Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.0.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.

# TeachArchives.org

Teaching effectively with primary sources

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://teacharchives.org/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Photographic Memory: Using Historical Images to Improve Student Learning](https://teacharchives.org/articles/using-images/) - A history professor argues that images can be powerful teaching aids in the classroom and encourages educators to bring students to the archives to view historical photographs in person.
- [SAFA Class Visits to the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/project/class-visits/) - Students and Faculty in the Archives centered around class visits to the archives. Over the course of two academic years (2011 - 2012 and 2012 - 2013), 65 courses made 100+ visits to Brooklyn Historical Society. Over 1,100 individual students benefited from a hands-on experience with primary sources. (If we look at "bodies through the
- [Exploring the Rhetoric of Slave Bills of Sale before and after Gradual Manumission](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/gradual-manumission/) - Students conduct a close analysis of slave bills of sale and indentures to better understand the legal and social history of manumission in the north.
- [What is Vaudeville? The Brooklyn Experience](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/vaudeville/) - In a single visit, students in a U.S. history survey course examine historical maps and guidebooks to learn more about early 20th-century Brooklyn theaters.
- [Telling Brooklyn Stories, part I: Impromptu Speeches in the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/impromptu-speeches/) - Students in an Effective Speaking course craft and deliver impromptu group speeches about primary sources examined in the archives.
- [Mustering Men during the Civil War: Fighting for Freedom, Imposing the Draft](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/civil-war-draft/) - Students examine primary sources related to the Civil War draft and discuss contemporary public opinion about the war as well as the role that race and class played in the drafting of men.
- [Digging for Garbage in the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/rubbish/) - In an interdisciplinary honors elective called “Rubbish!”, students examine and analyze historical documents on various aspects of garbage and waste.
- [Runaway Slave Ads: Witnessing African American Agency](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/) - Students examine documents related to runaway slaves and compare their findings to a secondary source on the same subject.
- [Photography over Time: Comparing Formats](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/photo-formats/) - Students examine daguerreotypes, lantern slides, and silver-gelatin prints to analyze the technological development and changing social meaning of photography over time.
- [Exploring Coney Island’s Heyday in the Archives: The “Smorgasbord” Approach](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/smorgasbord/) - Students select an item from a wide array of primary sources about Coney Island, then craft a research paper around their chosen document.
- [Telling Brooklyn Stories, part II: Building a Collaborative Walking Tour](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/collaborative-walking-tour/) - Inspired by research in the archives, students create a group walking tour, film themselves giving one stop on that tour, and embed the videos on a publicly-accessible Google map.
- [Analyzing Patriotic Iconography: Illustrated Civil War Envelopes](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/civil-war-envelopes/) - Students analyze Civil War-era envelopes as representations of popular imagery in the mid-19th century.
- [Research from Start to Finish: Using The Archives in a Scaffolded Research Project](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/scaffolded-research/) - Students examine suites of primary sources related to various topics in early American history and produce a final research paper.
- [Bite-Sized Research: Annotating Civil War Correspondence](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/research-annotations/) - Students read, analyze, and transcribe Civil War correspondence and conduct secondary research to create introductions and annotations to their assigned letter.
- [Incorporating Place-Based Learning in an Archives Experience](https://teacharchives.org/articles/place-based-learning/) - Conducting research in the archives can be a great complement to place-based learning - especially when the collections reference or contextualize the community in which students live, work, or study. By learning how to analyze original documents, students acquire skills that are applicable outside of the archives, too. Document analysis pushes students to carefully examine,
- [How to Plan an Effective Wrap Up](https://teacharchives.org/articles/wrap-up/) - You’ve brought your students to the archives. You and staff members at the institution have introduced students to archival research, and you've helped them decipher the rich but difficult primary sources in front of them. You’ve got only a few minutes left until it’s time to leave. How to end this great experience on a
- [Building Students' Paleography Skills](https://teacharchives.org/articles/paleography/) - Colleagues often remark to us that students must find 18th- and 19th-century handwriting too difficult to decipher, since cursive is rarely taught in schools anymore. Three years and over 1,100 students later, we are happy to report that not a single student visiting our archives proved unable or unwilling to read handwritten documents. Initially, most
- [Using Cameras and Tablets in the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/articles/cameras-and-tablets/) - One of the most important research tools in an archives is a digital camera. Because archives are usually in non-circulating libraries and because research time is limited, photographs are a great way to document a research visit and to organize notes. These days, most reading rooms allow digital photography, and professional standards1 reflect their ubiquity
- [Teaching Students about Citations](https://teacharchives.org/articles/citations/) - Teaching students to properly reference and cite sources is a central course objective in many humanities and social sciences classes. Depending on the discipline, students are instructed to use one of several citation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and more) and are warned of the cardinal sin of bad citation - plagiarism. Using proper citations
- [Teach Care and Handling](https://teacharchives.org/articles/care-and-handling/) - Every classroom-based research experience in the archives has to begin with an overview of how to handle archival documents. This can be accomplished at the start of a visit to the reading room, or archives staff can make an on-campus pre-visit to prepare students ahead of time. While the policies will vary at different archival
- [Providing Context](https://teacharchives.org/articles/providing-context/) - Seasoned researchers rarely show up at an archives without doing essential background reading in appropriate secondary sources. And during and after their time in the archives, they continue to synthesize their research findings with outside sources. Likewise, teachers should not bring their students to observe and analyze primary sources without providing them with the appropriate
- [Creating In-Archives Handouts](https://teacharchives.org/articles/creating-handouts/) - Creating directed and specific prompts for students in the archives is a central feature of our teaching philosophy. Tailoring your students' interaction with an original source is simply the best way to model the nuanced skill of document analysis. It is something that takes practice and time. The idiosyncrasies of document analysis are not intuitive,
- [Making Logistical Decisions](https://teacharchives.org/articles/logistics/) - Well thought-out logistics make an enormous impact on successful teaching in the archives. In fact, small details often determine the success or failure of a visit. Going to the archives and working with primary sources pushes students to leave their comfort zone. They are in a place they have never been before, practicing unfamiliar skills.
- [Choosing the Right Documents](https://teacharchives.org/articles/document-selection/) - Instructors should focus on document analysis (not more advanced research skills like posing questions or identifying collections) during archives visits with inexperienced students. Thus, picking the right documents makes all the difference when designing an effective learning experience. Instructors should select documents that reinforce the learning objectives of the visit, and that are relevant to
- [Creating Meaningful Faculty-Staff Collaboration](https://teacharchives.org/articles/faculty-staff-collaboration/) - Bringing students to the archives offers opportunities for true partnership between instructors and archives staff. Archives staff bring essential expertise to the collaboration. They often have more experience teaching document analysis to a diverse group of students, they may be content experts in topics related to the institution’s collection focus, and they certainly have a
- [Crafting Effective Learning Objectives](https://teacharchives.org/articles/learning-objectives/) - Teachers who can articulate specific and directed objectives for each visit to the archives are able to create a more a effective learning experience for their students. As such, we encourage instructors to craft and articulate these learning objectives well ahead of the archives visit, and to reiterate the objectives to their students. First, it
- [Visiting the Archives is a High-Impact Educational Practice](https://teacharchives.org/articles/high-impact-practices/) - One of the reasons that Students and Faculty in the Archives, the 3-year program which produced this site, was so successful in improving student engagement and performance was because it employed many of the high-impact educational practices advocated by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Taking students to the archives to do primary
- [What Is Document Analysis?](https://teacharchives.org/articles/document-analysis/) - Early college students need step-by-step instruction on how to understand a primary source. They must acquire and practice foundational skills well before they can learn to pose research questions, search finding aids, or sift through whole boxes from archival collections. That's why the exercises on TeachArchives.org focus exclusively on modeling item-level document analysis skills to
- [Our Findings](https://teacharchives.org/articles/our-findings/) - Between 2011 and 2013, Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA), the project that led to TeachArchives.org, brought 18 faculty and over 1,100 undergraduate students to Brooklyn Historical Society to conduct archival research. By several important measures the project was a clear success. After visiting the archives, participating students were more engaged with and excited
- [Our Teaching Philosophy](https://teacharchives.org/articles/our-teaching-philosophy/) - A directed, hands-on approach to archives-based learning.
- [History is an Argument](https://teacharchives.org/articles/history-is-an-argument/) - A history professor argues that by doing archival research, students interpret evidence and draw original conclusions, thus exhibiting the “higher order” skills described by Bloom’s Taxonomy.
- [Fitting It All In:  Incorporating Archival Materials into a World History Survey Course](https://teacharchives.org/articles/world-survey/) - A history professor discusses how, in a survey course with lots of material to cover, she made time for a visit to the archives to examine runaway slave ads with her students.
- [Teaching Students What Historians Do: The Archives and the History Survey](https://teacharchives.org/articles/what-historians-do/) - This professor models historical research methods for students through a scaffolded project that culminates in a final paper. Over the course of three visits to the archives, students move from analyzing one document to examining an entire archival folder.
- [The Single Visit Model: Fitting the Archives into a Survey Course](https://teacharchives.org/articles/single-visit/) - When teaching the U.S. history survey, this professor draws on his own area of expertise and uses a collaborative class website to make the most out of a single visit to the archives.
- [The Archives as Touchstone: A Semester of Student Engagement](https://teacharchives.org/articles/archives-as-touchstone/) - An English professor highlights four aspects of her first-year learning community that improved student engagement: collaboration with archives staff, scaffolded assignments, place-based learning, and interactive technology.
- [The Appeal of the Archives: Engaging Students in More Meaningful Research](https://teacharchives.org/articles/more-meaningful-research/) - An English professor discusses how inspired her students were by the subjects and collections in the archives, which led to better research papers in her first-year composition course.
- [Witnessing the American Religious Experience in the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/articles/religious-experience/) - A religious studies professor engages her students in the intersections of politics and religion by comparing Civil War-era correspondence and contemporary coverage of the 2012 election.
- [Engaging Students in the Archives: Counteracting the “Violence of Abstraction”](https://teacharchives.org/articles/counteracting-abstraction/) - By examining local slave bills of sale, an English professor’s students gain a more concrete and more human perspective on the history of slavery and freedom.
- [“Rehistoricizing” the Art Museum: How Archives Visits Improved My Art History Courses](https://teacharchives.org/articles/art-museum-visits/) - An art history professor discusses how her students used research skills developed in the archives to become more careful observers of art during museum visits.
- [Texts as Objects: Complementing the Literary Anthology with Primary Sources](https://teacharchives.org/articles/complementing-anthologies/) - An English professor brings her students to the archives to compare early printed editions of slave narratives and other abolitionist literature to the deracinated versions published in their anthology.
- [Preparing Students for the Archives: The Research-to-Learn Method](https://teacharchives.org/articles/research-to-learn/) - To provide historical context in advance of their visits to the archives, an English professor empowers students to conduct secondary source research and share their findings with classmates.
- [Why Less is More in the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/articles/why-less-is-more/) - An American studies professor learns that fewer visits, enough time between visits to provide historical context, and a small number of documents per visit make for a better student research experience.
- [How Archives Can Teach Design Students to Effectively Communicate Ideas](https://teacharchives.org/articles/design-students/) - A photography professor argues that research in the archives is an ideal way to teach design students to synthesize content and communicate meaningful ideas.
- [Impromptu Speaking Opportunities in the Archives: A Guide for Evaluating Students](https://teacharchives.org/articles/public-speaking/) - A communications professor encourages colleagues in other disciplines to assign public speaking exercises during archives visits, and provides a set of evaluation criteria.
- [Basic Writers in the Archives](https://teacharchives.org/articles/basic-writers/) - A professor reflects on the challenges of bringing to the archives a group of students who tested into “remedial” English, and shares how ultimately they became more sophisticated thinkers and writers.
- [Civil Rights in Brooklyn: A Scaffolded Approach](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/scaffolded/) - Students visit the archives three times to examine documents related to the civil rights movement in the north as part of a scaffolded research project.
- [Politics and Religion in Civil War Letters](https://teacharchives.org/exercises/politics-religion/) - Students analyze Civil War-era correspondence to better understand the relationship between religion and politics during the war.
- [Useful Tools](https://teacharchives.org/project/useful-tools/) - This page outlines the tools we used and materials SAFA staff created. It also answers questions about finding materials at Brooklyn Historical Society and planning class visits to the BHS archives. Tools We Used The following tools were invaluable in managing and planning for 100+ class visits to the archives. They are great for external
- [SAFA Summer Institutes](https://teacharchives.org/project/summer-institutes/) - Students and Faculty in the Archives participants convened annually for a professional development opportunity called the Summer Institute. The nature of the institute changed from year to year, but it always included substantial time for faculty to workshop and revise their teaching practices and products. In addition to project-oriented sessions, there were walking tours, scholarly
- [SAFA Summer Fellowships](https://teacharchives.org/project/summer-fellowships/) - One of the most unique aspects of Students and Faculty in the Archives was the annual SAFA Summer Fellowship - there is no undergraduate research fellowship like it in North America. It is a replicable program that could be funded and facilitated at archives around the world. To learn more about the SAFA fellows and
- [Eight Best Practices](https://teacharchives.org/articles/best-practices/) - We identified the following best practices for implementing our teaching philosophy. Effective collections-based instruction includes: Learning objectives that align visit goals with course goals Careful document selection Tailored prompts Backward designed assignment Carefully considered visit logistics Thoughtful facilitation of archival visits, including wrap-ups “Goldilocks” of context (not too much; not too little) Working collaboratively to
- [Interior View of Waste Collection Bureau, circa 1915](https://teacharchives.org/documents/shop-interior/)
- [John Baxter Journal (original)](https://teacharchives.org/documents/baxter-original/)
- [Luna Park March and Two Step, 1903](https://teacharchives.org/documents/luna-park-sheet-music/)
- [Long Island Runaway Slave Ads, June 4, 1825](https://teacharchives.org/documents/runaway-slave-ads-li/)
- [Herbert Letters, Dec 28, 1863 and Feb 7, 1864](https://teacharchives.org/documents/herbert-1863-1864/)
- [Herbert Letter, Nov 25, 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/herbert-nov-1863/)
- [Letter with Drawing of Camp, circa 1861](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-camp/)
- [Letter with List, August 27, 1862](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-list/)
- [Letter on Capitol Building Stationery, circa 1861](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-capitol/)
- [Pasqualle at Ruby's Bar Watching the 1985 World Series, 1985](https://teacharchives.org/documents/world-series-print/)
- [Child on Coney Island Ride, 1985](https://teacharchives.org/documents/coney-island-print/)
- [Dixie! Civil War Envelope](https://teacharchives.org/documents/dixie-envelope/)
- [“Star of the North, or the Comet of 1861" Civil War Envelope](https://teacharchives.org/documents/lincoln-envelope/)
- [Allegory of America Civil War Envelope (2)](https://teacharchives.org/documents/america2-envelope/)
- [Allegory of America Civil War Envelope (1)](https://teacharchives.org/documents/america1-envelope/)
- [John Baxter Journal (typescript)](https://teacharchives.org/documents/baxter-typescript/)
- [Letter in Beecher Scrapbook, December 8, 1859](https://teacharchives.org/documents/beecher-scrapbook-letter/)
- [Avenue F Looking E. from E. 33rd, 1903](https://teacharchives.org/documents/ave-f/)
- [Sewer Head of Gowanus Canal, circa 1905](https://teacharchives.org/documents/gowanus-sewer/)
- [Attention! Merchants, Bankers..., 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/attention-merchants/)
- [Colored Citizens to Arms, circa 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/colored-citizens-to-arms/)
- [The Opera Glass, 1903](https://teacharchives.org/documents/opera-glass/)
- [Map of the New York City Subway System, 1955](https://teacharchives.org/documents/subway-map-1955/)
- [Records Relating to the Purchase of Loads of Dirt, 1827](https://teacharchives.org/documents/purchase-dirt/)
- [Letter on Capitol Building Stationery (transcript), circa 1861](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-capitol-transcript/)
- [Quaker Cemetery, circa 1935](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cemetery-lantern-slide/)
- [Prospect Park Crowd, circa 1870](https://teacharchives.org/documents/crowd-lantern-slide/)
- [Section of Sewer for the City of Brooklyn, circa 1850](https://teacharchives.org/documents/section-of-sewer/)
- [Map of Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay, 1879](https://teacharchives.org/documents/coney-island-map-1879/)
- [Daguerreotype of Lavinia Longmire and Children, circa 1860s](https://teacharchives.org/documents/dag55/)
- [Advertising Card for Rough Rider’s Ride, circa 1907 - 1916](https://teacharchives.org/documents/rough-riders/)
- [Coney Island Newspaper Clippings, 1906 - 1913](https://teacharchives.org/documents/scriven-clippings/)
- [Daguerreotype of Rev. Eleazer Williams “The Dauphin,” 1853](https://teacharchives.org/documents/dag53/)
- [Louisiana Runaway Slave Ads, circa 1835](https://teacharchives.org/documents/runaway-slave-ads-la/)
- [CORE Operation Clean Sweep Flyer, circa 1962](https://teacharchives.org/documents/core-conditions/)
- [CORE "Birmingham or Brooklyn?" Flyer, circa 1961-1964](https://teacharchives.org/documents/core-housing/)
- [CORE Rent Strike Press Release, circa 1963](https://teacharchives.org/documents/core-rent-strike/)
- [CORE Safety Flyer, circa 1963](https://teacharchives.org/documents/core-safety/)
- [CORE Employment Press Release, circa 1962](https://teacharchives.org/documents/core-employment/)
- [Letter to Trustees of Second Unitarian, Jan 2, 1860](https://teacharchives.org/documents/congregant-letter/)
- [Dirty Toilets, circa 1920](https://teacharchives.org/documents/dirty-toilets/)
- [CORE Operation Clean Sweep Photograph, 1962](https://teacharchives.org/documents/core-clean-sweep/)
- [List of Drafted Men Who Have Failed to Report, 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/drafted-men/)
- [Bill of Sale for Jin, 1777](https://teacharchives.org/documents/jin-1777/)
- [Company Order No. 4, June 19, 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/company-order/)
- [Greasy Mechanics Attention!, circa 1861-1865](https://teacharchives.org/documents/greasy-mechanics/)
- [Montague BID Map, 2003](https://teacharchives.org/documents/montague-bid-map/)
- [Brooklyn Heights Map, 19th century](https://teacharchives.org/documents/brooklyn-heights-map-19c/)
- [Bill of Sale for Jin, 1782](https://teacharchives.org/documents/jin-1782/)
- [Indenture for Grace, 1816](https://teacharchives.org/documents/indenture-grace/)
- [Guide Map of the Borough of Brooklyn, Kings County, 1898](https://teacharchives.org/documents/guide-map-1898/)
- [Letter about Gettysburg (transcript), July 27, 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-gettysburg-transcript/)
- [Letter about Gettysburg, July 27, 1863](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-gettysburg/)
- [Letter with List (transcript), August 27, 1862](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-list-transcript/)
- [Letter with Drawing of Camp (transcript), circa 1861](https://teacharchives.org/documents/cranston-camp-transcript/)
- [New York Runaway Slave Ads, January 10, 1822](https://teacharchives.org/documents/runaway-slave-ads-ny/)
- [Map Showing Line of the Brooklyn Water Works; 1864](https://teacharchives.org/documents/water-works-map-1864/)
- [Brooklyn's Dark Ages, October 22, 1910](https://teacharchives.org/documents/dark-ages/)
- [Petition of the freeholders of the City of Brooklyn, 1841](https://teacharchives.org/documents/freeholders-petition/)
- [Map of the City of Brooklyn, 1856](https://teacharchives.org/documents/brooklyn-map-1856/)

## Pages

- [Home](https://teacharchives.org/) - Welcome to a new, innovative way to teach in the archives! Based on an award-winning project at Brooklyn Historical Society, TeachArchives.org shares our teaching philosophy and findings with a global audience of instructors, administrators, librarians, archivists, and museum educators. Use this site to teach students ranging from middle school to graduate school.
- [About](https://teacharchives.org/about/) - TeachArchives.org is an innovative resource for teachers, administrators, librarians, archivists, and museum educators. It offers sample exercises and informative articles based on a new approach to teaching in the archives. TeachArchives.org is the result of Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA), a three-year grant at Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) which partnered with 18 faculty
- [Project - Right Column](https://teacharchives.org/project-main-excerpt/project-right-column/) - Findings Final FIPSE Grant Report (draft) Final Evaluator's Report 2012 FIPSE Grant Report 2012 Evaluator's Report 2011 FIPSE Grant Report 2011 Evaluator's Report Chatter Publications Presentations Tweets
- [Publications](https://teacharchives.org/publications/) - Elaine Carey, Sara Haviland, Eric Platt, Sarah Shurts, and Emily Tai. “Teaching Undergraduates: A Conversation in Brooklyn.” Perspectives: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. 52.6 (2014): 10-11. Julie Golia and Robin M. Katz. “A New Way to Teach in the Archives: Introducing TeachArchives.org.” Archival Outreach (May/June 2014). Katz, Robin M. and Julie Golia. “Finding
- [Presentations](https://teacharchives.org/presentations/) - “Hands-on History: Teaching Skills in the Archives.” Teaching History to Undergraduates: A Regional Conversation. Brooklyn, NY. May 2014. Panelists: Elizabeth Call, Julie Golia, Sara Haviland, Eric Platt. “Teaching Critical Thinking in an Increasingly Digital Age: Strategies, Struggles, and Success Stories.” Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. Washington, DC. January 2014. Panelist: Eric Platt. “Lessons
- [Site Feedback](https://teacharchives.org/feedback/) - We'd love to hear how you are using TeachArchives.org! Loading...
- [Project - Left Column](https://teacharchives.org/project-main-excerpt/project-left-column/) - Class Visits to the Archives Details about participating courses and what they did. Learn more > Summer Fellowships Students produced their own scholarly or creative projects. Learn more > Summer Institutes Professional development for local and national partners. Learn more > Useful Tools Original materials that you can adapt for your own programs. Learn more
- [Article Page Links](https://teacharchives.org/article-page-links/) - How to...
- [Exercises - Main Excerpt](https://teacharchives.org/exercises-main-excerpt/) - These exercises are based on our teaching philosophy, and they have been tweaked and revised in real courses.
- [Project - Main Excerpt](https://teacharchives.org/project-main-excerpt/) - Dig into the documentation of Students and Faculty in the Archives, the three-year collaborative project at Brooklyn Historical Society which produced TeachArchives.org. From 2011 to 2013, SAFA partnered with eighteen faculty at three neighboring colleges to bring over 1,100 students to the archives. Independent evaluators have found that participating students were more engaged and performed

## Categories

- [Articles](https://teacharchives.org/category/articles/)
- [Engaging First-Year Students](https://teacharchives.org/category/articles/students/)
- [Designing Your Visit](https://teacharchives.org/category/articles/visits/)
- [Digging into the Collections](https://teacharchives.org/category/articles/collections/)
- [Building Real-World Skills](https://teacharchives.org/category/articles/skills/)
- [Models for History Survey Courses](https://teacharchives.org/category/articles/surveys/)
- [Exercises](https://teacharchives.org/category/exercises/)
- [Documents](https://teacharchives.org/category/documents/)
- [The Project](https://teacharchives.org/category/project/)
- [Envelopes](https://teacharchives.org/category/documents/envelopes-documents/)