Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
Digital Public Library of America
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Despite the passing of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the struggle to ensure fair voter registration and election procedures continues. Young historians...
Digital Public Library of America
Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching Activism
A packet of 13 primary sources provides young historians with insight into the anti-lynching activism of civil rights Ida B. Wells. Included are images of Wells, her letters, a political cartoon, newspaper lynching announcements, and a...
Digital Public Library of America
The Fifteenth Amendment
Fifteen primary sources provide a context for a study of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The packet captures the excitement for the changes promised by the amendment as well as the backlash against it.
Digital Public Library of America
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
A set of 14 primary sources provides background for a study of Lorraine Hansberry's drama, A Raisin in the Sun. Featured are images from stage productions of the play, white supremacy protests, a clip from a television interview, and...
Digital Public Library of America
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Are you contemplating a poetry study featuring Emily Dickinson? Finding good primary sources to accompany the study can be a challenge—never fear, help is here! Check out this primary source set that includes manuscripts of several of...
Digital Public Library of America
Women in the Civil War
Vivandieres and cantinieres, nurses and soldiers, loyalists and unionists. A primary source set provides young historians an opportunity to investigate the many roles women played in the United States Civil War.
Digital Public Library of America
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their eyes Were Watching God has been highly praised and severely criticized for its depiction of African American folk culture. A set of primary source materials, including photographs, articles, essays, and...
Digital Public Library of America
The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
A primary source set of photographs, videos, newspaper articles, and FBI reports provides insight into race relations during the 1960s, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, and the murder of Emmitt Till. Designed to be used to...
Digital Public Library of America
African American Soldiers in World War I
Finding good primary source materials to support any study of history can be a challenge and time-consuming. A set of 11 primary source letters, images, and text excerpts provide young historians with an opportunity to sharpen their...
Digital Public Library of America
Women and the Blues
A 12-piece primary source packet sets the tone for a study of the role women played in the origins, development, and impact of blues music. Legends like Bessie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Mamie Smith, and Ida Cox are featured, as are...
Digital Public Library of America
The Poetry of Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's work reflects her passion for life, civil rights, and justice for all. A collection of 12 primary sources provide scholars with insight into this amazing woman. The set includes photographs, articles, recordings of...
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, considered by many to be a seminal piece of American literature, contains many complex literary themes that carry through United States history. Use a series of discussion questions and classroom...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Two Hundred Years on the Erie Canal
Learn about the Erie Canal, one of the most famous man-made bodies of water in the world. Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal connected the port of New York City on the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes transforming trade, industry, and...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Prisoners at Home: Everyday Life in Japanese Internment Camps
This exhibition tells stories of everyday lives in Japanese Internment camps during World War II.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: A History of Us Public Libraries
This exhibition tells the story of the American public library system, its community impact, and the librarians who made it possible from the founding of the first US libraries through the first one hundred years of service.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Golden Age of Radio in the Us
This exhibition explores the development, rise, and adaptation of the radio and its impact on American culture.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Battle on the Ballot: Political Outsiders in Us Presidential Elections
This exhibition explores the rich history of select individuals, parties, events, and movements that have influenced US presidential elections from the outside-outside Washington politics, outside the two-party system, and outside the...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Indomitable Spirits: Prohibition in the United States
Exhibition explores prohibition in the United States from the passing of the 18th Amendment in 1919 up to the passing of the 21st Amendment which ended prohibition in 1933
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: This Land Is Your Land: Parks and Public Spaces
This exhibition tells the story of the conservation, culture, history, and preservation of parks and protected areas through maps, documents, letters, and other primary sources.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: American Empire
This exhibition explores the origins, development, and eventual fall of the American empire and maps the diverse and rocky terrain of the American empire to show how it informs contemporary conversations on heritage, citizenship, racism,...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Race to the Moon
In 1955, the US and the USSR each announced plans to launch a satellite into orbit. Thus began the race to the moon. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the American space program and its new classes of astronauts achieved breakthroughs in...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Patriotic Labor: America During World War I
Take a look at the need for American labor during World War I. It provided second-class citizens, such as women and African Americans, a brief opportunity for better jobs that would help foment in them a desire for more and equal...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal
Details on how the Great Depression affected the nation and how Roosevelt's New Deal created many relief and recovery programs to try to bring economic stability to the nation.