At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln towered over most of his contemporaries. He chose to stand out even more by wearing high top hats. He acquired this hat from J. Y. Davis, a Washington hat maker. Lincoln had the black silk mourning band added in remembrance of his son Willie. No one knows whe

Jose Maria Tornel y Mendivil, Mexico's secretary of war, warns that Mexico's loss of Texas may lead to other territorial losses to the United States. This video is part of the Price of Freedom learning resources package for use with the Conflicting Voices of the Mexican War lesson plan.

In 1848, the largest single gold rush in history was just getting under way in California.  The event triggered a mass migration of fortune hunters from around the world.  The territory has only recently passed into American hands as an outcome of U.S. victory in the Mexican War. 

The civilizations of pre-Hispanic Mexico recorded their histories, religious beliefs, and scientific knowledge in books called codices. Codices are folded pieces of hide or bark that depict both mundane and spiritual scenes with images, symbols, and numbers. Scribes and painters busily recorded d

This website, produced by students from the University of Michigan, focuses on the communications of American and English spies during the Revolutionary War.  The site includes a gallery of eleven different spy letters, stories about spies during the Revolution, a timeline showing impor

The process of manufacturing such baskets is called "sewing," but it is actually a process of binding and coiling long strands of grass. In the wetlands, two kinds of grasses are used; "sweetgrass," and more recently, black rush, also known as "bullrush." Strips of oak wood, or palmetto fronds ar

Between 1940 and 1973, Presidents Roosevelt through Nixon secretly recorded 5,000 hours of their meetings and telephone conversations. Through the use of these recordings, annotated transcripts and researched exhibits, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center Presidential Recordings Program m

Every Monday, The National Archives and Records Administration's Office of the Federal Register compiles all of statements, messages and other Presidential materials released by the White House the week before.  All of these Weekly Compilation documents from 1993 through the present can be f

At the Department of Commerce’s Official Website, students have access to information about the twelve different bureaus under the department’s control. Student and teachers can also learn about the history of the Commerce Department in a section of the website that includes milestones of the

Students will learn about the public, private and official uses of the presidential mansion, the White House, and the realities of life for the President of the United States in this section of the online exhibition entitled The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden. In additi