The search for Lincoln’s parent’s marriage certificate proved to be challenging due to developing county parameters at the time.

This is a virtual tour of the Lives bound together Exhibit at Mt. Vernon

This 2 an 1/2 min video addresses the question of "What were slaves doing during the Civil War?"

This inquiry kit features Library of Congress sources and focuses upon the lives of Tejanos and Hispanics during the Westward Expansion.

Best known for her novel Little Women, learn about the impact of the abolitionist movement on Louisa May Alcott’s life and writing and her experience working as a nurse during the Civil War in this video from the American Masters film Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind ‘Little Women.’ Engage students with discussion questions, a close reading of passages from Alcott’s book Hospital Sketches, connections to the PBS show Mercy Street, and research about other abolitionists.

Explore the impact of transcendentalism on the life of Louisa May Alcott and American society in this video from the American Masters film Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind 'Little Women.' Emphasizing self-reliance, civil disobedience, intuition, the importance of nature, and knowing oneself, transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau left a permanent mark on American identity and values. Alcott spent much of her life surrounded by deep thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau and echoes of their influence can be found in her writing and the way she lived her life. Engage students with discussion questions, a close reading of quotes from Emerson and Thoreau, and connections to the movement in popular culture today.

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in October 1803 doubled the size of the United States and foreshadowed its emergence as a global power. The purchase marked an unprecedented use of executive power by President Thomas Jefferson and evoked strong resistance from Federalists. In this lesson, a timeline of the purchase along with letters by Federalist leaders help students decide whether practical concerns or political agendas motivated the opposition.

This resource contains images related to and a facsimile of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase Treaty. In this transaction with France, signed on April 30, 1803, the United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. For roughly 4 cents an acre, the United States doubled its size, expanding the nation westward.

What were the causes and effects of westward expansion between 1844 and 1877? Kim Kutz Elliott discusses how economic opportunities, government support, and the idea of 'manifest destiny' brought migrants to the western United States.

In what ways was the US settled and unsettled in the 19th century? What role did artists play in shaping public understandings of the US West? In this resource, students will explore and analyze works of art related to the era of Manifest Destiny and its impacts. In suggested activities, students research a work of art from this unit that connects to American exceptionalism and then discuss their findings; examine the 1868 print Across the Continent and question the artist's narrative; research indigenous peoples who lived in their area and listen to living members of the community.

This resource contains a facsimile of the landmark Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court case. Argued in 1803, the Supreme Court decision established the right of the courts to determine the constitutionality of the actions of the other two branches of government.

This inquiry kit features Library of Congress sources showing Maryland's important religious and social impact on the New World in the middle 1600s.

Dr. Mudd claimed not to recognize the two men who appeared at his home the morning of April 15, 1865. See the evidence that disproved his story and sent him to prison.

Discover why most of the Mayflower's male passengers signed an historic agreement, in this video adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Pilgrims. In September 1620, religious dissenters, called "Separatists" by their detractors, were joined aboard the Mayflower by other English colonists recruited by the project's financial backers who did not share the Separatists' religious zeal. After making landfall 66 days later and with tensions threatening to divide the passengers, a social compact was drafted and signed in which all signers agreed to submit to the government created, officers elected, and laws drafted.

An archeologist tells how he put a face to Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State, in this article from NOVA Online.

Engage with important themes from the Civil War era with content from the new PBS drama Mercy Street, along with our webseries Time Capsule from the producers of PBS Digital Studios The Good Stuff.

In this media gallery and associated activity from Mercy Street, students learn about and analyze the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, its effect on enslaved people, and how its passing into law impacted fugitive slave resettlement and the abolitionist movement in the United States. For more resources from Mercy Street, check out the collection page.

Discover how in 1846, tensions simmered into the Mexican-American war, after which Mexico lost half of its territory and the U.S. gained one-third of theirs.

Michael Strahan, NFL Hall-of-Famer and television personality, can track his descendants’ migration from the upper South to Texas as the result of the Second Middle Passage – a turning point in the history of the domestic slave trade in the United States.

This unit is one of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Teaching Literacy through History resources, designed
to align with the Common Core State Standards. These units were developed to enable students to
understand, summarize, and evaluate original materials of historical significance. Through a step-by-step
process, students will acquire the skills to analyze, assess, and develop knowledgeable and well-reasoned
viewpoints on primary sources and literary texts.
Over the course of three lessons the students will compare and contrast two different versions of one of the
most iconic events in American history: the midnight ride of Paul Revere. The comparison will be made
between the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and a description of the event
written by Paul Revere himself. Students will use textual evidence from these two sources to draw their
conclusions and write an argumentative essay.