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Archive: November 2013 (12 Posts)

Poster advertising a slave sale

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn: Controversy at the Heart of a Classic

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

Despite the controversies, Huckleberry Finn has remained a staple in high school literature study because teachers seek to engage students with texts that provoke discussion and questions. Primary sources from the Library of Congress can help deepen students' thinking around the issues central to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and other literary works.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

12 Years a Slave: Primary Sources on the Kidnapping of Free African Americans

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

Currently 12 Years a Slave, the film version of the true story of Solomon Northup, is showing in theaters. His account is a powerful one: A free African American, Northup was kidnapped in 1841 and taken from New York to Washington, D.C., then to New Orleans, where he was sold into twelve years of slavery. A study of primary sources from the Library of Congress indicates that Northrup's experience was far from unique.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Congress.gov: Coming to NCSS with Information That Will Amaze Your Students

Posted by: Stephen Wesson

The Library's original Web site for public access to legislative data, THOMAS.gov, was launched in 1995, making it almost 19 years old! Your students may find it hard to believe that the Internet even existed that long ago. To update, and soon replace, this aging system, the Library of Congress launched beta.Congress.gov in the fall of 2012.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Dedicated to the Great Task: Remembering and Studying Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

On November 19, 1863, renowned orator Edward Everett spoke at the dedication of a memorial cemetery. The world has little noted nor long remembered what he said in those two hours. Everett’s oration was upstaged by the next speaker’s concise 272 words, now familiar as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The following day, Everett himself sent Lincoln a note, complimenting him, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Broadening Student Understanding of Wartime Experience through Original Works of Art and Personal Accounts

Posted by: Danna Bell

In the October 2013 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article anticipated Veterans’ Day and suggested strategies for broadening student understanding of wartime experience through original works of art and personal accounts.