This site recounts the struggle for control of Hawaii between native Hawaiians and American business interests in the late 1800s. This 1897 petition and a lobbying effort by native Hawaiians convinced the U.S. Congress not to annex the islands. But months later the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana and the Spanish-American War began. The U.S. needed a mid-Pacific fueling station and naval base.

Primary source images, standards correlation, and teaching activities are included in this resource.

The documents selected for this exhibit are primary sources that historians and other researchers study when they write about historical events. They are a selection from the files created or received by Federal agencies in or near San Francisco at the time of the disaster. They contain eyewitness testimony of the damage of the earthquake, the ensuing fires, and the desolation that was left in their wake.

The 2008 Summer Teachers Conference focused on the year 1948. Lesson plans created by teachers attending the conference and powerpoint presentations delivered by speakers are presented on this site.

This is a searchable database of the cornerstone documents of our government. It has more than 100,000 digitized copies of the National Archives most popular and significant manuscripts, photographs, maps, drawings and other documents.
The guide introduces educators and students to the National Archives' ARC. Searching in ARC to learn more about National Archives' historical documents could enrich a classroom activity, a homework assignment, or a research project.

This site introduces students to one instance in which immigrants overcame the ramifications of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 through the U.S. judicial system. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, government, language arts, and math.

This lesson introduces students to significant inventions of the late 19th century and examines the power of Congress to pass laws related to the granting of patents. It correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, government, language arts, and science.

This lesson presents documents produced around and during the historic 1841 trial of 53 Africans, captured and sold as slaves, and subsequently accused of murder for commandeering the slave ship, Amistad, and killing its captain and cook. The site also contains a detailed lesson plan.

This lesson uses a poster decrying the disruptive influence of railroads on local culture to launch a discussion on local differences and their effect on American politics. Explanatory text, materials for teachers, and links to further resources accompany the documents. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, government, and art.

This site features primary documents that shaped U.S. history. See images of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. Learn about the Articles of Confederation, Constitutional Convention, Marbury v. Madison, Louisiana Purchase, slavery, Civil War, 13th Amendment, immigration, and woman suffrage.

This site provides a summary, history, and teaching activities related to the EEOC and this historic law, which forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

This lesson asks students to visualize the Civil War by studying dozens of period photographs, and illustrates how the Civil War threatened the very purpose of the Constitution as stated in the Preamble. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, American studies, and language arts.

This lesson explores the important Constitutional mechanism providing for the separation of powers of government among three branches so that each branch checks the other two. Lesson plans use the New Deal to help teach this concept.

This lesson plan examines Constitutional issues surrounding the resignation of President Nixon and looks at the specific question: Should the Watergate Special Prosecutor seek an indictment of the former President?

This lesson provides fliers and other documents related to the demonstration in Memphis on March 28, 1968. On that day, students near the end of the march broke windows of businesses. Looting ensued. The march was halted. King was deeply distressed by the violence. He and fellow leaders negotiated a commitment to nonviolence among disagreeing factions in Memphis, and another march was planned for April 8. On April 4, as he stepped out of his motel room to go to dinner, he was assassinated.

This site shows the typewritten draft of the December 8, 1941, speech in which Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The draft shows Roosevelt's hand-written edits, including his change of the phrase a date which will live in world history to a date which will live in infamy. Students can also listen to the beginning of the speech.

This site examines the friendship and working relations that developed between U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill beginning in 1940. Their relationship was crucial in the establishment of a unified effort to deal with the Axis powers.

This site offers teaching activities using primary documents (tied to academic standards) on a student who became a leader in campus organizations, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War with the Lincoln Brigade, and died on a battlefield in Aragon in September 1937.

This site provides facsimile reproductions of the handwritten patent application and its accompanying drawing, together with explanatory text and lesson plans. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences

This site features documents, maps, and images for learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the growth of regionalism, the Amistad case, Lincoln's spot resolutions, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the petition of Amelia Bloomer regarding suffrage in the West, migration north to Alaska, and the Sioux Treaty of 1868.