The following is a guest post by Rebecca Newland, 2013-2015 Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress.
Primary sources play an integral role in an investigation of a historical event or era. By analyzing primary sources, students can discover more than just their content — they can also begin to explore their context. Analyzing sources from a variety of perspectives offers students the opportunity to immerse themselves in an event or era as well as to discover new topics for further exploration.

Join us in a webinar
On Tuesday, November 4, at 7 PM ET, Library education experts will expand on strategies and resources introduced in “Exploring the Legacy of Leadership Through Primary Sources: The Women’s Suffrage Movement” from National History Day’s 2014-15 Theme Book.
Participants will engage in a model primary source analysis, discuss strategies for incorporating primary sources into projects, hear from Library experts about available resources related to women’s suffrage including the Women’s Suffrage Primary Source Set available on the Teachers Page, and learn about how and where to find additional resources in the Library’s collections.
Throughout the year, the Library will be hosting educator webinars every other Tuesday at 7:00 ET focusing on a variety of instructional strategies for using primary sources in instruction. The 2014 schedule and information about joining the webinar is now available. Watch here for reminders about each!
Can’t join the live event? The full webinar schedule, including upcoming events and recordings of past events is available here. We’ll add the recording from this event, too.