Teaching American History

"What is past is prologue." -- William Shakespeare

Scroll down to see the complete list or choose from the categories below
*Frequently Requested Sites*	Vermont Schools
Museums & Historical Societies	Libraries
Historic Preservation & Landmarks	Media
Education Links & Resources	Fun Facts
Often Overlooked History	Clubs
Link Suggestions	Events

Frequently Requested Sites

The past does not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme -- Mark Twain

Castleton State College Library

National History Club

Vermont Alliance for Social Studies

Vermont Geographic Alliance

TOP

Vermont Schools

The function of the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate himself from the past, but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present. -- E.H. Carr

Castleton State College
http://www.csc.vsc.edu/

Christ the King School
http://www.cksrutland.com/

State of Vermont Department of Education
http://www.state.vt.us/educ/

Supervisory Union Districts Directory
http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/directories/su_sd_A_C.html

Public School & Technical Center Directory
http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/directories/public_schools_A_C.html

Colleges and Universities
http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/directories/postsecondary.html

Vermont Schools on the Web
http://www.k12.vt.us/

TOP

Libraries

"The reflections and histories of men and women throughout the world are contained in books.... America's greatness is not only recorded in books, but it is also dependent upon each and every citizen being able to utilize public libraries." -- Terence Cooke

Vermont Automated Libraries System at the Vermont Department of Libraries
http://dol.state.vt.us/

Vermont Libraries Directory
http://dol.state.vt.us/gopher_root5/libraries/dir/vt_lib_dir_1999.txt

The Library of Congress (the ultimate on-line library with words pictures & sound)
http://www.loc.gov/

TOP

Museums

Historical Societies

"History is concerned with time, space, and change. It is concerned with the unique person, with the unique event, and with their combination."
-- James C. Malin, "The Historian and the Individual," in Essays on Individuality

Regional

Historical Societies
http://www.vermonthistory.org/lhs/lhsindex.htm

Vermont Historical Society On-Line
http://www.vermonthistory.org/index.htm

Museums
http://www.vermonthistory.org/links/museum.htm

MuseumStuff.com - Vermont Museums
http://www.museumstuff.com/museums/usa/vermont/all.html

National

MuseumStuff.com - United States Museum Directory
http://www.museumstuff.com/museums/usa/

Smithsonian Institute
http://www.si.edu

National Constitution Center
www.constitutioncenter.org

National Women's History Museum
http://www.nmwh.org/

Ellis Island Immigration Museum
http://www.ellisisland.com/index.html

TOP

Historic Preservation

Historic
Landmarks

"Our trade is preserving the real historic place, in real time, for this and future generations to see and experience—to get a 'charge,' if you will. That experience and a thousand others like it—different in scale or purpose—are the true value of historic preservation. They transform past into present, and present into future—giving context to ideas and anchorage to experience." --Robert G. Stanton, director, National Park Service

National Trust for Historic Preservation
http://www.nationaltrust.org/

The Preservation Trust of Vermont
http://www.ptvermont.org/

Vermont Division for Historic Preservation
http://www.historicvermont.org/

National Historic Landmarks
http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/

TOP

Education
Links & Resources

"The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves -- a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future."
-- Carl Becker

Government Resources

National Park Service Vermont History Page
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/centralvermont/vhistory1.htm

US Department of State - History Education and Culture
http://www.state.gov/history/

US Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/

Library of Congress American Memory Learning Page
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/index.html

No Child Left Behind - Desktop Reference
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbreference/index.html

National Organizations

National Council for History Education
http://www.history.org/nche/

Social Studies.Org (National Council for the Social Studies)
http://www.socialstudies.org

Resource Centers
(lesson plans, resources, links, teaching tips, interactive sites)

Best of History Web Sites
http://www.besthistorysites.net/index.shtml

The Education Index (a guide to education related sites on the web)
http://www.educationindex.com/

Education World
http://www.education-world.com

Modern History Source Book
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html

Librarian's Index to the Internet - History
http://lii.org/search/file/history

Scholastic - Free tools and resources for your classroom - Huge list of links for educators
http://teacher.scholastic.com/

Discovery Channel School - For parents, teachers and students
http://school.discovery.com/

TOP

Events

A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia. -- David McCullough

Vermont History Expo
http://www.vermonthistory.org/expo/

National History Day
http://www.nationalhistoryday.org

TOP

Often Overlooked
History

"Only when lions have historians will hunters cease to be heroes"
-- African proverb

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." --Aldous Huxley,

Abenaki Tribe (links to history, language, maps and more)
http://www.native-languages.org/abenaki.htm

Asian Nation - History of Asians in America
http://www.asian-nation.org/first.shtml

Black History Activities - Exploring African American History on the Web
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/AfroAm.html

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hispanic/index.htm

National Women's History Project
http://www.nwhp.org/

Native Web - Resources for Indigenous Cultures Around the World
http://www.nativeweb.org/

Women in American History by Encyclopedia Britannica
http://search.eb.com/women/

TOP

Media

Most of us spend too much time on the last 24 hours and too little on the last 6000 years. -- Will Durant

Television

The History Channel
http://www.historychannel.com/

PBS - The American Experience
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/

PBS - The New Americans Immigrant Contributions (Teacher Guide)
http://www.pbs.org/newamericans/6.0/html/immcontributions.html

PBS - Ancestors in the Americas (Asian Americans)
http://www.pbs.org/ancestorsintheamericas/

Publications

Vermont Historical Society has two publications available to members
http://www.vermonthistory.org/pubs.htm

TOP

Fun Facts

The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know.
-- Harry S. Truman

Vermont "Firsts"
http://www.virtualvermont.com/history/firsts.html

America's Story (Great interactive site from Library of Congress)
http://www.americasstory.com/

The Political Graveyard (comprehensive source of US Political Biography)
http://politicalgraveyard.com/

Vermont Timeline
http://www.historicvermont.com/html/timeline.html

Virtual Vermont
http://www.virtualvermont.com/

TOP

Clubs

"A historian should yield himself to his subject, become immersed in the place and period of his choice, standing apart from it now and then for a fresh view." -- Samuel Eliot Morison

National History Club
The National History Club was created in March 2002 to help promote the reading, writing, discussion, and enjoyment of history among secondary students and their teachers.
http://www.tcr.org/nhc.html

TOP

Link Suggestions

History is just one damned thing after another. -- Winston Churchill

Do you know a useful American History web site that's not listed here? Then send your suggestion to tah@castleton.edu. We'll periodically review the suggested sites and update this page.

Please note that not all suggestions can be included or acknowledged.

TOP