LibGuides: Teacher Curriculum Center Digital Resources: Primary Sources for Teaching

Primary and Archival Resources

Primary Sources Resources

Here are sites that support teaching with primary sources, provide digital collections with primary sources open to the public that you can use in the classroom, or both.

For support in teaching with primary sources, here is ACRL's Guidelines For Primary Source Literacy-June2018.pdf (archivists.org)

Also see the Teaching with Primary Sources Online Collective

CSUN Library Digital Collections The University Library Digital Collections feature historically significant documents, photographs, oral histories, artistic works and exhibit materials selected from the University Special Collections and Archives. Additional project contributors include local heritage organizations, neighboring academic institutions and private collectors. The majority of these collections focus on Los Angeles history with emphasis on the San Fernando Valley. Other collections include digital reproductions of documents from the Civil War, Slavery and it's aftermath, Chinese antiquities, and photographs from our Old China Hands Archives that document the experiences of foreign residents of China in 1946. The CSU Japanese American Digitization Project brings together diverse World War II documents from across fifteen campuses of the California State University system. Our International Guitar Research Archives (IGRA) feature extensive collections of guitar compositions, recording notes and correspondence that lend insight into the development of this unique music culture. Collections drawn from the University Archives reveal some of the rich history of the California State University Northridge. Virtual exhibits capture the essence of past exhibitions held at the Library Gallery.
Densho Encyclopedia (Japanese American Incarceration During WWII) The Encyclopedia covers key concepts, people, events, and organizations that played a role in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The reviewed articles are written by a wide range of contributors, and are enhanced with photos, documents and video drawn from Densho's digital archives and other sources. This Is A Live Project The Encyclopedia currently contains more than 650 articles. It is a continuing project with new articles and features being added on an ongoing basis. We would appreciate your ideas and feedback.
Holocaust Encyclopedia Student friendly archive of primary source artifacts from the USHMM
Japanese American Archival Collection (Sacramento State University) The Japanese American Archival Collection at Sacramento State chronicles the Japanese American experience of immigration and settlement to the United States, WWII internment, redress, and reparations. The collection was established in 1994 with a gift of photographs, documents and artifacts from the teaching materials of Mary Tsukamoto, and additional gifts from the Florin Japanese American Citizens League, records of the Sacramento VFW Nisei Post 8985, and more than 240 individual community members. It is international in scope, with an emphasis on Sacramento and the Central Valley, and is widely recognized because of the depth and breadth of its holdings. It includes documents created by incarcerees, governmental bodies, the military, concentration camp administrators and employees, and community members who were supportive of and hostile to people of Japanese descent. Formats of the primary sources include diaries, documents, pamphlets, newsletters, photographs, scrapbooks, artifacts, artwork, textiles, monographs, audio/visuals, electronic records, serials, and personal narratives.
Library of Congress: Teaching with Primary Sources The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching.
Manazar National Historic Site Congress established Manzanar National Historic in 1992. Three distinct eras are represented in the site's museum collection. Owens Valley Paiute inhabiting the area from A.D. 600 to the early 1900s; the early ranching and farming period from 1860-1930; and the World War II confinement of Japanese Americans from 1942-1945. The National Park Service has conducted oral histories about these eras of Manzanar since 1999. The purpose of the collection is to preserve, study and interpret the cultural history of Manzanar.Bird pins are one of many artifacts in the Manzanar Collection. These and other items offer a glimpse into life in camp. Furniture, clothing, utensils, cemetery offerings, and other tangible resources enrich our knowledge and our ability to tell the stories of people who lived at Manzanar.
National Archives Teaching with Primary Sources Document analysis is the first step in working with primary sources. Teach your students to think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to extract information to make informed judgments. Use these worksheets — for photos, written documents, artifacts, posters, maps, cartoons, videos, and sound recordings — to teach your students the process of document analysis.
Pacific Citizen (JACL) Archives More than nine decades old, the Pacific Citizen is an award-winning Asian Pacific American semi-monthly national newspaper. Published by the JACL, the nation’s oldest and largest APA civil rights organization, the Pacific Citizen is committed to delivering the most incisive coverage of important APA stories that are often ignored by other media outlets.
TESSA : Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library Tessa provides instant access to rare and historical collections from Los Angeles Public Library. These collections include items that reflect our local history, as well as other rare, unique, and valuable items held by the library. Featuring hundreds of thousands of items comprising more than twenty collections, this site reflects the library’s goal to digitize and make available the special collections that explore the city’s history and promote cultural understanding. Many items from the collection--as well as o0ther items not yet digitized--are available for anyone to view in person at our Central Library. To learn more, visit the rare books department. You may also pay for photos for publication (a good research project!)

CSUN Archives for Teachers

Did you know our Special Collections & Archives includes archival collections related to education and teaching?

Start California State University, Northridge, Online Archive of California (cdlib.org)

Type in "Teachers" and you will find archive collections for the California Federation of Teachers Collection, the Oakland Federation of Teachers Collection, the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) Collection, the California Association for the Education of Young Children Collection, the Michael D. Eisner College of Education archives, the California School Library Association archives, and much more.