Collections
Overview
Right below the banner image on loc.gov, you will see a list of links to special features. Digital Collections will be the second link. The Library of Congress has made digitized versions of collection materials available online since 1994, concentrating on its most rare collections and those unavailable anywhere else. To search across all collections, click on the Home Page link for Digital Collections. It is also helpful to pick a specific collection and drill down one more level. The Teachers Page includes a section titled Collection Connections that provides wonderful ideas and additional related resources for historical context, critical thinking and arts and humanities.
In Digital Collections, you can view maps & photographs; read letters, diaries & newspapers; hear personal accounts of events; listen to sound recordings & watch historic films. The digital collections used most frequently by teachers in TPS ER workshops are Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers, Panoramic Maps, Detroit Publishing Co., National Child Labor Committee and America's Story for Kids. The value in searching in a specific Collection is that you will discover essays and featured selections by the Library of Congress staff who work with that collection every day. In Chronicling America, for example, you will find a link to recommended topics where newspaper articles from one topic such as the Johnstown Flood Disaster of 1889 are listed. You will also find secondary commentary to establish context for the primary sources.
READ ABOUT IT!
The Teacher Blogs and Digital Collection essays listed below will give you the inside scope for Library of Congress Collections that are particularly useful for teaching inquiry with primary sources. The comments that previous readers have posted under the blogs are also very informative.
- Finding Treasures in an Archive of Historical Newspapers: Chronicling America a Teacher Blog
- Beyond the Bus an essay about the Rosa Parks Collection
- Songs of America Collection a Teacher Blog
- The Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Portraits a Teacher Blog
- America's Library: A Collection of Primary Sources for Younger Students a Teacher Blog
Write About It (In Canvas Tutorial #5)
Explore one of the 5 collections described in the Overview paragraph above or search within the Digital Collections section at loc.gov for a different collection topic that aligns with your local curriculum. Check out the Teacher Resources that are sometimes linked in the left menu of a collection. Also, browse the Articles and Essays that are linked at the top of a Collection Home Page for secondary information and Teacher Resources.
- What primary sources from the Digital Collections section at the Library of Congress do you think you can utilize in your classroom?
- What did you learn and what questions do you have about searching and using primary sources from the Digital Collections in a classroom or PD workshop?