(Participants, some carrying American flags, marching in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. Library of Congress. Public domain.)
Grade Level Links:
Grade Level 12
Young Woman with a Stylus (Download)
Created By: Mike Martin
Grade Level 11
Presidential Inaugurations (Download)
Created By: Nicole Kettlehake
Students use the Library of Congress to find the inaugural address of a president. They will use these to identify “accomplishments” that their particular president made while in office.
Civil Rights Movement in Photographs (Download)
Created By: Nicole Kettlehake
Created By: Nicole Kettlehake
Civil Rights Movement Speeches (Download)
Created By: Nicole Kettlehake
Students analyze three different speeches from the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. Students will be allowed to choose between three different speakers (JFK, MLK, and Malcolm X) in order to decipher different views on civil rights and liberties in America.
Grade Level 10
"Election Day" (Download)
Created By: Amanda Hines
Early 20th century suffrage cartoon.
World War II Scrap Drive photograph (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
This photograph documents a scrap drive display in Akron, Ohio during World War II. Government-produced posters, radio commercials and advertisements encouraged scrap drives to aid in the production of ships, weapons, and other tools for the war effort.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Demonstration Photograph (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
Photograph taken in New York City nearly a month after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.
Missile Site in Cuba, 1962 (Download)
Created By: Patrick Johnson
Photograph taken by U-2 aircarft identifying missile site in San Cristobal, Cuba.
United States Food Administration Lantern Slide (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
Printed by the U.S. Federal Food Administration during World War II to encourage citizens to be frugal when purchasing and consuming food.
Civil Defense Index (Download)
Created By: Kathy Feltz
This 1942 booklet offers advice useful to civilians on the homefront during World War II. Information is given for air raids, blackouts, bombs, poison gas, as well as first aid situations.
"A Tank Full of Gas, and the Open Road" (Download)
Created By: Patrick Johnson
1937 political cartoon critical of Franklin Roosevelt's second term.
The first picket line (Download)
Created By: Patrick Johnson
1917 photo of women suffragists picketing in front of the White House.
Spanish-American War Cartoons (Download)
Created By: Kathy Feltz
1898 political cartoons that contain symbols used to represent the peoples of the countries affected by the war: the United States, Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and others.
Gegner's Barbershop Protest (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
These two photographs show the demonstration that resulted in 1964 after a Lewis Gegner, a barber in Yellow Springs, Ohio, refused to cut the hair of African American clients.
Will Brown lynching (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
Photograph of lynching victim Will Brown. He was hanged on a lamppost, shot, and his body burned. Brown was a victim of racial and labor violence that swept the U.S. during the “Red Summer” of 1919.
"We Can't Digest the Scum" (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
Bill Ireland cartoon originally appearing in the Columbus Dispatch in March 1919. It provides commentary on a "red scare" in America that was precipitated by an economic recession following WWI and rise of the Communists to power in Russia.
Grade Level 9
Measurement of the cubit (Download)
Created By: Danny Dellapina
A late 19th century photograph featuring a measuring device for the arm from the elbow to the fingertips. From Alphonse Bertillon's photo album from his exhibition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Taking Fingerprints (Download)
Created By: Danny Dellapina
A photograph from 1940 featuring fingerprinting and filing techniques.
World War I propaganda posters (Download)
Created By: Mitchell Allen Rowland
Quickly after entering the war in August 1941, Great Britain issued recruitment posters to bolster its small professional army. Other posters encouraging government policy and wartime economy soon followed.
Great Depression photographs by Dorothea Lange (Download)
Created By: Mitchell Allen Rowland
Photographs of the Farm Security Administration (FSA), a U.S. government photography project, which documented American life between 1935 and 1944.
"Yup Sunny" (Download)
Created By: Mitchell Allen Rowland
Jake Shuffert cartoon depicting the Berlin Airlift, a post-World War II program enacted under the Truman administration to provide food and supplies to West Germany.
"The Ladder of Fortune" (Download)
Created By: Joyce Allen McCurdy
Currier and Ives print, 1875.
Guernica and Weeping Woman (Download)
Created By: Joyce Allen McCurdy
Two Pablo Picasso paintings done following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
The Jungle (Download)
Created By: Jackie Homan
Students read an excerpt and interpret what conditions were like in the meat packing industry during the industrial revolution by answering spiral questions. These questions will allow students to understand what conditions were like not only in the factories but allow them to think of how this type of workplace affected the nation as a whole.
"Making the polls attractive to the anti-suffragists" (Download)
Created By: Jackie Homan
Cartoon showing society women playing cards and dancing rather than voting; only one woman has taken time away from socializing to cast a ballot into a ballot box brought to her card table.
"The Modern Devil Fish" (Download)
Created By: Jackie Homan
1904 Prohibition cartoon with a caption beneath that reads “The tentacles of the Devil Fish cannot be destroyed unless the HEAD, the source of their sustaining power, is destroyed.”
World War II photograph by Walter Ervin (Download)
Created By: Aaron Robinson
World War II Aircraft Spotter Cards (Download)
Created By: Kathy Feltz
Grade Level: 9-12 Special Education
Everyone could be part of the civil defense effort while playing card games by learning and memorizing the shape of both friendly and enemy aircraft.
Grade Level 8
Emancipation Proclamation Anniversary Celebration Broadside (Download)
Created By: Aaron Robinson
This broadside announces the celebration in Eaton, Ohio, on September 22, 1881, of the 18th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Oberlin-Wellington Rescue (Download)
Created By: Justin Crews
Photograph and poster announcing the victory celebration following the release from prison of men from Oberlin and Wellington who participated in the rescue of John Price, a 17-year old fugitive slave from Kentucky.
Early 20th century photographs (Download)
Created By: Eric VonBerg
Collection of photographs used in conjunction with lesson on the Industrial Revolution in the U.S.
Johnson's Island Prison letter (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
This letter was written by S. Boyer Davis, who was convicted of spying for the Confederacy on January 26, 1865, to his friends Goldsborough and Hollingsworth the evening before his scheduled execution. On the day of Davis' scheduled execution, his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for the duration of the war.
Notice to Close the Saloons (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
Broadside announces an order by W. Merriman, Crawford County provost marshal, to close "saloons, groceries, taverns, drug stores, and other places where Liquor, of any kind, is sold in Bucyrus" on the evening of October 4, 1862. A pro-Union rally was being held that evening, despite the fact that Confederate sympathies were strong in Bucyrus.
"Emancipation" (Download)
Created By: Amy Martin
Thomas Nast envisions a somewhat optimistic picture of the future of free blacks in the United States in this engraving celebrating emancipation of Southern slaves with the end of the Civil War.
Letter from William Prescott to John Adams, August 25, 1775 (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
William Prescott's account of the British attack on Bunker Hill in June, 1775.
View of Erie Canal (Download)
Created By: Amy Martin
1829 watercolor of a scene on the Erie Canal.
“King Andrew the First, Born to Command” (Download)
Created By: Amy Martin
Lithograph (c. 1833) by Edward Williams Clay depicting Andrew Jackson as a king in full regalia, with a “veto” message in one hand and a scepter in the other. Jackson is shown standing on a worn copy of the U.S.Constitution.
"Running the Gauntlet" (Download)
Created By: Brandon Haycox
This front page editorial cartoon, published in Puck in 1880, illustrates the challenges faced by African American students at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Ohio's First African American Civil War Regiment (Download)
Created By: Brandon Haycox
This photograph, taken in Delaware, Ohio, shows members of the 127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the first African-American regiment recruited in Ohio during the Civil War. It was formed in 1863, and was subsequently designated as the 5th Regiment, United States Colored Troops.
Crusade Against the Saloon Pledge Card (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
This pledge card, signed by Harry C. Elbright in 1902, was part of the Ohio Sunday School Association of Ohio's temperance efforts. The signer promised to abstain from all intoxicating liquor and encourage total abstinence on the part of others.
Sullivan Ballou letter (Download)
Created By: Kathy Feltz
July 14, 1861 letter written by Sullivan Ballou, judge advocate of the Rhode Island militia, to his wife Sarah.
Thomas Edison photograph (Download)
Created By: Linda Hamilton
Photograph of Thomas Alva Edison visiting his birthplace in Milan, Ohio, in summer 1923.
Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, June 18, 1775 (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
In this letter, Abigail recounts the Battle of Bunker Hill, which she witnessed from near the Adam's home in Braintree, Massachusetts.
Portraits of Pocahontas (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
Seventeenth century portrait of Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, as compared to the Disney image of the "princess."
Col. Crawford’s Campaign and Death (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
Accounts of Colonel William Crawford's campaign along the Sandusky River and his subsequent torture and execution by Native Americans.
First Powered Flight photograph (Download)
Created By: Linda Hamilton
John T. Daniels snapped this photograph at 10:35 A.M. on the morning of December 17, 1903. The Wright Brothers did not know if the picture had recorded their twelve second flight until they returned home to Dayton and developed the photograph.
Rankin House Freedom Stairway (Download)
Created By: Amy Martin
This photograph shows the "Freedom Stairway," the one hundred steps leading from the Ohio River to the John Rankin House in Ripley. John Rankin (1793-1886) was a Presbyterian minister and educator who devoted much of his life to the antislavery movement.
Men and train photograph (Download)
Created By: Linda Hamilton
A group of men in front of a train engine. There is also a man carrying barrels for the train by wagon. c.1890
Harriet Tubman photograph (Download)
Created By: Amy Martin
Photograph taken at the Tubman home in New York in the 1880s. Harriet Tubman stands at the far left.
"The Finest in Sight and Sound" (Download)
Created By: Kathy Feltz
Advertisement for Magnavox television appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, 1949.
Dr. Suess political cartoon (Download)
Created By: Kathy Feltz
For two years, 1941-1943, Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Suess, was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM.
Civil War drawing (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
Sketch done by Mathias Armbruster during his service in the Civil War. This drawing depicts soldiers on picket duty at Flat Top Mountain in West Virginia.
Federal observation balloon (Download)
Created By: Amy Martin
Photograph of the "Intrepid," an observation balloon used as a "satellite" device to monitor troop movements and regiment size during the Civil War.
Child Labor photograph (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
This 1909 photograph by Lewis Hine shows two children climbing on a machine to replace bobbins.
Kee-o-kuck, Or The Watching Fox (Download)
Created By: Brandon Haycox
Lithograph of a portrait done by James Otto Lewis of Kee-o-kuck, or the Watching Fox, a chief of the Sauk tribe. The U.S. Indian Department commissioned Lewis to attend government-sponsored Indian councils and treaty ceremonies between 1825 and 1828.
Students protesting at Kent State University (Download)
Created By: Justin Crews
The [Abraham] Lincoln Log Cabin at Farmington, Illinois (Download)
Created By: Brandon Haycox
Cabin built in Coles County, Illinois, inhabited by Abraham Lincoln's parents.
Residences of Abraham Lincoln (Download)
Created By: Brandon Haycox
Image of one of the several log houses Lincoln lived in while in New Salem, Illinois, between 1831 and 1837, and of the private dining room in the White House.
Created By: Linda Hamilton
Great Days in Dayton is a series of twenty-six scripts written for radio production. This activity focuses on script No. 1 "A City is Born."
The Adventures of Daniel Boone (Download)
Created By: Mary Kern
In this autobiographical narrative, first published in 1784, Daniel Boone tells of his passage through the Cumberland Gap, leading a party of settlers that cut the Wilderness Road in 1775.
Stone Age Art (Download)
Created By: Katie Pierce and Cameron Quick
Two Bison cave painting in Lascaux, France, 15,000-13,500 BC. and cave paintings from eastern Borneo.
Hurricane Katrina photographs (Download)
Created By: Katie Pierce and Cameron Quick
Collection of photographs featuring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005.
Hurricane Katrina eyewitness accounts (Download)
Created By: Katie Pierce and Cameron Quick
Residents tell stories of witnessing Hurricane Katrina and dealing with its aftermath.
Dayton Daily News headline (Download)
Created By: Linda Hamilton
“U.S Declares War on Japan” headline from December 8, 1941.
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw Letter (Download)
Created By: Carmen Harshaw and Susan Wells
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw commanded the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. He wrote this letter describing the burning of Darien, Georgia, to his wife Annie in June 1863 from St. Simon’s Island.
E.C. Middleton Broadside (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
This broadside, printed by E.C. Middleton of Cincinnati, Ohio, asks for information regarding the whereabouts and condition of his 16-year old son, Edward C. Middleton, who was taken prisoner near Atlanta on July 22, 1864.
Class photograph from Urbana (Download)
Created By: Amanda Goodwin
Photograph of Mr. Kiser's class in Urbana, Ohio, c. late 19th century.
John Rankin House Freedom Stairway (Download)
Created By: Sabrina Kilbourne
Photograph of the "freedom stairway," which led from the Ohio River to the John Rankin House in Ripley, Ohio.
Washington's Personal Copy of the Declaration of Independence (Download)
Created By: Susan Wells
This is the only surviving fragment of the broadside of the Declaration of Independence printed by John Dunlap and sent on July 6, 1776, to George Washington by John Hancock, President of the
Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
Laura Nutt Dress (Download)
Created By: Aaron Robinson
This three-piece blue wool dress belonged to Laura Nutt(1859-1877) of Centerville, Ohio. Laura Nutt was the great-granddaughter of Aaron Nutt, an early settler of Centerville, Ohio. She died in Centerville at the age of 17.
William Henry Harrison Campaign Ribbon (Download)
Created By: Jennifer Owens
This campaign ribbon was created for the presidential election of 1840. The campaign in 1840 is described as the first modern political campaign.
Canal Scoop (Download)
Created By: Jennifer Owens
This scoop, pulled by mule to excavate land, was used to build and maintain the Miami, Wabash and Erie Canals in Paulding County.
Thomas Jefferson Letter to Meriwether Lewis (Download)
Created By: Jennifer Owens
In this letter dated June 20, 1803, Thomas Jefferson describes his expectations for the westward expedition and lists the types of informations he hopes Meriwether Lewis will record on the journey.
Dayton During 1913 Flood (Download)
Created By: Linda Hamilton
Photograph shows two people stranded on the porch roof of a home on 4th Street following the 1913 flood that devastated Dayton and the Miami Valley. The 1913 flood led to a vigorous movement for flood protection in Dayton.
George Washington Crossing the Delaware (Download)
Created By: Scott DeHaven
Painting that depicts General George Washington leading the American revolutionary troops across the Delaware River in order to surprise the English and Hessian troops in the Battle of Trenton the day after Christmas in 1776.
The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering (Download)
Created By: Scott DeHaven
This cartoon shows five men forcing a tarred and feathered customs officer to drink from a teapot. Imagery such as the "Liberty Tree" with a noose in the background convey the artists political message.
Grade Level 7
Negroes to the Philippines article (Download)
Created By: Jake Stephens
This 1903 article appearing in the Informer reported Alabama Senator John Morgan’s proposal that the Roosevelt administration use the Philippine Islands as an African-American colony.
Our President is Dead! (Download)
Created By: Bill Jewell
This article appeared in the Iron Valley Reporter, a Dover newspaper, on September 20, 1881. It expresses the community's grief at the death of Ohio native President James A. Garfield.
Anne Frank photograph (Download)
Created By: Jen Dennis
Chilean Earthquake photo (Download)
Created By: Christina Smart
Photograph taken in Talcahuano, Chile, following an earthquake on February 27, 2010.
"The Undecided Political Prize Fight" (Download)
Created By: Kay Schaeffer
1860 cartoon that was published in Harper's Weekly. It features three of the leading presidential hopefuls: Steven Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and John Breckenridge.
President Carter's Veterans Day Speech (Download)
Created By: Jennifer Boggs
Remarks delivered by President Jimmy Carter for Veterans Day National Ceremony on October 24, 1977.
Wilson Bentley snowflakes photographs (Download)
Created By: Christina Smart
Wilson Bentley became known as the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885 by adapting a microscope to a bellows camera. He would capture over 5,000 images of crystals in his lifetime.
World War I posters (Download)
Created By: Jake Stephens
Grade Level 6
Japan Tsunami Photographs (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
Lesson examining the effects of media using photographs taken in Japan following the tsunami in March 2011.
Jerry City, Ohio, Photograph (Download)
Created By: Victoria Palmieri
Panoramic photograph of Jerry City, Ohio, in Wood County, which once had approximately one hundred oil wells within its city limits. Oil derricks, the large towers that supported boring machinery over the wells, are the most prominent features in the photograph.
Ship Poland (Download)
Created By: Victoria Palmieri
Painting of early nineteenth century ship Poland.
Deposition of Benjamin Hutchinson (Download)
Created By: Victoria Palmieri
Salem Witch Trial court records - deposition of Benjamin Hutchinson v. Sarah Buckley and Mary Witheridge, 1692.
Ku Klux Klan Ladies' Auxiliary Centennial Float photograph (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
In 1925, Akron, Ohio celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding with several days of festivities including a parade This photograph shows a float titled "Women of the Ku Klux Klan." Signs on the sides of the float proclaim "Protestantism, " "Womanhood, " and "Public Schools."
Endurance Expedition (Download)
Created By: Lahela Snyder
Collection of photographs taken by Frank Hurley to record an expedition to Antartica. The Endurance left England on August 8, 1914.
Rankin House photograph (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay-Harries
Early 19th century structures (Download)
Created By: Jake Stephens
The Asahel Wright house is one of fourteen stone houses in the architectural preservation district in the old village area of Centerville. Jonathan Alder (1773-1848) built a 14 by 14-foot log cabin in Madison County in 1806 and lived in it until his death.
Clovis Points (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay-Harries
Clovis and lanceolate points made by Paleo-Indians, who occupied Ohio between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago. Paleo-Indians learned to thin their spear points and knife blades by careful flaking, called knapping, rather than by fluting.
Paul L. Dunbar Typewriter (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay-Harries
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) used a Remington Standard typewriter to compose the poems “Candle-Lightin' Time,” “When Malindy Sings,” and “Howdy, Honey, Howdy.”
Grade Level 5
William McKinley Front Porch Campaign (Download)
Created By: Sonja Block
William McKinley speaking to a crowd of visitors from the front porch of his home in Canton, Ohio during the 1896 presidential campaign.
Neil Armstrong in Parade (Download)
Created By: Sonja Block
Astronaut Neil Armstrong waving from the back seat of a convertible during a parade in his hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio, September 7, 1969.
Lucy Ann Warfield Oral History Interview (Download)
Created By: Darlene McClurg
The Federal Writer's Project interviewed former slaves in 1937-1938, depositing the life histories in The Library of Congress. The interview of Lucy Ann Warfield is one of 27 Ohio interviews preserved by the Ohio Historical Society.
Confederate Currency (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
The one-dollar and ten-dollar notes were issued by the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. These notes were brought back to Ohio by William Bensinger, a native of McComb, Ohio, who was one of Andrews' Raiders.
Campaign Buttons (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
The campaign button originated during the Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign of 1840, when supporters of William Henry Harrison wore brass log cabin buttons sewn to their lapels.
The First Vote (Download)
Created By: Bill Phillips
This illustration depicting African Americans in the south voting during Reconstruction appeared in Harper's Weekly.
Let Ohio Women Vote (Download)
Created By: Bill Phillips
This activity examines a woman's suffrage postcard from the early 20th century and compares/contrasts the image with the Great Seal of the State of Ohio.
Declaration of Independence (Download)
Created By: Cheryl Coker
Feedsack Underdress (Download)
Created By: Cheryl Coker
This girl's underdress or sleepwear made from a feed sack around 1897-1917 appears in the "What is it game?" on Ohio Memory: An Online Scrapbook of Ohio History.
Betsy Mix Cowles Letter (Download)
Created By: Mary Jane Markley
In this letter to a relative, Cowles describes the nature of the economy in the mid nineteenth century at a time when she held a teaching position near Portsmouth, Ohio. She also discusses the canal system as a necessary mode of transportation.
Slavery Broadsides (Download)
Created By: Beth Moore
Broadside announcing an anti-slavery meeting in Salem, Ohio in 1850 and another announcing a $20 reward for the capture of a runaway slave in North Carolina in 1844.
Mount Adams Incline (Download)
Created By: Berta Huse
Photograph taken ca. 1940-1949 of the incline with trolley cars at Mount Adams in Cincinnati.
Frances E. Hughes photograph (Download)
Created By: Constance Matuke
Photographic valentine of Frances E. Hughes, a relative of African-American educator and orator Hallie Q. Brown, to her aunt.
John Rankin House Freedom Stairway (Download)
Created By: Constance Matuke
Main Street, Dayton (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
Photograph of Main Street in Dayton, Ohio, ca. 1886-1888. This photograph is part of a collection compiled by Henry Howe while researching the 1889 edition of Historical Collections of Ohio.
The Ku Klux Klan on Parade (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
Photograph of members of the Ku Klux Klan parading at night in Springfield, Ohio, on September 8, 1923. The Klan slowly declined during the 1870s and 1880s with the institution of Jim Crow but emerged again in the 1910s partly due to the Great Migration.
Slave Narratives (Download)
Created By: Pamela Liebhard
The Federal Writer's Project of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) interviewed former slaves in 1937-1938. These narratives are from interviews done in Ohio.
George Washington Letter (Download)
Created By: Deborah Everett
Letter written by George Washington in Philadelphia, June 1775, to Martha Washington. Washington describes his appointment to command of the Army.
The Federal Edifice (Download)
Created By: Deborah Everett
An illustration and poem ca. 1787 from the newspaper The Centinel addressing the issue of a new U.S. Constitution.
Freedom Summer Volunteers (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
This photograph shows some of the young civil rights workers relaxing and singing on the Western College Campus in Oxford, Ohio, when Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer came to visit.
Women's Suffrage Cartoons (Download)
Created By: Bill Phillips
Between 1897 and 1911 Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter, Anne Fitzhugh Miller, filled seven large scrapbooks with ephemera and memorabilia related to their work with women's suffrage.
Immigrant photographs (Download)
Created By: Beth Moore
Photographs of the immigrant experience in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
"A Taxing We Will Go" (Download)
Created By: Cheryl Coker
This song was originally printed in the Pennsylvania Ledger, May 20, 1775, under the title “A Junto Song.”
The Draft (Download)
Created By: Constance Matuke
Broadside announcing that a draft of soldiers in Ohio's 14th Congressional District would begin on Thursday, September 17th, 1863 at 10 A.M. at the courthouse in Wooster, Ohio.
Miami and Erie Canal Lock (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
The Miami and Erie Canal was built between 1825 and 1848 and extended from Toledo to Cincinnati. This photograph photograph shows a canal boat leaving one of the locks near Providence, Ohio. Locks were built so boats could navigate different elevations.
Dayton Daily News advertisement (Download)
Created By: Berta Huse
Newspaper advertisement for Castell's Drugstore from April 13, 1944.
Union School Petition (Download)
Created By: Jennifer Damon
This four-page petition signed by 96 citizens of Massillon, Ohio in 1848 to the directors of Union School argues against the admission of African American students to the school.
The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street (Download)
Created By: Beth Moore
Paul Revere's color print depicting the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770.
Canal Winchester Elementary School Playground (Download)
Created By: Mindy Inloes
Photograph of children on the playground of Canal Winchester Elementary School taken on March 14, 1946.
Congress Establishes Thanksgiving (Download)
Created By: Mary Jane Markley
Letters to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and documents concerning the "controversy" of the official date of Thanksgiving, which, in 1941, was finally set as the fourth Thursday in November.
Marion, Ohio Street Paving (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
A photograph depicting the paving of West Center Street in Marion, Ohio, with bricks circa 1925 and a photograph of creosote-impregnated, end grain, wood paving blocks. The wood pavers were replaced with brick pavers about 1925.
Julia Ann James Oral History Interview (Download)
Created By: Mary Jane Markley
The Federal Writer's Project interviewed former slaves in 1937-1938, depositing the life histories in The Library of Congress. The interview of Julia Ann James is one of 27 Ohio interviews preserved by the Ohio Historical Society.
The Colored Band (Download)
Created By: Berta Huse
Poem and illustrations from the collection When Malindy Sings by Dayton poet Paul Laurence Dunbar published in 1896.
Immigrant Kids (Download)
Created By: Darlene McClurg
Passages and photographs of immigrants growing up in American in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Suffragettes Demonstrate at Ohio Statehouse (Download)
Created By: Sonja Block
This photograph shows representatives of county suffrage organizations demonstrating on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio, July 30, 1914.
"Nicolay Draft" of the Gettysburg Address (Download)
Created By: Deborah Everett
This copy on exhibit at the Library of Congress belonged to John Nicolay, one of Abraham Lincoln's two private secretaries. It is often called the "first draft" because it is believed to be the earliest copy that exists.
Veterans Interviews (Download)
Created By: Pamela Liebhard
Students interviewed veterans of the Armed Forces for Veteran's Day. Veterans of the Korean War and World War II responded to the students’ queries.
Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Bible, 1861 (Download)
Created By: Mary Jane Markley
The Bible used by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney to administer the oath of office to Abraham Lincoln, who was sworn in as the sixteenth president. Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th president on January 20, 2009, using the same Bible.
Announcement of Slave Auction (Download)
Created By: Deb Hicks
This announcement describes individuals who are to be sold in a public auction on May 18, 1829.
Electric Car Starter (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
Photographs featuring the electric self-starter (ignition system), an invention of Ohio native Charles F. Kettering. This 1911 invention revolutionized the automobile industry by eliminating the need for hand cranking.
George Washington Crossing the Delaware (Download)
Created By: Kim Rudd
Artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's 1851 interpretation of George Washington leading the American revolutionary troops across the Delaware River in order to surprise the English and Hessian troops in the Battle of Trenton in 1776.
The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
Engraving of the Boston Massacre done by Paul Revere in 1770. This print is regarded as a piece of political propaganda.
Steerage Prepaid Receipt (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay
This prepaid receipt is for tickets purchased for Rosa Tokerman and family and paid for steerage passage from Hamburg, Germany to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The steerage section of the passenger ship is near the rudder and provides the cheapest accommodations.
Citizenship Class for Immigrants photograph (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay
This photograph shows Italian immigrants in a citizenship class at the South Side Settlement House, which was founded in 1899 in Columbus, Ohio, by members of the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1925 the Settlement began citizenship and literacy classes.
"Their Aim" (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay
1871 Thomas Nast cartoon shows a caricature of an Irishman and a Roman Catholic priest aiming a cannon at the U.S. Capitol. "Their Aim" appeared in a pamphlet entitled Miss Columbia's Public School, or Will it Blow Over?, which argued that the next great threat to liberty was Roman Catholicism and its political influence.
Charles Kettering (Download)
Created By: Berta Huse
This photograph shows Charles F. Kettering, who is credited with inventing the electric ignition and self-starter for the automobile, with a Buick in Dayton, Ohio.
Slave Auction, Richmond, Virginia, 1861 (Download)
Created By: Mary Jane Markley
Illustration shows a man and woman (with child in arms) on an auction block.
Room in an immigrant family’s tenement apartment, 1910 (Download)
Created By: Deb Hicks
"To be sold, on board the ship Bance Island, ... negroes, just arrived from the Windward & Rice Coast" (Download)
Created By: Deb Hicks
Newspaper advertisement from the 1780s(?) for the sale of slaves at Ashley Ferry outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
Prof. Thaddeus S. Lowe observing the battle from his balloon "Intrepid" (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862
1804 Map of Louisiana Territory (Download)
Created By: Kristan Runyan
Bill of Rights (Download)
Created By: Cheryl Coker
The first ten amendments of the Constitution.
"Join or Die" (Download)
Created By: Cheryl Coker
Cartoon by Benjamin Franklin appearing in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1795.
"The New Immigrants" (Download)
Created By: Cheryl Coker
Newspaper article from 1892 that features a bar graph indicating the origin of European immigrants to the United States in 1870, 1880 and 1890.
Auburn Automobile Company (Download)
Created By: Berta Huse
Photograph of assembly line workers at the Auburn Automobile Co. factory in Auburn, Indiana, c. 1910.
Tree of Temperance (Download)
Created By: Mindy Inloes
One of a pair of prints issued by A.D. Fillmore in 1855 extolling the social and moral benefits of temperance and condemning the evils of alcohol.
Serpent Mound (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay-Harries
Serpent Mound is a spectacular effigy earthwork along a prominent ridgetop in northern Adams County, Ohio. From the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, the effigy is 1,348 feet long.
Converging Railroad Tracks (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay-Harries
Men posing amid converging railroad tracks, probably in south central Ohio, ca. 1880-1890.
"$200 Reward" broadside (Download)
Created By: Kristan Runyan
Advertisements like this one on flyers or in newspapers aided bounty hunters and kidnappers, as well as bona fide law enforcement officers, who worked together to return escaped slaves to their owners.
Selected Images of Ellis Island and Immigration, ca. 1800-1920 (Download)
Created By: Kristan Runyan
Photographs include a Ellis Island ferry, the Examination Hall, and individual immigrant families.
Modes of Transportation photograph (Download)
Created By: Amanda Mulbay-Harries
Photograph taken a few miles south of Dayton, Ohio where the river, canal, interurban and railway lines and the Cincinnati pike parallel for a short distance, ca. 1910-1919.
Irish family at Ellis Island photograph (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
Photograph of Irish family at Ellis Island circa 1905 by Lewis Hine.
Nebraska Land Advertisement (Download)
Created By: David Enix
Advertisement for the sale of land in Nebraska on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad. It appeared in The Pacific Tourist, 1877.
The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street (Download)
Created By: Kimberly Brabb Wheeler
Slave Sale Broadsides (Download)
Created By: David Enix
19th century broadsides advertising slaves for sale in South Carolina.
Revolutionary Tea (Download)
Created By: Kimberly Brabb Wheeler
Lyrics and sheet music for song depicted the relationship between England and the colonies in the 18th century.
Immigrant family sewing (Download)
Created By: Kimberly Rudd
Photograph of immigrant family performing piecework in a New York tenement in the early 20th century.
Draft of the Declaration of Independence (Download)
Created By: Kimberly Brabb Wheeler
Dayton home after the 1913 flood photograph (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
Photograph shows a home that has been severely damaged by the 1913 flood in Dayton, Ohio. People trapped in the upper floors of the house chopped holes in the roof and the attic walls in order to escape on to the roof.
Victory Garden photograph (Download)
Created By: Ron Wood
This photograph shows James R. Miller, a Tiffin, Ohio boy, proudly standing by the sign identifying his garden patch as a "Victory Garden" in 1944.
Slave auction notices (Download)
Created By: Kimberly Rudd
Seventeenth and eighteenth century notices announcing the sale of slaves.
Alonzo Delano's Overland Journey to California (Download)
Created By: Deb Hicks
In 1849, Alonzo Delano joined a local California Company and prepared to travel overland to California. He describes some of his experiences on the journey to California in this excerpt from his book published in 1857.
Dixie for the Union (Download)
Created By: Mary Jane Markley
Written in 1861, "Dixie for the Union" consists of pro-Northern lyrics written to the tune of the popular song Dixie.
Underground Railroad painting (Download)
Created By: Jennifer Damon
Charles T. Webber painted The Underground Railroad for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Levi Coffin, his wife Catherine, and Hannah Haddock, all friends of the artist, are shown leading a group of fugitive slaves.
Authobiography of John G. Fee, 1891 (Download)
Created By: David Enix
John Gregg Fee (1816-1901) was born in Bracken County, Kentucky to middle class farmers and slaveholders. In his autobiography Fee describes various incidents that epitomize his experience as an abolitionist in the South. He believes that the Untied States as a whole, and the South in particular, must accept and adopt a policy of true equality for all.
Modes of Transportation (Download)
Created By: Kacy Leiner
Images of evolving modes of transportation.
Grade Level 4
Thrashing at Ashland County Farm photograph (Download)
Created By: Linda Dils
Caption on photograph reads: "Harvest Time --- Farm two miles south of Ashland." Ashland County is heavily rural, with farms comprising over sixty percent of Ashland County's 424 square miles. Ashland farmers rank fifth in oat production in Ohio and fourth in sheep raising.
Republic Steel Corporation photograph (Download)
Created By: Michelle Gouge
Exterior view of the Republic Steel Corporation and the residential neighborhood surrounding the factory in Youngstown, Ohio, ca. 1930-1950.
Train Leaving Cincinnati Union Terminal (Download)
Created By: Elaine Garrison
This photograph shows the George Washington leaving the recently completed Art Deco railroad station, Cincinnati Union Terminal. Cincinnati's Art Deco-style railroad terminal building, dedicated on March 31, 1933, was first proposed in the early part of the twentieth century as a solution to the chaotic existing railroad system, which consisted of seven lines operating out of five stations.
Oberlin-Wellington Rescuers (Download)
Created By: Catherine Locke
This photograph shows participants in the rescue of John Price, a 17-year old fugitive slave from Kentucky living in Oberlin at the time of his arrest by two slave catchers and two federal marshals on September 13, 1858.
Canal Scoop (Download)
Created By: Matt Lieber
This scoop was used to build and maintain the Miami, Wabash and Erie Canals in Paulding County.
Postcard of Kastoria, Greece (Download)
Created By: Catherine Locke
1909 postcard from Kastoria, Greece, the hometown of the Confino family. The Confinos came to the United States in the early 20th century and resided at 97 Orchard Street, New York City, the current location of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
William Henry Harrison woodcuts (Download)
Created By: Elaine Garrison
Woodcuts produced in support of William Henry Harrison during the presidential campaign of 1840. They are illustrations from a pamphlet called "The contrast, or, Plain reasons why William Henry Harrison should be elected President of the United States, and why Martin Van Buren should not be re-elected."
William Henry Harrison letters (Download)
Created By: Matt Lieber
In this 8-page letter published in 1800, Governor Arthur St. Clair writes to William Henry Harrison, the Northwest Territory delegate to the U.S. Congress, to advocate dividing the Northwest Territory into three sections, rather than the two called for in the Northwest Ordinance.
Treaty of Greenville, 1795 (Download)
Created By: Catherine Locke
Colonel Christopher Gist's journal of a tour through Ohio and Kentucky in 1751 (Download)
Created By: Catherine Locke
In 1751, the Ohio Company selected Gist to survey along the Ohio River from its headwaters near Shannopin's Town, Pennsylvania (modern-day Pittsburgh), to what is now Louisville, Kentucky.
Manual of the Public Schools of Attica, Ohio, 1898-1899 (Download)
Created By: Michelle Gouge
This book contains the rules and regulations for public schools in Attica, Ohio. It includes a history of the school and of the community. It also includes the subject material used for teaching the pupils and the duties of pupils.
Suffrage handbills (Download)
Created By: Michelle Gouge
These two handbills belonged to temperance activist Martha McClellan Brown. The first, printed circa 1910, points out that women were allowed to vote in several other countries and asks, "Why not in Ohio?" A second handbill announces who may and may not vote in the United States, pointing out that women are not on the list.
Early Woodland Knife (Download)
Created By: Matt Lieber
This Early Woodland (800 B.C.- 100 A.D.) is typical of those made by the Adena people. Although they continued hunting and gathering, the Adena were the first farmers in present-day Ohio.
Altar Figurine (Download)
Created By: Matt Lieber
Reconstruction of an altar figurine. The original figurine was from the Ohio Hopewell culture, 100 BC-500 AD, and excavated from Altar # 1, Turner Mound, Hamilton County, Ohio.
Life of George Washington -- The farmer (Download)
Created By: Elaine Garrison
Print of painting by Junius Brutus Stearns depicting George Washington standing among African-American fieldworkers harvesting hay; Mt. Vernon in background.
Surveyor's Compass (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
Bezaleel Wells used this compass to survey the town of Canton, Ohio around 1805. It was used to determine the direction of a line relative to the magnetic north pole.
Rankin House Freedom Stairway (Download)
Created By: Catherine Locke
Orville Wright Diary Entry, December 17, 1903 (Download)
Created By: Lexie Boblitt
Lucy Anne Warfield Oral History Interview (Download)
Created By: Beth Chetty
The Federal Writer's Project interviewed former slaves in 1937-1938, depositing the life histories in The Library of Congress. The interview of Lucy Ann Warfield is one of 27 Ohio interviews preserved by the Ohio Historical Society.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Download)
Created By: Beth Chetty
The Northwest Ordinance established a government for the Northwest Territory, outlined the process for admitting a new state to the Union, and guaranteed that newly created states would be equal to the original thirteen states.
On to Liberty (Download)
Created By: Lexie Boblitt
An 1867 painting done by Theodore Kaufman, who emigrated to the United States from Germany.
Village Tavern (Download)
Created By: Michelle Gouge
John Lewis Krimmel painting, 1813-14.
Zoar Villagers Harvesting Crops (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
This 1888 photograph shows members of the Society of Separatists of Zoar harvesting crops. The Society of Separatists of Zoar were a group of German religious dissenters who immigrated to Ohio in 1817.
Buckeye Steel payroll (Download)
Created By: Michelle Gouge
Daily payroll for the Buckeye Steel Castings Company as entered in Samuel Prescott Bush's notebook for December 17, 1902.
Thomas Edison light bulb (Download)
Created By: Lexie Boblitt
Photograph of the light bulb used in demonstration at Menlo Park, 1879.
Lincoln-Hamlin campaign banner (Download)
Created By: Catherine Locke
Banner for the 1860 Presidential campaign exposing, "The Union must and shall be preserved: For President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, For Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine."
Human Effigy Pipe (Download)
Created By: Beth Chetty
Images, taken during excavation of Burial 21 of the Adena Mound in Ross County in 1901, of a human effigy pipe created by the prehistoric Adena culture, which lived in the Ohio Valley between 800 B.C. and 100 A.D. The pipe is also called Adena Man or the Adena Pipe.
Kettering’s First Self Starter and Car Photograph (Download)
Created By: Beth Chetty
These photographs of Charles Kettering's self-starter were taken in the 1960s. Kettering invented the self-starter in 1911, revolutionizing the automobile industry.
Chillicothe Statehouse Illustration (Download)
Created By: Beth Chetty
Illustration of the Ross County courthouse, which became Ohio's first statehouse in 1803. The building was torn down in 1852. Chillicothe was named the capital of the Northwest Territory in 1800 and became the first capital of the state of Ohio in 1803.
1800 Census (Download)
Created By: Michelle Gouge
In December 1801, the "Schedule of the Whole Number of Persons in the Territory North West of the Ohio" was sent to Congress. The schedule shows that the population of the territory northwest of the Ohio River had expanded to 45,000 inhabitants.
Conestoga Wagon (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
Photograph of a Conestoga wagon on display at the National Road/Zane Grey Museum in Norwich, Ohio.
National Road Milestone (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
Milestones were placed at regular intervals along the National Road. Each stone indicated the distance to Cumberland, Maryland, and the name of and mileage to the nearest city or village for east and westbound travelers.
Canal Boat photograph (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
Captain Park Dalzeell mans the tiller of this classic freight boat that is hauling railroad ties from Jasper to Hebron.
Fort Recovery photographs (Download)
Created By: Linda Dils
Photographs of the reconstructed Fort Recovery in Mercer County. Fort Recovery was built on the site of General Arthur St. Clair's defeat in 1791. General "Mad" Anthony Wayne ordered the fort to be constructed in December 1793 to use as a staging area for his campaign against the American Indians who opposed white settlement.
Ohio Counties Map, 1822 (Download)
Created By: Elaine Garrison
Map depicts Ohio counties as they appeared after the creation of Union County in 1820.The land in northwestern Ohio was acquired through the Treaty of Maumee Rapids, which was signed on September 29, 1817 and ratified by the United States Senate on January 4, 1819.
Fort Ancient artifacts (Download)
Created By: Beth Chetty
Artifacts from the Fort Ancient culture inhabiting southern Ohio and northern Kentucky circa A.D. 1000 to 1650.
Mobile Voting Booth (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
Photograph of a tin-sheathed voting booth, now housed at the Warren Harding Home, that was pulled to remote polling places around central Ohio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Collins School (Download)
Created By: Carol Teverbaugh
These questions were used following a field trip to the Collins School in Xenia. Collins neighborhood children in first through eighth grade were educated in the present red brick building until 1944.
Perry Center School and the KKK (Download)
Created By: Tamara Ganter
This photograph shows a group of schoolchildren at the Perry Center School in Wood County, Ohio, receiving a flag donated by the Ku Klux Klan. During the 1920s, there was a rise in Ku Klux Klan activity.
Amish Buggy photograph (Download)
Created By: Tamara Ganter
Amish buggy parked among automobiles outside the Wholesale Terminal Market on East 40th Street in Cleveland, Ohio, 1940. This photograph was to be included in the Cleveland Guide, a proposed published by the Federal Writers Project.
Woman Milking Cow photograph (Download)
Created By: Tamara Ganter
Photograph of a woman milking a cow taken in southeastern Ohio or West Virginia by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1890-1910.
John Rankin House photographs
Created By: Carol Teverbaugh
John Rankin (1793-1886) was a Presbyterian minister and educator who devoted much of his life to the antislavery movement. His house in Ripley, Ohio, was a stop on the Underground Railroad and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Runaway Slave Advertisements (Download)
Created By: Carol Teverbaugh
These broadsides were used to announce a reward for the apprehension of runaway slaves.
Charles Garlick photographs (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
Charles A. Garlick (1827-1912) was born a slave in Virginia in 1827, and escaped to Ohio in 1843. He was educated at Oberlin College and served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Slave Pen (Download)
Created By: Karen Shank
This slave pen, built in the early 1800s, was used as a holding pen by Kentucky slave trader, Capt. John W. Anderson, to temporarily keep enslaved people being moved further south for sale.
Grade Level 3
Rescuing Flood Sufferers from Their Homes (Download)
Created By: Marci Hay
This photograph from Springfield, Ohio, appeared in the pamphlet "Photographic Views and Story of the Disastrous Flood of the Miami and Ohio Valleys," which was published following the flooding of 1913.
Warder Residence (Download)
Created By: Wendy Shaffer
Late 19th century and current photographs of the Warder residence in Springfield, Ohio.
William Whiteley's "Champion Reaper" and James Leffel's Water Turbine (Download)
Created By: Wendy Shaffer
Pennsylvania House (Download)
Created By: Wendy Shaffer
Early-20th century, mid-20th century, and current photographs of the Pennsylvania House, a Federal style inn and tavern built on the National Road in 1838.
Portrait of Annie Oakley (Download)
Created By: Marci Hay
This 1892 photograph of sharpshooter Annie Oakley was taken in London, where she demonstrated her shooting skill for Queen Victoria.
Madonna of the Trail Monument (Download)
Created By: Wendy Shaffer
Madonna of the Trail Monument on the grounds of the Masonic Home just west of Springfield, Ohio. It was unveiled July 4, 1928. This is one of twelve monuments to pioneer women erected along the path of the National Road.
Children Playing Outside a Two-Room Schoolhouse (Download)
Created By: Wendy Shaffer
Reproduction of an early 20th century photograph depicting children playing games such as 'leap frog' outside their two room schoolhouse in Springfield Township, Clark County, Ohio.
National Road Construction (Download)
Created By: Wendy Shaffer
Photograph of construction on the National Road west of Zanesville, Ohio, 1913-1915. Beginning in 1914, a section of the road between Zanesville and Hebron was paved with experimental concrete.
Grade Level 2
Swiss Cheese Making photograph (Download)
Created By: Monica Klarer
This photograph shows workers in Marlboro, Ohio, making cheese. Holmes, Tuscarawas, and Stark counties became known for their Swiss and Baby Swiss cheeses, many made by local Amish and Swiss immigrants.
The Underground Railroad (Download)
Created By: Monica Klarer
Charles T. Webber painted The Underground Railroad for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Levi Coffin, his wife Catherine, and Hannah Haddock, all friends of the artist, are shown leading a group of fugitive slaves.
Wauseon, Ohio photograph (Download)
Created By: Monica Klarer
This photograph of Wauseon, Ohio, was taken by Arthur Trory in the 1890s. The busy street is bustling with horses, wagons and the shops of E. W. Blizzard & Co. and J.F. Dimke.
Loading up the buses for a six-mile haul (Download)
Created By: Debbie Haycox
1921 photograph by Lewis Hine featuring the Greenbank Consolidated School bus in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
Winton automobile photograph (Download)
Created By: Debbie Haycox
Photograph, circa 1896, shows Alexander Winton (1860-1932) seated at the wheel, demonstrating the Winton automobile. The photograph was taken in front of the Winton Motor Carriage Company in Cleveland.
Thirty-Six Star Flag (Download)
Created By: Debbie Haycox
Print of a thirty-six star American flag created between 1864 and 1867.
Grade Level 1
Wash Day in Scioto County photograph (Download)
Created By: Mary Reed
This photograph portrays wash day in 19th Scioto County in the vicinity of Wheelersburg or Sciotoville.