Teaching With Documents:
Lesson Plans

This section contains reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government, and cross-curricular connections.

Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)

Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

• Images of the American Revolution
• Observing Constitution Day
• Launching the New United States Navy
• Eli Whitney's Patent for the Cotton Gin
• United States v. Thomas Cooper: A Violation of the Sedition Law
• Tally of the 1824 Electoral College Vote

Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

• The Lewis and Clark Expedition
• Anti-Railroad Propaganda Poster: The Growth of Regionalism, 1800-1860
• The Amistad Case
• Lincoln's Spot Resolutions
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Petition of Amelia Bloomer Regarding Suffrage in the West
• Migration North to Alaska
• The Sioux Treaty of 1868

Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

• Fugitive from Labor Cases: Henry Garnett (1850) and Moses Honner (1860)
• The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady
• The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
• Letters, Telegrams, and Photographs Illustrating Factors that Affected the Civil War

The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

• Alexander Graham Bell's Patent for the Telephone and Thomas Edison's Patent for the Electric Lamp
• Glidden's Patent Application for Barbed Wire
• The Homestead Act of 1862
• Little House in the Census: Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Maps of Indian Territory, the Dawes Act, and Will Rogers' Enrollment Case File
• Petition Signed by Thomas A. Edison for Sunday Openings at the World's Columbian Exposition
• Affidavit and Flyers from the Chinese Boycott Case
• Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor

The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

• The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii
• Political Cartoons Illustrating Progressivism and the Election of 1912
• Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment
• The Zimmermann Telegram, 1917
• Photographs of the 369th Infantry and African Americans during World War I
• Sow the Seeds of Victory! Posters from the Food Administration During World War I
• The Volstead Act and Related Prohibition Documents
• The Unfinished Lincoln Memorial

The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

• FDR's First Inaugural Address: Declaring "War" on the Great Depression
• FDR's Fireside Chat on the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program
• The Don Henry Story
• Constitutional Issues: Separation of Powers
• A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
• Powers of Persuasion--Poster Art of World War II
• Documents Related to Churchill and FDR
• Message Drafted by General Eisenhower in Case the D-Day Invasion Failed and Photographs Taken on D-Day
• D-Day Message from General Eisenhower to General Marshall
• Documents and Photographs Related to Japanese Relocation During World War II
• Memorandum Regarding the Enlistment of Navajo Indians

Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)

• The U.S. Recognition of the State of Israel
• Telegram from Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Harry S. Truman
• The United States Enters the Korean Conflict
• Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education
• Frontiers in Civil Rights: The Dorothy Davis Case
• Photographs and Pamphlet About Nuclear Fallout
• Jackie Robinson: Beyond the Playing Field
• Memorandum of a Conference with President Eisenhower after Sputnik
• The Many Faces of Paul Robeson
• Founding Documents of the Peace Corps
• Court Documents Related to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers
• The War in Vietnam: A Story in Photographs

Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)

• The Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Constitutional Issues: Watergate and the Constitution
• Inaugural Quiz!