By: Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology

Here on the Smithsonian Learning Lab, you can find and make use of primary sources of all kinds – documents, objects, maps, letters, photographs, posters, and more. In this post, we've gathered ideas, ready-made tools, videos, and professional development webinars all about teaching with primary sources.

We hope you'll find these resources useful for your classroom — and please let us know if you have any questions about using the Smithsonian Learning Lab or the teaching techniques we've shared!

Primary Source-Based Teaching Tools

The following Learning Lab collections model techniques for teaching with primary sources. Use activities like these to introduce different primary source types and provide your students with opportunities to practice analysis to make sense of the past.

Introduction to Primary Sources

This collection geared toward students was created by Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. It discusses the definition, purpose, and uses of primary source materials. Questions posed to students include What makes something a primary source? and How can you use, compare, and evaluate primary sources?

Learning History Through Objects

This series from the National Museum of African American History and Culture includes over a dozen collections that empower students to explore, question, and create history through primary source analysis and interpretation. It covers topics from The Founding Documents, to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, to the Civil War.

Object Analysis: Suffrage Pin

This student activity explores the struggle of suffragists during the American women's suffrage movement through deep analysis of one primary source object – a pin worn by suffragist Alice Paul. Students combine their analysis of the pin and primary source photographs with a secondary source to learn about the era.

Developing Questions: Letter Writing and Censorship in World War I

In this activity, students investigate experiences of servicemen in World War I through censored U.S. Army mail postcards and envelopes. Students practice developing good questions to examine how censorship affected communication between servicemen and their loved ones, while building an understanding of how and why the U.S. Army implemented censorship.

Analysis and Interpretation Through Music

In Press Play on History: Juneteenth and Press Play on History: African Americans during the First World War, the National Museum of African American History and Culture challenges students to first analyze primary sources, then interpret them by choosing songs that connect to the theme of the historical experience, ultimately creating and sharing full playlists.

Conducting an Oral History: Tips from Across the Smithsonian

This collection shares tips for students who are conducting oral history from a student journalist and a historian. It includes guides with suggestions for setting up an interview, as well as example recorded oral histories documenting key moments in a range of 20th century events.

Professional Development Related to Primary Sources

Explore ideas for teaching with primary sources through our webinar series Cultivating Learning: Digital Museum Resources and the Smithsonian Learning Lab. In each session, educators model techniques for using digital museum resources to support student learning in a diverse range of learning environments.

In "Critical Questions to Build Primary Source Literacy" (presented on November 14, 2022) learn transferrable questions and techniques to help students analyze primary sources, build primary source literacy skills, and investigate women’s history.

"Analyzing Primary Sources to Teach the Japanese American WWII Experience," presented with the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, explores analysis techniques to help students examine government-issued documents, artwork, and personal histories.

In "Deconstructing Text with Critical Reading," learn how to help students build skills to navigate complex issues and construct their own answers using primary source documents.

Image: Photographic Print of Harper Franklin, Beatrice Coleman [sic], and Beatrice Dedman (detail)

A black-and-white portrait-style photograph of three young women. The young women are wearing light-colored dresses, and each has a corsage pinned to her bodice at upper-left. The woman in the center, Beatrice Cloman, is wearing glasses and is seated. The woman on the left is leaning towards Cloman with her hands behind her back. The woman on the right, Beatrice Dedman, also is leaning towards the center of the photograph with her hands behind her back, touching heads with the other woman.

National Museum of African American History and Culture