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Social Studies

DK Findout
Dorling Kindersley's fun and interactive site has history information that includes quizzes, fun facts and videos.

Free Map Tools
use maps in cool and unique ways

Mapping History
interactive and animated site to illustrate historical events

National Geographic Map Machine

Xpeditions Atlas from National Geographic
(Maps made for printing and copying)

Infotopia
Browse Primary Sources

Milestone Documents
offers famous primary source texts with expert analysis and lessons plans, some at no charge, others for a small fee

Our Documents
(National Archives) - explore 100 milestone documents of American History)

Judicial Branch
Submission by Tyler: The Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government

The U.S. Legal System: The Three Branches Of Government
Student submission by Max! The three branches of the United States government, and they work together to make the country tick.

iCivics
Offers civics lessons created by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.  Includes printable games and writings assignments.

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
(Gov't Printing Office) - explains in a kid-friendly manner how the U.S. government works; lessons are divided by grade level.

The Constitutional Rights Foundation
variety of resources, including lesson plans and enrichment texts.

The National Archives' Charters of Freedom
explains the making of and impact of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights.  It includes images of the documents, biographies of the framers, and fun facts.

The University of Chicago's Founders' Constitution
an anthology of 18th century writings on the debate over the creation of the Constitution.  The works are organized by sections of the Constitution, making it easy to understand how opinion of each founding father influenced the formation of the Constitution.

Great American Presidents Sites and Apps
Tech & Learning's recommended sites and apps for president information (Feb. 2015).

13 U.S. Presidential Libraries
(National Archives) - resources such as Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats and Richard Nixon's Watergate tapes.

The University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs
best resource for studying U.S. Presidents.  It provides detailed biographies of each president, along with profiles of his cabinet, a collection of speeches, and links to the most comprehensive sources for private and public papers.

White House
listen to the President's weekly video address, read transcripts of White House press briefings, find the names of all current Cabinet members, and more.  It also provides biographies of every president.

National Dirst Ladies' Library
a national archive devoted to educating people about the contributions of First Ladies and other notable women in history.  Click "Research" to find biographies, bibliographies, audio visuals, manuscripts, lesson plans and timelines.

U.S. House of Representatives

The Center on Congress at Indiana University
offers interactive simulations that explain how Congress operates.  It includes video and audio from congressmen and others.

The Library of Congress' THOMAS
a database of congressional activity dating back to 1973.  You can find bills, treaties and the congressional record, and track current activity on the House and Senate floor.

Library of Congress' A Century of Lawmaking
provides the records of the Continental Congress, Constitutional Convention and the first 43 sessions of Congress (1789-1873).

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
offers short biographies of every senator and representative in U.S. history.

Google News Archive
search historical newspapers that cannot be found elsewhere in Google.

Time Magazine
access to articles dating back to 1923.

The Times of London
explore topics such as War & Revolution, Politics & Civil Rights, and Exploration.

The New York Times
free articles dating from 1851-1922 and 1987-present.

Library of Congress' Chronicling America
displays images of late 19th and early 20th century American newspaper pages.

Cornell University and University of Michigan libraries' Making of America projects are collections of journals and newspapers from the antebellum, wartime and reconstruction periods.

Wisconsin Historical Society
an archive of every issue of Freedom's Journal, the first newspaper to be owned and operated by African-Americans.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)
inspiring, amusing and cool talks with innovative thinkers and leaders.  Learn about emerging technologies, the fashion world, religion, medicine, and much more from the Web site of the TED Prize and annual TED Conderence.

Mike Wallace Interviews
a series of prime-time television interviews conducted between 1957 and 1960.  Wallace donated 67 interviews conducted between 1957 and 1958 to the University of Texas, which hosts video and transcripts of the conversations.

Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose interviews with writers, politicians, artists, etc. since 1991.

The Paris Review
hosts an archive of intiew excerpts with authors dating back to the 1950s.

American Rhetoric
an archive of American speeches, lectures, sermons, interviews and "other important media events." Its "Online Speech Bank" contains full text, audio and video for more than 5,000 speeches.

History and Politics Out Loud
a database of audio clips relevant to American history and politics

Historical Voices
a fully searchable online database of spoken word collections spanning the 20th century.

Michigan State **University's** Vincent Voice Library
audio clips from more than 100,000 "political and cultural leaders and minor players in the human drama," dating back to 1888.  Access to particular clips depends on copyright laws.  Most items held in the public domain are available for online listening as mp3 files.

PBS' "People's Century"
a 26-part documentary detailing the events of the 20th century through interviews with average citizens.  The Web site includes interviews clips and lesson plans.

The Library of Congress' "Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories"
features audio of 20th century interviews of 23 former slaves.

The Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement
features testimony of members of Civil RIghts organizations such as CORE, NAACP, SCLC and SNCC, who submit stories about their experiences or write commentary on the movement and current events

Texas Tech University's Vietnam Archive Oral History Project
features interviews of soldiers and civilians from the U.S. and North and South Vietnam

"What did you do in the war, Grandma?"
and "The Whole World Was Watching: An Oral History of 1968" were projects conducted by South Kingstown (R.I.) High School students who interviewed family members about their experiences during significant times in U.S. history.  The projects are great examples of how young students can contribute to the study of history.

Letters of Note
offers a digital copy of an historic handwritten note each day, along with a transcript.  It includes this ingenious method of communication during the Revolutionary War.

The University of Virginia's "The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War"
chronicles two counties, Augusta County, Va., and Franklin County, Penn., contrasting their experiences from John Brown's Raid to the end of Reconstruction

The University of Michigan's "Spy Letters of the American Revolution"
Spy letters written by both American and British forces.  It includes stories about the letters, maps of the routes they traveled, and biographies of those who sent and received the letters.

Archiving Early America
presents a wide array of primary source material on 18th century America, such as newspapers, maps, writings and portraits.  It also includes Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and an 1807 biography of George Washington.

The University of North Carolina's "North American Slave Narratives"
slave biographies and autobiographies published as books or pamphlet

The University of Oregon's Mapping History
provides interactive maps explaining events in American, European, Latin American and African history

The CIA World Factbook
the Central Intelligence Agency gives an overview of every country in the world, with maps, flags, and facts on physical and political geography

Geospy from National Geographic Kids
Geography games - put your knowledge to work

White House Tours & Events
Includes presidential biographies