Clara Barton's House: Home of the American Red Cross
is a curriculum-oriented guide to the life of the famous nurse. The site uses photographs, floor plans, and the like about her home in Glen Echo, Maryland as a focal point but gives readings and suggested school assignments about her career.
Chesterwood: Workshop of an American Sculptor
describes the work and estate of one of America's most important sculptors. Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) produced more than 100 works?the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial?during a period when sculptors enjoyed high status. Models and sketches from the Lincoln project, which took nine years, are provided, as are photos of the farmhouse that he converted into his estate and workshop.
Celebrate Hispanic American Month
highlights publications, properties listed in the National Register, and National Parks related to the creativity, culture, and political experiences of Hispanic Americans.
Learn to Pronounce American English Vowels
Learn to pronounce English vowels. There are five vowels in English but they can be combined to make 15 different sounds. Live movie of teaching standing. Â Close-up of teacher's face is shown as he pronounces the vowels. Â Sounds and example words are shown. (3:27)
Californio to American: A Study in Cultural Change
looks at an area that was once part of an Indian village, then an outpost shelter for vaqueros (cowhands), and then the site where Californios (Spanish settlers in what is now the state of California) built small adobe dwellings in the midst of their cattle ranges. Successive owners altered one dwelling into the elegant 18-room ranch house there today -- Rancho Los Alamitos.
Back Stairs at Brucemore: Life as Servants in Early 20th Century America
looks at the role of servants at a 33-acre estate during the early 1900s. The 21-room mansion was built in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the 1880s with a separate entrance, dining area, and stairs for servants. Servants cleaned house, supervised children, washed laundry, cooked meals, cared for the garden and farm animals, and maintained carriages and cars. Floor plans, photos, and diary excerpts are included.
Attu: North American Battleground of World War II
is the site of the only land battle on the North American continent during World War II. In June 1942, Japanese forces invaded Attu and other Aleautian islands. Americans feared the islands would be used as a staging area to attack the mainland. The U.S. had to regain the Aleutians at all costs.
An American Success Story: The Pope House of Raleigh, NC
tells the story of Manassa Pope, the first black man to receive a medical license in North Carolina (1886). After practicing medicine and helping establish a drug store and insurance company in Charlotte, Pope moved his family to Raleigh. There he continued his medical practice, built an elegant house (equipped with the latest technologies) located in the best place allowed for a black family in a segregated city. He later ran for mayor.
American Visionaries: Thomas Moran
features paintings and sketches of the noted American landscape painter. Moran's pencil and watercolor field sketches and paintings captured the grandeur and documented the extraordinary terrain and natural features of the Yellowstone region. His artwork was presented to members of Congress by park proponents and helped inspire Congress to establish the National Park System in 1916.
American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass
features items owned by the famous abolitionist, human rights and women's rights activist, orator, author, journalist, publisher, and social reformer. The site consists of enlargeable images of items in the museum and archival collections at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site at Cedar Hill, Southeast Washington, DC.
American Southwest
presents a travel itinerary of 58 historic places across Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It includes forts built to protect mail routes and settlers, missions and churches, prehistoric cliff dwellings, trading posts, petroglyphs (from the petrified forest), pit house villages, and Indian villages home to the Anasazi, Sinagua, Zuni, and other Native American tribes.
American Revolutionary War: Morristown National Historic Park
describes the mansion and environs where General Washington and his aides were headquartered for 200 days. It was here in the Ford Mansion that he met with officers, scouts, spies, statesmen, and foreign diplomats. His troops -- the Continental Army of over 10,000 soldiers -- were encamped on the windswept hills and farmland nearby, where they built a log-house city of more than 1,000 structures. Washington had selected this site in Morristown, NJ, for strategic reasons.
Japanese-American Internment
In this lesson, students will experience the internment of Japanese Americans from San Francisco's Fillmore neighborhood. By connecting local experiences with national events, students will understand both the constitutional issues at stake and the human impact of this government policy.
Frames Within Frames: Perspectives on Native-American Heritage
In this lesson, students are given the opportunity to focus on the variety of responses the film Return of Navajo Boy evokes as they create their own "film within a film," learn about cultural expression, and engage in discussion and reflective writing activities.
Civil Rights of Japanese-American Internees
In this lesson students analyze basic civic and human rights and determine if Japanese Americans rights were violated during WWII.
American Music: David Grisman
Musician David Grisman combines bluegrass with elements of swing, jazz and gypsy music as he prepares for a performance at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage. This Educator Guide is about the history of bluegrass music.
American Made
"American Made" is a film about a Sikh American family whose car breaks down en route to the Grand Canyon, and their only hope for escape is the remote desert highway and the occasional passing car. When car after car fails to stop, family members are forced to confront their notions of faith, conformity, tradition, and sacrifice-and question what it means to be "American" today. This lesson plan includes discussion activities about the definition of family, cultural research activities, and wri
Early Congress Proclaims Holidays
One of the most lasting historical effects of Congressional decision-making is the establishment of national holidays. This lesson highlights early examples of Congress declaring special days of thanksgiving and remembrance.
History of the American West, 1860-1920
This site features 30,000 photos of Colorado towns and landscapes that document the role of mining in the history of Colorado and the West. Photos of Native Americans from more than 40 tribes are included.
Historic American Sheet Arts, 1850-1920
This site presents 3,000 pieces of sheet music drawn from a collection at Duke University. The selection covers a variety of music types including bel canto, minstrel, protest, plantation, and sentimental songs, as well as songs from vaudeville and tin pan alley. The collection is particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, confederate imprints, and Civil War songs and music.
