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Sergeant Francis Fletcher of the 54th Massachusetts on equal pay for Black soldiers, 1864

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Francis H. Fletcher, a 22-year-old clerk from Salem, Massachusetts, enlisted as a private in Company A of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment on February 13, 1863. One year after the regiment left Boston with great fanfare,...

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George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy, 1783

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In March of 1783, George Washington faced a serious threat to his authority and to the civil government of the new nation. The Continental Army, based in Newburgh, New York, was awaiting word of peace negotiations between Great...

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The Great West Illustrated, 1869

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

The exploration and settlement of the American West coincided with the development of the medium of photography. Photographic images, reproduced in books and newspapers and available for purchase on their own, helped shape Americans’...

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A northerner’s view of southern slavery, 1821

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Aurelia Hale of Hartford, Connecticut, offered her impressions of southern life in this letter of June 11, 1821. Hale, then about twenty-two years old, had recently traveled to Washington County, Georgia, to serve as a schoolteacher....

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Indenture agreement, 1742

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Colonial Americans engaged in many forms of unfree labor, with great numbers of youths moving away from their families to become servants or apprentices. The terms of their service were spelled out in contracts called indentures,...

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A Ku Klux Klan threat, 1868

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

This page contains language that may be offensive or inappropriate for some viewers. Reconstruction politics was a catalyst for widespread racism and hatred that freed people experienced throughout the South. The Ku Klux Klan, founded...

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My Country, ’Tis of Thee

Samuel Francis Smith was a twenty-four-year-old Baptist seminary student in Massachusetts when he wrote the lyrics of "America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)," the patriotic song that would serve as an unofficial national anthem for...

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A Founding Father on the Missouri Compromise, 1819

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In 1819 a courageous group of Northern congressmen and senators opened debate on the most divisive of antebellum political issues—slavery. Since the Quaker petitions of 1790, Congress had been silent on slavery. That silence was...

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A soldier’s reasons for enlisting, 1942

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

"Our country is the entire world and mankind our countrymen!!!" In April of 1942, Sidney Diamond, a chemical engineering student at City College in New York, enlisted in the United States Army against the wishes of his friends and...

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Frederick Douglass on Jim Crow, 1887

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Frederick Douglass tirelessly labored to end slavery but true equality remained out of reach. Despite the successful passage of several Constitutional amendments and federal laws after the Civil War, unwritten rules and Jim Crow laws...

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Suffragists invoke Lincoln, 1910

Government and Civics

In 1910 Washington State voted to approve full woman suffrage, a vote that was influenced by publications and posters such as this one. This poster, declaring that "Lincoln said women should vote," invoked the words of Abraham Lincoln...

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John Philip Sousa critiques modern music, 1930

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), an American composer of classical music, served as the director of the United States Marine Band from 1880 to 1892. During Sousa’s time as leader of "The President’s Own," as the band was called, he...

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"America the Beautiful," 1893

In a brief essay that appeared ca. 1925, poet Katharine Lee Bates described her inspiration for writing "America the Beautiful," the poem that would evolve into one of the nation’s best-loved patriotic songs, during a trip to Pike’s...

Guided Readings

Guided Readings: Slavery and Abolition

World History

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Sid Lapidus Collection: Liberty and the American Revolution Introduction The campaign to end slavery was a prolonged struggle. In England and in America in the eighteenth century, some authors such as Daniel Defoe and Samuel Johnson...

Classroom Resources

Breaking from Great Britain, 1776

World History

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Sid Lapidus Collection: Liberty and the American Revolution By 1776, Thomas Paine had become the most influential writer defending the break from Great Britain. Born in England, Paine arrived in the colonies in 1774, at age 34. His...

Lesson Plan

The Big Bang! The Birth of Rock and Roll

Art, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Overview In the early 1950s, a new form of music exploded onto the scene, exciting a growing teenage audience while startling many others who preferred the music of Bing Crosby and Patti Page. Popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in...

Lesson Plan

American Music Goes to War

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Entertainment is always a national asset. Invaluable in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime. —Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1943 Background Music during World War II had an unprecedented impact on America, both on the home front...

Lesson Plan

Sounds of Change: The Influence of Jazz on the Beat Generation

9, 10, 11, 12

Time Needed Two class sessions Common Core Standards Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning...

Classroom Resources

Statistics: Immigration in America, Ku Klux Klan membership: 1915-1940s

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The following charts are presented in the book The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 by Kenneth T. Jackson. The first chart represents the states with the highest recorded membership in the Klan during this time period. The...

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A patriot’s letter to his loyalist father, 1778

In February 1778, Timothy Pickering Jr. received word from Massachusetts that his father was dying. An adjutant general in George Washington’s Continental Army, Pickering wrote his father this moving letter of farewell on February 23,...

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"The whole land is full of blood," 1851

"The whole land is full of blood." These ominous words were uttered by James W. C. Pennington, a former slave and noted abolitionist, in the wake of Thomas Sims’s infamous trial. Sims had escaped from slavery in Georgia before being...

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Union soldier turns medic at Gettysburg, 1863

After three days of fierce fighting on July 1–3, 1863, nearly 40,000 battered soldiers lay scattered across the blood-soaked fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. As the torrential summer rain poured down on the wounded, Private Elbert...

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African American soldiers at the Battle of Fort Wagner, 1863

On July 18, 1863, on Morris Island near Charleston, South Carolina, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a Union regiment of free African American men, began their assault on Fort Wagner, a Confederate stronghold. After the...

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American Colonization Society membership certificate, 1833

When James Madison signed this membership certificate as president of the American Colonization Society in 1833, the organization’s effort to repatriate America’s free black population to Africa had been underway for over a decade. On...

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A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696

World History

Maritime trade and exploration in the colonial era created an environment ripe for piracy. One of the most famous pirates in history, Captain William Kidd, was commissioned by William III of England in 1695 as a privateer to hunt and...

Site Search

90,976 items

Sergeant Francis Fletcher of the 54th Massachusetts on equal pay for Black soldiers, 1864

George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy, 1783

The Great West Illustrated, 1869

A northerner’s view of southern slavery, 1821

Indenture agreement, 1742

A Ku Klux Klan threat, 1868

My Country, ’Tis of Thee

A Founding Father on the Missouri Compromise, 1819

A soldier’s reasons for enlisting, 1942

Frederick Douglass on Jim Crow, 1887

Suffragists invoke Lincoln, 1910

John Philip Sousa critiques modern music, 1930

"America the Beautiful," 1893

Guided Readings: Slavery and Abolition

Breaking from Great Britain, 1776

The Big Bang! The Birth of Rock and Roll

American Music Goes to War

Sounds of Change: The Influence of Jazz on the Beat Generation

Statistics: Immigration in America, Ku Klux Klan membership: 1915-1940s

A patriot’s letter to his loyalist father, 1778

"The whole land is full of blood," 1851

Union soldier turns medic at Gettysburg, 1863

African American soldiers at the Battle of Fort Wagner, 1863

American Colonization Society membership certificate, 1833

A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696

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