History Resources: History Websites

• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) The Digital Public Library of America is a US project aimed at providing public access to digital holdings in order to create a large-scale public digital library. Check out their Exhibitions and Primary Source Sets.

• Facing History and Ourselves Facing History helps students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives. Their resources address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history. Check out their topics, educator resources, teaching with current events, and teaching strategies.

• iCivics iCivics offers free, engaging civics content, including lesson plans and games for students to play digitally. Young people learn how government works by experiencing it. in the form of games and real-life scenarios. They step into the role of a judge, a member of Congress, a community activist, even the President of the United States - and do the job they do. Students gain civic knowledge and skills with fun and challenging learning experiences.

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• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History This website includes primary sources, essays, videos, and study guides. Registration for a free teacher account is required for access. While geared toward AP U.S. History exam prep, the AP US History Study Guide page may prove useful beyond advanced placement with videos, timelines, primary sources, and essays organized by era.

• Khan Academy - Arts and Humanities ​

• National Constitution Center In addition to the interactive Constitution tool, they host several educational resources and games including educational videos and web interactives.

• PBS Learning Media - Social Studies An online library of curated resources from PBS stations. Check out this webinar on Distance Learning with PBS Learning Media. 

• Smithsonian's History Explorer Smithsonian's History Explorer was developed by the National Museum of American History in partnership with the Verizon Foundation to offer hundreds of free, innovative online resources for teaching and learning American history. History Explorer's resources focus on learning history by "reading" objects for the stories they hold about the nation and its many peoples. Learning activities feature artifacts selected from over 3 million items in the Museum's collections, and draw on the expertise of the Museum's renowned curatorial staff.

• Stanford History Education Group The Reading Like a Historian curriculum is free with registration and offers ready-to-go lessons on world and U.S. history based on primary source investigations. See also the Beyond the Bubble History Assessments, more than 100 tasks where students analyze one or two documents from the Library of Congress.

• Statistics in Schools, United States Census Bureau Statistics in Schools (SIS) is a Census Bureau program that uses census statistics and resources to create activities and materials for students.

• Women and the American Story Women & the American Story (WAMS) is a free curriculum website from the New-York Historical Society. WAMS connects educators with classroom resources that illuminate diverse women’s contributions to the American past.  Organized into ten curricular units, two new units will be launched per year until  the project is complete in 2022.