Spotlights on Primary Sources provide a deep dive into documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, offering explanatory text, a transcript, and an image of a featured document. Click on individual spotlights for printer-friendly resources, and note that additional questions for classroom discussion are available to K–12 teachers and parents. View our full collection of Spotlights here.
Colonization and Settlement
- The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493
- A Jamestown settler describes life in Virginia, 1622
- John Winthrop describes life in Boston, 1634
- Indenture Agreement, 1742
- Proclamation of 1763, 1763
- Receipt for land purchased from the Six Nations, 1769
- A report from Spanish California, 1776
Nineteenth Century
- Verses on Norwegian emigration to America, 1853
- Official photograph from the “Golden Spike” Ceremony, 1869
- San Francisco’s Chinatown, 1880
- The Haymarket Affair, 1886
- Statue of Liberty, 1884
- Map of the Foreign-Born Population of the United States, 1900