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Historical Literacies

Chapter 5: Using Historians' Heuristics for Working with Primary Sources

Links to World Wide Web resources

American/United States History

  • Primary sources on a variety of U.S. History Eras organized by time period

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/

  • Lesson plans and document-based lessons produced by Polk County Public Schools

http://www.polk-fl.net/staff/teachers/tah/tpahlessons.htm

  • National Humanities Center primary source resources organized by teaching theme with primary source sets, lesson ideas, essential questions, etc.

http://americainclass.org/primary-sources/

  • A "Treasury of Primary Source Documents" pertaining to early American history.

http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/primarysources.html

  • Civil War Documents from Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA from the time of John Brown's Raid through the Reconstruction Era

http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/choosepart.html

  • Collection of U.S. historical documents

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/

  • Currently offline temporarily but contains diaries from the Oregon Trail as well as pictures and interviews from historians about certain aspects of the Oregon Trail

http://www.america101.us/trail/archive.html

  • Historical newspapers in the US from the Library of Congress

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

  • Documents from many American presidents (memos, fireside chats from FDR, etc.) as well as election data since the first election

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/

  • Provided through the National Archives, includes images and audio as well as traditional primary sources organized by period in the US

http://docsteach.org/documents

  • Primary source resources for U.S. History

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/major.asp

  • Library of Congress, "Teaching with Primary Sources" resources and links

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/

  • Collection of documents related to the Civil Rights Movement

http://www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-american-calendar/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr

  • Collection of primary source document excerpts, textbook excerpts on an array of U.S. History topics

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

World History

  • A rich collection of ancient world history primary sources

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/asbook.asp

  • A rich collection of medieval world history primary sources

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/sbook.asp

  • A rich collection of modern world history primary sources

http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/modsbook.asp

  • A collection of primary sources from ancient world history to World War

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

Downloadable instructional materials

  • Graphic organizer for supporting students' strategic use of primary sources

Figure 5.1.docx