Everything is a Primary Source

This quick class starter involves clippings from the January 19, 1906 Boston Evening Transcript which were found inside a book of engraved portraits of George Washington from the same year. While one side of the clipping details the sale of rare Washington portraits (hence its inclusion in the book), the other covers world and national events of the day. Students should look at and consider both sides of the clippings and to discuss the great irony of such stories sharing the same newspape

Using the free-to-download Primary Source Analysis form and the secondary source-supported prompts, students will analyze documents related to food from throughout the Great Depression era, and then jigsaw to compare results with one another. This set of primary sources are just a small sampling of a larger collection that you can borrow from.

Assess competency of Second Industrial Revolution as well as students' history literacy skills with a set of four advertisements from various sources. Great for diversifying quizzes and tests or having students reassess. These and countless other authentic primary sources spanning the last 200 years, can be borrowed as part of the EPS To Go! artifact rental service.

This packet of four primary sources from 1900 to 1921 comes equipped with an inquiry question and a walk through of the necessary steps to develop a claim based on analysis. Organized so that students can work with the materials independently or in groups, as one assignment or broken into parts, and on their devices or using paper, the inquiry activity will enhance your teaching on the early 20th Century, allow students to apply their content knowledge, and encourage deep classroom discussion. T

Assess competency of the post-World War I era and students' history literacy skills with a pair of advertisements from a 1921 National Geographic. Great for diversifying quizzes and tests or having students reassess. The complete National Geographic, and countless other authentic primary sources of this and other eras, can be borrowed as part of the EPS To Go! artifact rental service.

The cover of August 23, 1894's Public Opinion magazine is fascinating as it depicts critical time for a multitude of national and global events that would soon spell out modern history. Perfect for (but not exclusive to) APUSH classes transitioning from Period 6 to 7, this activity asks students to sort the stories and features to select a topic for which they will use outside research to contextualize, elaborate on, and follow into the modern era. The complete Public Opinion magazine is avail

This packet of four primary sources from the 1920s comes equipped with an inquiry question and a walk through of the necessary steps to develop a claim based on analysis. Organized so that students can work with the materials independently or in groups, as one assignment or broken into parts, on their devices or using paper, the inquiry activity will bolster your unit on the interwar years, allow students to apply their content knowledge, and encourage deep classroom discussion. Each of the arti

Curated from the extensive Everything is a Primary Source collection of authentic artifacts of everyday life is a set of advertisements from the early 1920s centered around children and childhood. This activity calls for students to compare and contrast these primary sources with those they find using the Library of Congress's search engine, and then make decisions about how and why aspects are similar and different. Each primary source is connected to a Venn diagram with tips on how to loc

Pulling from the extensive Everything is a Primary Source collection of authentic artifacts of everyday life, here are four invoices from various New England wholesalers for purchases made by two different East Berkshire, Vermont businesses throughout 1916. While they may appear simple and scant of substantial content to work with, each receipt actually has quite a bit to say when inspected closer. The Primary Source Analysis form may be used with each receipt to yield usable results, but f