Top of page
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Where can you find a wide range of authors writing from varied points of view, making arguments with appeals to evidence, rich with rhetorical strategies and figurative language, often using a number of different media, all in one package? In historic newspapers.
Posted in: Lesson Ideas, Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
How can you share your response to a major world event? In the 19th and early 20th centuries, you might have put your thoughts down in a poem and sent it to a newspaper. The 1918 entry of the United States into World War I triggered an especially dramatic outpouring of these personal responses in verse.
Posted in: Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945), Poetry and Literature
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Want to incorporate newspapers into your classroom activities? Look no further than Chronicling America.
Posted in: Lesson Ideas, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Whether students are interested in examining a historic revolution, exploring social reactions to a particular event or idea, research the origins of a reform movement, or identify a topic that includes elements of all three Rs, the Library of Congress has online resources to support their 2025 National History Day project.
Posted in: Primary Source Highlights
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
What are the Wide-Awake clubs and how do they relate to 19th century elections?
Posted in: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877), National Expansion and Reform (1815-1860), Presidents
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
During a season of spectres, shapeshifters, and apparitions that vanish in the night, we’d like to take a look at an October holiday that seems to have shimmered into existence a century or so ago but now can scarcely be found. Halloween itself has, of course, changed shape over the years, as children–and adults!–have celebrated …
Posted in: Holidays
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Learn about the poems written about the flu during the pandemic of 1918 and 1919.
Posted in: Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945), Poetry and Literature
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Use maps and photographs to study Greenwood Avenue before and after the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Posted in: African American History, Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945)
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
What is the "Vacation Circus"? See how one of the Education Specialists at the Library of Congress found the answer to that question.
Posted in: Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945), Women's History