This two day lesson uses the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution to assess the efficacy of the Women’s Rights Movement of the 19th century. Using the grievances from the Declaration establishes some understanding of women’s rights prior to 1848. Students will engage in class discussion to determine the progress women made in gaining equal rights. Students will use specific examples to assess progress as of today.

Incarceration in a variety of contexts and settings has been deeply ingrained in American society for centuries. The experience and processes of incarceration takes many forms including criminal detention, imprisonment in wartime, and immigration detainment. This primary source set contains a range of items tracing the history of incarceration in the United States and includes images, maps, political cartoons, and reports–all from the digital collections of the Library of Congress.

The following immigration flow map is a valuable resource both to further understanding of the progression of the immigration experience and as an example of a flow map for virtually any topic or lesson plan. Tracing the origins of the immigrant decision to leave their homes through their settlement into a new environment, this flow map provides visual clarification through primary source materials from the Library of Congress. In addition, educators may use the flow map as an example of how to produce a flow map and how to incorporate primary source documents into sequential order.

In the following lesson plan students will examine several primary source images and documents related to Civil War wounded. From the sources, students will develop a narrative about changes in the responsibilities of the federal government in response to the enormous numbers of wounded Union soldiers. This lesson can stand alone or kick off a research project. 

Students are often intrigued by individuals who question authority and seek change. Thus, the following multimedia set was created with a focus on Reformers and Gangsters in American History from Antebellum to Prohibition (1840s-1920s). The following evidence supports the case that reformers who desired change impacted American society resulting in the rise of organized crime. This collection presents evidence focused on the climate of thought arising from the Second Great Awakening, the Abolitionist movement, and women’s struggles for social justice.

The Library of Congress holds thousands of the most important primary sources on slavery and opposition to it and has devoted extensive and thoughtful labor to bringing them to the public. (See also the CES Primary Source Set: “Civil War and Reconstruction”). This primary source set offers distinct and vitally important sources not included in other primary source sets.

The following unit plan highlights how patterns of immigration are both similar and different for immigrant groups coming to America. The cornerstone of the unit is a diagram and PowerPoint Presentation detailing the progression of the immigrant experience that serves as a model for a variety of immigrant groups. Included in the set is a Universal Design for Learning chart and an extensive annotated list of primary source documents from the Library of Congress provide a visual reinforcement of the immigrant journey both before, during, and after their arrival in the United States.

The instrumental role Dorothea Dix played in reforming prisons and mental institutions, and the actions of Horace Mann in his campaign for free public education are at the center of this lesson. How did improvements in conditions for people in the public charge, whether prisoners or people institutionalized because of disability, come about? How did the the idea of who gets to be educated change? By focusing attention on the strategies used by these social reformers, the lesson engages students in critical thinking about the methods of reformers as well as their goals.

Care for veterans is relevant to understanding war and the role of government, and is critical to disability history. In this lesson, students gather information through a variety of primary sources on the experiences of veterans from the War of Independence through today. They ask, ‘How has U.S. government care for veterans changed over time?’ Using their evidence, students develop a proposal to today’s Veterans Administration that outlines how veterans should be cared for.