Primary Source Sets

Sets of primary sources on specific topics.

Search Primary Source Sets

  • Abraham Lincoln: Rise to National Prominence A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Abraham Lincoln and his national role. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Speeches, correspondence, campaign materials and a map documenting the free and slave states in 1856 chronicle Lincoln’s rise to national prominence
    • Date: 1855
  • Alexander Hamilton Manuscripts, images, and historic newspapers document the life and accomplishments of Alexander Hamilton. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Manuscripts, images, and historic newspapers document the life and accomplishments of Alexander Hamilton'
    • Date: 1757
  • American Authors in the Nineteenth Century: Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Stowe, and Poe A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the topic of American authors in the nineteenth century, including Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Edgar Allan Poe. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the topic of American authors in the nineteenth century,…
    • Date: 1830
  • Baseball Across a Changing Nation A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring baseball and the various ways it was experienced by Americans between the close of the Civil War and the beginning of WWII. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Baseball has been part of the culture of the United States since the earliest days of the nation, and the…
    • Date: 1860
  • Charts and Graphs A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring charts and graphs. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1900
  • Child Labor A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring child labor. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Child labor and the reform movement opposed to it documented in photographs, cartoons, audio interviews, and newspapers.
    • Date: 1893
  • Children's Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Children's Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1890
  • The Civil Rights Movement A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the U.S. civil rights movement. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Photos, newspaper articles, interviews, and documents explore the African American civil rights movement of the 20th century.
    • Date: 1954
  • Civil War Images: Depictions of African Americans in the War Effort A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the ways in which African Americans were depicted in the Civil War effort. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1861
  • Civil War Music A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring historical perspectives about the American Civil War. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1861
  • Civil War Photographs: New Technologies and New Uses Photographs that help to document the photographic technologies used during the Civil War. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1860
  • Civil War Soldiers' Portraits: The Liljenquist Family Collection A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the Civil War portraits in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs from the Library of Congress. This set also includes a Teacher s Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1860
  • The Civil War: The Nation Moves Towards War, 1850-61 Conflict between abolition and slavery marked the 1850s, preceding the election of 1860 and the attack on Fort Sumter that started the Civil War. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and secession in maps, newspapers, political cartoons and song sheets.
    • Date: 1850
  • The Constitution A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the United States Constitution. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1785
  • Dust Bowl Migration A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945). This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1930
  • Ecology A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring ecology. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1724
  • Found Poetry A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring found poetry and the ability to retell history from one's own perspective. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
  • The Great Migration A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the Great Migration. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. The Great Migration documented in photographs, manuscripts, maps, videos, and newspapers document .
    • Date: 1916
  • The Harlem Renaissance A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the Harlem Renaissance. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1920
  • Immigration Challenges for New Americans A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the topic of immigration from the early nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1900
  • The Industrial Revolution in the United States A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the Industrial Revolution and its effects in the United States. This set also includes a Teacher s Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1876
  • Informational Text Personal narratives, newspaper articles, posters, broadsides, speeches, memes, movies and other artifacts that can serve as informational texts for students to analyze.
    • Date: 1824
  • Inventions and Innovations A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring how various inventions and innovations came into being. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Photographs, prints, manuscripts, and newspapers explore how various inventions and innovations came into being.
    • Date: 1780
  • The Inventive Wright Brothers A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the contributions of the Wright brothers to flight. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1880
  • Jamestown A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Jamestown as the first permanent British settlement in North America. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
  • Japanese American Internment A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Japanese Internment during World War II. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1941
  • Jim Crow and Segregation A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring Jim Crow in the US. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1865
  • LGBTQ Activism and Contributions A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring LGBTQ Activism and Contributions. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Photos, film footage, newspaper articles, interviews, and audio recordings explore LGBTQ Americans' political activism and contributions to U.S. cultural life.
    • Date: 1865
  • The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1803
  • Maps From The World Digital Library A selection of primary sources exploring historic maps presented by the World Digital Library. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
  • Mexican American Migrations and Communities A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the topic of Mexican American migrations and communities, including photos, newspapers, and oral history interviews. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
  • The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the history and civil rights legacy of the NAACP. This set also includes a Teacher s Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1895
  • Native American Boarding Schools A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring education and assimilation of Indian peoples from the 1880-1920s. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Photos, early film footage, federal government reports, cartoons, and maps tell the complex tale of the efforts to assimilate Native Americans through education
    • Date: 1880
  • Natural Disasters A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring natural disasters. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1871
  • The New Deal A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the New Deal and its impact during the Great Depression. This set also includes a Teacher s Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
    • Date: 1932
  • Political Cartoons and Public Debates A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring political cartoons in U.S. history. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions
  • Political Parties A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the topic of political parties in the United States. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
  • Presidential Speeches Each presidential speech is unique. By working with primary sources from the online collections of the Library of Congress, students can explore the people and events that shaped these speeches. They can also identify the components of an effective speech and discover persuasive strategies that will help make their own speeches presidential.
  • Reconstruction A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring the topic of Reconstruction in the United States. This set also includes a Teacher's Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Photographs, newspaper articles, documents and other sources show aspects of the social, political, and cultural changes during Reconstruction and their legacy.
  • Rosa Parks Selected items from the Rosa Parks collection, documenting the life, work, and legacy of civil rights legend Rosa Parks. Selected items from the Rosa Parks collection, documenting the life, work, and legacy of civil rights legend Rosa Parks.