American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

This site presents papers of members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and key federal law cases. Learn about the Revolution and the creation of the U.S. by investigating the papers of our earliest lawmakers -- Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and others. See Calhoun's speech against the Compromise of 1850 and Webster's notes for his speech in favor of it, General MacArthur's Old Soldiers Never Die address to Congress (April 1951), and more.

In this 1983 interview, Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes one of America's most distinguished journalists Tom Wicker for a discussion of the Presidency and the media at the height of the Cold War. (58 min)

This site looks at American political parties of the past, presidential inaugurations, images of presidents and first ladies, our first uniform election day, political cartoons by Herbert Block (Herblock) and Pat Oliphant, the 1877 electoral commission created by Congress to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876, the 19th and 24th amendments (ending the poll tax and giving women the right to vote), and the Nixon-Kennedy debates.

This Teacher Resource Guide is designed for incorporation into history and social studies curricula. It will introduce your students to some of the events and issues that shaped George Washington’s life. The activities should enhance your students’ knowledge of Washington and expand their horizons about this complex and interesting man.

Presents the most significant documents from our fourth President, James Madison. Most relate to two events in which Madison played a key role: the drafting and ratification of the Constitution (1787-8) and the introduction in the First Federal Congress of the amendments (1789) that became the Bill of Rights. Other documents relate to the freedom of religion and the burning of Washington, D.C., by the British in 1814 -- perhaps the major embarrassment of Madison's career.

Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library highlights two collections at the Library of Congress that illuminate the life of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States: the Abraham Lincoln Papers, containing approximately 20,000 items from the Manuscript Division; and the "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!" online collection, containing more than two hundred sheet music compositions that represent Lincoln and the Civil War in popular music, from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

This collection assembles a wide array of Library of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. It includes nearly 200 selections from twelve collections of personal papers and two collections of institutional papers from the Manuscript Division; 74 books, pamphlets, and legislative documents from the General Collections, along with selections from 34 consumer and trade journals; 181 photographs from the pictorial materials of the National Photo Company Collection held by the Prints and Photographs Division; and 5 short films and 7 audio selections of Coolidge speeches from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. The collection is particularly strong in advertising and mass-marketing materials and will be of special interest to those seeking to understand economic and political forces at work in the 1920s.

Adapted from CSPAN Classroom: https://www.c-span.org/classroom/document/?9413 to allow for discussion on ranking of United States Presidents, focusing specifically on Andrew Jackson. 

This is the blog for the White House of the United States during the presidency of Barack Obama.