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90,976 items

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Arguments for educating women, 1735

On May 19, 1735, John Peter Zenger republished this essay in the New-York Weekly Journal. Originally printed in the Guardian , a British periodical, the two-page essay supports the education of women “of Quality or Fortune.” The...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Cadet Nurse Corps, 1943

The Cadet Nurse Corps, established by the Nurse Training Act of 1943, recruited women between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five to be trained as nurses. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt insisted the act be amended to prevent racial...

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The end of the Vietnam War: conscience, resistance, and reconciliation, 1973

Vietnam was "America’s longest war." While US operations tended to be very limited between 1945 and 1964, escalation in the early months of 1965 eventually led to the deployment of more than 2.5 million military personnel to South...

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A revival of religious fervor, 1744

Religion and Philosophy

The Christian History was a revivalist periodical founded by the Boston clergyman Thomas Prince in 1743 to report on the religious revivals sweeping across Europe and the United States. It was the first Christian periodical published...

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Lydia Maria Child on women’s rights, 1843

The best-known work of the poet and novelist Lydia Maria Child may be her poem "Over the River and through the Woods," but she is also remembered for her compelling objections to slavery and her support for underrepresented groups....

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The Cold War in the classroom, 1952

Government and Civics, World History

As the Cold War pervaded domestic as well as international spheres, Duck and Cover , an educational film produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration and Archer Productions Inc., showed children how to react in case of a...

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Robert F. Kennedy on Vietnam, 1967

Government and Civics, World History

On May 15, 1967, CBS broadcast Town Meeting of the World , a program in which Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York and Governor Ronald Reagan of California answered questions posed by the moderator, Charles Collingwood; students from...

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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inauguration, 1933

Economics, Government and Civics, Literature

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, the nation was reeling from the Great Depression and was dissatisfied with the previous administration’s reluctance to fight it. Roosevelt declared that...

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George Washington’s First Inaugural Address, 1789

Government and Civics, Literature

After officially enacting the newly ratified US Constitution in September 1788, the Confederation Congress scheduled the first inauguration for March 1789. However, bad weather delayed many congressmen from arriving in the national...

Lesson Plan

President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation, 1961

Government and Civics

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

Click here to download this four-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

JFK’s Inaugural Address

Government and Civics

4, 5, 6

Unit Objective This lesson on President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core–based units. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original...

Lesson Plan

The First Inaugural Address of George Washington

Government and Civics, Literature

11, 12

Unit Objectives This lesson on the First Inaugural Address of George Washington is part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s series of Common Core–based units. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and...

Lesson Plan

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Government and Civics, Literature

11, 12

Unit Objective This lesson on Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core–based units. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts...

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John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961

Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the thirty-fifth President of the United States. His short, fourteen-minute inaugural address is best remembered for a single line: "My fellow Americans: ask not what your country...

Lesson Plan

World War II Posters and Propaganda

Art, Government and Civics

Click here to download this four-lesson unit.

Lesson Plan

National Security, Isolationism, and the Coming of World War II

Government and Civics

11, 12, 13+

Unit Overview The two decades following the end of "The Great War" witnessed significant changes in American economic, social, and cultural life. The affluence and optimism of the 1920s were tempered by memories of the war and an...

Lesson Plan

The Gettysburg Address: Identifying Text, Context, and Subtext

Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy

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

Objective This lesson is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These resources were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...

Lesson Plan

Lincoln’s First and Second Inaugural Addresses

Government and Civics

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

Objective This lesson on President Lincoln’s two inaugural addresses is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based units. These units enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of...

Lesson Plan

My Brother Sam Is Dead

Government and Civics, Literature

Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...

Lesson Plan

The Virginia Colony

9, 10

Objective In presenting to students documents dating from the earliest European contact with the Americas, teachers are faced with problems of accessibility. The language is often daunting, and the relevance for students of American...

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Civilian describes pillaging near Gettysburg, 1863

On July 5, 1863, Dr. William H. Boyle wrote to a fellow member of the local Columbus Lodge of the International Organization of Odd Fellows, Isaac McCauley, describing the devastation the Confederates had caused in Chambersburg,...

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The Supreme Court upholds national prohibition, 1920

Economics, Government and Civics

After more than a century of activism, the temperance movement achieved its signal victory with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1919. The amendment abolished "the manufacture, sale, or...

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Civil War condolence letter for General Paul Semmes, 1863

By 1863, thousands of Northern and Southern women had volunteered in hospitals to help care for sick and wounded soldiers. In cities and towns near battlefields, wounded soldiers were often placed in private homes and other buildings...

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The origins of FDR’s New Deal, 1932

Economics, Government and Civics

When the nation fell into the Great Depression following the stock market crash of 1929, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was serving as New York’s governor and was responsible for shaping the state’s response to the crisis. The origins of...

Lesson Plan

The Boston Massacre (Grades 4–6)

Art, Government and Civics, World History

4, 5, 6

View the engraving The Bloody Massacre in King Street in the Gilder Lehrman Collection by clicking here . Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units...

Site Search

90,976 items

Arguments for educating women, 1735

Cadet Nurse Corps, 1943

The end of the Vietnam War: conscience, resistance, and reconciliation, 1973

A revival of religious fervor, 1744

Lydia Maria Child on women’s rights, 1843

The Cold War in the classroom, 1952

Robert F. Kennedy on Vietnam, 1967

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inauguration, 1933

George Washington’s First Inaugural Address, 1789

President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation, 1961

JFK’s Inaugural Address

The First Inaugural Address of George Washington

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961

World War II Posters and Propaganda

National Security, Isolationism, and the Coming of World War II

The Gettysburg Address: Identifying Text, Context, and Subtext

Lincoln’s First and Second Inaugural Addresses

My Brother Sam Is Dead

The Virginia Colony

Civilian describes pillaging near Gettysburg, 1863

The Supreme Court upholds national prohibition, 1920

Civil War condolence letter for General Paul Semmes, 1863

The origins of FDR’s New Deal, 1932

The Boston Massacre (Grades 4–6)

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