The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress maintain miles of references and showcases special exhibits...
Links
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/panoramic_photo/especially for teachers
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/The Library of Congress maintain miles of references and showcases special exhibits. Some wonderful special collections for students have already been digitized and a private-public effort has been initiated to expand its digital offerings for schools and university level scholars, such as the American Memory collection for kids. You can take a virtual tour of the museum or focus selectively on topics at History Wired.
A STUNNING exhibit on the African American experience in American history has been divided into 9 sections: Slavery, Free Blacks, Abolition, The Civil War, Reconstruction, Booker T. Washington, World I, New Deal and WWII, and Civil Rights.
Panoramic Photographs at the LOC American Memory site will yield 4000 photographs of significant events and ordinary life from 1851-1991. Primary source documents about California history are fascinating.
During the Spanish-American War film was used for the first time; this rare footage is now online. George Washington's original papers have been compiled, too.(These sites are so popular it is sometimes difficult to connect.)
Meeting of Frontiers looks at the exploration and settling of Siberia with narratives in both English and Russian.
America's Library has focused on motivating interest in the LOC. In addition to biographies of Wild Bill and Duke Ellington, documents about the origins of break-dancing, for instance, have been collated online.
The Social Science Education Consortium has developed an online Internet Resource Directory and an electronic newsletter, featuring classroom ideas for the American Memory collections. The newsletter includes topics such as Getting Started with American Memory, Using Photographs, Using Text Documents and Sheet Music and Audio Files, and Examining Material Culture. These resources are available at "The Learning Page".
You can also find such specialized archives as folklife in the U.S. as well as Canada and Mexico.
You can map current events and history and use a motivator by tapping "This Day in History" at the American Memory exhibit at the Library of Congress. Now, the American Memory project is encouraging teams to apply for professional development. The stipends do cover the costs! The Learning Pages have been re-designed to facilitate access across collections. They include information about citing these references and saving primary documents off-line for re-use in your classrooms. The American Folklife Center has posted 3800 photographs, depicting the birth and growth of the Industrial revolution with its birthplace at Paterson, New Jersey. More than 100 recordings document the origin of the Recording Industry. Such resources are not to be missed!!!
Now, a Digital Reference Service has been set up at the LOC so potential users can learn about the online catalogue, newspapers and other media.
Annotation
If your community is fortunate enough to send students on trips to Washington,D.C., perusing the Library of Congress ahead of time is good preparation. In any event, exposure to the mountains of knowledge and rare books and exhibits in the LOC, even at a distance, is awe-inspiring.Be sure to catch the traveling exhibits, too.
Many of these materials have been captured on CD. Contact www.socialstudies.com. This option is doubtlessly less expensive than an actual visit but not as immediately thrilling.
