Access to the Web means finding millions of resources. How does anyone choose what to review and even more, what to use? Most often, finding a trusted source that provides thoughtful recommendations makes all the difference. In this case, the sites listed are from the federal government. In 1997, more than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence web site (FREE). (http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html). The web sites listed below are excerpted with permission.

Here are web sites for teaching history and social studies.

Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection
This site features newspapers published throughout Colorado from 1859 to1930.  Topics include Colorado statehood, the 1908 Democratic National Convention, Denver mint robbery, early days oftelephone service, and early gold mines.  (Institute of Museum and Library Services)
 
Getting the Message Out! National Political Campaign Materials,1840-1860
This site looks at politics in antebellum America.  Read about the presidential campaigns.  See campaign biographies of the candidates -- from William Harrison, Martin Van Buren, and James Birney to Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.  Learn about the "second party system."  (Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, Institute of Museum and Library Services)

Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History
     This site explores the everyday lives of people who lived thousands of
     years ago in the area now called Iraq.  Learn about the
     "cradle of civilization" through lessons and artifacts
     organized around 14 themes: archaeology, prehistory, the first
     farmers, the first cities, daily life, religion, the role of
     women, the invention of writing, literature, law and
     government, mathematics and measurement, science and
     technology, art and architecture, and warfare and empire.
     (University of Chicago, Institute of Museum and Library
     Services)

Donner Party
    This site provides a transcript, map, and essays for a TV program that
     tells the harrowing tale of what tragically became one of the
     most famous of wagon trains.  The Donner party set out from
     Springfield, Illinois, for California in the spring of 1846.
     In July, following the advice of a guide book, they split off
     from the main body of the wagon train to take an untried
     shortcut.  Read excerpts from the diary of a Donner party
     survivor.  (WGBH, National Endowment for the Humanities)

History of Cartography
    This site provides information on a multi-volume effort to assemble a
     comprehensive history of map making.  Volumes that have been
     completed examine cartographies of prehistoric, ancient, and
     medieval Europe and the Mediterranean; traditional Islamic and
     South Asian societies; traditional East and Southeast Asian
     societies; traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian,
     and Pacific societies; and the European Renaissance.
     (Multiple Agencies)

Vietnam Online
     This site looks at a war that continues to influence our thinking on
     military and foreign policy issues.  Find a timeline, who's
     who, maps, personal essays, and key documents, including
     letters from Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy promising U.S.
     help against the Communist threat.  Learn about U.S.
     involvement in Southeast Asia, a "time of confusion" at home,
     war powers and the Constitution, the media's role, the Cold
     War, and the war in pop songs.  (WGBH, National Endowment for
     the Arts)

1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii
     recounts the struggle for control of Hawaii between native
     Hawaiians and American business interests in the late 1800s.
     This 1897 petition and a lobbying effort by native Hawaiians
     convinced the U.S.  Congress not to annex the islands.  But
     months later the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana and the
     Spanish-American War began.  The U.S. needed a mid-Pacific
     fueling station and naval base.  (National Archives and
     Records Administration)

Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery
     This site tells the story of Camp Chase, one of the largest prisoner-of-
     war camps for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.
     Located on the western outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, the
     camp -- now a cemetery for Confederate soldiers -- played a
     key role in the evolution of federal policy on marking
     Confederate graves.  (National Park Service, Teaching with
     Historic Places)

Independence Hall: International Symbol of Freedom
    This site recounts the history of the building in Philadelphia where the
     Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of
     Independence and where, a decade later, delegates to the
     "Philadelphia Convention" formulated the Constitution:  the
     Pennsylvania State House.  The Pennsylvania Assembly, which
     had been meeting in homes and taverns, moved into the building
     in September 1735.  It was considered the most ambitious
     public building in the colonies.  (National Park Service,
     Teaching with Historic Places)

Along the Georgia-Florida Coast
     This site has a travel itinerary that helps us understand key
     developments in America's past: encounters between Europeans
     and Native Americans, European settlement, plantation
     agriculture, and African American culture.  Learn about more
     than 50 historic forts, churches, plantations, camps,
     cemeteries, districts, and monuments.  (National Park Service)

Chronicling America
    This site lets us search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and
     find information about American newspapers published since
     1690.  (Library of Congress)