Lesson Plan Native American Cultures and the Impact of the Boarding Schools 3, 4, 5 Click to download this four-lesson unit.
Spotlight on: Primary Source John Philip Sousa critiques modern music, 1930 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), an American composer of classical music, served as the director of the United States Marine Band from 1880 to 1892. During Sousa’s time as leader of "The President’s Own," as the band was called, he...
Spotlight on: Primary Source American Indians' service in World War I, 1920 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 More than 11,000 American Indians served with the American forces during World War I. Nearly 5,000 Native men enlisted and approximately 6,500 were drafted—despite the fact that almost half of American Indians were not citizens and...
Lesson Plan Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century Immigration and Migration: Pairing Text and Visual Materials Art 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click to download this five-lesson unit.
Spotlight on: Primary Source Anti-corporate cartoons, ca. 1900 Art, Economics, Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ These cartoons illustrate the growing hostility toward the practices of the big businesses that fueled the industrial development of the United States. In "The Protectors of Our Industries" (1883), railroad magnates Jay Gould and...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Birth of a Nation, 1915 Government and Civics This "Advice Sheet" flyer was distributed with D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation to theaters when the film was released in 1915. Significantly, the distributors are adamant that "NEGROES MUST NOT BE ADMITTED . . . under any...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, 1911 Economics, Foreign Languages, Literature, Religion and Philosophy On March 25, 1911, a devastating fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Workers had been locked in the factory to discourage theft and prevent labor organization, and they were unable to escape when the fire...
Lesson Plan Symbols of the 1920s: New York City Skyscrapers in Photographs and Paintings Art 9, 10, 11, 12 Overview The roaring 1920s was an era of dramatic change. Among the most enduring manifestations of this change was the rise of the big city. The centrality of urban growth to the social, political, and economic changes of the 1920s...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Building Mount Rushmore, 1926 Art This September 1926 report by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum to the Harney Peak Memorial Association anticipates the construction of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Borglum’s report offers a look...