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    History

      General History

      • Agents of Social Change
        The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College provides these lesson plans and primary documents for teaching about six individuals and two organizations---Constance Baker Motley, Dorothy Kenyon, Mary Kaufman, Frances Fox Piven, Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, Gloria Steinem, the Women's Action Alliance and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women---whose impressive achievements distinguish them as "agents of social change."
         
      • Celebrate the Century
        Teacher's guides and electronic magazines for students, all for teaching about the decades of the twentieth century, are available at this site, sponsored by Microsoft Encarta.
         
      • The Concord Review
        This quarterly journal is the only one in the world to publish the academic work of secondary students. Founded in 1987 to recognize and publish exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world, The Concord Review has published hundreds of research papers (average 5,000 words) by authors in thirty-eight states and twenty-five other countries.
         
      • DoHistory
        This site invites visitors to explore the process of piecing together the lives of ordinary people in the past. Through exploring this experimental, interactive case study based on the research that went into the book and film "A Midwife's Tale," both based on the remarkable 200 year old diary of midwife/healer Martha Ballard, visitors can learn basic skills and techniques for interpreting fragments that survive from any period in history. Includes "On Your Own," featuring essays on historical research, a bibliography, and links to useful websites.
         
      • EyeWitness---History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
        Using personal narratives, photographs, and other first-hand sources, this site chronicles eras, events, and experiences of the ancient world, middle ages, American Civil War, the old West, World War I, World War II, and the 17th through 20th centuries. Includes bibliographic references and links to relevant Internet resources.
         
      • Historical Text Archive
        This collection of original materials, links to other sites, and electronic reprints of books is maintained by Don Mabry, Professor of History and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University.
         
      • History Lab
        Presented by the Washington State Historical Society, this Web site features activities, curriculum, and information on professional development institutes for teachers.
         
      • The History Channel Classroom
        Here find tips and materials for using this resource.
         
      • History in Film
        Plot summaries, outlines, homework sheets, and links for teaching with feature films that deal with topics in history.
         
      • K-12 History on the Internet Resource Guide
        This guide is based on a paper presented at the Computers and History 95 Conference, "Information Technologies for History Education." Divided into the following sections: "Tele-teaching and Tele-Learning", "Doing Research" (libraries, primary document collections, reference materials), "Interpersonal Exchange" (electronic mentoring, Q&A services, global classrooms), "Environment for Education Project", "Information Collection" (databases, electronic publishing, virtual field trips), "Professional Development" (listservs, newsgroups, articles), and "General Information Resources."
         
      • Mr. Donn's World History Page
        Lesson plans, activities, and resources on ancient history, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, pirates and exploration, Industrial Revolution, political change, holidays, the contemporary period and more.
         
      • Modern World History Timeline (From BBC Education)
        Major world events from 1915 to 1945.
         
      • National History Day
        Information about the National History Day theme, competition, state coordinators, the full text of the current student contest guide, and more.
         
      • National Women's History Project
        Features the NWHP catalog, ideas for teachers, librarians, parents, students, and others on teaching and learning about women in history, a history quiz, a directory of women's organizations and museums, an events calendar, and more.
         
      • OurTimeLines.com
        Based on genealogical software used to create the Blish family genealogy Web site, this site allows visitors to easily create custom timelines spanning up to 140 years, from A.D. 1000 to the present. Many events listed in the timelines generated include links to further information about those events.
         
      • TeacherServe
        A project of the National Humanities Center, this on-line curriculum enrichment service provides help for high school history and literature teachers in designing courses and presenting rigorous subject matter to their students. Features essays by leading experts, links to related on-line sources, and teaching suggestions.
         
      • A Walk Through Time
        From the Physics Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, this site describes in detail the evolution of time measurement from ancient times to the present. Includes a bibliography.
         
      • WideHorizon Education Resources (WER) Programs for World History
        This site by two teacher educators offers free sample lesson plans; ideas and resources for creative lessons for middle school/high school; links to other sites for support material; and a free monthly newsletter. Resources on Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Greece, India, China, Rome, pre-history, and more.
         
      • Women in World History Curriculum
        Lesson plans, a teaching resources catalog, biographies, quotations, reviews of classroom resources which feature women in world history, and links to other resources.
         
      • Women's Biographies: Distinguished Women of Past and Present
        This site features biographies of women who contributed to our culture: writers, educators, scientists, heads of state, politicians, civil rights crusaders, artists, entertainers, and others. The collection can be searched by either subject or name.
         
      • World Wide Web Virtual Library: History
        Indexed both alphabetically and by historical era. Includes CARRIE, a full-text electronic library, listservs and listserv archives, and heritage history sites.

      Ancient History

      • Ancient Egypt Lesson Plans
        This collection of cross-curricular lesson plans from the Detroit Institute of Arts includes materials focusing on art, language arts, mathematics and science, and social studies, and includes assessments, goals and objectives, preparations and resources, teacher comments about the lessons, and photos of students at work on the lessons.
         
      • Exploring Ancient World Cultures--An Introduction to World Cultures on the World Wide Web
        This on-line course supplement for students and teachers of the ancient and medieval worlds is edited by Anthony F. Beavers, an associate professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Evansville in Indiana. Essays, primary texts, and links to information about India, the near East, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and medieval Europe.
         
      • Guardian's Egypt
        All things ancient Egyptian. Includes a special section for kids.
         
      • Mr. Donn's Ancient History Page
        Units, lesson plans, activities, resources Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, India, Africa, Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, Vikings, Celts, Holidays, Map Skills and more, for ancient history teachers and students.
         
      • Neferchichi's Tomb
        Lesson plans and other teaching resources on ancient Egypt, including a virtual lesson on mummification.

      Medieval Period

      Renaissance

      • Elizabethan England
        Prepared by high school English students at Springfield High School in Springfield, Illinois, this site features extensive information on the historical figures and events, everyday life, and arts and architecture of Elizabethan-period England, including William Shakespeare and his theatre.
         
      • Renaissance
        From The Annenberg Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this site provides details of the Renaissance period in Europe, links to other sites on the topic, and a bibliography on same.

      Victorianism

      • The Victorian Web
        Based on a resource used in Brown University's courses in Victorian literature, this Web site offers information on the literature, history, culture, philosophy, technology, religion, science, and economics of the age of Queen Victoria, who reigned over Great Britain from 1837 to 1901.

      Discovery and Exploration

      • 1492: An Ongoing Voyage
        Intended to accompany a Library of Congress exhibit on Christopher Columbus, this site includes information on the population of the American continent prior to 1492, the Mediterranean region of the 15th century, Christopher Columbus, and the relationship between Europeans emigrating to the American continent between 1492 and 1600 and the Native Americans; and a list of suggested readings.
         
      • Columbus and the Age of Discovery
        This site presents many kinds of sources of differing perspectives on exploration and discovery.
         
      • Discoverers Web
        This site is a collection of links to all kinds of information on the Internet about voyages of discovery and exploration all around the world, through the ages.
         
      • Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820
        This site offers         color images, primary sources, and interpretive essays on colonial history and culture.
         
      • Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806)
      The Ethnography of Lewis and Clark
      This Web site details items collected by Lewis and Clark  and the Corps of Discovery held by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Provides images of the items, a map of the exploration route, and links to additional resources.

      Jefferson's West: Thomas Jefferson and the Lewis and Clark Expedition Home
      This page of the Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) Web site describes Jefferson's prompting and support of the expedition and other information about Jefferson's instrumental role in its realization.

       Lewis and Clark's Expedition: Curriculum Ideas and Education Resources
      From the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), this Web page features teaching resources about the
      Lewis and Clark Expedition.

      Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
      Maintained by the National Park Service, this site contains information and resources on the route that Lewis & Clark and the Corps of Discovery traveled.

      Lewis and Clark in North Dakota
      Maintained by the office of U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, North Dakota, this site presents rare maps, original letters, colorful illustrations, and other documents of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through North Dakota, many found only in the collections of the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

      Lewis & Clark Rediscovery Project
      According to its Web site, the Lewis & Clark Rediscovery Project will "use the Lewis and Clark expedition as an overall theme to provide an interdisciplinary framework for teachers and students to blaze a new trail through the use of cutting-edge technology for teaching and learning." The 5-year project is "a professional development strategy for assisting K-12 teachers across the nation in infusing technology in teaching and curriculum development."

      The National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council
             Created to commemorate the journey and legacies of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, this organization aims to "promote educational programs, cultural sensitivity and harmony, and the sustaining stewardship of natural and historical resources along the route of the Expedition." The Web site offers information on educational resources, publications, events, and news pertaining to the Lewis and Clark Expedition Bicentennial.

      PBS Online: Lewis and Clark
             This Web site for the Ken Burns film "Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery includes not only detailed information about the Corps, but also lesson plans and activities for teaching about same.

      United States History (General)

      • The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850 to 1920
                 From the Library of Congress American Memory collection, this site includes manuscript and printed text and images drawn from the collections of the Ohio Historical Society. It documents the African-American experiences of, according to the Web site introduction, "slavery and freedom, segregation and integration, religion and politics, migrations and restrictions, harmony and discord, and struggles and successes."
         
      • The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture
        This site features information from the Library of Congress collection of books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound on 500 years of the African American experience in the Western hemisphere, including colonization, abolition, migration, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
         
      • African-American Women: On-line Archival Collections
        Contains the letters and memoirs of three African-American women in the nineteenth-century.
         
      • AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
        Part of CARRIE, a full text electronic library from the University of Kansas, AMDOCS contains the full text of pertinent American documents from the fifteenth century to the early 1990s.
         
      • American Cultural History: The Twentieth Century
        Prepared by the reference librarians of Kingwood College Library, the purpose of these pages is "to present a series of web guides on the decades of the twentieth century." Facts, photographs, and information about the art and architecture; books and literature; fashions and fads; music; and theater, film, and radio of the decades of the twentieth century through the 1970s.
         
      • American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
        This extensive collection from the Library of Congress includes documents, photos, prints, motion pictures, maps, and sound recordings of events, people, places, time periods, and topics in American history. Also features an "Educator's Page" with lesson ideas, "Learning Page," activities, and a "Today in History" special feature.
         
      • American Social History Project
        This project of the Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York produces books, videos, and other resources for teaching about United States history by focusing on "ordinary" Americans--working men and women.
         
      • American Women's History: A Research Guide
        Compiled by Ken Middleton, a librarian at Middle Tennessee State University, this extensive site provides general reference sources; state and regional history sources; resources for finding books, journal articles, and theses; and primary sources.
         
      • American Writers
        This Web site is a companion to the 2001 C-SPAN series, "American Writers: A Journey Through History." This series takes viewers around the country to historic sites, birthplaces and homes associated with the lives and works of nearly 50 great American writers for a new live program each week. Writers featured include Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Black Elk, Zora Neale Hurston, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Ernie Pyle, Jack Kerouac, Betty Friedan, William F. Buckley, and many others. The Web site provides about the writers, their works, and how those works chronicled and played part in United States history. Classroom resources are also available here.
         
      • America's Story from America's Library
        The Library of Congress puts a fun, original spin on United States history through its collection of books, diaries, records and tapes, films, sheet music, maps, prints, photographs and digital materials. Visitors can discover what Abraham Lincoln had in his pockets on the night he was assassinated. Or learn about Buffalo Bill Cody and his "Wild West" show; the heroism of Harriet Tubman, who helped many slaves escape bondage; the music of jazz great Duke Ellington; or the inventions of Thomas Edison.
         
      • At Home in the Heartland Online
        This project of the Illinois State Museum "provides a unique educational experience based on objects, stories, and activities relating to the people who have settled in the nation's heartland over the last 300 years." Provides tips on how to incorporate this resource into curriculum.
         
      • Benjamin Franklin
        This Web site is a companion to the November 2002 PBS documentary Benjamin Franklin. The Web site features a timeline of Benjamin Franklin's life; an A-to-Z list of Franklin's numerous and varied roles, interests, and achievements; and a teacher's guide.
         
      • California Mission Studies Association
        CMSA is devoted to expanding knowledge of early California history, specifically the era of the 21 missions, the asistencias, ranchos, presidios, and adobes. The site includes an illustrated glossary of terms relating to California missions, a bibliography, a directory of the missions, information on archaeological, conservation, and preservation projects relating to the missions, and links to related resources including projects for and by students.
         
      • Crossroads: A K-12 American History Curriculum
        Composed of 36 elementary, middle, and high school units chronologically organized into 12 historical periods, as well as course syllabi for preservice social studies educators on the subjects of American history and history education.
         
      • Creating Online Materials for Teaching United States History
        A collection of digital images of primary documents from United States history. The documents were used by participants in a seminar to create U.S. history projects, which are also available here in their entirety. From the extensive Electronic Text Center of the University of Virginia Library.
         
      • Freedom Timeline (from the Whitehouse Kids Web site)
        Stories of Americans who have contributed to the quest for freedom throughout United States history.
         
      • The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
         
      • History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course of the Web
        Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History survey courses, this site links to Web resources and offers unique teaching materials, primary documents, and discussions on teaching U.S. history.
         
      • History in Music
        Lyrics and MIDI files of and details about songs in U.S. history from the American Revolution to the labor movement to the Viet Nam era.
         
      • Erie Canal OnLine
        This site includes a history and timeline of the Canal, a Real Audio version of and the text of the lyrics to "Erie Canal Song," the story of a 14-year-old girl's journey along the Erie Canal during the pre-Civil War era, a hyper-journal of the 10-day trek down the Erie Canal by a newspaper reporter and a graduate student, and information about the Erie Canal Museum.
         
      • Lower Eastside [New York City] Tenement Museum
         
      • Making of America
        This digital library of primary sources in American social history covers the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology,
        religion, and science and technology.
         
      • Mr. Donn's United States History Page
        Extensive collection of lesson plans, activities, and resources.
         
      • Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea
        This museum aims to preserve the remnants of America's maritime past. The site features information about K-12 educational resources on Mystic Seaport and maritime history in general.
         
      • National Women's Hall of Fame
        This Web site provides biographies of dozens of American women         who have contributed to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science. The site also describes the National Women's Hall of Fame exhibits and offices in Seneca Falls, New York.
         
      • OurDocuments.gov: Milestone Documents
                 Part of President George W. Bush's National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service, this site provides 100 documents compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration that chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965. Also includes resources for teachers.
         
      • Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
        Part of the University of Virginia Library's extensive electronic text center, this site offers primary sources, including court records, record books, and personal letters; maps; information about notable persons involved in the Salem Witch Trials; a bibliography of contemporary works about the topic; and links to archival collections pertaining to the trials.
         
      • Teaching With Historic Places (TwHP)
        TwHP uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that guide teachers through this process, including lesson plans, multifaceted education kits, and professional development materials and workshops.
         
      • Temperance and Prohibition
        An explanation of why prohibition occurred in the United States, sections on Frances E. Willard, leader of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, The Women's Crusade, the Anti-Saloon League, the texts of speeches both against or in favor of prohibition, links to other sites on prohibition, and prohibition-related photographs and cartoons.
         
      • U.S. Army Center of Military History
         
      • U.S. Women's History Workshop
        Primary resources, "Teacher Workshops," " Electronic Classrooms," teaching tips, and other resources on women in U.S. history.
         
      • WestWeb: Western History Resource
        Collections of primary and secondary documents, biographical and bibliographical resources, lists of links to other sites of interest, and images are provided on topics ranging from transportation, to gender and sexuality, to Asian-Americans, to military history, all in the context of the American West. Also includes a section on teaching about the American West.
         
      • Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930
        This site consists of editorial projects by undergraduate and graduate students at State University of New York at  Binghamton. The projects are organized around over 300 primary documents that speak to the history of women in reform movements in the United States.
         
      • Women's History Celebration
        Provides suggestions for acknowledging and celebrating women's roles and accomplishments; a guide to women's history sites in Washington, D.C.; and links to other resources on women's history.

      United States Presidents

      First Ladies

      United States Colonial Period

      • Archiving Early America
        Full text historical documents including newspapers and magazine, maps, portraits, biographical information about prominent persons, writings, a digital library, a discussion forum, and interactive early American history crossword puzzles.
         
      • Plimoth-on-Web
        This web site of Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum of 17th century Plymouth, features educational resources, a kid's page, an interactive diagram of the Plymouth village, a diagram of the Mayflower, a Mayflower passenger/crew list, and bibliographies on topics related to Plymouth.
         
      • Salem Witch Museum
        The most useful features of this site to educators and students are the brief history of the Salem Witch Trials and the frequently-asked question (FAQ) section.
         
      • Virtual Jamestown
        Excerpt from the site: "Virtual Jamestown is a digital research-teaching-learning project to explore the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and 'the Virginia experiment.' As a work in progress, Virtual Jamestown aims to shape the national dialogue on the occasion of the four hundred-year anniversary celebration in 2007 of the founding of the Jamestown colony." The site features teaching materials, public records, maps, images, court records, first-hand accounts such as letters, court and labor contracts, a timeline, primary and secondary source bibliographies, and other resources useful to students, teachers, and researchers.
         
      • William Penn, Visionary Proprietor
        This site provides details on the life and work of the founder of Pennsylvania, including Penn's planning of the city of Philadelphia, Penn's dealings with Native Americans, and a bibliography of further readings on Penn.

      Industrial Revolution