Highlights from the Library’s Blogs
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
Explore some of the Library's other blogs and the resources available for classroom use.
Posted in: Primary Source Highlights
Archive: April 2025 (9 Posts)
Mass Persuasion Campaigns: A New Primary Source Set for Educators
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
A new primary source set from the Library of Congress features 18 historical primary sources that teachers can use to facilitate analyzing primary sources related to intentional, sustained mass persuasion campaigns.
Posted in: Primary Source Highlights, Teaching Tools
Beulah Henry Finds Invention Inspiration in Everyday Items: Primary Sources in Three-Dimensional Science Learning
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
This blog post illustrates how STEM teachers can use free primary sources related to the famous female inventor, Beulah Henry, to engage students in three-dimensional learning.
Posted in: Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies, Women's History
The Congressional Record as a Primary Source for Teaching About the Cold War
Posted by: Colleen Smith
Among the many types of primary sources included in the Cold War primary source set, items from the Congressional Record uniquely offer a glimpse into legislative decision making from the Cold War Era, as it was happening. Students can examine how elected officials spoke about, debated, and voted on issues of the era.
Posted in: Uncategorized
The Intelligent Vegetable Martians are Coming! Analyzing Historical Newspapers to Practice Information Literacy Skills
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
A key aspect of information literacy is evaluating the relationship between claims and evidence: Do claims follow clearly and logically from evidence? Can the evidence also support alternate claims? Guide students to apply information literacy skills to a 1912 article “Mars Peopled by One Giant Thinking Vegetable.”
Posted in: Literacy, Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies
Soviet Union Country Study: Is This a Primary Source?
Posted by: Colleen Smith
By engaging in a series of deliberate and evolving questions about a particular source, students may begin to recognize that whether a source is primary or secondary depends on the research question being asked.
Posted in: Contemporary United States (1945-present), Teaching Strategies
Americanization Through Song: WWI-Era Songs by Irving Berlin
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
This blog offers free primary sources and teaching strategies to help students reflect on how some WWI-era music sought to invoke a singular American identity.
Posted in: Fine and Performing Arts, Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945)
Cold War Newspapers: Primary Sources and Perspective Taking
Posted by: Colleen Smith
Engage students in comparing perspectives in two newspaper articles about the Cold War.
Posted in: Contemporary United States (1945-present), Teaching Strategies
Cold War Era Films: Analyzing Tools of Persuasion by Observing, Reflecting, and Questioning
Posted by: Colleen Smith
The new Cold War Primary Source Set explores aspects of the Cold War era, including the ways in which a fear of nuclear attack was communicated in everyday life. Examine and analyze messaging from two Cold War Era films about nuclear attacks and how people should respond.
Posted in: Contemporary United States (1945-present)