In this lesson, students will examine the difference between history and memory by debating the legacy of John Brown.  Using video clips of an actor playing Brown, students are invited to debate his actions and determine how history should remember him.  The video segments are also avai

Enlisted soldier's uniform. The brown, doughy color of the uniform led to these soldiers being referred to as "doughboys," though the exact derivation of the nickname has been debated.

"I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking." So began on March 12, 1933, the first of about thirty informal "Fireside Chat" addresses that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would deliver over the radio. His ability to communicate over this new medium direct

This teacher resource challenges students to think about the Jefferson desk and the Declaration of Independence as objects that are valuable sources of historical information. It includes a preliminary activity intended to introduce students to doing history with objects a

This online resource revisits the hobby of Paint by Number from the vantage point of the artists and entrepreneurs who created the popular paint kits, the cultural critics who reviled them, and the hobbyists who happily completed them and hung them in their homes. Students will learn ho

Students will learn how posters connected the home front with the military front through the use of art intended to advertise the nation's war aims and represent the American ideals of the time. This online resource discusses the images created for and the messages conveyed by famo

This website, produced by the New York Historical Society, focuses on the debate in New York regarding the ratification of the Constitution.  This online exhibition takes the form of a timeline features primary source documents, newspapers, broadsides, portraits and objects, allowing student