Top of page
Posted by: Danna Bell
Where can you look if you think you’ve run out of information about a person or place? How can we encourage students to be persistent researching in the face of a “dead end”? And how do we equip students with the knowledge of databases and archives, so that when they run into a historical dead end, they know where to keep looking?
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Women's History
Posted by: Danna Bell
My hope is that my work to create source materials on Civil War nurses situates nurses in the heart of the Civil War and proves their importance in the growing war historiography.
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Women's History
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
The Library of Congress houses the largest archival collection of Walt Whitman materials in the world, all of which have are now available online. Seeing portions of Whitman's poems in various stages of composition reveals both his very active creative mind and his innovative ways of seeing the world and crafting poetic expressions.
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), News and Events, Poetry and Literature
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
In the January-February 2019 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article discusses the Life of Omar ibn Said, the only known extant narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in the United States. Analyzing this unique manuscript provides students with an opportunity to expand their understanding of some of the people who were brought to the United States from Africa to be enslaved. How educated were they? What did they believe?
Posted in: African American History, Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Teaching Tools, World History
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
In 1866, William O. Bourne organized a unique left-handed penmanship contest for Union veterans who had lost the use of their right hand. Veterans were encouraged to submit a letter they had written using their left hand and a total prize money of $1000.00 was offered. The Library of Congress holds the many of the entrants’ letters and other information on Bourne and the contest.
Posted in: African American History, Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Veterans and Military History
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
When I was conducting research for the Library of Congress primary source set "Civil War Photographs: New Technologies and New Uses," I learned way more about photographic technologies that were used before the Civil War than I could fit into the brief teacher's guide.
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Science Technology and Math
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
Sometimes listeners are surprised to find a familiar tune lurking behind the lyrics of a new song. Songwriters may revisit and reuse existing compositions, hoping to catch a listener’s attention through something familiar. The Civil War era song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" not only resembles an earlier song, but also inspired a number of parodies.
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Fine and Performing Arts
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
As any debate team knows, the ability to communicate arguments and craft rebuttals extemporaneously can be essential. We began wondering how historically well-regarded orators fared with extemporaneous speaking. What might President Abraham Lincoln, for example, have said on the subject?
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Lesson Ideas
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
One of the Library's primary source sets for educators, Civil War Music, has recently been re-tuned to reflect the central role that music played in the Civil War, with the addition of more than a dozen items from the Library's collections.
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), Fine and Performing Arts