Rare books and manuscripts appraiser Martin Gammon examines a map that the owner’s great grandfather, a 49er (miner in the 1800s), used to prospect for gold in this video produced for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. The early rendition of the Britton and Rey map depicts, more accurately than others of its time, the border region between California with what was called Utah, now Nevada. Very few of the maps survived because they were generally carried in the pockets of miners.

In this lesson, students will engage in station activities to learn about Benjamin Franklin’s experience as a master printer and wordsmith. Specifically, students will learn about Franklin’s apprenticeship at the New-England Courant, the inception and growth of the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the invention of Poor Richard’s Almanack. Students will interact with excerpts from the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanack, comparing and contrasting these foundational pieces to modern day newspaper and media examples.

For irrigated crops, knowing when and how much water to apply has long been a matter of experience and guesswork. In a changing climate, new technology can reduce this uncertainty, enabling farmers to make every drop of water count.

As the number of ice-free days in the seas surrounding Alaska increases over time, so do opportunities. Oil and gas companies are ramping up offshore exploration and drilling in the Arctic and the shipping industry is increasing traffic around and through the region. As a result, Arctic residents may have new opportunities for jobs and development across the region. There’s also a downside to the increased activity. Oil and gas extraction operations occasionally have accidents—events that can result in massive oil spills.

Changing conditions spur a utility in Washington, D.C., to consider and address its future climate vulnerabilitie

Coral reefs off the west coast of Maui are readily accessible and heavily used by visitors and locals alike. Managers needed a plan to boost the resilience of the reefs so they could continue providing critical habitat for marine species.

Louisiana’s Highway 1 carries a significant fraction of the gas and oil that comes from the Gulf of Mexico to distribution points in the United States. Faced with rising seas and sinking land, would the cost of rebuilding the road be worth the investment it required?

As the threats of tsunami and sea level rise are joined by real and potential climate impacts, the Quinault community looks to move the lower village of Taholah to higher ground.

Learn how the production of indigo and denim relied on the skills and labor of enslaved people brought to colonial America from Africa and how these products became vital to the economies of the South and the North in these videos excerpted from Riveted: The History of Jeans |AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. The history of denim reveals the economic contributions of enslaved people as well as their cultural and social connections to clothing that became closely associated with America.

Learn how race became a wedge issue during the Reconstruction Era, dividing formerly united abolitionists and suffragists, in these videos adapted from The Vote |AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. When suffragists put aside their own agenda to fight for an end to slavery, they expected support from newly freed black men. Congress's decision to push for suffrage for black men only in the 15th Amendment set these two historic causes in opposition.

Ranchers are participating in a pilot project to improve carbon storage and reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. After quantifying their baseline emissions and carbon storage, they implement conservation practices that may let them tap into revenue from voluntary carbon markets.

Learn about Loreta Velazquez, a woman who disguised herself as a man and joined the Confederate army, served under Union forces as a spy, and published a written account detailing the horrors of war.

After an extremely heavy rain destroyed almost 500 miles of roadway in Colorado, the state is redesigning some roadways—and the streams they follow—to make the roads more resilient to future floods.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s documentary series, Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy, with millions of former enslaved people and free Black people seeking out their rightful place as equal citizens under the law. Though tragically short-lived, this bold democratic experiment was, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, a ‘brief moment in the sun’ for African Americans, when they could advance, and achieve, education, exercise their right to vote, and run for and win public office.

At the end of the 19th century, Jim Crow laws were enacted widely throughout the Southern United States. These state and local laws sought to mandate and enforce racial segregation in public transportation, schools, public places, restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments, Jim Crow laws persisted for decades, many enforced until 1965.

After the war was over and slavery abolished, Reconstruction was underway. Although there were challenges ahead, African Americans were filled with unprecedented hope. In 1867, Congress granted the right to vote to Black men in most of the South. In 1869, the 15th Amendment was passed (ratified in 1870), barring racial discrimination in voting. And with that, Black men took to the polls. Over the next several years, African American men moved into public leadership, including legislative positions. Two such stories belong to Hiram Revels and Robert Smalls.

Rising seas and coastal erosion are eating away at the barrier island on which the Alaska Native Village of Kivalina rests. Residents and others are making concerted efforts to move the community to safety.

This lesson plan and case study can be used to follow the previous one, or can stand alone. They allow students to explore the effects of the Boston busing crisis that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. Full lesson plan with primary resources included. Encourages critical thinking.

Coastal erosion has repeatedly damaged bike paths and parking lots near Ventura, California. It took local groups with varying viewpoints more than a decade to agree upon a strategy, but the first phase of their solution is now complete.

After conducting an assessment that showed their building’s vulnerability to wind damage, the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami looked for a way to improve safety for patients and staff.