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Activities

Brief, inquiry-based classroom activities exploring a single source

19th Century, Activities, Middle School

Chicago Weekly Journal Articles on the Fugitive Slave Law

newberry
October 9, 2026

19th Century, Activities, Middle School

John Hossack’s Speech on the Fugitive Slave Law

Speech given by John Hossack at his sentencing for violating the Fugitive Slave Law.

newberry
October 5, 2026

19th Century, Activities, High School, Lesson Plans, Middle School

Nineteenth-Century Currency

$1 bank note with illustrations (clockwise from top) of industrious white farmers, stateman Daniel Webster, and three Indigenous people.

newberry
November 18, 2024

16th Century, 17th Century, Activities, High School

Distilling in Early Modern Europe

Image of a distillation factory.

DCCAuthor
June 27, 2024

17th Century, Activities, Middle School

Mapping Early America: Peoples, Animals, and Environments

DCCAuthor
May 28, 2024

19th Century, 20th Century, Activities, Elementary School

Population Growth in Chicago

Elevated view of a city neighborhood showing rows of tightly packed two-and-three story houses with a church and many industrial smoke stacks on the horizon.

DCCAuthor
May 2, 2023

20th Century, Activities, Classroom Materials, Elementary School

Latinx Discrimination

Black-and-white sign on a wall reading "We Serve White's Only; No Spanish or Mexicans." Originally from the Russell Lee Photograph Collection, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

newberry
November 9, 2022

18th Century, Activities, Classroom Materials, Middle School

The Will of Eduarda Rita Garduño

Two-page spread of a modern printed book.

newberry
November 3, 2022

19th Century, Activities, Classroom Materials, Middle School

The Second Great Awakening

Right hand page of a printed book. Reads, "for a minister to read his sermon--to turn over leaf after leaf, and at the conclusion say 'amen,' seemed to me like an 'empty sound and a tinkling cymbal.' I was not benefitted by his reading. It did not arouse me to a sense of my danger--and I am of the opinion that it had no better effect on the people of his charge. I liked to attend church, as I had been taught in my younger years to venerate the Sabbath day; and although young I could plainly perceive the difference between the preachers I had formerly heard and the minister at whose church I attended. I thought, as near as I can remember, that the Christian depended on the Holy Spirit's influence entirely, while this minister depended as much upon his learning. I would not be understood as saying any thing against knowledge; in its place it is good, and highly necessary to a faithful preacher of righteousness. What I object to is, placing too much reliance in it, making a god of it, &c. / Every thing went on smoothly for two or three years. About this time the Methodists began to hold meetings in the neighbourhood, and consequently a storm of persecution gathered; the pharisee and the worldling united heartily in abusing them. The gall and wormwood of sectarian malice were emitted, and every evil report prejudicial to this pious people was freely circulated. And"

newberry
April 5, 2022

17th Century, 18th Century, Activities, Classroom Materials, High School

Native Nations in an Age of Empire and Revolution, 1750-1783: Primary Source Activities

DCCAuthor
March 17, 2022

20th Century, Activities, Elementary School

World War II and US Visual Culture

Painting of a white woman wearing blue work overalls and goggles on her forehead. She sits on a box while eating a sandwich. A riveter tool lays across her lap, and her feet rest on a copy of Mein Kampf. The background is in American flag.

newberry
February 28, 2022

19th Century, Activities, High School, Lesson Plans, Middle School

Civil War Letters

newberry
February 28, 2022