December in History with the Library of Congress
Posted by: Danna Bell
December highlights include the attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrest of Rosa Parks for civil disobedience.
Posted in: Lesson Ideas
Archive: 2013 (107 Posts)
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.
Posted in: African American History, Poetry and Literature
John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and the Power of Surprising Images
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
History and images have a complex relationship. Many turning points in history passed with no one there to record them. Others are so thoroughly documented that it can be difficult to find the unique human stories beneath the clouds of images that surround them.
Posted in: Presidents, Primary Source Highlights
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.
Posted in: African American History, National Expansion and Reform (1815-1860)
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.
Posted in: News and Events, Teaching Tools
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.”
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877)
Teachers: Meet Library of Congress Staff at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference
Posted by: Danna Bell
If you’re attending the National Council of Teachers of English conference from November 21-24 in Boston, MA stop by to see us!
Posted in: News and Events
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.
Posted in: Holidays, Teaching Strategies, Veterans and Military History
Keeping Track of Your Online Resources: Changes to American Memory and myLOC.gov
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Items that lived in American Memory have either moved or will move soon. Meanwhile, starting November 19, the assets in myLOC.gov will be moving to loc.gov, while myLOC.gov's myCollection will no longer be offered.
Posted in: News and Events, Teaching Tools