Primary sources are a fantastic way to teach both content and historical skills. Thanks to a generous grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, the Minnesota Historical Society has created resources to help teachers integrate more primary sources into their teaching.
Primary Source Podcasts
These four short podcasts can be used by teachers or students to learn primary-source discovery and interpretation skills.
- Using Primary Sources to Supplement Textbooks
- Integrating U.S. History with Minnesota History
- Finding Minnesota Sources at the Library of Congress
- Interpreting Historical Newspapers
Primary Source Packets
These in-depth primary source packets use primary sources from both the Library of Congress and the Minnesota Historical Society to teach about four subjects:
- Women's Suffrage in the United States (.pdf)
- Federal American Indian Policy (.pdf)
- Temperance and Prohibition (.pdf)
- The Vietnam War (.pdf)
Each packet includes context, several sources, and three in-class activities. The packets were developed for high-school classrooms.
Packets in Word format, without images of sources included: