Primary+Resources

Primary resources provide firsthand evidence of historical events. They are generally unpublished materials such as manuscripts, photographs, maps, artifacts, audio and video recordings, oral histories, postcards, and posters.

In some instances, published materials can also be viewed as primary materials for the period in which they were written (ex. historical newspapers). In contrast, secondary materials, such as textbooks, synthesize and interpret primary materials. On this page, you will find links that help you find primary resources and offer suggestions on how to use them.

Primary resources are obviously useful for teaching social studies, but can also be helpful in ELA, science, music, art...

The Minnesota Historical Society offers a fantastic video on the topic of primary v. secondary sources . By watching the short video students can learn what a makes a resource a primary or secondary source. media type="youtube" key="TgU1BcDStK0" width="560" height="315"

Great Places to Start:

 * [|ODE] - **Resources for Teaching the Historical Documents **


 * [|Ancestry Library Edition (ProQuest)] Research family history and find historical information using census data, government records, primary sources, images, and more. Recommended for grades 4-12. Access only available at school or at your local public library. See the Ancestry Library Edition Libguide for more help using this resource. Teachers and students can find thousands of primary source materials for projects. It’s not just for genealogy.
 * Civil War and Revolutionary War supply lists.
 * 6,900 Civil War photos.
 * World War I draft registration cards
 * World War II newsreels.
 * First person oral histories (including slave narratives).
 * Immigration records, ship logs, ship photos, and information.
 * Look up famous people; you never know what you might find!


 * **The** ** [|Library of Congress] ** **offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching.**
 * ** American Memory ** is a site that contains primary resources from the Untied States--great for history buffs and Social Studies classes.
 * [|American Memory Timeline] -  links lead you to sets of selected primary sources on a variety of topics in United States History. The sets are arranged by chronological period.
 * The ** Library of Congress ** has t eacher-created, classroom-tested[| lesson plans] using primary sources from the Library of Congress.
 * ** National Jukebox ** - 10,000 rare historic digital __sound recordings__ available to the public.
 * The Library of Congress recently released a series of [|Student Discovery Sets] available for free through iTunes. The iBooks cover six big topics in American History, including T // he Constitution, The Dust Bowl, The Harlem Renaissance, Immigration, Symbols of the United States // and // Understand the Cosmos //.
 * [|Teaching with the Library of Congress] - This blog provides ideas to help you incorporate primary resources into your curriculum:
 * rss url="http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/feed/" link="true" number="10" date="true"
 * The World Digital Library, a cooperative project with UNESCO, includes rare documents from around the world. It includes manuscripts, **historical maps**, rare books, **films**, **sound recordings**, **prints**, and **photographs**. FREE, unrestricted access to these materials!!!


 * ** National Archives and Records Administration ** has a site for teachers to help utilize and find appropriate primary sources. Also see:
 * __[|DOCs Teach--National Archives]__ - Turn your students into historians with primary-source based activities that develop historical thinking skills. Includes thousands of primary sources preserved at the National Archives.
 * [|Today's Document] - Explore Today in History through the holdings of the National Archives with Today's Document! Learn about today's significant anniversaries or discover new historical curiosities through our collection of fascinating documents, photographs, and films from throughout the history of the United States.
 * [|Weekly] (1995-2009) and [|Daily] (2009-present) Compilation of Presidential Documents


 * [|Our Documents] - // A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service. This site includes: //
 * [|100 milestone documents], compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration. The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965 and
 * [|Tools for educators]

Historic Newspapers and Magazines:

 * ** [|Elephind.com] - search all the world’s online historic newspapers from one place. **
 * ** The [|Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers (NewspaperCat)]  ** is a tool that facilitates the discovery of online digitized historical newspaper content from newspapers published in the United States and the Caribbean.
 * //[|Chronicling America] //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"> - from the Library of Congress <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">provides free access to millions of historic American newspaper pages. Search <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #999999; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 9.89999961853027px;"> America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 by keyword or [|search by] <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">[| topics] widely covered in the American press of the time.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 1.5;">[|Ohio historic newspapers]
 * XooXleAnswers - Searching History…For Free!
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;">[|US state and regional newspaper archives] <span style="color: #2a2aa5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;"> - listed by state
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;">[|College and student newspapers]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;">[|Historical magazine archives]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;">[|European archives]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;">[|Rest of the world]

Other Resources:

 * [|American Slave Narratives] - (very interesting) an online anthology from the University of Virginia From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. These former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provided first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms.
 * Ancestry.com, has opened its collection of historical documents to schools. AncestryK12 offers a **__no-cost__** program that includes access to content from Fold3 (military documents), Newspapers.com and the U.S. collection of Ancestry. Teachers apply through Ancestry K12 for access to its material.
 * [|Awesome Stories]- uses interactive stories that allow visitors to analyze related primary sources and informational texts of various types. It offers access to high-quality links, videos, images, charts, and text. Most topics involve social studies, but it also has resources for ELA, STEM and the arts.
 * [|Primary Docs for School] is a collection of resources for teaching with primary documents compiled by teacher librarian <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Connie Williams.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: &#39;Open Sans&#39;,HelveticaNeue,&#39;Helvetica Neue&#39;,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;">[|The Voices of Democracy] project promotes the study of great speeches and debates in U.S. history. On this site, you will find scholarly articles offering critical analyses of significant speeches, curriculum units designed for undergraduate teachers and students, lesson plans for high school and middle school teachers, and a blog with brief commentaries on speeches and pedagogical issues.
 * <span class="italictext" style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">[|World History Sources] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> is a website to help world history teachers and students locate, analyze, and learn from online primary sources and to further their understanding of the complex nature of __world history__, especially the issues of cultural contact and globalization.