in Milwaukee, WI, hosts the largest Dia de los Muertos celebration in the state; the local art center invites community members to create ofrendas and…

Louise Gluck

Primary Source Spotlight: Louise Glück

Louise Glück is an award-winning American poet—2020 Nobel Prize for Literature, the 2014 National Book Award, 1993 Pulitzer Prize, and 1992 Bobbitt Prize, among others—who also served as a Special Bicentennial Consultant from 1999-2000 and the U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry from 2003-2004 at the Library of Congress. Event video recordings Louise Glück Reads…

Trethewey-Natasha

Primary Source Spotlight: Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey black-and-white portrait & brief bio Chris Wallace interviews Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry Natasha Trethewey photo Natasha Trethewey bio & select poems Poetry foundation Domestic Work, 1937 by Natasha Trethewey Videos Inaugural Reading of Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey 2012 Natasha Trethewey Presents Final Lecture as Poet Laureate 2014 Conversation with Rosanne Cash &…

Pairing-Pictures-Poems

Learning from the Source: Pairing Pictures & Poems to Tell Stories

Students learn the power of pairing pictures with poems to tell stories about historical and contemporary issues. Display the paired primary sources (Image 1 | Image 2), showing only the images (i.e., cover up the text) and inform students that the poem accompanying these illustrations has been removed. Ask them to predict what the poem…

female-poets-history

Timely Connections: Fresh Perspectives from Female Poets

In an article for Edutopia, middle school educator Kasey Short provides suggestions and tips for “Studying Female Poets to Understand History“. After reading this thoughtful article, help your students get some fresh female perspectives of both history and contemporary life with these poetry-related resources. Curator’s Picks: American Women Poets Library of Congress Blog March 26,…

Visit Mt. Egmont, New Zealand Scenic trip by train

World Spotlight: New Zealand

Places in the News: New Zealand April 2009 September 2010 February 2011 September 2011 July 2013 New Zealand country profile BBC New Zealand timeline BBC New Zealand primary source set World Digital Library New Zealand maps New Zealand image set Books & reports about New Zealand Historical newspaper coverage of New Zealand U.S. veteran oral history collections (service…

Clara Barton

Today in History: Clara Barton & the Red Cross

Today in History–May 21–TPS-Barat features Clarissa “Clara” Barton, who founded the Red Cross on this date in 1881. A former teacher, Barton was working in the U.S. patent office at the start of the Civil War. Despite having little nursing training, Barton administered aid to soldiers at several battlefields. After the war she established the…