Resources for Students

Primary Sources and Online Libraries

  • White House for Kids - http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/kids/html/home.html
    This historical site is designed to inform kids about the White House, its history and related information about the presidency. Links include information on the Location and History of the White House, information about President Clinton, White House Kids, and Pets. This site also includes a link from which kids may write the President.
  • Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids - http://bensguide.gpo.gov/
    Ben's Guide to U. S. Government for kids is a service of the US Government Printing Office that provides electronic access to information about U. S. history and government. This site is organized by grade levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and a link for parents and teachers.
  • Making of America - http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/
    Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
  • Internment of San Francisco Japanese - Museum of the City of San Francisco - http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html
    Record of Japanese Internment as recorded in The San Francisco News from March 2, 1942 to April 30, 1942. Includes complete newspaper articles from period and links to related resources.
  • American Memory - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
    American Memory is an online resource compiled by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program. With the participation of other libraries and archives, the program provides a gateway to primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States.
    Over one million items from the American Memory historical collections are currently available online. In the coming years, the National Digital Library Program plans to digitize more of the Library's American history collections and make them available to teachers, students, and the general public over the Internet.
  • The Oyez Project - The U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia Database - http://oyez.nwu.edu/
    Maintained by Northwestern University, Oyez provides complete records of Supreme Court cases, biographical information on justices and a virtual tour of the Supreme Court building.
  • The Freedom Channel - http://www.freedomchannel.com/index.cfm
    Sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Freedom Channel is a free, nonpartisan site that offers video-on-demand of current political candidates and issue groups. It allows voters to dial up the candidates they are interested in, on the issues they care about, all at times of their own choosing.
  • Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html
    The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" series which include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material. Most items are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65.
  • 19th Century Schoolbooks and the Nietz Collection Bibliography - http://digital.library.pitt.edu/nietz/nietz2.html -
    The resource includes full-texts of thirty schoolbooks from the Nietz Old Textbook Collection, one of several well-known collections of 19th Century schoolbooks in the United States. This resource also includes a searchable bibliography of the Collection's 16,000 volumes.
  • My History is America's History - http://www.myhistory.org/ -
    An initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities designed to encourage users to explore their personal histories. This site provides a place for sharing family stories and for users getting help in their historical discoveries.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Digital Archive - http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/index.html -
    This site provides scholars, teachers and students access to part of the collection of documents, photographs and video recordings found at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. This resource includes a K-12 learning center and over 10,000 digitized documents relating to the Roosevelt presidency.
  • DoHistory - http://www.dohistory.org/
    Constructed by the Film Study Center at Harvard University this is an experimental, interactive site where you can explore the process of piecing together the lives of ordinary people in the past. It features a case study based on the research that went into the book and film A Midwife's Tale, which were both based upon the 200 year old diary of midwife/healer Martha Ballard. Although DoHistory is centered on the life of Martha Ballard, you can learn basic skills and techniques for interpreting fragments that survive from any period in history.
  • The Papers of George Washington - http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers/
    The site provides access to the University of Virginia's collection, "The Papers of George Washington." It includes letters written to Washington as well as letters and documents written by him.
  • Canadian War Museum - http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/cwmeng/cwmeng.html
    An on-line version of the Canadian War museum, this site is dedicated to the education and remembrance of participants in Canadian wars. Along with links to other related sources, this site provides links to the museum's public and educational programs, a "Teacher's Activity Kit," and an interactive story of life in the trenches during World War One.
  • CivNet Archive - http://www.civnet.org/resoures/greatdoc.htm
    Part of civnet, an international resource for civic education and civil society, this resource page, links to the full-text of "great documents", including The Magna Carta and The Federalist Papers. This site includes links to teaching resources and links to other sites related to civic education and civic society.
  • International Archive of Civic Documents - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9061/index.html
    This resource organizes links by international region (Asia, Africa, United States) and topically (mathematics, women, teaching, war). The linked pages provide a series of connections to specific historical information about the region or topic. For example, among the resources available from the Canadian page you can find "Asian Canadian Resources," "Canadian Heritage," and "Teaching and Learning about Canada." Each page includes a search box from which you can look for specific historical information.
  • Valley of the Shadow - http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/
    This site is a digital history project sponsored by the Virginia Center for Digital History. The Valley of the Shadow Project documents two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project is a hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Students can explore every dimension of the conflict and write their own histories, reconstructing the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families. The project is intended for secondary schools, community colleges, libraries, and universities.
  • Matrix Collection of Humanities Resources and Archives - http://matrix.msu.edu/resources/
    Developed by Matrix - The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University, this resource provides extensive links to online resources in all of the above areas as well as links and tutorials for web publishing and research.
  • Supreme Court Collection - http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
    Sponsored by the Legal Information Institute, this resource offers Supreme Court opinions under the auspices of Project Hermes, the court's electronic-dissemination project. This archive contains nearly all opinions of the court issued since May of 1990. In addition, the collection includes over 600 of the most important historical decisions of the Court available on CD-ROM and over the Internet.
  • Congress at Work - The Library of Congress Congressional records - http://thomas.loc.gov/
    This is a resource page for the Library of Congress designed to give complete access to congressional legislation. This site can be searched by specific House and Senate Bill numbers or by a word or a phrase. This site also includes a series of related links under the headings Legislation, Congressional Records, and Committee Reports.
  • National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - http://www.nara.gov
    NARA is an independent Federal agency that helps preserve our nation's history by overseeing the management of all Federal records. NARA's mission is to ensure ready access to the essential evidence that documents the rights of American citizens, the actions of Federal officials, and the national experience. This site includes multiple links to NARA's nationwide holdings including: Records Management; Federal Register; Online Exhibit Hall; Digital Classroom; National Historical Publication and Records Commission Grants; and technical information for Archives and Preservation of Professional records.
  • Library of Congress - http://www.loc.gov/
    The Library of Congress site offers a searchable, digital collection of resources from the Library of Congress' American historical collections as well as its catalog, text and images from major exhibitions, the THOMAS database of current and historical information on the US Congress, and a Learning Page for K-12 students and teachers. This site includes a National Digital Library Program which offers access to key documents, films, photographs and sound recordings of our nation's history in the American Memory Historical Collections.
  • Presidents of the United States - http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/html/presidents.html
  • Time and the Presidency - http://www.pathfinder.com/offers/presidents/
    Time and the Presidency is a multimedia site featuring articles and photographs about U. S. Presidents. This site includes links to a Virtual Exhibit of Presidential photos and information, a Presidential Quiz, and a search engine for information on specific U. S. Presidents.
  • Harry S. Truman Library and Museum - http://www.trumanlibrary.org/
    A sites for documents, images and related resource from the Harry S. Truman Museum.

Government Agencies and Organizations

  • US House of Representatives Home Page - http://www.house.gov/Welcome.html
    This official Web Site of the U. S. House of Representatives includes various resources to learn about house rules, proceedings, votes, committees, and employment opportunities. The page also includes Educational Links and resource for writing to individual house members.
  • US Senate Home Page - http://www.senate.gov/
    This Official Site of the U. S. Senate includes information about Senate activities, committees, and Bills. This resource also provides access to Senate Art, This Week in Senate History, and search capabilities for information about a individual state senators and legislative history.
  • White House Home Page - http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Welcome.html
    The official Web page of the U. S. White house, this site provides information on the President and Vice President, the Federal Government, histories of the White House and its inhabitants, and a Virtual Library of White House Documents.
  • US Government Agencies Directory - http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html
    This page is a comprehensive resource of U. S. Federal Government agencies indexed by Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of government. This site also includes links to Independent Boards, Commissions and Committees, and other government agencies.
  • State of Michigan - http://www.migov.state.mi.us/
    This site is a portal to online resource for the State of Michigan. Included at this site are public policy documents, speeches, and news releases from Governor John Engler's Administration. In addition, you can explore links to Michigan's State Legislature, the Judiciary and every state department, as well as Michigan Compiled Laws and the Michigan Administrative Code. This resource also includes travel, tourism information, and a virtual tour of the State Capitol.

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Civics Online
http://civics.matrix.msu.edu
Creation Date: 2/21/2000
Last Updated: 3/20/2005