Teaching Resources

Immigration and Migration

Over the past fifteen years, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has worked closely with master educators across the country. Many of them have developed unique lesson plans and activities related to this historical era. These resources are included here along with pedagogical videos and other general teaching tools that can be adapted for a variety of time periods and themes in American history.

The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact Through the Era of Removal

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

1607: A New Look at Jamestown

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

A Jamestown settler describes life in Virginia, 1622

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

A map of the Louisiana Territory, 1814

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

A View of Savannah, Georgia, 1734

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

African Americans After Slavery - Lynchings

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Agriculture in America

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

American Colonies: The Settling of North America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

American Colonization Society membership certificate, 1833

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

American Passage: The History of Ellis Island

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

American Slavery in Comparative Perspective

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Andrew Jackson to the Cherokee Tribe, 1835

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress Concerning the Indian Removal Act of 1830: A Common Core Unit

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Bound for America: The Forced Migration of Africans to the New World

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Building a New Land: African Americans in Colonial America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi, 1718

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels:

Civilian Conservation Corps poster, 1938

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Colonial Traveler: A Critical Edition of Two Voyages to New-England

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Columbus reports on his first voyage, 1493

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Cultural Encounters: Teaching Exploration and Encounter to Students

Curriculum Subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Cultures of the Americas, 1200 BC–AD 1600

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Davy Crockett on the removal of the Cherokees, 1834

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Democracy in Early America: Servitude and the Treatment of Native Americans and Africans prior to 1740

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Differing Views of Pilgrims and Native Americans in Seventeenth-Century New England

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Early Contacts: Native American and European Women in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Early European Imperial Colonization of the New World

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Encyclopedia of Ellis Island

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Erin’s Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Essential Questions in Teaching American History

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Economics, Foreign Languages, Geography, Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History Grade Levels: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Everyday Life in Early America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Examining the Middle Passage

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783-1812

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Exploration and Conquest: The Americas After Columbus: 1500-1620

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Facts and Figures for the New Century

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Florida 1513-1821

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Framing Soo Hoo Lem Kong

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

Go West ... and grow up with the country

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Guided Readings: Indian Removal

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Harriet Beecher Stowe sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Victoria and Albert, 1852

Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels:

Home Lands: How Women Made the West

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Horace Greeley: “Go West,” 1871

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Immigrant America

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Immigration cartoon, 1916

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography Grade Levels:

Immigration in America, Ku Klux Klan membership: 1840-1940

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Immigration in the Gilded Age: Using Photographs as Primary Sources

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

Immigration Policy in World War II

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Impact of the Revolution on Women and African Americans: Guided Readings

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

In the Almost Promised Land: American Jews and Blacks, 1915–1935

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Indenture agreement, 1742

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Indian Policy

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Indian Wars: The Battle of Washita, 1868

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Japanese internment, 1942

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Jewish Immigration, Popular Culture, and the Birth of the Comic Book

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

John Quincy Adams and the Amistad case, 1841

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

John Winthrop describes life in Boston, 1634

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

June 25, 1876: An Interpretation of an Historical Event

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

Keepers of the Gate: A History of Ellis Island

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Landing of Columbus, 1492

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Landing of Henrick Hudson, 1609

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Late seventeenth-century map of the Northeast, 1682

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Legacy of Suppression: Freedom of Speech and Press in Early American History

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Louis Wirth: A Bio-Bibliography

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Major European Explorers

Curriculum Subjects: Foreign Languages, Geography, World History Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Manifest Destiny

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Map of the New World, with European settlements and American Indian tribes, 1730

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Mexican Americans and the Great Depression

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Movies and Migration

Curriculum Subjects: Art Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Myths and Misconceptions: Slavery and the Slave Trade

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy, World History Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

New Amsterdam: The Center of the Dutch Settlement

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

New Immigrants in New York

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Norwegian Immigration in the Nineteenth Century

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Literature Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Official photograph from the “Golden Spike” Ceremony, 1869

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Photograph of a “Hooverville,” 1936

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Photograph of an abandoned farm in the Dust Bowl, 1938

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Economics, Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Proclamation of 1763

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848–1890

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Runaway slave ad, 1852

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Runaway Slave Ad, 1860

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels:

San Francisco’s Chinatown, 1880

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Sharecropper contract, 1867

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Spain authorizes Coronado’s conquest in the Southwest, 1540

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Statue of Liberty, 1884

Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Stephen Austin’s contract to bring settlers to Texas, 1825

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Strangers at the Door: Ellis Island, Castle Garden, and the Great Immigration to America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Teaching the Revolution

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, World History Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Ten Mile Day and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750–1789

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Conquest of Mexico: Past and Present Views

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The death of slaves on a voyage, 1725

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Religion and Philosophy, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The First National Census

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

The Golden Door: Italian and Jewish Immigrant Mobility in New York City, 1880–1915

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Great West Illustrated, 1869

Curriculum Subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Grade Levels:

The Human Meaning of Migration

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 13+

The Jungle

Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Language of Cultural Mixture and Persistence

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

The Louisiana Purchase and Its Aftermath

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The New Americans: Colonial Times: 1620-1689

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Province of Massachusetts Bay requests aid from Queen Anne, 1708

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Rise of the City

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

The Trail of Tears

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Project

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The United States Land of Immigrants

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics, World History Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

This Affair of Louisiana

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, 1911

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Foreign Languages, Literature, Religion and Philosophy Grade Levels:

United States Expansionism and British North America, 1775–1871

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Why Do People Migrate?

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, World History Grade Levels: 13+

William T. Sherman on the western railroads, 1878

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

“Food Will Win the War,” 1917

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, World History Grade Levels:

“It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A New History of the American West

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

“The whole land is full of blood,” 1851

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: