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Digital Collections for the Classroom
  • Topics
    • Browse All
    • African Americans
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    • Literature
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Digital Collections for the Classroom
  • 20th Century, Collection Essays

Mister Kelly’s and Midcentury Nightclub Culture in Chicago

Color postcard showing a city street at night. The street is lined with low buildings lit with bright lights and signs advertising restaurants, bars, and entertainment.
  • Hugh Iglarsh
  • July 17, 2026
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

The Philippine-American War

Two-page spread of a small, lined notebook with handwritten text and drawings in blue pencil. The left-hand page is full of text, and the right-hand page has a drawing of Mayon volcano viewed from the sea.
  • Dr. Amy Kohout, Colorado College
  • June 5, 2026
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Life, Labor, and Culture among Chicago’s Jewish Immigrant Garment Workers, 1880-1910

Cropped cover of a magazine in Yiddish. Blank except for the title at the top in bold lettering.
  • Dr. Ben Schacht
  • November 13, 2025
  • 16th Century, High School, Lesson Plans

Accounts of Tenochtitlan

Hand-colored woodblock print of Tenochtitlan, showing it as a well-planned city in the middle of a lake. The core of the city is a rectangular plaza, surrounded by islands with houses. Causeways connect the city to the shore, and other settlements ring the lake.
  • Dr. Delia Cosentino
  • November 4, 2025
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

New Lessons for a New Empire: Americans Learn about the Greater United States

Color map of the Pacific Ocean labeled "Our Islands in the Pacific Ocean"
  • Dr. Nicholas Kryczka
  • October 1, 2025
  • 19th Century, Collection Essays

Power, Publication, and Liberation: Literature of the American Civil War

Page of printed text in two columns reading, "Speech of Mr. Frederick Douglass/ Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens--I shall not attempt to follow Judge Kelley and Miss Dickinson in their eloquent and thrilling appeals to colored men to enlist in the service of the United States. They have left nothing to be desired on that point. I propose to look at the subject in a plain and practical common-sense light. There are obviously two vices to be taken of such enlistments--a broad view and a narrow view. I am willing to take both, and consider both. The narrow view of this subject is that which represents the matter of dollars and cents. There are those among us who say they are in favor of taking a hand in this tremendous war, but they add they wish to do so on terms of equality with white men. They say if they enter the service, endure all the hardships, perils and suffering--if they make bare their breasts, and with strong arms and courageous hearts confront rebel cannons, and wring victory from the jaws of death, they should have the same pay, the same rations, the same bounty, and the same favorable conditions every way afforded to other men./ I shall not oppose this view. There is something deep down in the soul of every man present which assents to the justice of the claim thus made, and honors the manhood and self-respect which insists upon it. [Applause.] I say at once, in peace and in war, I am content with nothing for the black man short of equal and exact justice. The only question I have, and the point at which I differ from those who refuse to enlist, is whether the colored man is more likely to obtain justice and equality while refusing to assist in putting down this tremendous rebellion than he would be if he should promptly, generously and earnestly give his hand and heart to the salvation of the country in this its day of calamity and peril. Nothing can be more plain, nothing more plain, nothing more certain than that the speediest and best possible way to open us to manhood, equal rights and elevation, is that we enter this service. For my own part, I hold that if the Government of the United States offered nothing more, as inducement to colored men to enlist, than the bare subsistence and arms, considering the moral effect of compliance upon ourselves, it would be the wisest and best thing for us to enlist. [Applause.] There is something ennobling in the possession of arms, and we of all other people in the world stand in need of their ennobling influence./ The case presented in the present war, and the light in which every colored man is bound"
  • Michaela Corning-Myers
  • October 1, 2025
  • 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Documenting Birds in North America: Science, Art, and Culture

Black-and-white photo of two pigeons, one white or gray and one black, puffed up against the cold and sitting on the sidewalk at the edge of a grate.
  • Emily Hayflick
  • September 22, 2025
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Exploring the History of Photography and Indigenous Peoples

Black-and-white photograph of a group of Indigenous leaders. Some wear traditional dress and some where Euro-American suits.
  • Analú María López
  • September 17, 2025
  • 20th Century, Collection Essays

The Jungle and the Community: Workers and Reformers in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago

Black-and-white photo of white men and boys processing sausage. A man removes the sausage from a processing machine, and the boys hang it over a long rod.
  • Dr. John Hawkins with Hana Layson and James R. Barrett
  • August 20, 2025
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Representing Indigenous Peoples in the Archive

Pencil ledger art drawing of two Indigenous people standing by a tipi on a riverbank. They are wearing colorful blankets, and there is a horse saddle and bridle nearby.
  • Dr. Mary Ludwig
  • August 20, 2025
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Chicago Workers during the Long Gilded Age

  • Hana Layson with Leon Fink, revised by Dr. Sebastian Wuepper
  • April 22, 2025
  • 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Left-Wing Political Radicalism in Chicago, 1880-1960

Political cartoon of an immigrant entering the US, represented as a wall with an open door. The immigrant has a bomb for a head and carries a suitcase labeled "undesirable." The open door to the US is a labeled "immigration restrictions."
  • Hana Layson with David Krugler, revised by Dr. Sebastian Wuepper
  • April 22, 2025
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