Digital Collections for the Classroom

New Look! More Classroom Materials!

15th Century, Classroom Materials, Skills Lesson

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, Skills Lesson

Skills Lesson: Reading Middle English in Manuscript

Detail of lines of Middle English text on vellum

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 12, 2022

15th Century, Classroom Materials, Full Lesson Plan

Contexts for the Book of Margery Kempe

Colored drawing of a nun (St. Bridget) writing at a writing desk. An angel whispers in her ear while a monk prays next to her. Above her head is a dove descending from a burst of light representing the Holy Spirit. On either side of the dove are depictions of Jesus Christ. On the left, God the father (an older man with a beard) holds him after he was taken down from the cross. On the right, the Virgin Mary holds him as a baby. All the figures are white.

Joe Stadolnik, PhD
December 5, 2022

20th Century, Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Classroom Materials, Grades 4 and Up, Visual Literacy

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.

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
November 9, 2022

18th Century, Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Classroom Materials, Grades 6 and Up

The Will of Eduarda Rita Garduño

Two-page spread of a modern printed book.

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
November 3, 2022

19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Collection Essays

United States Expansion, Migrants, and Transportation Technologies, ca. 1810-1930

Colored map showing roads and bodies of water. Surrounded by a border of black-and-white photos advertising the local area, including photos of forests, lakes, Native people, moose and bear, and homes,

Gabrielle Guillerm, PhD
September 14, 2022

18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Maps as Heritage: Commemoration and Travel in American Cartography

Hand-drawn map, showing the country from Lake Superior and the Mississippi in the east to Pacific Ocean in the west and the Kansas River in the south to the northern boundary of the Louisiana Territory in the north. The map shows the locations of many Indigenous groups along with natural features like rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges.

Nicholas Kryczka, PhD
August 31, 2022

16th Century, Collection Essays

The World According to Comenius: Seen and Unseen in the Orbis Sensualium Pictus

Single page an early printed book. Text is in English and Latin in black in an 17th-century font (some "s"s written as "f"s). On the left-hand page is a circular woodblock print image showing the land with people (numbered 9), animals (8), fields (7), hills (5), and trees (8); the sea with fish (4) in it, the sky with birds (3) and a band of clouds (2); above the clouds is darker sky with stars (1). Abov the image is the title "Mundus" and below it the title "The World."

Evan Dutmer, Ph.D., Culver Academies
April 20, 2022

Classroom Materials, Resources, Visual Literacy

Historical Thinking in Elementary Classrooms

Black and white newsboys posing in front of a stone building holding stacks of newspapers.

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson are the authors of Examining the Evidence: Seven Strategies for Teaching with Primary Sources. American historian James Harvey Robinson said, “In its amplest meaning History includes every trace and vestige of everything that man…

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 7, 2022

19th Century, Classroom Materials, Full Lesson Plan, Grades 8 and Up

Perspectives on the United States

Title page of book printed on birch bark. Title readings "The Red Man's Greeting, 1492-1892 by Chief Pokagon." In the lower right corner is an image of a white man standing on a beach with many other white men behind him. They carry flags and crosses and are disembarking from a boat." The image is captioned "Landing of Columbus."

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 6, 2022