Exercises
These exercises are based on our teaching philosophy, and they have been tweaked and revised in real courses.
Students read, analyze, and transcribe Civil War correspondence and conduct secondary research to create introductions and annotations to their assigned letter.
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.
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.
Students in an Effective Speaking course craft and deliver impromptu group speeches about primary sources examined in the archives.
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.
In an interdisciplinary honors elective called “Rubbish!”, students examine and analyze historical documents on various aspects of garbage and waste.
Students analyze Civil War-era correspondence to better understand the relationship between religion and politics during the war.
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.
Students examine documents related to runaway slaves and compare their findings to a secondary source on the same subject.
Students examine daguerreotypes, lantern slides, and silver-gelatin prints to analyze the technological development and changing social meaning of photography over time.
Students select an item from a wide array of primary sources about Coney Island, then craft a research paper around their chosen document.
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.
Students analyze Civil War-era envelopes as representations of popular imagery in the mid-19th century.
Students examine suites of primary sources related to various topics in early American history and produce a final research paper.