Jun

25

Photos of America

Filed Under History, Social Studies 

As a history teacher I’m always fascinated by original source material. If you can get your students to use it, there’s nothing better than primary source documents.

The US government is reputed to have a vast collection of documents that are yours for the asking. The problem is, most of them are stored in archives that the average teacher just doesn’t have the time to get to.

All is not lost. Uncle Sam’s Photos is here to help. This cool site not only has great photos from all periods of American history but even includes some scans of important documents. One example I came across is the purchase of Manhattan Island from its original inhabitants by the Dutch. While most of the site is well organized and there’s lots of valuable material, this particular item was found under “Old Maps” and then “Political History.” While I understand the political history classification, I’m at a loss to explain why a handwritten document (with no map) was classified under old maps.

That one example seems to be the exception, so jump in and enjoy. This looks like a very promising collection of primary source material.

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