Educators

Samplers can teach us about the domestic arts, societal beliefs, and women’s education. In this unit, students will analyze samplers and other primary sources (school records, advertisements, and photographs) to understand the connection women have had over time to the domestic arts, especially sewing. Students will discover the process and purpose of creating samplers and how More

This unit examines the broad meanings of slavery and freedom in America through the life of a woman named Hannah Harris. Hannah was a weaver on Robert Carter’s plantation in Virginia. In anticipation of her freedom, she sent Carter a note asking to purchase her loom. The lessons in this unit include detailed analysis of More

The Teen Chicago collection contains one hundred oral histories about growing up in Chicago during the twentieth century. This collection was created as part of the Teen Chicago Project, a multiyear initiative to expand teenage involvement at the Chicago History Museum. A fifteen-member Teen Council was hired and trained to conduct interviews between October 2003 More

No research project is complete without this online resource, which includes A-to-Z entries, photographs with zooming capability, rich maps, interpretive digital essays, and a wealth of historical sources. Explore the Encyclopedia of Chicago

This unit uses the work of the studio of Mathew Brady to explore the process of photography during the Civil War, discuss issues of early photojournalism, and interpret specific events and places of the Union experience of the Civil War. Students will analyze a variety of photographs depicting naval scenes, images of battlefields, and camp More