During the Great Depression approximately 25 percent of working Americans lost their jobs, but how did this really affect the people who lived through those years, and how do our times relate to their experiences? In this unit, students will study the causes and effects of the Depression through the reflections of those who lived More
Great changes and events in history have often started with protest. From town hall meetings and rallies to demonstrations and war, protest has instigated change in our society. The lessons in this unit will help students compare and contrast the different methods of protest and understand protest as a part of American history. Students will More
Explore Abraham Lincoln’s changing views toward slavery and racial equality through five of his key speeches: A House Divided (1858); his first and second inaugural addresses (1861, 1865); the Gettysburg Address (1863); and the speech on Reconstruction (1865). Use the two PDFs to help your students interpret and investigate the legacy of Lincoln’s presidency as More
In the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Founding Fathers set out to define American freedom. But they didn’t have the last word. Since then, generations have built on and challenged this foundation. Experience four ways Americans have defined freedom for themselves: defending it through armed conflict, struggling with it in respect to race and 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
Inspired by the Museum’s collection, local classroom teachers wrote and tested History Lab lesson plans. They are grouped into twelve topics. Lessons from each unit may be used independently or as a set. Each lesson includes a lesson plan, student materials, and reproductions of artifacts and/or photographs from the Museum’s collection. These materials may be downloaded, 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 group of four lessons examines key subjects and events in Lincoln’s lifetime: slavery; his election in 1860; the Emancipation Proclamation and black soldiers in the Union army; and his assassination. Each lesson includes high-quality reproductions of images and documents from the Museum’s collection as well as background information, analysis questions, instructional strategies, and extension More