American Federation of Hosiery Workers protest against the boycott of Japanese silk

Primary Source Learning: Protest & Reform Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about protest and reform in the United States. (For background information, check the bibliographic records for dates then review the relevant sections of the American Memory timeline.) Related primary source collections highlighted on the Primary Source Nexus are linked to below. The…

Food will win the war - You came here seeking freedom, now you must help to preserve it - Wheat is needed for the allies - waste nothing

Primary Source Learning: Immigration Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about immigration to the United States. (For background information, review the following: Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 and Immigrants in the Progressive Era). The story may be in digital or print form. It could be nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or even a song. These questions about…

Women farm workers on the picket line in 1966

Primary Source Learning: Postwar United States (1945-1968) Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1945-1968. The wartime economy led to new economic prosperity for the United States and expanded opportunities for many, but certainly not all its citizens. As a result, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and American women took up the fight for civil…

Working on him

Primary Source Learning: Great Depression & World War II Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1929-1945. At the depths of the great depression, which followed the stock market crash in October 1929, over one-quarter of the American workforce was out of work. But President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a variety of “New Deal” programs and told…

City Hall, Brooklyn, showing the elevated railroad and the site of the new subway station

Primary Source Learning: Progressive Era Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1900-1929. The Progressive Era was one of economic growth and prosperity but also one in which many worked to make American society a better and safer place through environmental, business and government reforms. The story about this time of…

Illinois Steel Works & harbor entrance, Calumet Riv., So. Chicago

Primary Source Learning: Industrial America Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1876-1900 when industrial growth helped transform the United States, producing a new class of wealthy industrialists, a prosperous middle class, and a vastly expanded working class comprised of millions of migrants from rural areas and new immigrants from overseas. The…

Scott's great snake

Primary Source Learning: Civil War & Reconstruction Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about a timeframe from the period 1861-1877 when the United States was wracked by civil war, fighting to preserve the Union and end slavery. This costly war (recent research puts the death toll at 750,000) raged for four years but putting the…

Passengers from Washington for the West

Primary Source Learning: Expansion & Reform Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1815-1860, when the United States expanded dramatically geographically, displacing native peoples. But this time was also one of striving for social reforms (promoting temperance, creating public school systems, improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing…

The horse America, throwing his master

Primary Source Learning: American Revolution Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the American Revolution. The story may be in digital or print form and could be nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or even a song. Click on each thumbnail image below to access the full size primary source. You may also use this primary…