Primary Source Activities – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
151 items
Columbus’s Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 1494
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cortés’ Account of Tenochtitlan, 1522
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Las Casas on the Destruction of the Indies, 1552
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Florentine Codex, c. 1585
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
The Oral Tradition of the Foundation of the Iroquois Confederacy
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Watercolors of Algonquian Peoples in North Carolina, 1585
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
A City Upon a Hill: Winthrop’s “Modell of Christian Charity,” 1630
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Bacon vs. Berkeley on Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Penn’s Letter Recruiting Colonists, 1683
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Germantown Friends’ Antislavery Petition, 1688
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Washington’s Journal: Expeditions to Disputed Ohio Territory, 1753–1754
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Maps Showing the Evolution of Settlement, 1624–1755
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, 1767–1768
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Junípero Serra’s Baja California Diary
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Joseph Plumb Martin, The Adventures of a Revolutionary Soldier, 1777
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Art Analysis: Washington Crossing the Delaware
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
The Articles of Confederation, 1781
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Quaker Anti-Slavery Petition, 1783
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Belinda Sutton, Petition to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1783
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Northwest Ordinance, 1787
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes,” 1790
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Washington’s First Inaugural Address, 1789
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Judiciary Act of 1789
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of New York, 1790
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Thomas Jefferson on the Compromise of 1790
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Writings on the National Bank, 1785–1792
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Jay Treaty, 1795
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Pinckney’s Treaty, 1796
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: Property Protected—à la Françoise, 1798
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 1798–1799
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: Congressional Pugilists, 1798
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1805
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: The Presidential Election of 1824
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Henry Clay, Speech on American Industry, 1824
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
John C. Calhoun, South Carolina Exposition and Protest, 1828
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
David Walker, “An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,” 1829
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Webster-Hayne Debates, 1830
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Indian Removal Act, 1830, and Cherokee Chief John Ross’s Memorial and Protest to Congress, 1836
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Andrew Jackson, Bank Veto Message, 1832
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Jedediah Burchard, Revivalist Sermon, 1835
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Sarah M. Grimké, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women, 1837
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar,” 1837
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
John C. Calhoun, “Slavery as a Positive Good,” 1837
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Dorothea Dix, Memorial to the Legislation of Massachusetts, 1843
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1845
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Art Analysis: The County Election by George Caleb Bingham, 1852
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Negro Spirituals
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” 1845
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass on Abolition, 1845–1852
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Debating the Mexican-American War, May 1846
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Daniel Webster, “7th of March,” 1850
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Fugitive Slave Act, 1850
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” 1851
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Dame Shirley (Mrs. Clappe), Letters from a Western Pioneer, 1851–1852
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Frank Lecouvreur, From East Prussia to the Golden Gate, 1851–1871
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Henry David Thoreau, “Slavery in Massachusetts,” 1854
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Art Analysis: Hudson River School Landscape Paintings, 1836–1868
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
South Carolina Secession Debate, 1860
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Art Analysis: American Progress by John Gast, 1872
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
J.B. Elliott, Scott’s Great Snake (Anaconda Plan), 1861
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Daniel Emmett’s “Dixie” and Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” 1859 and 1861
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Homestead Act of 1862
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Mathew Brady, The Dead of Antietam Photography, 1862
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Images of Total War: Sherman’s March to the Sea, 1865
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Cartoon Analysis: The “Rail Splitter” at Work Repairing the Union, 1865
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Comparing Views of the Freedmen’s Bureau, 1866
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Andrew Johnson’s Veto of the Civil Rights Act, 1866
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: Thomas Nast on Reconstruction, 1869–1874
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Cartoon Analysis: Thomas Nast Takes on “Boss” Tweed, 1871
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
The Dawes Act, 1887
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Images from the Carlisle Indian School, 1880s
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Grover Cleveland’s Veto of the Texas Seed Bill, 1887
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000–1887, 1888
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law,” 1893
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” 1893
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Booker T. Washington, “Speech to the Cotton States and International Exposition,” 1895
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: Immigration in the Gilded Age, 1882–1896
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
William Jennings Bryan, “Cross of Gold” speech, 1896
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Redfield Proctor vs. Mark Twain on American Imperialism, 1898–1906
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: A Lesson for Anti-Expansionists, Victor Gillam, 1899
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Lewis Hine, Photographs Documenting Child Labor, 1908
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Elihu Root vs. William Jennings Bryan on Women’s Suffrage, 1894–1914
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Carrie Chapman Catt, Open Address to the U.S. Congress, 1917
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Business and Advertising in the Early Twentieth Century, 1910–1917
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
The Espionage Act of 1917
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
George M. Cohan, Over There, 1917
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, 1918
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Cartoon Analysis: Elmer Andrews Bushnell, “The Sky Is Now Her Limit,” 1920
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Mitchell Palmer, “The Case against the Reds,” 1920
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Marcus Garvey, “Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World,” 1920
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Alice Paul and the Equal Rights Amendment (Lucretia Mott Amendment), 1923
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Ellison DuRant Smith, “Shut the Door,” 1924
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Langston Hughes, “I, Too” and “The Weary Blues,” 1920 and 1925
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Andy Razaf (lyrics), Thomas “Fats” Waller and Harry Brooks (score), “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” Jazz and the Radio, 1929
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Art Analysis: The Art of the New Deal, 1934
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Huey Long and the American Liberty League, 1934
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Photographs: The Dust Bowl and Rural Poverty, 1936–1937
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
“Sit Down,” Maurice Sugar, 1936–1937
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Atlantic Charter, 1941
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
A. Philip Randolph, The Call to Negro America to March on Washington, 1941
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
World War II Propaganda Posters, 1941–1945
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Photographs: Women at Work on the Homefront during World War II, 1941–1945
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Franklin Roosevelt, Second Bill of Rights, 1944
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Dwight Eisenhower, D-Day Statement, 1944
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Phil “Bo” Perabo, Letter Home, 1945
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Images from the Congressional Committee Investigating Nazi Atrocities, 1945
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Winston Churchill, “Sinews of Peace,” March 1946
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Levittown Videos, 1947–1957
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Harry S. Truman, “Truman Doctrine” Address, March 1947
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
George Kennan (“Mr. X”), “Sources of Soviet Conduct,” July 1947
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Richard Nixon, “Checkers” Speech, September 1952
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Rosa Parks’s Account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Radio Interview), April 1956
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Critics of Postwar Culture: Jack Kerouac, On the Road (Excerpts), 1957
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 1961
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Nam Paik, Electronic Superhighway, 1995
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Students for a Democratic Society, “Port Huron Statement,” 1962
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 1963
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution, 1964
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Peace Without Conquest,” April 7, 1965
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
The Vietnam War Experience: An Interview with Veteran William Maxwell Barner III
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Walter Cronkite Speaks Out against Vietnam, February 27, 1968
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Music as Protest: “We Shall Overcome”
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
National Organization for Women (NOW), Bill of Rights, 1968
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Indians of All Tribes, Alcatraz Proclamation, 1969
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Nixon Tapes: The “Smoking Gun” Tape, 1972
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Art as Protest: Images from the United Farm Workers of America, 1973–1978
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Herblock, Watergate Cartoons, 1973–1974
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Barbara Jordan, Speech on Impeachment, July 25, 1974
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Jimmy Carter, “Malaise” Speech, July 15, 1979
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation on the Challenger Disaster, January 28, 1986
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Ronald Reagan, “Tear Down this Wall” Speech, June 12, 1987
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Herblock, Cartoons of Ronald Reagan, 1984–1987
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
AIDS Memorial Quilt, 1987
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?”, 1989
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
George H. W. Bush, Address to the United Nations General Assembly, September 23, 1991
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning,” January 20, 1993
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Republican House Representatives, “Republican Contract with America,” 1994
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
Barack Obama, Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention, July 27, 2004
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.
New Yorker Covers, 2001–2011 (Reflections on 9/11)
Activity
Activity
40 Min
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.