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Skills Lessons

Introductory lessons to help students build basic skills in historiography and source analysis

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Ephemera

Anti-women's-suffrage postcard showing an angry white man nursing a baby while a white woman, implied to be his wife, is protesting for women's votes outside.

Hilary Mac Austin
March 4, 2024

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Anatomy of a Map

Map of the United States and Indian Territory. Insets on around the edges show major cities and pieces of infrastructure.

David Wiemer, PhD
September 29, 2023

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Decoding Lines in Maps

Map of Ohio with sections of surrounding states and Lake Eire, Ohio is broken into different colored counties. Roads, railroads, canals, and cities are marked.

David Weimer, PhD
September 21, 2023

15th Century, Classroom Materials, College Prep, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Anatomy of a Manuscript Page

Page of an illuminated medieval manuscript. A border of leaves and flowers surrounds Latin text handwritten in black. There are two small images within the text. In the upper left the Virgin Mary holds Jesus inside of an illuminated "O." In the lower left, a person with a halo and a blue cloak holds a goblet.

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 12, 2022

15th Century, Classroom Materials, College Prep, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Reading Middle English in Manuscript

Detail of lines of Middle English text on vellum

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 12, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Reading a Caption

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 4, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Types of Photographs

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 4, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Dating a Photograph

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 4, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Types of Sources

Hand-drawn map of central and eastern North America labeled in French.

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
March 7, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Reading a Transcription

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
March 7, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Political Cartoons

A black-and-white line drawing of a giant, wheeled machine fronted with two outstretched hands pushes crowds of people off a cliff into a valley labeled "Unemployment Dump." The machine is labeled "Modern Machinery."

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
March 7, 2022

Classroom Materials, Skills Lessons

Skills Lesson: Bias

Print of a hand-drawn image. A wagon train of pioneer wagons move westward across a plain. In the background is a mountain range with the sun rising over it. In the upper left is a small circular image of white explorers standing on the edge of a cliff and pointing to a river valley below. In the lower right is a circular image of men two men on a road by a tent. In the background is a body of water with a boat. The image’s title “The March of Destiny” hangs across the top of the main image on a banner.

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
March 1, 2022