History, Civics & Social Studies
U.S. Primary Sources Resources for Teachers
79 u.s. primary sources resources for teachers in the History, Civics & Social Studies collection.
79 u.s. primary sources resources for teachers in the History, Civics & Social Studies collection.
Lunchroom Fight I (sourcing intro)
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Lunchroom Fight I (sourcing intro) is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Evaluating Photographs
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Evaluating Photographs is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Intro to the Work of Historians
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Intro to the Work of Historians is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Pocahontas
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Pocahontas is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 7 and organized by History, Grades 7, Common Core.
Salem Witch Trials
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Salem Witch Trials is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
King Philip's War
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
King Philip's War is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
Stamp Act
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Stamp Act is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
Boston Massacre
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Boston Massacre is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
Battle of Lexington
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Battle of Lexington is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
Declaration of Independence
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Declaration of Independence is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
Slavery in the Constitution
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Slavery in the Constitution is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Hamilton v. Jefferson
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Hamilton v. Jefferson is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Lewis and Clark SAC
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Lewis and Clark SAC is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
Manifest Destiny
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Manifest Destiny is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
John Brown's Motivation
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
John Brown's Motivation is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Civil War Photographs
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Civil War Photographs is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
Emancipation
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Emancipation is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Reconstruction SAC
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Reconstruction SAC is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Battle of Little Bighorn
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Battle of Little Bighorn is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
Native American Boarding School
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Native American Boarding School is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
Chinese Immigration and Exclusion
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Chinese Immigration and Exclusion is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
Annexation of Hawaii
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Annexation of Hawaii is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Spanish-American War
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Spanish-American War is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. Du Bois
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. Du Bois is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Child Labor
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Child Labor is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Background on Woman Suffrage
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Background on Woman Suffrage is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
US Entry into WWI
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
US Entry into WWI is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Great Migration
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Great Migration is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Scopes Trial
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Scopes Trial is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Sacco and Vanzetti
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Sacco and Vanzetti is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Migrant Mother Photograph
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Migrant Mother Photograph is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
The Dust Bowl
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
The Dust Bowl is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
New Deal SAC
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
New Deal SAC is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Japanese American Incarceration
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Japanese American Incarceration is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Atomic Bomb
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Atomic Bomb is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
The Cold War
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
The Cold War is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Cuban Missile Crisis is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Montgomery Bus Boycott is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Little Rock Nine
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Little Rock Nine is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 10 and organized by History, Grades 10, Common Core.
Watergate
Stanford SHEG / Digital Inquiry Group
Watergate is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 11 and organized by History, Grades 11, Common Core.
Abraham Lincoln's Rise to National Prominence
Library of Congress
Abraham Lincoln's Rise to National Prominence is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
American Authors in the 19th Century (Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Stowe, Poe)
Library of Congress
American Authors in the 19th Century (Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Stowe, Poe) is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 9 and organized by History, Grades 9, Common Core.
The American Revolution
Library of Congress
The American Revolution is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
The Civil Rights Movement
Library of Congress
The Civil Rights Movement is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 7 and organized by History, Grades 7, Common Core.
Child Labor
Library of Congress
Child Labor is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Alexander Hamilton
Library of Congress
Alexander Hamilton is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
Baseball Across a Changing Nation
Library of Congress
Baseball Across a Changing Nation is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Charts and Graphs
Library of Congress
Charts and Graphs is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for classroom use and organized by History, Common Core, Primary Source.
Children's Lives at the Turn of the 20th Century
Library of Congress
Children's Lives at the Turn of the 20th Century is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 4 and organized by History, Grades 4, Common Core.
Examining Rosa Parks's Arrest Record
NARA DocsTeach
Examining Rosa Parks's Arrest Record is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Lewis Hine: Shedding Light on Child Labor
NARA DocsTeach
Lewis Hine: Shedding Light on Child Labor is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
Contextualizing a Photograph: Chinese Village
NARA DocsTeach
Contextualizing a Photograph: Chinese Village is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 6 and organized by History, Grades 6, Common Core.
From Slavery to Juneteenth
NARA DocsTeach
From Slavery to Juneteenth is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 7 and organized by History, Grades 7, Common Core.
What Kind of Leader Was MacArthur?
NARA DocsTeach
What Kind of Leader Was MacArthur? is a Primary Source resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for grades 8 and organized by History, Grades 8, Common Core.
NARA Document Analysis Worksheets (master set)
National Archives
NARA Document Analysis Worksheets (master set) is a teaching resource in the U.S. Primary Sources collection, selected for classroom use and organized by History, archives.gov.
Library of Congress: Teaching with Primary Sources (Langston Hughes materials)
Library of Congress
LOC teacher guides with primary-source images and audio related to Hughes. Includes photographs, manuscripts, and audio recordings. For the campaign: these become discoverable artifacts in the fictional 1958 Harlem…
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Harlem photographs collection
New York Public Library / Schomburg Center
Digital collection of Harlem photographs. The campaign page already uses a ca. 1946 photograph of West 125th Street from this collection. For bookwormburrows: these photographs are the visual substrate of the dimension…
Hughes House at 20 East 127th Street (NYC Landmark, NRHP listed 1982)
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LP-1135, designated 1981)
Official landmark designation report. Hughes occupied the top floor of this 1869 Italianate brownstone as a workroom from 1947 to 1967. The Harpers purchased the house in 1947; Hughes moved in with them…
NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project: Langston Hughes Residence
NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project / Amanda Davis
Detailed entry on Hughes at 20 East 127th Street with notes on the Emerson and Ethel Harper household, the birth-year correction (1901 not 1902 per 2018 research), interior photographs, and references to Rampersad biography vol. II…
Newsela: Langston Hughes biographical articles (lexile-leveled)
Newsela
Lexile-leveled biographical articles for differentiated reading. Same content adjusted to multiple reading levels (typically 5 levels from 3rd grade through 12th). For mixed Grade 7 reading levels. Requires school subscription for full access…
20 East 127th Street: Langston Hughes House (Langston Hughes Place)
I, Too, Arts Collective / NYC Tourism
Hughes lived on the top floor from 1947 to 1967 with the Emerson and Ethel Harper family. Wrote Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and I Wonder as I Wander here. NYC Landmark 1981, NRHP 1982. Now home to I, Too…
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Arthur Schomburg Center, 515 Malcolm X Blvd)
New York Public Library
Hughes’s ashes are interred beneath a medallion in the floor outside the auditorium named for him. The center holds his papers and is the major archival resource for Harlem Renaissance research…
Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard): Harlem’s heartbeat (Hughes, Juke Box Love Song)
Wikipedia / NYC geography
Hughes described Lenox Avenue’s traffic as Harlem’s heartbeat in Juke Box Love Song. Runs from Central Park North (110th) to 147th Street. Mount Morris Park Historic District from 119th to 123rd…
Gothamist: Langston Hughes Lives On In Harlem (walking tour overview)
Gothamist
Overview of Hughes sites: the brownstone, the Schomburg Center ashes, the block renaming to Langston Hughes Place. Quotes Hughes: I would rather have a kitchenette in Harlem than a mansion in Westchester…
Harlem Renaissance (National Gallery of Art, Uncovering America)
National Gallery of Art
Covers Aaron Douglas, Winold Reiss, Alain Locke The New Negro (1925), Harlem Community Art Center. Strong on visual-arts vocabulary for the dream-layer where art populates the streets. Free.
A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance (NMAAHC, Smithsonian)
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Authoritative overview. Cites Alain Locke Enter the New Negro, Survey Graphic 6 (March 1925) p. 634, formulating the Harlem Renaissance as a spiritual Coming of Age. Useful as canonical period self-description for the fictional 1958 Harlem. Free.
The Poet’s Voice: Langston Hughes and You (NEH / EDSITEment)
National Endowment for the Humanities / EDSITEment
Five-journal-entry sequence built around Negro Speaks of Rivers, Mother to Son, and others. Defines and develops voice. Notes Hughes 1958 collaboration with Henry Red Allen band, a useful 1958 anchor for the campaign. Free.
Teach This Poem: Theme for English B by Langston Hughes (poets.org)
Academy of American Poets / Dr. Madeleine Fuchs Holzer
Free lesson plan by Academy Educator in Residence. Theme for English B is the poem where Hughes speaker walks from Columbia down through Harlem, the same geography the campaign bookworms traverse. Free.
Teach This Poem: As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes (poets.org, with Ellington audio)
Academy of American Poets
Includes Duke Ellington/Johnny Hodges audio integration of Weary Blues. Develops listening and cross-media analysis. In the fictional 1958 Harlem: bookworms might hear this music from a window on Lenox Avenue. Free.
The Harlem Renaissance lesson plan (PBS NewsHour Classroom, found poem activity)
PBS NewsHour Classroom / Daniella K. Garran
Includes Found poem activity and Lasting Legacy essay assignment. The Found poem technique maps onto the campaign: bookworms collecting words and phrases from the dimension to compose a poem is a natural in-game activity. Free.
Curry, Izola Ware (Stanford King Institute encyclopedia entry)
Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford
Authoritative scholarly entry. Izola Ware Curry stabbed King at Blumstein’s Department Store (230 West 125th Street) on September 20 1958 with a 7-inch steel letter opener. More than two hours of surgery at Harlem Hospital…
How an Assassination Attempt Affirmed MLK’s Faith in Nonviolence (History.com)
History.com / A&E
Long-form retrospective. Identifies operating surgeons Drs. Emil A. Naclerio and John W. V. Cordice. Confirms Blumstein’s at 230 West 125th, the letter opener, and King’s nonviolent response statements of September 30 and October 24 1958. Free.
Thank You M’am 1976 short film record (NMAAHC, Smithsonian, object 2017.55.45.1a)
National Museum of African American History and Culture
16mm Eric Jones / Rosetta LeNoire dramatization, transferred from DC Public Library. The canonical short film of the story with NMAAHC provenance. Free record; film availability varies.
WLIB station history (1190 kHz, Hotel Theresa, Hal Jackson, The House That Jack Built)
Wikipedia (citing FCC and Inner City Broadcasting records)
In 1958 WLIB broadcast from the Harlem Radio Center in the Hotel Theresa with pioneering Black DJ Hal Jackson on staff. Jackson anchored The House That Jack Built. Daytime-only. In the campaign: WLIB is the radio station playing in Mrs. Jones’s room. Free.
WWRL station history (1600 kHz, competing Black AM station)
Wikipedia
The competing Black AM station serving Harlem in 1958. WLIB and WWRL were the two AM radios most likely playing in any Harlem boarding-house room. Free.
Apollo Theater history (R&B revue format introduced 1955 by Tommy Dr. Jive Smalls)
Apollo Theater Foundation
In 1955 DJ Tommy Dr. Jive Smalls brought the R&B Revue concept to Apollo manager Bobby Schiffman. By September 1958 the house was three years into this format with as many as a dozen vocal acts on one bill…
Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection (Smithsonian NMAH Archives Center)
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Sixteen boxes including 5x8 cards kept by Frank Schiffman on every act 1946-1976. Documents Chuck Berry March 13 1958 appearance. The specific week-of-September-20-1958 booking is retrievable from this collection by in-person researchers. Free essay…