Teaching Resources

Reform Movements

Over the past fifteen years, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has worked closely with master educators across the country. Many of them have developed unique lesson plans and activities related to this historical era. These resources are included here along with pedagogical videos and other general teaching tools that can be adapted for a variety of time periods and themes in American history.

A Ku Klux Klan threat, 1868

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

A perspective on the San Francisco earthquake, 1906

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Abraham Lincoln on Slavery and Race

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Abstinence pledge card, 1842

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Alice Paul: Suffragist and Agitator

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

American Politics in the Gilded Age, 1868–1900

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

American Slavery and Abolition through Hollywood

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

An African American protests the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Birth of a Nation

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Geography, Government and Civics, Literature Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Breaking from Great Britain, 1776

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Carrie Catt: Feminist Politician

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Celebrating Labor Day

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Civil rights posters, 1968

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Civilian Conservation Corps poster, 1938

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Community and Social Change in America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Consequences of the Depression

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Discontented America: the United States in the 1920s

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Don’t Buy a Ford Ever Again, ca. 1960

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

George Wallace on segregation, 1964

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

George Washington’s Rules of Civility

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Guided Readings: The Changing Status of Women

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Haymarket Scrapbook

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Horace Greeley on a woman’s reform newspaper, 1851

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Industrialization - American Labor

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: A Life

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

John Wesley and Slavery

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

John Woolman

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lincoln on the execution of a slave trader, 1862

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lucy Stone: Speaking Out for Equality

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Lynching in America, ca. 1926

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Mary McLeod Bethune: A Biography

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Militancy and the Abolitionist Movement

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

New Deal Legislation

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Newsies

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Nineteenth-Century Native American Viewpoints

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Nonviolent Direct Action at Southern Lunch Counters

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Origins: How the Holiday Was Born

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

People’s Party campaign poster, 1892

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Plessy v. Ferguson

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Postwar Labor Tensions

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Problems of Youth

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Reconstruction

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Religion and Social Reform - Abolitionism

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Responses to Industrialism

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Rise of the Populists and William Jennings Bryan

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Robert Kennedy on civil rights, 1963

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Runaway Slave Ad, 1860

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Singing for Freedom

Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Sojourner Truth’s America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Songs of Peace, Freedom, and Protest

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Study Aid: Great Society Legislation

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Teaching the Revolution

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, World History Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Emancipation Proclamation

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Farmers' Revolt

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

The First Emancipation

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

The Forging of the Union, 1781–1789

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Grange Movement, 1875

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Great War

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Haymarket Riot: A Common Core Unit

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

The Haymarket Tragedy

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Helms Attack on King

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Jungle

Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The New Deal: Legislation & Policies

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

The Populist Persuasion: An American History

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Postwar Red Scare

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Promise of Democracy

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Sounds of Social Change: Studies in Popular Culture

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The War with Spain in 1898

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Theodore Roosevelt : A Bully Reformer

Curriculum Subjects: Economics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Theodore Roosevelt and the Trusts

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

What Does Liberty Look Like?

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

What’s That Sound? Teaching the 1960s through Popular Music

Curriculum Subjects: Art Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Woman Abolitionists

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Woman Suffrage before 1920

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Women’s suffrage poster, 1915

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:

Women’s Suffrage: 140 Years of Struggle

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton?

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: