Chronicling America is one of many digital collection gems that the Library has to offer teachers and students. The collection gives users access to selected digitized national newspapers published through 1963. Newspapers, as a type of primary source, help students imagine what it might have been like to live in a particular time or place: consuming media of different historical eras can help to slow down the big events of history and see how they were experienced in real time.
Analyzing an excerpt of a newspaper article from the late 19th century provides an opportunity for students to think about the uncertainty inherent in paleontology, a discipline that often relies on incomplete specimens and bone fragments to construct understandings of extinct species.
Revisit a series of posts from Teaching with the Library that dug a bit deeper into resources that can be helpful for teachers and their students, including the Library's digital collections pages and research guides, Today in History, and updates to a teacher-favorite resource, Chronicling America.
In the March/April 2025 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article highlighted a political cartoon that appeared in the September 22, 1909, issue of Puck Magazine. The image, “Lights and Shadows”, contains a wealth of opportunities for students to explore connections between the environment, politics, economics, and public health.
Blog posts, classroom materials, and resources from the Library offer ideas that can support teaching and learning about Women's History Month in different subjects (Science/STEM, Social Studies, English Language Arts) and across grade levels.
