Smithsonian Source: Transportation
This section is intended to supplement the curricula, textbooks, and materials you currently use for lessons that demonstrate the importance of travel and transportation in American life. The teacher-developed resources will enhance the classroom experience for both you and your students. You might start by viewing the short video, in which curators at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum discuss the achievements and legacy of Amelia Earhart.
Native American Folklore
In this lesson students will familiarize themselves with the Western landscape through both Native American folklore and George Catlin's paintings of the prairie. After reading several Native American legends, students will compose and illustrate their own legend.
The Mandan Buffalo Dance
The Mandan and the Sioux depended so heavily on certain animals that they would starve without them. In the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni depended as heavily on annual rainfall for their survival. In each of these cases, the tribes created interpretive dances to encourage the arrival of something that was so important to their survival that they would die without it. In this exercise, we will learn about how several Native American tribes construct their dances and dedications. We will also look
Inside Caitlin's Head
In the 1830s, George Catlin (1796–1872) packed his paintbrushes and trekked through remote Indian country in the Great Plains. Committed to documenting traditional Native culture, he visited more than 140 tribes and painted more than 325 portraits and 200 scenes of American Indian life. Catlin's prolific works, both his art and his writings, illustrate Indian cultures on the precipice of radical change—change that would come with U.S. expansion into tribal territories.
In this lesson, stude
Cracking Caitlin's Code
This is a creative approach to teaching basic skills involved in the formal visual analysis of works of art. Students will learn how to interpret artworks in cultural and historical contexts by becoming "art detectives." Students will analyze Catlin's formal compositions to learn about the Native American leaders he painted. They will examine visual clues and write a final "case summary" in which they "crack Catlin's code."
Ten Simple Rules for Getting Grants
This piece follows an earlier Editorial, “Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published”, which has generated significant interest, is well read, and continues to generate a variety of positive comments. That Editorial was aimed at students in the early stages of a life of scientific paper writing.
The Keeling Curve Turns 50
The inception of the "Keeling Curve," a history of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, marked a key moment in American science history. The record began in March, 1958 at a small observatory on the top of Hawaii's Mauna Loa.
The Republican War on Science
Renowned science scholar Naomi Oreskes hosts Chris Mooney, author of the bestselling book "The Republican War on Science", a "well-researched, closely argued and amply referenced indictment of the right wing's assault on science and scientists" (Scientific American) Series: UCSD Guestbook [Public Affairs] ...
Romantic-Era Songs
This not-for-profit site is intended to make vocal music and lyrics of the of the early 19th century in the British Isles, Europe, Canada, the United States, and Australia more accessible. It includes contemporary music of the period and later settings (e.g., Brian Holmes's complete score for Death's Jest Book and Lori Lange's settings of Byron lyrics).
NASA KSNN How much is money worth?
Many items have been used as money throughout the world. Cattle, cowry shells, feathers, salt, ivory, whales' teeth, jewelry, and tools have been used as money for some societies. North American Indians used Wampum, strings of white beads made from clam shells, as money. Eventually, most societies used coins and paper money for trade. It's easy to see that the other forms of money might become cumbersome, although today some societies still use and prefer barter in place of money.
The Quilt Index
This is a hub of information on American quilts and quilt-making. It now features images and documentation for hundreds of quilts from Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, and Illinois. An online discussion is open to anyone interested in the documentation or study of quilts, quilters, and quilting history.
History and Politics Out Loud
HPOL is a collection of invaluable audio materials some available for the first time on this website capturing significant political and historical events and personalities of the twentieth century. The materials range from formal addresses delivered in public settings to private telephone conversations conducted from the innermost recesses of the White House. Our aim is to provide an accessible source of audio information to enliven instruction and scholarship in history and politics and to ena
Motivating Conservation through Payment for Environmental Services: Not So Simple
This presentation by Dr. John Kerr from Michigan State University's Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies is part of MSU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Archaeology and National Identity: 200 years of Aztequismo in Service to the Mexican State (Seminar)
This presentation by Dr. Helen Pollard from Michigan State University's Department of Anthropology is part of MSU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Visions and Revisions of History in the Latin American Novel of Dictatorship
The twentieth-century Latin American novel of dictatorship has had an important impact on the interpretation of Latin American history. Many novels, such as Yo el Supremo (1974) and El fiscal (1993) by Augusto Roa Bastos, and La novela de Peran (1985) and Santa Evita (1995) by Toma
Wedding.
This 1866 news engraving showed a chaplain marrying an African-American couple in the offices of the Vicksburg Freedmen's Bureau. Because marriages between slaves before emancipation had no legal standing, many couples rushed to have their marriages officially registered and made solemn during Reconstruction. ...
Witchcraft
Law and custom in seventeenth-century New England gave male property owners authority over the women, children, and other dependents of their families. Women who spoke up or stood out merited suspicion, and many were accused, prosecuted, and occasionally executed for the crime of witchcraft. Women could ...
"A Decent Home . . . for Every American Family": Postwar Housing Shortage Victims Testify before Con
New home construction declined dramatically during the Great Depression as rents rose, reaching an all-time high in 1940. A persistent housing shortage continuing into the early 1950s forced families to separate and apartment dwellers to "double-up." The housing reform movement, largely ineffectual ...
Believe it or not
At the close of the twentieth century, 93 percent of the U.S. population professed to believe in angels, 49 percent were sure that the federal government was hiding information about the existence of unidentified flying objects, and 25 percent thought they could communicate with the dead. Many Americans ...
"Five generations on Smith's plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina."
This African-American family was photographed in 1862 after Union forces captured the Sea Island coastal area of South Carolina. One of four photographs taken by Timothy O'Sullivan of the J. J. Smith plantation, this picture was subsequently exhibited at Alexander Gardner's Washington, D.C., photography ...
